This is hilarious and I had to share.

 

My friends wife takes his car to Midas because it was for lack of better words shaking a little when she drove it. She stops in the local Midas shop and they put the car up on the racks and sometime later come out and say her struts are bad. So she takes the car home tells her husband what they said and he calls them asked them about it. He decides to take the car over to them so they can show him just what is wrong. He noticed a little shake in it while he drove it.

 

He gets to Midas and the manager greets him at the door and says are you the guy with the car with the bad struts? My friend responds I am the husband of the lady you said had bad struts.

 

The manager said good I have the paper work all ready for you and the total is 1300 and change. Is the keys in it ? My friend says nope, they are in my hands and will be going with my way to another shop.

 

He takes the car to a shop down the road and they look at the car and says you have a rear tire with a lump in it.

 

He buys to new tires and the car is fine.

 

They also said the struts were just fine.

Edited February 25, 201016 yr by Birdsfan

Car salesmen, car shopworkers/managers, etc. Anything to do with cars you can count on dealing with scammers and actors.

My fiancee' ran into some shade-sters at the local Meineke. Her car died, due to busted vacuum hose and it was towed to Meineke. They charged her nearly $400 for replacing the vacuum hose AND installing a new battery. The car did not need a new battery at all, but since she told them to, "Just fix it," they did whatever they felt like they could get away with.

 

So, she gets the car and a couple months later takes it to get an oil change. They call her about 15 minutes after dropping it off for the oil change and said, "We need you to come see this."

 

There was a socket set, electrical tape, and an open pocket knife laying on the engine of the car. Obviously, this had been left there from Meineke.

My fiancee' ran into some shade-sters at the local Meineke. Her car died, due to busted vacuum hose and it was towed to Meineke. They charged her nearly $400 for replacing the vacuum hose AND installing a new battery. The car did not need a new battery at all, but since she told them to, "Just fix it," they did whatever they felt like they could get away with.

 

So, she gets the car and a couple months later takes it to get an oil change. They call her about 15 minutes after dropping it off for the oil change and said, "We need you to come see this."

 

There was a socket set, electrical tape, and an open pocket knife laying on the engine of the car. Obviously, this had been left there from Meineke.

 

My parents got a totally new engine from one of the national chains, I can't remember which one. The mechanic left the cap off after they changed the oil and it blew up.

I had Midas up in NKY tell me my calipers which are plastic are about to break this was almost 2 years ago. There is a kit to fix it that he would try first it would only be about $65 dollars, however, if they broke during that they would need to be replaced for around $400. Pepboys told me there was no indication they were going bad. I saw the fella in my gym about 6 months ago and told him that my calipers are still working fine a year and a half later, funny thing is i've never seen him back at the gym.

Kind of funny, but I stopped at Valvoline to get an oil change one night. Should have known better because they always try to sell me SOMETHING, whether it's wiper blades, various lighting, etc.

 

So the salesman comes in, tells me that my battery is bad and needs to be replaced. I told him that was impossible because I've never had a single problem out of that battery as it was just replaced one month prior. He said, "Oh, well we must have gotten a bad read on it then."

 

He then went on to try and sell me some kind of automatic transmission flush. Mentioned something about how Jeeps had like 3 of these things that needed flushed so it'd be roughly $80 per each thingy-majigger to get flushed. So, roughly $240, plus the oil change.

 

I stopped him there and and asked, "So, if I get you all to flush the transmission, how long will it take you guys to realize it's a manual transmission?"

 

He looked at me funny and said, "Well I feel like an idiot now."

Add Michel Tire Plus to the list. Please note. Get the "bad" parts that were replaced, they may come in very handy in a "dispute".

A valvoline oil change store told me I needed to have my wipers changed. This was after I replaced them 2 weeks before.

 

Rip off.

In the case of the Valvoline comments, whenever they tell me I need something I didn't come there to get, I just tell them no. It's their job to try and sell the tangent stuff, so it doesn't bother me that they do it. I just simply say no.

 

As to Midas, I had a terrible experience there years ago regarding brake calipers and I've never been back.

Stay with the family owned shops. You walk in they know your name and your vehicles and see you at church on Sunday. Less likely to rip you off.

Add Sears to that list.

Jeff Wyler told me a loud knocking sound was the result of me needing an entire new clutch for roughly $600. After paying them $65 to look at it I took it to a friend who, after 5 minutes and a Bud Light, told me I needed a $13 belt that was shredding and hitting the engine block when the fan was running.

 

Jeff Wyler's service manager said, "I'm guessing you want your $65 back." I told him of course, but he'll never have a chance at my business or anyone else I could convince.

National auto shops are no different from going to a big-box retailer in that there is intense pressure from above to up-sell you on everything they possibly can.

 

The preferred corporate method is squeezing every penny out of you the one time you are in the shop rather than doing it right and at a reasonable price so that you might continue to take your business there. And people wonder why I'm so anti-corporate.

National auto shops are no different from going to a big-box retailer in that there is intense pressure from above to up-sell you on everything they possibly can.

 

The preferred corporate method is squeezing every penny out of you the one time you are in the shop rather than doing it right and at a reasonable price so that you might continue to take your business there. And people wonder why I'm so anti-corporate.

 

They take advantage of the stupids who are willing to listen to them. I don't see the problem.

 

Good to see our BGP folks are smarter than that.

National auto shops are no different from going to a big-box retailer in that there is intense pressure from above to up-sell you on everything they possibly can.

 

The preferred corporate method is squeezing every penny out of you the one time you are in the shop rather than doing it right and at a reasonable price so that you might continue to take your business there. And people wonder why I'm so anti-corporate.

I have a local guy here in town and two back in my hometown. They get ALL of my business. Even oil changes...and I don't care if it is a little more.