Pepboys ripoff Left me stranded Rochester New York
I will simply copy and paste from the email I sent to their customer service....
This took place at
Store # 0444
711 East Ridge Road Rochester NY 14622
About 4pm 4/15/06
I visited the store for a NYS Inspection and was turned away because of the model of the car.
The car is a Honda Insight with 13K miles on it.
The car would not start on the lot because it had been stored for the winter and I had driven it only
a short distance to get to the store. I jump started it in my driveway and drove it there minutes before
talking with the service manager. All it needed was a jump to get it into the station, they refused.
I could understand the concern for the safety of the technicians but this is not an issue here. There are no dangerous electrical parts that a technician could possibly come into contact with while conducting a simple inspection or jump starting the vehicle.
All high voltages are clearly marked both with warning labels and are thoroughly insulated in bright orange jacketing.
All high voltages are located under the vehicle in the center and have plating covering all junctions.
The wire running to the High Voltage battery runs through a covered channel under the vehicle. There are no high voltages anywhere near anything that would have been touched by a technician today. The 12 volt electrical system and it's battery are an entirely separate entity from the Hybrid Drive Batteries. All service work on this car short of disassembling the transmission and clutch (where the Hybrid Motor is located) is identical to that of any other car on the planet.
I asked them if they would Inspect the car if I jumped it with another car, answer was "No, It's company policy that we are not allowed to touch a Hybrid for safety reasons."
I was told that it is your company's policy not do any service at all on Hybrids? Your company sells parts for the bloody things!
I find this to be an extremely ignorant policy. . Your company needs to do some homework. After waiting for over an hour for my sister to arrive so I could jump the car, which took all of 30 seconds from the time she pulled into the parking lot, I am thoroughly enraged. What should have been a simple 30 minute job for any professional service station turned into an extremely unpleasant afternoon. From what I've read on the DMV web site Form #s CR79 and VS35 a certified inspection station DOES NOT reserve the right to refuse to inspect a vehicle based on it's model unless it is classified as a home made or custom built vehicle.
I will confirm this on Monday Morning. If I find that this is the case I will be filing a complaint with the NYS Commissioner of Motor Vehicles office.
Michael
Rochester, New York
U.S.A.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Joe
Williamstown,New Jersey,
U.S.A.
Businesses
#5UPDATE Employee
Sat, November 25, 2006
Businesses reserve the right to refuse service to ANYONE, ANYTIME, WITHOUT REASON OR CAUSE!!! The same way you don't have to go back to Pep Boys, they don't have to work on your vehicle. It is because of safety issues only certain places will inspect hybrid vehicles, what is the problem with that. At your job you don't have rules which you have to follow? At Pep Boys, they have them too. By the way, you weren't "turned away because of the model of the car"...you were turned away because it was a hybrid vehicle! I guess you work for a place that has no company policies? Total chaos!
Bob
Rochester,New York,
U.S.A.
Just a heads up
#5Consumer Suggestion
Thu, May 04, 2006
This policy is not isolated to Pep Boys as you are targeting. This is a policy of most aftermarket repair facilities. I work for the competition.
This is not done because they are targeting your vehicle. This is a very serious safety concern and the aftermarket shops are not yet equipped to handle hybrid electrical systems. It takes 60 volts to kill a person, the HV system on a hybrid is 300 volts! What happens when an inspector, whom is unfamiliar with the HV system on your hybrid sets a lift to raise your car for the inspection accidently places a lift arm to close to the "orange cables" running directly underneath the vehicle sends a 300 Volt discharge through the lift arm into the lift control and kills the technician? Who would be "inconvienanced" then?
An excerpt taken directly from a professional tech bulletin regarding hybrid battery systems.
WARNING: On hybrid electric vehicles such as the Toyota Prius, Lexus RX400H, Honda Insight, Ford Escape hybrid, etc., the hybrid battery pack in the back of the vehicle is a HIGH VOLTAGE (300+ volts!) battery. Three hundred plus volts is enough to shock you or kill you, so NEVER work on the hybrid electrical system on one of these vehicles without first disabling or disconnecting the high voltage battery per the vehicle manufacturer's instructions. This must be done with insulated tools and gloves. The high voltage wiring is usually color-coded ORANGE.
Details about safety concerns when working on Hybrids has been slow to trickle out of dealerships. The hybrid manufacturers would prefer that the delaerships do all servicing of their vehicles including NYS Inspections.
Lastly and perhaps you were unaware, If your battery died and required a jumpstart, your OBDII system flags would have been set to "not ready" and would have failed the Emissions portion of the NYVIP (NYSI), you would have been issued a rejection form and still had to pay for the $21.00 inspection. It sounds like the service manager did you a favor.
Bob
Rochester,New York,
U.S.A.
Just a heads up
#5Consumer Suggestion
Thu, May 04, 2006
This policy is not isolated to Pep Boys as you are targeting. This is a policy of most aftermarket repair facilities. I work for the competition.
This is not done because they are targeting your vehicle. This is a very serious safety concern and the aftermarket shops are not yet equipped to handle hybrid electrical systems. It takes 60 volts to kill a person, the HV system on a hybrid is 300 volts! What happens when an inspector, whom is unfamiliar with the HV system on your hybrid sets a lift to raise your car for the inspection accidently places a lift arm to close to the "orange cables" running directly underneath the vehicle sends a 300 Volt discharge through the lift arm into the lift control and kills the technician? Who would be "inconvienanced" then?
An excerpt taken directly from a professional tech bulletin regarding hybrid battery systems.
WARNING: On hybrid electric vehicles such as the Toyota Prius, Lexus RX400H, Honda Insight, Ford Escape hybrid, etc., the hybrid battery pack in the back of the vehicle is a HIGH VOLTAGE (300+ volts!) battery. Three hundred plus volts is enough to shock you or kill you, so NEVER work on the hybrid electrical system on one of these vehicles without first disabling or disconnecting the high voltage battery per the vehicle manufacturer's instructions. This must be done with insulated tools and gloves. The high voltage wiring is usually color-coded ORANGE.
Details about safety concerns when working on Hybrids has been slow to trickle out of dealerships. The hybrid manufacturers would prefer that the delaerships do all servicing of their vehicles including NYS Inspections.
Lastly and perhaps you were unaware, If your battery died and required a jumpstart, your OBDII system flags would have been set to "not ready" and would have failed the Emissions portion of the NYVIP (NYSI), you would have been issued a rejection form and still had to pay for the $21.00 inspection. It sounds like the service manager did you a favor.
Bob
Rochester,New York,
U.S.A.
Just a heads up
#5Consumer Suggestion
Thu, May 04, 2006
This policy is not isolated to Pep Boys as you are targeting. This is a policy of most aftermarket repair facilities. I work for the competition.
This is not done because they are targeting your vehicle. This is a very serious safety concern and the aftermarket shops are not yet equipped to handle hybrid electrical systems. It takes 60 volts to kill a person, the HV system on a hybrid is 300 volts! What happens when an inspector, whom is unfamiliar with the HV system on your hybrid sets a lift to raise your car for the inspection accidently places a lift arm to close to the "orange cables" running directly underneath the vehicle sends a 300 Volt discharge through the lift arm into the lift control and kills the technician? Who would be "inconvienanced" then?
An excerpt taken directly from a professional tech bulletin regarding hybrid battery systems.
WARNING: On hybrid electric vehicles such as the Toyota Prius, Lexus RX400H, Honda Insight, Ford Escape hybrid, etc., the hybrid battery pack in the back of the vehicle is a HIGH VOLTAGE (300+ volts!) battery. Three hundred plus volts is enough to shock you or kill you, so NEVER work on the hybrid electrical system on one of these vehicles without first disabling or disconnecting the high voltage battery per the vehicle manufacturer's instructions. This must be done with insulated tools and gloves. The high voltage wiring is usually color-coded ORANGE.
Details about safety concerns when working on Hybrids has been slow to trickle out of dealerships. The hybrid manufacturers would prefer that the delaerships do all servicing of their vehicles including NYS Inspections.
Lastly and perhaps you were unaware, If your battery died and required a jumpstart, your OBDII system flags would have been set to "not ready" and would have failed the Emissions portion of the NYVIP (NYSI), you would have been issued a rejection form and still had to pay for the $21.00 inspection. It sounds like the service manager did you a favor.