Claim:   TV news investigation shows Jiffy Lube outlets charging customers for automotive maintenance work that was never done.

Status:   True.

Example:   [Collected via e-mail, 2006]

What I am looking for in particular is a news piece on the Jiffy Lube Scam (billed for work that was never done) that was forwarded to me, with the following link:

Origins:   The link embedded in the example above points to one segment of a three-part report on an investigation carried out by reporters Joel Grover and Matt Goldberg and the news team at television station NBC4 in Los Angeles in April 2006. The report was entitled "Is Your Mechanic Cheating?" and detailed the results obtained by the news team when they took cars to various Jiffy Lube locations around southern California. Through the use of surveillance, surreptitously marked parts, and tiny cameras hidden within the target cars, the team discovered that at the preponderance of Jiffy Lube locations where they left cars for routine maintenance (e.g., oil changes, fuel filter replacements, transmission flushes), they were charged for work that was never performed. They also encountered a good deal of obfuscation and prevarication from Jiffy Lube employees and officials whom they confronted about the unperformed work, including a district manager who flat-out lied to them about his identity:

So NBC4 tracked down the district manager, Steven Ayoub at a Glendale store.

"Are you Steve Ayoub?" Grover asked.

"No I'm not," he replied.

"Are you the district manager?" Grover asked.

"No I'm not. I have a vehicle here," he replied.

He denied his identity and told NBC4 he was a customer.

"Which one is your car?" Grover asked.

"That one," Ayoub replied.

"The red one?" Grover asked.

"Correct," Ayoub replied.

But that red car belonged to another customer.

"That's your red Camaro back there?" Grover asked another customer.

"Yeah. What's going on with it," the customer replied.

The district manager was lying to NBC4.

"I think you're the district manager," Grover said to Ayoub.

"I'd like for you to turn off the camera and I'd appreciate it," Ayoub replied.

The full report can be viewed at the following links:

• Part 1
• Part 2

Written summaries of this series can be read at the following links:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

Jiffy Lube responded to the NBC4 News investigation by promising to implement "sweeping changes":

Now, in an email, Jiffy Lube tells me that it's taking "agressive" steps to stop the fraud we uncovered.

A Burbank Jiffy Lube was closed to customers Tuesday and Wednesday because the company was retraining all its employees. Four other Los Angeles area stores were also closed — all stores that we caught on tape charging for services, like a transmission flush, that were never done.

After our investigation, dozens of customers (e-mailed to say they) wondered if the same thing had happened to them.

To ease those concerns, Jiffy Lube says it's installing video cameras in 31 Los Angeles area stores so customers can make sure repairs are really getting done.

Jiffy Lube has also terminated six employees we caught on tape, including one employee at the Encino store who sold us a new fuel filter but later admitted to the district manager that the work was not done.

Also gone is the district manager, Steven Ayoub, who denied his identity when I tried to question him.

But as reporter Joel Grover noted, "This is now the third time in three years that Jiffy Lube told us it was cleaning up its act." In 2004, Jiffy Lube was one of two large oil-lube chains that NBC4 caught pushing unnecessary maintenance on customers — and that was after they'd caught Jiffy Lube doing the very same thing the year before (after which Jiffy Lube had, of course, promised to "clean up their act").

MSN Money offers some tips on how to avoid auto-repair scams.

Additional information:  

Mechanic Investigation (NBC4)

Last updated:   30 August 2006

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