A Maryland woman took her Hyundai Santa Fe to Jiffy Lube for an oil change, and they wound up destroying her engine because…surprise, surprise…they failed to refill the oil after draining it.
JL admitted guilt, and paid for a mechanic to install a replacement engine. However, the replacement engine was from a Sonata, not from a Santa Fe, and many problems resulted from the switcheroo. Eventually, JL did agree to pay the big bucks for a Hyundai dealer to rebuild her original engine, but she really had to fight JL for this resolution.
I saw this on the news. She didn’t even know they’d put a different engine in the car. JL’s response:
“We strive to provide every single customer with quality maintenance services, and we apologize to Ms. DuMont for her experience. Our goal was to return her vehicle to the condition it was in when she brought it to us – and we believe we’ve exceeded that goal."</i>
is beyond pathetic. If they believe they’ve exceeded their goals, their goals are pathetic.
“They also promised to fix a broken fuel sensor that was unrelated to the damaged engine.”
Could this neglected sensor problem have contributed to this disaster? That combined with a complacency some people have for driving around with a glowing CEL?
When the CEL comes on it is important to maintain the vehicle in short order or when another problem arises the driver won’t be aware of it because the CEL is already illuminated.
“We strive to provide every single customer with quality maintenance services, and we apologize to Ms. DuMont for her experience. Our goal was to return her vehicle to the condition it was in when she brought it to us – and we believe we’ve exceeded that goal."
The major problem here is that it’s supposed to take 10 minutes and not require months and all the B.S. to reach the simple goal of clean oil and a new filter. CSA
@ok4450
"The one part I don’t get is why it would cost a whopping 19 grand to rebuild it to its original state?"
I’m guessing that since news coverage has been following this car the repairing facility knew that the oil change outfit wouldn’t balk at the repairs… I mean how would that play in the news?
Plus, remember that the correct engine is gone, history. A new engine to install or rebuild and install will have to be obtained.
Also, you know what it’s like working on a vehicle that’s been hacked before you get to it. Who knows what they did to get the wrong engine to run? This thing could need wiring harnesses, convertors, pipes, ECM, etcetera.
Most every mechanic wouldn’t even want to work on it and if they do it’ll cost somebody. CSA
I still think it’s utterly ludicrous to spend 19k rebuilding an engine in a 9 year old Hyundai whose value won’t even be half of that rebuild cost when done.
They would have been better off to just scrap her 2007 and buy her a 2013 or whatever. It would have been cheaper.
Of course I guess the downside could be that if word got out on something like that people would be deliberately sabotaging their vehicles after a JL oil change so they too could cash in on a much newer vehicle at JL’s expense.
I have a feeling there’s a whole lot of detail missing as regards what JL actually ended up doing. And they deserved every penny it cost them. And then some.
The “mechanic” must have seen that the engine was visibly different
Maybe he hoped it would somehow work properly . . .
I strongly suspect even if he said it wouldn’t work, his manager probably forced him to install it. God knows where they even found the engine. Probably don’t want to know
I am surprised JL and similar outfits don’t go bankrupt. The profit margin on this oil change is not much. I guess the up-selling on filters and flushes make up for it.
Having shopped for a used Hyundai CUV recently, I can attest that you can get a CPO ex-rental Santa Fe (2013-2014) with 30K miles for less than 17K if you look hard enough.
I am surprised JL and similar outfits don’t go bankrupt. The profit margin on this oil change is not much. I guess the up-selling on filters and flushes make up for it.
A few years ago I was reading one of the business journals/trade rags and ran across an article detailing the profit margins, time commitment, and investment required for various types of automotive shops. One conclusion that they came to was that for an absentee/non-automotive owner, a quick-lube place would be the most profitable business to invest in.
A survey of about 4000 fast lube facilities a few years ago showed on average they grossed about 750,000 dollars per year.
Assuming that a facility botched 3 or 4 jobs per year and had to pony up on them the profit margin is still up there.
In defense of the fast lube facilities, if one considers the on average inexperienced techs, the hurry up and get it done quick methodogy, and the number of services performed each year against the number of mistakes they do fairly well all things considered.
February 21
I am surprised JL and similar outfits don't go bankrupt. The profit margin on this oil change is not much. I guess the up-selling on filters and flushes make up for it.
They’re franchised…I’ve seen a couple of them go out of business.
“They would have been better off to just scrap her 2007 and buy her a 2013 or whatever. It would have been cheaper.
Of course I guess the downside could be that if word got out on something like that people would be deliberately sabotaging their vehicles after a JL oil change so they too could cash in on a much newer vehicle at JL’s expense.”
“Having shopped for a used Hyundai CUV recently, I can attest that you can get a CPO ex-rental Santa Fe (2013-2014) with 30K miles for less than 17K if you look hard enough.”
Citing company policy, the Spokesman From JL Said “Our goal was to return her vehicle to the condition it was in when she brought it to us…”
Key words: her vehicle, condition it was in
Notice it does NOT say that if they screw up somebody’s car they’ll just give out a different one. I believe that would set a slippery slope precedent to buy customers new cars.
I’m sure that the goal here is to give owners’ cars back the way they were when they came with (hopefully) the only difference being new oil and filter. CSA