@7star wrote:
Shoptastic - I would approach your question this way, is it worth it to make $50-$75 on a oil change shop if there's a decent chance your car could get messed up ? Especially if you rely on your car. I understand that the money is important but can you make 10, 20, or 30 dollars doing a safer shop instead of the car shop? There are plenty of shops out there. Only you can answer that question. I know i like my car.
Of course it's not worth it. I just needed to confirm my thoughts.
Thanks for doing that and making me feel sane.
Actually, I also wanted to get some opinions on these cheapo places too. It partially feels wrong to just automatically think of them as rip-off shops, because I don't want to unfairly label all the places like that if it's just a few bad apples. But I did see lots of bad reviews too. Then again, I've seen not so great reviews for places that I've had good experiences with too.
But I think Jiffy Lube had so many negatives that it was worrisome for me.
I guess I'll have to shell out $30 for an oil change at my regular place (I have a coupon).
@LisaSTL wrote:
There are make specific oil change shops which are not just American made. I rely too heavily on my car to take a chance for a "free" or small fee oil change.
Years ago I regularly used cheap chains. That changed after going to a Midas with previous good experiences. This time they flunked my safety inspection for my license plates then told me a car worth $1,200 needed $2,000 worth of work. Needless to say, they were shocked when I told them it would be stupid of me to spend that much rather than put the $2,000 toward a new vehicle.
Now here's the real rub. I took the car somewhere else. It passed and no mention was made of all the leaks Midas claimed. It was then I realized they showed me pinkish power steering fluid on the floor of the garage where my car had been parked. Since I filled the fluid myself, it wasn't hard to check the bottle at home to find the fluid used was actually clear.
My mom has so many stories like this. It's not even funny. It makes me really distrust home repair folks and car repair people.
One guy charged my mom $700 to fix something that cost $80 from another guy. It wasn't that the $80 guy missed something (which is always a possibility and why you have to be careful and get extra estimates, do your research, and/or have a trusted person tell you what's fair/unfair), but it was that the $700 guy was just trying to cheat her.
How do these people live with themselves? Instead of working smarter/harder, they cheat others. Sad and upsetting.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2017 03:19AM by shoptastic.