Jiffy Lube: We got an oil change, then our car died Vernon Connecticut

On Wednesday, March 11, my daughter took her 2000 Toyota Camry to Jiffy Lube in Vernon, Connecticut and got an oil change. Two days later, on Friday, March 13, when it was being driven on I-91 by my other daughter, the car experienced "catastrophic engine failure" (those were the words of the mechanic at Lynch Toyota in Manchester). Catastrophic engine failure happens when there is no oil in the engine.

 

We got varying repair estimates, ranging from $3.200 to $4,000, with no guarantee that that was the final amount or that the car would run afterward. We decided just to get another used car, which cost us $5,000.

 

Went to a used car lot Saturday to look at cars and told the salesman what happened, and his response was "they may have taken the old oil out, but did they put any new oil in?" Another used-car dealer said flat out "they drained the engine and didn't refill it." A third used-car dealer said that Jiffy Lube mechanics are notorious for being inexperienced and being overwhelmed by the number of things that they have to do to each car, to the point that they often forget to do important things before releasing the cars back to their owners.

 

The car drove just fine until I took it there and now is good for nothing except a charitable donation, which we have done. Not only that, the breakdown, on I-91, terrified my daughter, who is only 18, and put her life in danger.

 

I called Jiffy Lube in Vernon on the evening of Monday, March 16, to discuss this. The manager on duty just stopped talking to me, sitting on the phone in total silence when I asked him questions.

 

I feel this is a case of criminal negligence on the part of the mechanic and Mr. Findlay, the “quality inspector” who supervised the oil change. (My daughter was one of the last customers of the day, which I think says a lot.)

 

This Jiffy Lube is endangering people’s lives and stealing money from their pockets. We are lucky that we could afford to buy another used car. If we had been a lower-income family, who had just one car and needed it to get to work, this incident would have pushed us into homelessness. You just can’t steal huge amounts of money from people and endanger the lives of your customers by “forgetting” to do something so essential.

 

Our claim to Jiffy Lube was rejected today because we donated the junk car to charity and were no longer the legal owners of the car, therefore Jiffy Lube no longer had any legal obligation to have serviced our car properly. I think this is outrageous.