Jiffy Lube Scam

I am writing this on behalf of my Mother who is also a widow with a limited income. She has been pretty much a devoted customer to a particular Jiffy Lube near our home for a very long time. Other than this Jiffy Lube for routine maintenance, the only other place that she allows to touch her car is the Dealer's Service Department.

Recently, while she was driving to work, she noticed an oil burning smell and saw the battery warning light engage on her dash. She pulled off the freeway, called me and my husband, knowing that we had AAA, and decided to drive it no further. When we looked under the hood to try to detect where the burning smell was coming from, and immediately noticed that the dipstick to her oil was not inserted all the way down, in fact, it was protruding upwards from where it should have been by about four inches. Also, there was oil all over the areas surrounding the dipstick and directly underneath it.(Where the alternator and firewalls and wires are located)

She asked that the car be taken to the Dealer to be fixed and informed us that the last persons to touch her car's engine was the aforesaid Jiffy Lube. At the dealer, the mechanic that looked at the engine agreed with us that oil had caused the alternator to malfunction and told us that because the dipstick was not inserted properly that under certain circumstances that the oil pressure rising would spill over the way it had in my mother's car.

After leaving the car at the dealer, we notified the Jiffy Lube as to what had happened. We not only were rebuffed by the assistant manager, who immediately told us he did not believe us and that such a thing could not happen, but he admitted not being able to help us in any way and told us that we would have to speak to the owner. My husband was told that he could come back the next morning at 10:00 to speak with the owner. The next morning my Mother and husband went to speak to the owner and the owner was not there. Instead the manager was and told my husband that the car should have been brought back directly to Jiffy Lube instead of the dealer. The thought had actually not made sense to us at the time because we've always seen Jiffy Lube as an "oil changes" place and not a complete automotive repair station. We told the manager our thoughts and he proceeded to tell us that he also did not think that an improperly inserted dipstick could allow oil to overflow in that fashion and cause the damage that it did.

After this we wrote an e-mail to corporate headquarters not knowing that the e-mail would simply be directed back to that same Jiffy Lube. We waited about 4 days to be contacted and there was no reply, phone call, nothing.

Again, my husband called, this time reaching the owner who by now had read the e-mail and was livid that we would try to go over his head. It was a very simple, straightforward e-mail describing the events and requesting action in the form of reimbursement for the cost of repairs. My husband then told him that we had tried to contact him unsuccessfully for almost a week and that is why we took the route of e-mail. He claimed he was unaware of our attempts and that he had been out of town. We then asked him why we were told that he would be in. It was a simple matter of his employees telling us we would have to wait for his return, which we would have been happy to oblige had we known. So, with these discrepencies under his belt already, we set up a meeting time, so he could see the dealer's report and look at the car and hopefully the matter would be resolved.

When my husband and Mother went to that Jiffy Lube the owner was there,..along with about 5 or 6 other people surrounding him. From the start he was unpleasant and in complete denial of any wrongdoing on their part. The weirdest part was that he pulled my husband and Mother aside from the Jiffy Lube and to the rear of the business to a neighboring business. (An automotive service station) There he proceeded to ask the opinion of the mechanic at work there if he felt that we were right. Needless to say he refused to pay and went through a big song and dance that actually even the neighboring mechanic was getting sick of.

We have already accepted the fact that my Mother will just have to swallow paying over $300 for a mistake that Jiffy Lube made, but what irks me is that from the beginning they insisted that we should have brought it back to them. This may be true but in our minds they could not have done the repair. They had suggested that the garage behind them would have done the repair.
I personally feel that somehow the two businesses are connected in some weird ring..I could be thinking this in my anger and frustration but I wish someone would check them out and catch them at their game.