On July 17th, 2008, I had the opportunity to take my car in for an oil change. I usualy take it to the same place for an oil change, a different place for brakes,mufflers,etc. and my mechanic for more complicated repairs. My usual place for an oil change routinely mails out coupons for approximately 14.99 plus 2.00 disposal fee. Fair price,never had any trouble with them.
Today I didn't have a coupon. Went thru all the automotive coupons for the best price and came up with Meineke on Sante fe. Close to home, I'll just drop the car off and pick it up later in the day. Coupon good for an oil change, check balance of tires x 4, and rotate for the low price of 29.99. It was early in the day, about 0800.
I called Meineke to see if they were busy and had time to do this today. "Yes, it would be a couple of hours" not a problem. Drove up the street, checked in telling the Manager (Barry Jensen) that I had a coupon for 29.99 for oil change,check balance, and rotate, as he wrote up the work order, I proceded to tell him that the car had an alarm on it and he should leave the window down because the car would automatically lock on it's own. ( I wasn't sure how to shut the alarm off for repairs and no one else has ever had a problem with it.) I went on to tell him that the lock for the wheels was in the console to remove the tires, and he could get in touch with me at my home phone number. He wrote all of this down on the work order.
As I looked over the work order before signing it, I noticed that the final price was 46.35. ? ( how did he come up with that figure?) I looked up at him and questioned the bottom price, and reminded him that I had a coupon for 29.99. "OH!, I sorry, we have coupons out for 39.99 for the same thing." OK, I thought, he changed the price to 35.00 something. I couldn't really make out the 3 in 35.00, so I wrote over his three and initaled it above the 3. OK were good to go. Here's the keys, call me. My ride was here and I went home.
About two hours later, I noticed that Meineke had called and left a message on my answering machine. I returned the call and was told that the car had a oil gasket leak; NO, I had that fixed last december, your just seeing the oil under the car from the gasket leak. OK, Checked the tires, 1 tire needs to be balanced, OK, that will cost you 5.00 for each tire. Well then just rotate the tires. OK. Changed the oil in the car, the oil plug is stripped. How much is a ned one? 15.00, That seems kind of high, can you get the old one back in? "YES". OK, go ahead a put the old one back in and I'll deal with that later.
(You have to know that my garage looks like an automotive parts store, and we probalbly have two or three oil plugs laying around) Now, I don't know who did your brakes, but they didn't do any rotor work on the back brakes, how's the car feel when you brake? "smooth" I just had new back brakes put on a month or so ago. (Had the work done by the same people that have been servicing the car for the past 10 years, but kind of high on oil changes) The car would be done in about an hour. OK, Everythings going smooth right. WRONG!
An hour or so later, Meineke called again, and this time he left a message on my machine stating rudely, that he had to put an oil plug in that was twice the size that it was supposed to be, and he didn't know if it would ever come out of there, and that he couldn't quarantee that the car wouldn't leak oil!I calmly got on the phone, called Meineke, asked if my car was done? "Yes" and he proceded to tell me again how he had to put an oversized oil plug in and he couldn't quarantee that the car wouldn't leak oil. So, my car's done?"YES' We'll be up to pick it up in a little bit....
As we pulled up in the parking lot, I noticed that my car was parked in front of the main entrance, and the passenger side window was rolled down about 3/4 of the way. Now I have to mention that it was raining all morning, it's now about 1:00 pm, and you quessed it, my whole passeger side was wet. When we went in to retrieve the keys, My significant other mentioned to him that the passenger side window was rolled down. OH, I'll have to check that out. When he gave me the written bill, it was for 46.35.
At this point I just wanted my keys and wanted out of there. The significant other already walked out. I proceded to write a check for the amount of 46.35. When he gave me my keys back, I noticed a garage grime all over my LCD remote,UGGH. He also handed me my old oil plug which was stripped, but he told me over the phone that he could get it back in.I noticed that he had charged me 10.00 for an oil plug that I didn't agree to pay for, which increased the price to the original work order,which I thought was odd by itself. I asked him which tire needed to be balanced, and he never did answer me nor did he write it on the copy of the bill he gave me.
Now there's two or three people standing in line behind me, so of course he never came out to look at the window situation, but he did tell me that if I had any problems to bring the car back, RIGHT, WHATEVER!
I went to the car, rolled the window up, checked the door and the seat, of course it's WET. checked to make sure he gave me the lock to my wheels and got out of there!
As the day went on, I had some errands to run later in the day, when I pulled out of the drive way, you guessed it, about a quart of oil had leaked out of the car and onto the driveway. So, we'll just plan on coming back,pulling the oversized plug,(if we can get it out) drain the oil, find a plug that would fit, and refill with oil. Might as well just did it ourselves in the first place!
Ten thirty that night, out in the driveway by hallogen, we did what I had paid someone to do earlier in the day. The oil plug came out just fine, it wasn't twice the size it was supposed to be, but the plastic washer on it was warped and I'm sure the plug was a used one. Drained the oil, fixed the plug, replaced and refilled. Car hasn't leaked oil since!
Just when you thought we were done......
On and about August 7th, My car decided not to start one day turned out to be the crankshaft sensor, which we did ourselves, but that's another story. When my S.O. jacked up the car to remove one of the tires, he noticed that
the lug nut covers weren't there. He checked the rest of them,you guessed it again, all 20 lug nut covers were GONE! Talk about MAD!
When I called Meineke's, I asked to talk to the manager, Barry Jensen, (speaking) I told him that I had my car in about three weeks ago and when removing the tire today I noticed that not one or two but all twenty lug nut covers were missing from my car. He stated " Well, we can't be responsible for something like that, anyone could have taken them" ( I have owned this car for over ten years, lived in the same house, worked at the same place of employment and I have replaced TWO in this time, now all of a sudden I'm missing all twenty!)
I calmly said to him, " Well it doesn't seem that your responsible for anything up there" and my S.O., sitting across from me said "WHAT, NOT RESPONSIBLE?" I calmly informed the manager that he just p----- off my boyfriend, and he replied that if he wanted to come up there an discuss it........blah,blah,blah. I stated that he had to go next door to Advanced Auto and he would probalbly be there in just a minute. He began to tell me how busy he was and that he had to ..... I hung up! Now, worried that I might have to find a ride to bail the S.O. out of jail. But, NO.
Now I was willing to let it go because It just wasn't worth us getting into trouble to get back at them, until I went to replace the twenty lug nut covers.
Now here's the kicker, the coupon for the oil change and free tire rotatation cost me 46.35, When I went to replace the twenty lug nut covers at 1.99 each from O'Rielly's auto part store, it cost me 42.80
So my oil change cost me 89.15 at my friendly neighborhood MEINEKE! THAT'S SOME DEAL THAT GOT GOING, and THERE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING THEY DO!
I wrote a similar letter to the MEINEKE CORPORATION with no response.
I checked with the Better Business Bureau: 6 complaints about this store and they rated it as unsatisfactory. 3 have been responded to and the other three have had no response. Thanks for letting me share this with you, I hope It does exactly what I intended to do, Save You and eventually put him out of business.
Loffen
Olathe, Kansas
U.S.A.
Why file a report here? Ripoff Report is a permanent record! Other complaint sites copy our content then remove reports for money.
