I get my oil changed frequently as I put 1000 miles/week on the car, 2 years old 96K miles. Brought it in for an MS oil change and comp brake inspection and was told that my rear calipers were leaking and it urgently needed fixing for $850. Had scheduled another mystery shop the following Monday at another shop of the same chain in a different town and they remarked how great the brakes were considering the high mileage. I pointedly asked them if the saw any leakage near the rear brakes and the said "None, whatsoever." Hmmmmmmmmm.

Yup,
One major outfit that franchises under 4 different names nationwide is now doing hundreds of video shops for brake and tire inspections as well as oil changes and having a corporate earthquake over the irrefutable results. The videos started ou looking for whether or not the local franchisees were pushing the company credit card, wearing name tags, etc. But they soon started asking shoppers to provide the "repair estimates" and were suitably horrified.

If I were you I would email that estimate to your scheduler along with your comments.

Wow! I had a horrific oil change shop experience, but they didn't lie to me on anything other than times and doing things they shouldn't have.

I would email the MS company and tell them. Walesmaven is right. I am glad to know clients are learning with video that their mechanics are not being so truthful. You can't fight a video.

I get most of my oil changes from shopping one client. I now know which locations are honest and competent and which are not.

I provided proof that one location was dishonest and was told I was not objective. I won't bother to do that for that client again.

No big shock about dishonest mechanics, but OMG...1000 miles a WEEK?!? I thought I was bad at 1500 a month!

Is this all MS related or do other factors play in?

I posted on another thread here about a shop where the mechanic told me I had 10 miles to go before I was eating into my rotors. This was a video shop. I asked him to repeat himself, sure that I did not hear him correctly. When I told my own mechanic about this, he was flabbergasted.

Always with the Serpentine Belt.................Okay, so the charge of the mechanic is to upsell additional products/services b/c they don't make their money with the oil change itself. I feel bad for them because they are trained as mechanics, make very little money and are not sales people. When all else fails, I am told that the dreaded Serpentine Belt is a risk to my safety at that exact moment in time and that I should not drive off the lot without a new one.

I got an oil change on DH's truck and the check engine light went on afterwards. I took it back and they said it was "unrelated" and I needed $275 worth of work on some other system. Grrr!

My DH is a mechanic. I take our cars on the oil change shops anyway, gives DH a bit of a break and I can usually get good bonuses. I've also done a couple bonused brake inspections. I always tell DH what the mechanics tell me about the cars. One tried to tell me my brakes were really terrible, needed to be replaced ASAP. I've learned not to listen to them, so I took it home and DH said we can probably get another 5000 miles out of them.

One time I was not on a shop, and I wish I had been. I had a tire with a screw in it (I work in an industrial park so it happens a lot) and took it to a shop to get patched. They said that it was too close to the firewall to patch, must buy new tires right.this.minute, it will cost $170. I said no, put the old tire back on. They flipped out and said "If you were my wife and that were my child, I would not let you drive on this tire." Finally they put the spare on but warned me of impending dooooom if I didn't buy new tires right away.

Went home, DH took the tire to work and patched it just fine. He said the screw was not close to the firewall at all.

Just did a bunch of these video shops and I, too, was surprised that some of the places told me that I needed brake work and others told me (honestly) that I didn't. Some also tried to sell me tires. Just goes to show...you can't trust them. It gets mighty confusing, though, when you do 10 different shops and get 10 different opinions!

I don't mind employees at these shops trying to sell to me as long as they don't tell me falsehoods. I suspect that's one of the reasons different oil change clients ask a similar question about whether services/products were recommended based on mileage or the car manufacturer's maintenance schedule (instead of saying your car actually needs the services/products).

I get oil changes (when ever my car needs it) and have my tires rotated so often, the tires are getting dizzy - I only do dealer shops. One dealer had me convinced that my car wouldn't make it home before the brakes failed. This didn't bother me since I was getting an oil change the next day at another dealer who said the brakes were fine. It is nerve racking wondering which one is right.

I shopped a JL oil change and my car died after I went 2 blocks. Luckily, I was able to turn into a bank parking lot. I called them and two guys came to check it out. They were apologetic and fixed it...something about not putting the hose back tightly enough and air got in. Grrrr!!! I stopped doing JL shops after that and now shop the car dealers for my oil change, even though the report is way longer and I have to wait 1-2 hours, instead of 15 minutes for the oil change.

cake... Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One time I was not on a shop, and I wish I had
> been. I had a tire with a screw in it (I work in
> an industrial park so it happens a lot) and took
> it to a shop to get patched. They said that it was
> too close to the firewall to patch, must buy new
> tires right.this.minute, it will cost $170. I said
> no, put the old tire back on. They flipped out and
> said "If you were my wife and that were my child,
> I would not let you drive on this tire." Finally
> they put the spare on but warned me of impending
> dooooom if I didn't buy new tires right away.

I used to work for the company that recalled however many million tires in 2003 due to the Ford Explorer "rollover" problem. After that happened, tire manufacturers jumped off the deep end when it came to liability. We were strictly forbidden from performing repairs on tires that had punctures less than 1/2" from the sidewall (when looking at the puncture from the inside, not the outside).

I explained to many customers that ran into situations like yours that you could take the tire home, repair it and you may still have a usable tire. However, under the company's liability policy, the only things that I can do for you here are quote you a new tire or offer to put your spare on.

Unfortunately, when they offer their "training" to new salespeople, (some of which I question their ability to spell "tire", they don't offer that type of explanation. They just say "It can't be done. Sell them a new tire (or better yet, 4!)" I would venture a guess that they would build more trust if they offered the explanation that I would give.

I travel a lot with MS... about 3000 a month, and I regularly look for oil changes. One experience I had with a MS concerning tire inquiries.

I replace tires two at a time. That way, for 3-4 months of the year, I can be shopping for a full set of tires

I visited a tire location, and the sales associate looked at my tires, and stated that my tires needed replacing because they were cracking. The associate asked if these were the original tires because they looked SO old. I said the tires were only 18 months old. The associate said that some businesses sell outdated tires (yes, they are dated) as new tires, and apparently this is what happened to me.

The MS report asks what did you like and what you did not like about the shop. I wrote that I didn't like to hear that I had been sold outdated tires which were cracked after 18 months when I purchased them from THIS same company. I will never buy tires there again... and I told all my friends to avoid that franchise. Word of mouth can be the best advertising... or the worst.

I also had a brake inspection where I was told I needed $300-400 worth of work immediately. At another location, I asked about my brakes and was tol that they were probably good for another 20k or more. Always get a second opinion.

Ms.Baker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I said the tires were
> only 18 months old. The associate said that some
> businesses sell outdated tires (yes, they are
> dated) as new tires, and apparently this is what
> happened to me.

Just for yours and everyone's information, you can tell the date of a tire's manufacture by the DOT registration number stamped into the sidewall. If you look along the sidewall, you'll see a string of numbers and letters that looks somewhat like a serial number. It will always start with the letters "DOT", followed by a string of letters and numbers, but will always end in four consecutive numbers. The ending four numbers represent the week and year that the tire was made. So if the code is "5011", the tire was manufactured in the 50th week of 2011.

So, next time you buy tires, ask them to show you the exact four tires that will be going on your car, and you can see if they're relatively new. Anything under 18 months is more than acceptable.