Complaint Review: Jiffy Lube

I definately have working knowledge and personal experience that I hope might assist you in understanding what likely happened which seems to be causing you such undesired frustration. I have found that the automotive repair industry and process of performing automotive repair & maintenance can be confusing to most motorist and is likely as foreign to you as heart surgery is to me!

I must first explain that I do not work for Jiffy Lube directly, however my company sub-contracts to them and in the perfromance of my job I spend about 40 hours a month working in Jiffy Lube stores with their personnel. This Thousand Oaks store I have personally been in at least 6 times this year alone and I am familiar with the staff at the location, the area supervisors and owner. 

My opinion more importantly is based on 19 years of working in the automotive industry which includes;

2 years working as a Lube Technician for Jiffy Lube in a "quick" lube center (before they were even called Jiffy Lube).

9 years working as an ASE (Automotive Service Excellence) Technician to include the additional training to acquire my Smog License and being selected as one of a very small number of Technicians certified by the state in Automobile Forensics. This essentially means when a horrible accident or a lawsuit is filed that involves a car/truck you are sanctioned by the state to inspect the vehicle and your opinion of what happened to cause the problem is utilized under the status of Expert Witness for the court to consider when settling the matter of placing blame.

8 years working as a Service Manager, Operations Manager or General Manager in the automotive industry.  

That all said, here is my opinion based on my experience and knowledge of both automobiles overall and this location specifically;

NOT ACCEPTING AN EXPIRED COUPON/PRICING - As far as being expired, that's kind of a bummer. The fact that they would not accept an expired coupon I don't know if I can get that upset with since if you really look at it they are doing their job by the numbers. Theoretically we should be saying, "good job!" to those guys. Yes it would be nice if they "let it slide" and I am sure that on occassion that is the case at many Jiffy Lubes across the country. Personally if you came to me with an expired coupon I would be so happy to have you in my shop during these tough economic times that I would probably let it slide myself! As for pricing...I think you nailed it on the head when you said, "I liked the convenience of getting oil change in about 30 minutes without an appointment." Unfortunately, in order for Jiffy Lube to offer the 30 minute service they need to hire way more staff than a standard automotive repair shop and this costs alot more money. If you go into a standard shop for an oil change they normally have one person doing your oil change and generally one of two things happens: you get a young guy that is aspring to be a mechanic who unfortunatley is only allowed to do oil changes because they normally don't trust him to do anything else or you get a cranky mechanic that flat out does not want to do it. There is a real attitude in most shops that once you get certified and start doing extensive work on cars that you should not have to be doing messy and monotonous oil changes anymore. On top of the mess, most shops pay their mechanics flag hours which means they barely make any money to do an oil change and would much rather work on a vehicle that is going to pay them more. My personal experience (and trust me, I am a total Felix Ungar when it comes to any repair on cars and that's why I have been so successful over the years) is that a proper oil change in a typical shop environment for a professional technician (not the aspiring mechanic) takes on average about 50-60 minutes from drop to drive (the time you drop it off to the time you drive away) and that's if you really try to get it done efficiently and professionally. That's about double the time you say Jiffy Lube takes if I am not mistaken...you are right, that's a huge convenience and unfortunately it does cost more to provide it which drives the price up a bit.

RECOMMENDING STUFF YOU DON'T NEED - Selling stuff you car does not need is definately something I have heard about many shops over the years beyond my experience with Jiffy Lube. Unfortunatley this situation is not getting any better as maintenance schedules based off manufacturer recommendations have been muddied by the opinions of professional technicians and the "opinions" of the suppliers of automotive parts, fluids and accessories. Jiffy Lube as a company has defaulted to what should be the gold standard for the automotive industry which is utilizing their computer system which has vehicle specific manufaturer recommended maintenance services based off mileage which come from the manufacturer and are not based on any opinions which may or may not be tainted by the prospect of creating fiscal gains for a company or individual. Unfortunately, sometimes a customer will come in to any shop (not just a Jiffy Lube) and be presented with an honest recommendation based off vehicle mileage and if that shop is not familiar enough with the vehicle to have a record of it having performed they will with good intentions recommend a repair that frankly may have been done somewhere else. I say this because it has happened to me before when I have genuinely had zero intention of taking advantage of anyone. If a service is recommended by the manufacturer based off the mileage of the vehicle and I have no idea whether it had been done because it was not in the vehicle service history at the shop I worked at, then it is frankly my professional obligation to advise that customer. When I was very new to the industry I remember (quite vividly) a really good customer of mine. The husband, wife and daughter all brought their vehicles into our shop religiously and never batted an eye when my Technician made a recommendation. One day his daughter was literally driving through the intersection about a week maybe after we had performed her oil change and in front of our store her car died out right in the middle of the road. Myself and my Technician ran out and pushed her car onto our lot and I went about the process of calling her father to let him know to come get her while my Technician started probing around the car. My Technician figured out very quickly that the timing belt had broken. He checked the mileage which was over 100,000 miles and asked me if anyone had ever recommended a timing belt be done on the vehicle according to our records? I checked and never had anyone recommended it (her records at our shop went back to around the 30,000 mile mark. As I recall her father had purchased the vehicle for her off of lease from a Dealership). We then checked "the book" which states all vehicles recommendations from the manufacturer based off mileage and Lo and behold, the manufacturer recommended timing belt replacement at 60,000 miles and now because I and the service managers before me had neglected to recommend one (no doubt they would have done it) there was a possibility that they did not just need a timing belt replaced...but possibly an entire engine since their motor was what's called an interferrence-engine (when the timing belt breaks on these it can cause severe engine damage)! I promised myself that day as my heart fell down into the pit of my stomach that I would not put one of my customers in a situation like this again. Bottom line, if the staff at Jiffy Lube does not see a service that was supposed to be performed on your vehicle according to mileage in their system you can rest assured that you will have that recommendation presented to you 90% of the time and sometimes it just might suprise you what the motive is.    

THE TIRE ROTATION ISSUE - I understand that your intention was to rotate the tires so that you ultimatley could replace the set, however if your daughter and/or the staff at the Jiffy Lube did not know about that goal then it would not be completely crazy for them to recommend the tire rotation. As far as expecting a refund of your money...I don't think I would have refunded the money in this situation either and I am generally regarded as being extremely customer service oriented and fair, if not over-accomodating. Your basically asking a company to do the same job which mind you was originally agreed to be performed by someone you entrusted with the maintenance of your vehicle along with the responsibility of that decision...two times for free? I don't know of many companies that would comply with such a request. As for making a recommendation to your daughter and not me...that happens sometimes. I can go somewhere and not get the "add-on" sale attempt for ages and my wife can go in one time and sure enough they try to sell her something. She tells me it's because I am a 6'0" 230lb former Marine that looks cranky all the time, heck, maybe she's right!

In closing I can only say that my dealings with the crew at these two locations have been positive and that the "upper echeleon" (ie. GM's/DM's) are very professional and sensitive to their customers. The owner of this store is absolutley incredible and takes his responsibilities to both his employees and customers to heart which 99.9% of the time shows in his operation (nobody's perfect). I myself am in and out of so many Jiffy Lubes in a month that it would make your head spin and out of all those stores and different owners this was one of the last ones I would have ever expected to see on this website and I think it is a darn shame.  

I hope this give you some insight and I really hope you give this company if not this store another shot. It's hard to find good people in the automotive industry so when you do find them I highly recommend you stick with them. Heck do you think I would have invested this amount of time answering you when I could be watching Project Runway with my wife and daughter right now...OK bad example. 

Frankly I was looking up some other Jiffy Lube stuff and this popped up in my search engine and the words Thousand Oaks/Jiffy Lube caught my eye so I clicked on the link...I wonder who else I know on here...

Good Ole' Jiffy Lube...  The creators of the 3,000 mile oil change myth (they happen to be owned by Pennzoil-Quaker State)...