Edwin Pawlowski wrote:

This was posted on another newsgroup, but since many of us here use these
(loosely to home repair) related services, I though many would be
interested.

From a recent Los Angeles TV station news segment:

http://www.nbc4.tv/video/9152183/detail.html



I'm not suprised one bit.

I generally use Jiffy Lube for oil changes, just to save the time of
having to drop my car off somewhere and return for it, but I never let
'em sell me anything BUT an oil/filter change. And, I watch through the
window and raise the hood before I leave to make sure the part of the
filter I can see looks brand new. (I suppose they could just wipe the
grime off the old one, huh?)

Jiffy Lube around here had an obnoxious practice of tacking on an extra
buck and a half to their advertised prices for "waste oil disposal".
That charge was described on a small notice on the front of the service
counter of a size which a lawyer would describe as, "One designed to
suppress the transfer of information."

That practice violated a state law here which says that places selling
motor oil in quantities greater than some limited amount (Like maybe the
few quarts a week that a "Store 24" would sell.) had to take used oil in
for disposal at no charge.

I expect that law was designed to encourage DIY oil changers to return
used oil to a merchant rather than just dumping it down a storm drain to
avoid paying a disposal charge.

After a couple of years of paying that fee, and just for ****s and
grins, I tossed a two gallon gan in my car when I went to Jiffy Lube for
an oil change and asked if they'd put my old oil in it. I told the guy
that I heated my garage/workshop with a waste oil burner in the winter.
They refused, saying it was against company policy to do that.

Somebody with more time to waste than me must have pushed the matter,
because last year SWMBO and I each received a $5 settlement coupon from
Jiffy Lube, which I'm sure was far less than the total of the $1.50
charges we'd paid several times a year for at least five years, but half
a loaf is better than none, isn't it?

Well, maybe not....

When I tried using the $5 settlement coupon on our next oil change my
local Jiffy Lube place didn't consider it the same as "cash". They
wouldn't let me use it in conjunction with the "$8 off your next oil
change" card they always send me a couple of months after I've been
there. It was "one or the other", so I used the "$8 off" one, tore up
the $5 settlement card, and dropped it in their wastebasket.

Just to find out whether this was maybe a local Jiffy Lube asshole
excersizing his "positional authority" I rang up their 800 number and
was told by a Jiffy Lube customer relations guy that the "terms of that
settlement" included permitting them to not accept those $5 settlement
cupons in conjunction with any other discounts. He did tell me that I
was far from the first irritated customer to call about that.

Some "settlement", huh? They're just another bunch of sharp cookies
selling Girl Scouts.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
"What do you expect from a pig but a grunt?"