Who here goes to.......

[67-400]

Valvoline Instant Oil Change? Or similar?

When my wife picked up her 01 Blazer 4x4, we took it to Valvoline HWY 100. I specifically said "Check for over-filled & under-filled fluids because this car is new to us." ie Transfer Case, front & rear diff, etc.

The manager says "Your trans fluid is dirty, transfer case is dirty & I recommend replacement of both. Furthermore, I recommend we replace your front & rear diff because of the mileage (90K) and you usually should do your transfer case along with the front & rear.

I said, no thanks but i'll just take an oil change today. The next week (just because its a new car to us) I went to replace all of that myself, to my suprise there was NOTHING in the front diff and a drop or two in the transfer case!!! How can it be dirty if there is nothing there? Did they even fu(kin check the fluids??

I'll never go there again.

Rant over, anybody else have any stories??

[67-400]

& for the record, for those asking why I would ever go there to begin with is because the wife used to have a VW Bug that was a pain in the a** to do an oil change on and my Lexus wasn't the funnest either. Now that we got different cars, i'll do them myself.

Valvoline always used to be good with my cars, until now.

[Reverend Cooper]

or maybe they checked it by pulling the drain plug,then didnt refill them lol

[94greenbandit]

Maybe they didn't realize they drained them hoping you would just say yes to changing them out

[Car Guy]

If everyone knew the real story on ‘instant’ service shops they would be out of business, but convenience sells in a big way.....:durr

[Reverend Cooper]

No shit,People say the dealer rips you off lol. We actually service the car and do what we say,not drain shit out and then not refill it,or refill it with the wrong stuff. It makes me laugh that people go to these places as its your 16 year old neighbor that cant get his dads lawnmower running thats working on your 20k-100k car or suv. Makes me chuckle.
Dealers make mistakes also so dont get all uptight,but we also fix them if it ours fault. we dont tell you we wouldnt do that so you have to get a lawyer involved lol

[pOrk]

Call Corporate and share your experience, not doing so you are allowing that shop to fuck other people. I had a similar experience at a similar establishment in Racine when Lisa lived down there. They tried to sell me 4 different fluid changes, 3 of which I didn't need when I checked them next time Lisa was up here in Tosa.

[67-400]

I once saw the guy @ Valvoline try to sell the "Fuel system cleaner" to a young chick. After she agreed, he said "Now your gonna have to get on it a bit to open it up, you might see some white smoke out of the tailpipes but that just means its working." Haha, it was like -15 deg outside, of course its going to have white smoke!! :rolf oh well.

[67-400]

Call Corporate and share your experience, not doing so you are allowing that shop to fuck other people. I had a similar experience at a similar establishment in Racine when Lisa lived down there. They tried to sell me 4 different fluid changes, 3 of which I didn't need when I checked them next time Lisa was up here in Tosa.

Did that, they said they are sending me a "Free oil change" in the mail, good at any service center. Its been about 3 weeks now, haven't seen anything.

[pOrk]

Did they say anything about looking into the issue, or just trying to pay off with a free oil change? Sucks that people that work at these places don't take pride in their work

[93 Coupe]

Having used to work at an oil change in high school with some of my friends, you would shit if you new half the things that happened to customers cars that they didnt find out about. The people there have no training and cars gettin started with no oil was a common occurence, the only way the employees noticed was when the car started to whine and rattle real bad.

[Car Guy]

The people there have no training and cars gettin started with no oil was a common occurence, the only way the employees noticed was when the car started to whine and rattle real bad.

There is your sign.....:rolf :rolf :rolf

[67-400]

Did they say anything about looking into the issue, or just trying to pay off with a free oil change? Sucks that people that work at these places don't take pride in their work

They gave me the excuse that the guy who worked on it "Was new and in training." As he recognized me as a repeat customer, he expressed his sincere apologies and that the kid has been talked to about it. I don't buy it, but anyways I guess i'm done w/them. Even if I did receive the freebee, I wouldn't take advantage of it anyways. They burned me with that, now I'm burning them with the word-of-mouth damage to their business on HWY 100 & Oklahoma.

[97z2801ss]

I used to work at one when I was in High School too, one person is a hot chick or a smooth talker to sell stuff to people who dont know, Ive seen so many dumb things happen at the valvoline I worked at.

[hrsp]

If everyone knew the real story on ‘instant’ service shops they would be out of business, but convenience sells in a big way.....:durr

Such as what?

[88Nightmare]

last winter when it was super cold out and I didnt feel like layin on the ground to change the oil in my silverado, I took it to my local pennzoil (mistake #1) I watched the tech spill oil all over my valve cover, then proceed to wash it off with washer fluid. did that right infront of me. Not horrible, however I wasn't too happy about it.

[TransAm12sec]

It's just like any other business. Insurance makes more money off of selling extra policies, dealerships make money off of extra pieces such as coatings or a warranty, the riverside makes money off of fees after tickets. The only business that don't practice that are craigslist and non profit organizations.

I was at a drive in/out oil change place in Glendale, and they wiped the power steering fluid and tranny fluid on a sheet of paper to show me.

[88Nightmare]

speaking of which... how the hell does craigslist even operate? I never see ads.... posting and responding to posts doesn't cost a dime....

[TransAm12sec]

"So how exactly does Craigslist make money?

By charging $25 for job postings in six of its largest U.S. markets and $75 for job listings in San Francisco and by assessing a $10 fee for brokered apartment listings in New York City, Buckmaster replied."

http://www.forbes.com/2006/12/08/newspaper-classifield-online-tech_cx-lh_1211craigslist.html

[88Nightmare]

hmm... didn't know that

[xxsn0blindxx]

Yeah we took my wife's car in for an oil change a couple years ago because it was freezing cold outside and we were about to take a road trip. I brought it into F&F over by Brookfield Square and they broke a bunch of the belly pan bolts and didn't tell us about it. We didn't notice until it was flopping around and hitting the ground because only half the bolts were holding it on. I tried to secure it with some zip ties temporarily, but it ended up flying off at some point. It just makes me mad that they wouldn't even bother to inform me that some bolts snapped. I would have been totally understanding and told them to just leave it off and I'd replace them myself if they had just been upfront about it.

[Waver]

Well none of this is surprising. A while ago, I had an aquaintence who worked at the jiffy lube in hales corners. For what ever reason they put him incharge of writing things, would sell services to customers and not enter it in the computer, keep the money, and tell the customer that the printer was proken so there would be no copy of the tranaction. Then he would act like he was doing the service. 9 times out of 10 the service wasnt needed.
When I was at richlonns on s 76th and at firestone on s 76th we would always brong the customer out when the car was in the air or still on the hoist and show the customer what was wrong, so that they knew that the repair was needed.
Dealerships tend to be a safer bet for servicing your car since they have more to lose than the quick lube places or some of the indipendant service centers......If I had to rank the order I would take my car to for simple service if I didnt wnat to do it (or major service for that matter) it would be as follows from first stop to last resort:
1) My self
2) dealership
3) Major service center chain like good year/firestone ect
4) indipendant service garage
5) quick lube