I recently endured the mandatory “consultation” at a national oil-change franchise which included offers of windshield wiper conditioning, glass waxing, engine flushing, and cabin air filter replacement.
Only problem is that my car doesn’t have a cabin air filter.
When I got my first (used) car as a teen, one day the window wipers, and I think some lights, stopped working. I brought it to the JC Penney’s auto shop, and left it there for them to work on. Like Sears, Penney’s is department store, selling mostly clothing, that also had a car repair biz on the side.
The guys worked on it a while, decided it was probably the alternator, and put in a new one. Didn’t help. Even with my near-zero knowledge of such things, I asked if it could be something like a fuse? The guy on the phone stumbled some answers, and later that day, all was working. He said they ALSO had to replace the fuses. If I had been older and more assertive, I’d have raised hell at them charging me for the alternator. As it was, I took it and left.
A few years later (second car), Penney’s was out of the car repair biz (I wonder why). I was at the Subaru dealership, and mentioned my story. The guy there nodded sadly, and said that they had a deal now with them: Penney’s doesn’t work on cars, and Subaru doesn’t sell underwear.
Seems like a good arrangmemt to me.
I put a link to this on the Randi.org forum, because James Randi is fearsome enemy of scams, cons, bogus cures and all sorts of chicanery. And there are some interesting people posting over there, as I type. The tile of my OP is Auto Repair Scams.
Does anyone take their car to a shop that has ASE Certified Technicians? Apparently not.
If they are certified ,contact ASE . I’m sure that organization will want to preserve the professional standard they represent.
Manolto,sorry,but I disagree that alignment print outs are a “common” item to falsify. Possibly in the shop you worked at while in college.Most dishonest mechanics are purged by other mechanics. Unfortunately it takes awhile to figure out their disceptions.Most mechanics realize their paychecks depend on the shop reputation.
Its also unfortunate that more people do not choose an automotive career.I chose this profession after college.I don’t tolerate poor work or dishonesty
After an oil change at the quickie-lube place one time, the service tech told me (all in one breath), “You-need-a-new-left-CV-boot-and-the-muffler-shop-next-door-can-do-that-for-you.” He seemed entirely too eager to throw some business to the shop next door, which made me suspicious. I wondered if he had some sort of reciprocal agreement with them. I took my car to a reputable mechanic instead. There was nothing wrong.
I am waiting for this threads counterpart, “Common scams customers run on garages”
It seems all the auto repair franchises have a book now that tells them how long a given repair should take and that’s what they want to bill you for up front. I recently was quoted $200 for the part and $500 for labor (5 hours @$100/hr) to replace a brake booster. I had never replaced one of these before and honestly didn’t know exactly what it looked like or where it was on the vehicle. Since I was lacking in funds at the time I purchased the part retail (so I would know what it looked like) for $70 and replaced it myself in an hour and a half. I am a minister. So perhaps your listeners should start taking their cars to church instead of the garage. We could use the money.
Steve, NW Wisconsin
Hi
This may not be a COMMON scam, but while at a repair shop which also sole “reconditioned” used cars, I witnessed a salesman sell a Chevy Malibu with an obviously bad muffler or engine pipe to a deaf guy. A week later I saw the car with its’ new driver pulled over on the side of the road by a local Sheriff. I would love to know the outcome of that exchange
Needed an oil change- I made the mistake of taking my 323 to the Mazda dealer in Santa Barbara (“approved by AAA”)- they said I needed a new water pump, which was strange, since the pump wasn’t leaking or making any noise- drove the car another 5 years on that same “bad” water pump! Oh, and I complained to Auto Club about their dishonest “approved” shop- their reply: “Well, since you didn’t PAY them, they didn’t actually cheat you”- in other words, AAA won’t take a shop off their approved list, UNLESS you LET the shop rip you off! Needless to say, I NEVER go AAA approved shops! (and, it turns out, shops PAY for the “approval”, making it worthless!)
In response to phoneman550. Labor time guide manuals have been around for over 60 years.
These manuals are usually based on what the manufacturer deems as appropriate time to repair a vehicle under warranty.
These labor times do not include diagnosis time. Its also based on the fact the mechanic has performed this repair many times previously.Special tools are available.The parts are also on the workbench before the repair is started.
Labor guide manuals usually bump up the labor times by 10-15%.Manufactures keep labor times down for their own benefit to save money. During the late '70 early '80’s labor times were re-adjusted.
Mechanics back then got 50% of the shop labor. Now they only get 25%. Mechanics make less than plumbers,landscapers,electricians, and even the people who deliver their uniforms.
In reality ,labor times should be determined by various people with varying mechanical skills and what tools are available to them in their toolbox. Have a mechanic with two years experience do the job,A mechanic with over ten years experience. Have both male and female mechanics do the job.
Then an average of those times to come up with a true labor time guide.I personally think mechanics should be paid by the hour based on their skills and amount of training /certifications. Right now the business is based mostly on commission.
Diagnosis time and parts availability in a timely manner are usually not factored into many jobs. One mechanic can diagnose a problem in 15 minutes, while it might take someone else two hours.
I would say peoples abilities are a factor in every workplace.
If a shop won’t show you the labor time guide in paperbound edition or on the computer, go to another shop. Also understand diagnosis time will be beyond and above the actual repair performed.Find a smart Certified Mechanic and you will save money on the diagnosis time.
My reply to 550 is that you should not be so sure that even though you were told the book said 5 hrs labor that it really did. What I am getting at is perhaps you were the victim of a bit of a twist on the “book labor time scam”. It goes like this, the shop knows you will go ballistic if you get told 5 hours but they want this money anyway so they tell you “not our fault, it is what the book says” but the book really did not give 5 hrs for the job.
What make, year, model are we talking about ? I will verify this labor time. I belive they tried to scam you and blamed it on the book. For these labor time guides to pay 5 hrs you pretty much have to remove a cylinder head.
Before getting any quotes on repairs, I used to go to the library and looked up the “flat rate” hours in Motor’s Flat Rate Manual. It had all the normal repairs and replacements and gave the hours. I even photocopied the relevant pages to show the shop in case they quoted me something wild.
Just one job to show you what we got paid for certain things,how much warranty time too remove and replace the dash in a full size GM pickup from 1999? we got paid 1.9hrs.
I remember the heavy line guys had a club called the “2.9 club” the reason was, it paid 2.9hrs to replace all the bearings in the same trucks differential and set the backlash.
We also had a $200.00 club, as that was the maximum a mechanic paid if he broke something, if it was above $200.00 the Dealer himself paid the balance. You did not get too many invites to the $200.00 club before you were out the door.
“Windshield wiper conditioning”? “Glass waxing”?
Did they offer to service your muffler bearing too?
I needed a transmission overhaul on my Buick Riviera and went with Rollie’s (you know who you are) to save $200. Promised to have it back in a week but once they got it all apart, it was seven weeks before I finally got it back, after stopping down every other day. Drove it directly to another shop to take it apart again for another $500 to replace the wire harness that Rollie claims he replaced. Lasted only a year on a two year warranty but no way I’d go through that again. Other than that, I’ve never had much of a problem with repairs once a problem was properly diagnosed.
I am a girl and I know quite a bit about cars. Worked as a race car fabricator for a couple years. I always get techs trying to sell me stupid things. I’ve been told I needed a brake fluid flush or that I was leaking brake fluid when it was clearly power steering fluid and I was well aware of the problem. I once took my car in for the front pipe to get replaced, I should have done it myself, and the guy broke my o2 sensor and told me he didn’t do it. He even stripped the stud going into the manifold. I was so angry and he wouldn’t back his word up.
I hear great stories all the time from others. I was talking to a lady about her alternator and one of the quickie lube boys from across the street said she needed two grounds because one was fried! I told him he was nuts and he didn’t know what to say other then: “I work with batteries all day” I retorted with “dude you change oil” A ground has no current constantly running thru it thus how can it fry and two? I was absolutely amazed at how dumb his comment was. Friends boyfriend gets scammed all the time and I love hearing the stories from her. I am glad I know my bit about cars
When I lived in Miami, the blower motor on my Honda Civic was making a lot of noise. I took the car to Maroone Honda next to the Palmetto Expressway to get the problem checked out, and they told me the blower motor was falling apart and needed to be replaced. Something didn’t seem right, so I told them to reinstall the old one.
A short time later, I got the car serviced at another local Honda dealership (no longer in business), and the mechanic noticed the loud blower, cleaned out the leaves within it, and reassembled it…FOR FREE! The car was in for routine service, but they went the extra mile without me having to ask. I guess Maroone Honda wanted me to pay the price of a new blower for cleaning the leaves out of the blower and squirrel cage, or perhaps they wanted to replace a perfectly good blower motor. Either way, I will never go back to any Maroone dealership for anything.
I have tried using Discount Tires, but they had a hard time following instructions.
I went to Discount Tires for a camper trailer that had a blow-out. I had mounted the brand new spare on the trailer and took the trailer to Discount Tires to get the four old tires replaced (The trailer had two axles.). I showed the guy the brand new mounted spare I wanted to keep, and the tire that had blown out. When they were finished, they had replaced the brand new spare, and the blown-out tire was still inside the trailer. I was pretty upset, and they didn’t seem to understand why. I had to wait another hour for them to put the brand new spare on the rim with the blown-out tire.
It’s pretty bad when they make such a bad mistake and get indignant with me for being upset. They never even apologized.
ANY mechanic with his own shop knows to check the thermostat first.
I beg to differ. I would hope the mechanic would check the radiator cap first. I think radiator caps are a little cheaper to replace than thermostats, especially when you include labor.
The way it was explained to me, using a can of fuel injector cleaner is like brushing your teeth, but their “fuel induction service” is like going to the dentist. Of course, it is a scam since fuel has detergent in it already. To continue with the analogy, if you never ate food, and all you ever did was rinse your mouth with fluoride, and you brushed your teeth three times a day, you probably wouldn’t need to visit a dentist until you had some kind of dental problem.