A WARNING to all. Plz Read. (Kinda O/T)

[OldCarPilot]

Well not that most of you would probably do this anyway but... Don't EVER go to just brakes for ANYTHING. Normally I wouldn't do this either, but I was crunched for time. Below is a copy of a letter that I am having my lawyer send to them. Thanks for taking the time.

To Whom It May Concern:

On 3 March 2004, I was given a quote by your store at 107 North Collins in Arlington, Texas, of $231.68 plus tax for installation of front bearings, as well as the installation of front brake lines. Upon further investigation, one of your employees discovered that the bearings that he had originally quoted would not work as I needed roller ball bearings. I was told by your employee (Charles) that the work could not be done for the quote originally given. He then gave me a quote of $91.00 each for the four bearings, including installation. He further advised me that if I could find them somewhere else cheaper, that he would install them.

I purchased the required bearings for a great deal cheaper than had been quoted and brought them back to your store for installation. After completion of the work, I was presented a bill for $234.00. This is well in excess of what I should have been charged. I was informed that I was being charged $49.00 to pack the bearings in addition to the installation charge. While I have no problem with an installation charge, I know that packing bearings simply involves putting grease in them, and is part of the installation of any bearing. Bearings will not work without grease. To charge me a fee to pack the bearings, which is a requirement of installation, is outrageous, excessive and in my opinion, violates the consumer protection laws in the state of Texas. Although I discussed this issue at length with Charles, he would not waiver, and because I needed my vehicle, I relented and paid the bill.

The following day, I drove from the Dallas-Fort Worth area to Austin for a hot rod event. When I arrived in Austin, my car was making a grinding noise whenever I turned. After my vehicle was inspected by a mechanic, I discovered that the right nut on the spindle was loose, which potentially could have destroyed my brand new bearings.


The price that your company charged is outrageous, and the quality of the work was sub-standard. I am a member of a hot rod club that has over 3000 members. I will encourage everyone I know to avoid Just Brakes because of the manner in which your store dealt with me. I now know from researching your company to send this letter that poor quality work and excessive charges are the norm and not the exception for your business. I do not expect you to do anything to remedy this situation but wanted you to know that you have lost yet another customer, as well as the potential of thousands of other customers.

[Sukie]

Man that sucks , but its true they will fuck you anyway they can .. I went in for a brake job they told me 250 or something like that its been a few years , and when I went to pick up my car they handed me a bill for 900 bucks .. did I pay it Hell no I made them take all that crap off my car ..had to have it towed home and did it myself with a friend for under 150 ...

Hope they give you your money back ..

[Anderson]

That blows Mike...I hate places like that, they'll never take responsibility for their screw ups, and when they try to screw you, the customer, they will never admit it. They always get away with it though. I'll never take my car to a mechanic, any brake or transmission shop, or any place like that. I don't even trust the people I work with (at Jiffy Lube) to work on my car, they're a bunch of retards. I know for a fact we've charged people for things we didn't do, havn't replaced the oil filter with the oil change, and have failed people on inspections because the inspector thought the guy was an ass hole. Everybody screwing everybody else to make a buck.

[gotcha]

One of our local oil change facilities failed to change an oil filter because it was a K&N...The dumbass thought it was reusable... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

JP

[fab32]

I think that is the same outfit that the State Of Michigan shut down a few months ago for just the kind of crap you described. People were getting charged over a thousand dollars for a brake job and not even replacing the shoes or pads. One guy got charged over $500 for installing a tie rod end and they didn't even reset the toe in or put a cotter key in the castle nut. It went on and on and was a front page story here.

Frank

[Kojack]

Amazing the shit people pull. Even though I find them low for trying to fuck people out of money, I find them even lower to know the quality of their work could potentionally get some one killed.

[Ichoptop]

A guy that works for me took his Izusu trooper in for a front end rebuild. The next morning he calls me a mile from work. I go out to see what up and his truck is on the sidewalk about 4 feet from a waterway. no cotter pins anywhere to be found and his steering arm drop out. Thankfully he had already dropped his kids off at school. JUST BRAKES is right cause they sure as hell cant do front end rebuilds.

[JamesG]

Just Breaks, that means they just break shit? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Bummer, thankfully you or anyone with were not hurt. Good thing it held together as long as it did.

[chromedRAT]

you can't get anything done anymore it seems. i do all my own brakes, oil changes, anything else i can. shit, my buddies and i even do our own exhausts because people around here either don't want to make the tube for it (500 fuckin bucks to run duals! fuck that!) or they won't work on stuff because it is "too low (and this is on a very close to factory ride height s10 blazer)." bunch of shit.

[Jack Daniel]

Seven or eight years ago I took my 88 Beretta in for one of their free check-ups. Twenty minutes later the guy was freakin out showin me all these "worn out" parts on my car. They wanted over $650 to replace the brakes and rr cylinders. It scared my girl friend so bad that she was going to get her dad to pay because I didn't have any money! It took me ten minutes just to convince her to get in the car to leave. Needless to say I just replaced the cylinders myself for 40 bucks and saw absolutely nothing wrong with any of my brakes shoes or pads!! Friggin a**holes tried real hard for my money, they really concentrated on scaring my girlfriend.

[40StudeDude]

One of our illustrious quick oil change places here in Denver, is being sued in a class action suit...for not putting in the oil they charged for...If you bought and paid for Pennzoil...you got whatever came out of their unlabled 55 gallon barrel in the back...Castrol did too, as well as many other name brands...seems some disgruntled customer did a little spying on them and discovered that.

I'm beginning to think you cannot trust anyone anymore!

R-

[gettingreasy]

DO NOT TAKE ANYTHING TO JIFFY LUBE, they are the worst scam artists around. They actually train the managers to talk the customers into shit THEY DON'T need. I worked for one for about 4 months and saw so much over charging and services not getting done and being carefull about potentialy dangerous shit. Their favoite thing is to do motor flushes and tranny flushes, a brand new car comes in for it's 2500 oil change cuase they don't trust the dealer ships and they sell them a tranny flush, the fluid looks and smells brand fuckin new. I got wrote up twice for tellin customers they just got taken and had their money wasted. Needless to say I didn't keep that job for very long.
-Jesse

[Anderson]

[ QUOTE ]
DO NOT TAKE ANYTHING TO JIFFY LUBE, they are the worst scam artists around. They actually train the managers to talk the customers into shit THEY DON'T need.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess you know for sure if you were a manager, but I wouldn't doubt that at all.

We have what's called the "fast 5" where we pull the air cleaner, PCV valve, check the coolant and wiper fluid, and the wiper blades, and try to get the customer to buy new ones. The manager tells us to try and get them to get a coolant top off even if they don't need it...it costs them $3.00 for what may be $0.25 worth of antifreeze. I've also seen first hand one of the other tech's rip a guys wiper blade, try to sell him new ones ($10.00 a PIECE!!!!) and then get mad when the guy acused him of ripping it. All that shit, on TOP of $30 oil changes. Only been working there a few months, and looking for a new job already.

It was pretty funny though, one day HeavyChevy came in to get his daily truck's oil changed, and it was amusing watching the other guy go into the lobby and try to sell him everything and get shot down.

[burndup]

Some absulutely eloquent person on here once wrote:

"America no longer has a manufacturing economy, Only a service economy. Replace the word "Service" with "Fucking" and you will entirely understand how our economy works."

Sad but true. The same sort of guy that would fuck over an automotively-naive person probably goes out and fucks passed out drunk chicks, all because HE CAN. People like that deserve to have bad shit happen to them.

Time for a burning bag of dogshit, for starters.

[Flat Ernie]

Blonde Ripoff (http://archangel.clubchat.com/blonde.html)

Just got the above linke from 32Limey and thought it appropriate...

No video, just sound.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Deyomatic]

Yeah, Burndup, I agree 100%, but nothing bad EVER happens to those guys.

Now I feel kind of silly. I used to get irritated when the oil change places used to try to vacuum my car out for me. I never knew how much money I kept under my floor mat at any given time in high school, so I didn't want it to turn up missing. That was before I believed in wallets.

[A32Flathead]

I worked for a jerk like that...one day we had a woman come in for a sticking sunroof on her Mercedes (I worked at a Mercedes shop for a few months)....

Asshole shop supervisor tells her...No problem, we will need the car all day, its a 6 hour job (@$97.50 per hour), plus the parts which are about another $50.

He says to me...come here & watch & learn.....

Pulls the panel in the roof section, reaches into the track section with a long screwdriver & hits the end of it, this snapped off a plastic tag, and he said...there you go....job done.

Seems this tag thing pops up & blocks the mechanisn, so when its snapped off, it works again.

Of course the woman paid for the full job... I left very soon after that.

Here comes a woman, lets fuck em over seemed to be the motto.....

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif

[Deyomatic]

I remember the last time this TYPE of thing came up and one of the HAMB Females took her friend's car in to catch them when they tried to screw her. I remember it being a good story.

You know, if I was filthy rich, I'd take all of this shit to court, even if it cost me thousands of dollars, just so these crooks get what is coming to them. That is just the problem. Most people don't want to bother with that kind of hassle and expense so we deal with it.

BTW, I was with OldCarPilot when this happend. Not only was the guy trying to screw him, but he was an absolute idiot/asshole. He just could NOT understand what we were trying to explain to him, maybe a "play dumb" act. HE was the one who started raising his voice, and HE was the one who started throwing insults. He was not at all effective in explaining his "side" of the story. He kept repeating the same example and it was an example that never made sense to begin with.
I REALLY wanted to fill up on black licorice and broccoli and come back that night and leave a big ol' steamer on the front door of the shop. It would have scared off at least the first four customers of the day anyway! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[286merc]

I can see "some" justice in sticking it to a Mercedes driver.

[Ryan]

Easy on Mercedes drivers... Some folk's have dads that collect them...

[MercMan1951]

This has to be an epidemic...I showed my G/F what EXACTLY was involved in doing an oil change...because she wanted me to "go with her" to get her oil changed...so they wouldn't "Try to sell her things she didn't need." (It's a '93 Tempo on it's last legs...now come on!) I didn't want to waste my time, and figured I'd "school her" a little at the same time if I showed her.

Afterwards she said "That's it?" (after 30 minutes)...and I said "yeah...AND you got new plugs, cap, and rotor (a tune up) for the same price you would have paid at an oil change place!" http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Once some people at work (in the office) found out that I "work on cars" and are therefore "all knowledgeable in the ways of auto mechanics..." I have at least one person (male or female) a week come up to me and ask for my advice or opinion on their particular car woes...

Some of them are humorus, some of them rewarding.

The bottom line is that people have come to not trust their local mechanic, much less a "chain store" (around Detroit, anyway...)

In addition to the usual "I hear you work on cars, do you have jumper cables?", I got this one day:

This girl came to me saying she had a flat in the parking lot, but couldn't get the old wheel off. "Will I have to pay to get it taken off? Is it rusted too bad?" Was her concern. She managed to jack the car up, get the lug nuts off, but the wheel still wouldn't come off. (With her pulling on it). On the way out to her car, I asked her a few 'routine' questions...like "Is it an aluminum -one piece wheel, or does it have a hubcap" (It was a steel wheel with a hubcap) "Oh, I think it's aluminum, it's one piece"...mmm hmmm... I asked her, "When I get the wheel off, then what?" "Oh," she said, "I have AAA coming to put the new one on." mmm-hmmm...
I walked out to her car (it was winter), it was an econobox, with steel wheels and hubcaps. It was already up in the air...the front pass. tire was flat...all I did was do an about-face, and kick the tire high-side by the fender. A reverse kick of sorts. SNAP! the wheel was instantly loose...

"Do you want anything for your trouble? What kind of cookies do you like?" was her answer to my god-like abilities..."Chocolate chip!" was my response, as I walked back into the building...

The next day I came into my cube, and there was a box of Mrs. Fields chocolate chip cookies waiting for me.

Membership has it's priveleges...

[luckystiff]

contact your local newspaper or tv news station. alot of times they like to "expose" con artist. they will look into the matter and interview people who have filed complaints with the BBB. which i hope you have also done. i work for a small newspaper in the press room and my wife is a reporter. reporters drive alot you may get lucky and get a reporter that has been screwed by this or another business like it. let them repair shop know your doing this they may refund your money to keep you quiet. bad press can kill a business rrrreeeaaalllyyy fast...ken....

[BELLM]

Last week my college daughter took her car to a Juffy Lube, first time I ever let someone else do anything to her car, needed oil change, she is 2 hrs away. Also the last time they will ever get my money. Fortunately they only took her for $30 for 4 qts oil & a $3.00 filter (Funny, it always holds 5 when I change it). She told them her dad would do the rest, which even she knew she did not need. And the drain plug better not be screwed up next time I change it or I might try some of 30 Roadsters ideas.

[Mojo]

[ QUOTE ]
contact your local newspaper or tv news station. alot of times they like to "expose" con artist. they will look into the matter and interview people who have filed complaints with the BBB. which i hope you have also done. i work for a small newspaper in the press room and my wife is a reporter. reporters drive alot you may get lucky and get a reporter that has been screwed by this or another business like it. let them repair shop know your doing this they may refund your money to keep you quiet. bad press can kill a business rrrreeeaaalllyyy fast...ken....

[/ QUOTE ]


I agree... "News" programs love to "expose" places... it's ratings for them, and you can stick it to the offending place. Especially if they really catch them at something...

[Muttley]

I drive a tow truck so I have heard all the stories and know what shops to avoid. The best line I ever heard was from a guy who wanted me to take his S-10 to PEP BOYS, "They do a pretty good job, I've had it there 4 times this month." http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[bulletproof1]

i used to manage one of those chain muffler/brake shops, for the most part they didnt want you to take advantage of the customers ,but they did want you to sell as much add on stuff as you could .i had a girl about 19 come in crying because she was affriad to drive her car .she had taken it to a midas and they told her she needed $1300 worth of stuff on her 87 honda this was in 91.i did the brake job for $60 pads and rotors turned .sent her on her way .the next day her dad came to my shop and thanked me,and from that day on i got every job his family and friends needed done .more than made up for the $1240 i didnt steal from her in the first place.

[46mopar]

When I worked in a auto parts store I heard so many stores like this If it's a place that does brake or oil changes are the one how try to ripe you off just they think you don't know better. Most people who use them don't know anything about a car they are easy targets for the sales people. A company that I worked for used Jiffy Lube it took them 2 hour to put the drain plug back in the van I drove. They said to me it was the plug was to old to use any more(they stripped) I started laugh as that tried to hammer a new one in then they wanted to put a rubber plug in it I said why not put a self tapping plug in it the look on there faces was priceless it was done in 5 minutes.thank god I wasn't paying for it.

[Leon]

My mother-in-law called me scared to drive her car because a Midas shop told her the rear drums were cracked and the shoes were shot. She brought it to me and one drum hadn't even been removed, and both rear brakes looked fine with plenty of shoe left. I called the store and they said the mechanic confused her car with a different one that had the cracked drums....yea, right! They closed that store shortly afterward due to word getting around about that type of practice.

[burndup]

When they are lying in a puddle of piss in a back alley and they see the section of pipe rapidly coming down about to shatter their skull, they will REPENT!

Maybe...

Or perhaps they will encounter a freak accident with a tree-limb chipper...


karma can be a fucking bitch!

[OldCarPilot]

Hey thanks for all the support guys. Believe me I HATE taking my cars to places like this too, but I was heading to the round up the next morning and I just wanted to get it done. If nothing else this place has made me swear that I will NEVER take my car to a brake/muffler type shop EVER again.
I'll send a copy of the letter to the BBB too. Thanks.

[k9racer]

The one here in Huntsville Alabama closed down because of the local TV chanels telling of the unhappy customers.

[OldCarPilot]

btt... just once. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[MercMan1951]

I wish I knew now what I didn't have a clue about then...

I remember back some 20 years or so ago, when I didn't know anything about anything...my father took our family car (a 1978 Cougar XR-7) to a local mechanic that he trusted because they worked on all the "cop cars for the city"...

They told him his 5 year old car needed major engine work because he had been taking it in for oil changes to a place that "must have been using recycled oil"...and it "sludged up" his engine. This was a 302 with about 60,000 miles...and got routine freeway/city driving...they told him at the least it needed a "tappet adjustment" (Hydraulic lifters in '78 BTW)...and that he should have the engine rebuilt soon because it wouldn't last too much longer. Freaked out my Dad enough to sell the car.

Now, after owning MANY '77-79 Cougars and Thunderbirds myself since...and many 302s that all had high mileage, I have yet to have needed a "tappet adjustment." He He. In fact, nobody I have ever come in contact with has been able to tell me exactly how to "adjust" hydraulic lifters on a stock 302...

Funny, the guy that bought dad's car lived close by, and I would look for the car every time I was out. 2 years later it was still on the road...

Bottom line, unless you are somewhat educated in the ways of how a car works, or at least you project that image to people working on your car...they will most likely try to soak you for things you don't need...

That isn't to say there aren't any good shops out there, but I'm sure the bad ones outnumber the "good" ones 12:1...Sad.