Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Jiffy Lube: More than half the time, they're cheating you

Right. I have no experience in the sales side, so I didn't want to talk out of turn, but you know of which I speak.

I prefer doing my own work--the chances are I can't screw it up any worse than the mechanics can anyway......

Besides, if I can save $50 an hour doing something at my own leisure (well, most of the time it's at my own leisure), I'm ahead of the game.

The money I save can always go towards toys or more hunting.........

Besides, understanding what makes your vehicle tick has more than once saved the day when I had to fix something waaay back in the backcountry that would have otherwise screwed up a hunt or an outing.


Casey

It's not a scam, it's just misleading because it is too simple a concept... "2 hours labor" to do "job A".

Basically, you are not just paying the mechanic for his time, you are paying him for his knowledge, his $$$ tools, and the difficulty. Paying a mechanic to do a job is a contract, if you want to look at it that way.

When your buddy asks you to help him do something, is the time involved the only thing you consider? Or are there other factors?

"Joe, would you help clear the brush from behind my barn? It will only take a couple of hours."

"Uh, Bill, that brush is full of briars, it's on a hillside, it's raining, and your horse has been crapping back there for months. Plus,you just want my help because you hate running your brush mower. I'll help you, but you're going to throw in a case of beer."

Which would you rather do? Spend two hours bagging leaves, or spend two hours cutting horse-crap covered thorn bushes in the rain with a noisy, vibrating brush mower?

Obviously, time is not the only consideration.

I had a conversation once with my shop foreman that the industry should change the term "hours" to "points". So a 2.5 hour job would pay 25 points or something like that. This would account for the fact that time is not the only consideration.

Rebuilding a power steering rack and doing 4 CV boots with a major mileage service with brake job may take the same amount of actual time, but if you want me to douse myself and my bench and tools with power steering fluid, you're going to pay me more. That means more "flat-rate hours".

44henry

Here's my thoughts on standard labor rate charges.

It the time for a given job excessive ?(generally speaking) Yes.

Is it a rip-off. No.

There's all the reasons 44henry stated AND...............

It's the main source of revenue for a service facilty. Sure, there's the money made on parts too.

In the end, the revenue generated goes far beyong just covering a mechanic's time and wages. It has to cover the entire overhead of a service facility. The building, the equipment, the secretary, the bookkeeper, the service writer, the manager and on and on.

Is it a get rich industry? No.

It's everday people earning a (hopefully) honest living.

Are the people that work in the business overpaid? No.

Are the owners wealthy beyond reason? Generally speaking. No

In the average service business, employees are salt of the earth working people earning a fair wage (again, hopefully). If you get past the scams, schemes, dishonesty and look at it in it's best light, the big picture, I don't believe that auto serivce is a total rip-off. However, as with anything, there are exceptions.

Spot on. As dad always used to tell me, quoting Aldo Leopold, "It's not the act of cutting down the tree -- it's what you are thinking while you're doing it."

I have known some good mechanic shops that I trusted (one in particular in PA when I had to get yearly inspections), and still would trust.

However, like with anything involving mankind, it's a slippery slope when people start to realize or see that they can do a job halfway, cut corners, or otherwise make the same amount of money for doing less or no work, that things start to go south.

A coworker of mine recently had me change out his front brakes and rotors for him. I told him $100, which he thought was fair, because the shop he frequents wanted $150 to do the same job.

I let him watch, as part of the agreement was that he could learn to do it.

It took me just about 1.5 hours to do front brakes and rotors, and I pointed out some trouble spots -- such as his calipers, which were starting to crack around the rubber boots, etc.

He gave me a little bit of crap about it afterwards, though -- "Oh, you made over a dollar a minute. That was easy. If I had known it was that easy, I'd have done it myself."

I gently corrected him: "Look, you would have spent $100 in tools and a manual to get everything you needed to do it, and if you'd had a problem, you'd have been stuck. I've done this a hundred times, and just because I made it look easy, doesn't mean it was, or always is."

A lot of people want something for nothing, and a lot of people are willing to turn around and sell you nothing, for something.

For the record, I have used Jiffy Lube for my oil changes on 3 automobiles exclusively for the past 12 years and never had any problems.
However, I do keep an eye on the proceedings(the waiting room is directly adjacent to the work bay) but I would do that no matter who was doing the work.

You must be one of them there fancy boys.

I'd like to have a lift like they've got if I could find a service station going out of business that had one. I'm about out of room in my implement shed anyway though.

Fraud is Fraud�. Regardless of what service or product you are delivering (or failing to deliver).


I wonder why the DA was not informed?

In my case, I tried getting a number of offices interested. I had copies of invoices, plate numbers, services performed, etc.

No one would listen to me.

I even contacted local news fraud/consumer protection reporters. Again, no one came out.

I talked to DEP about the disposal of the used oil filters, which was in violation of local law. They were not pierced or drained in many cases and were thrown into regular landfill-bound waste. Multiple contacts at DEP went unanswered.

Frustrating, frustrating stuff.

Ha! Could be, Chris. I don't mind getting my hands dirty, but I am not overly mechanically inclined.
I know the local manager at the Jiffy Lube here in my town, and he's a straight shooter.
An exception?
Could be , I suppose.

It's not necessarily dependent on the manager, but a lot relates to the greed of the owner.

Owners are under pressure from corporate to perform, and crap rolls downhill.

Not saying there are no good ones, just saying they're the exception, not the rule.

For the last 12 years we have done business with a local garage that is always packed with customers. We have our company & personal cars serviced there. Wife recently had a squeal coming from the motor area & rushed over to the service shop. The owner added trans fluid at no charge & told her they are supposed to check all fluids when vehicles come in for oil changes or repairs. This shop is always cheaper than the dealers & stands behind his work. He sends someone over to our office & picks up the vehicles to be serviced & returns them at the end of the day. He installed a new alternator just before we left on a vacation. The next day after traveling about 200 miles from home the alternator failed & with a jump start found a repair shop. The generator was replaced & I saved the defective one. Upon return the local shop took back the defective alternate & gave us full credit including his installation charge. It's little wonder his shop is always full of cars/trucks being repaired.

I worked at an independent oil change for about 3 years (92-95)in college. We made a profit on about 35-45 cars a day (I forgot the exact number) on a three bay operation. On a Saturday, we would do over 100. I think our record was around 170 and that was with state inspections.

The "manager" was only there about 10-30 minutes per day. He didn't have to be there as the place was seriously a money making machine. Except for one person, we were all college kids. Place ran itself.

Oil changes, transmission filter changes, radiator clean/flush, the occasional differential fluid change.

We were honest and didn't really mess around or screw with customers. Mistakes happen and a lot of it is due to bad design from the dealership. Fords used to have plastic gaskets on the oil plug....not rubber...but hard plastic. Tighten too much and they cracked. Our SOP was to replace all Ford oil plug gaskets. At that time, Ford was making some real schit. Their air filter design on the the Ford pickups was just stupid and their power steering leaked from the very beginning!

Double gasket on the oil filter...it happens. No matter how many times you think you checked, you get busy and that one time dammit, the gasket didn't come off with the filter. It happened to me about two months before I was set to graduate. Thousands of cars...my @ss is graduating and I pull a double gasket. Boss paid for a new motor.

Saw a coworker get unlucky enough to do the first oil change on a vehicle only to find out that the machine that put on the oil filter at the factory had cross threaded the filter to the nipple.

Our competitor was known for wrenching on their filters. Heaven help you if you worked on one of theirs the next time. Lots of crushed filters..sometimes came off in pieces.

Had a regular who was in about every two weeks...max. He did testing for cellular coverage. His Dodge had over 250,000 miles on it.

Grew to appreciate how well made the Honda Accord really is! Same with the 88-95 Buick LeSabres...saw a lot of them with serious high miles.

Jeeps.....leak....everywhere. The damn oil cap on Jeeps leak....everywhere. Just weren't well made.

Lexus came out at this time. Had a Lexus sedan and a Toyota side by side in the bays...hoods popped...everything underneath was identical. Arrogant SOB was pretty pissed when he realized his Lexus was just a "Toyota". We had a good laugh after the prick left.

Saw lots of stubborn old men who thought they knew more than they really did. It was pathetic at times. They'd get home and check the oil and swear that it wasn't Valvoline...because I can tell by looking at the color. Guy came back pissed and screaming. Luckily...only thing in the trash can were the 5 empty bottles of Valvoline. We told him to "pound sand". On Monday, the boss backed us up as well.

We had Quaker State in bulk...everything else in bottles. We all joked about giving a particular schitthead of a customer...."supermix"...but I don't think anyone ever did.

Read lots of stories in the industry magazines about placement of the oil filler gun messing up motors.

First couple of weeks lots and lots of burns on my hands and arms. You get better at it. Then it actually pisses you off when you catch the exhaust. Most of my burn scars have gone away.