Okay, Dick’s Amoco is changing its name, and in celebration it sent out coupons for various car things like an oil change for $19.95., including oil and filter I thought this sounded good, with certain qualifications.
F’rinstance, the Infiniti likes Mobil 1 synthetic oil, and I like to keep the Infiniti happy. (She also doesn’t like certain brands of gasoline, even if those brands claim to be premium.)
So I call up and ask if the $19.95 includes any kind of oil. Slight pause. Oh yes, definitely.
I clarify further. “The kind I use is Mobil 1–it’s more expensive. Usually I get charged more for it.”
“Right. No, it’s 19.95. Plus two dollars for environmental disposal.”
(Yeah. It says that on the coupon.)
So the Infiniti and the coupon and I go to Dick’s, and only I return.
Half an hour later I get a phone call. Not “your car is ready,” but, “the kind of oil you specified will run you a few dollars more.”
Hah! I expected that! I even asked about that! Specifically! But okay. “How much more?”
“Three-four dollars a quart, or so.”
“Okay.” I knew it. I knew I wasn’t gonna get an oil change for $19.95, plus tax, plus environmental disposal.
Then the car is ready. I go to get my car. I get the bill.
EIGHTY BUCKS!!???
Oil filter 1@4.95=4.95. Mobile 1 5@11.50=57.50. Labor 11.00. EPA charge 2.00. Subtotal 75.45 Tax 4.64.
And it SAYS, right there on the bill: Quotes: 1 06/19/03 01:03pm 22.76 to CICADA in person
Oil change special, my ass.
Okay, I know the stuff I ordered was more expensive. I believe what I authorized on the phone was “three-four dollars a quart” and those tell-tale, misleading words: “or so.” NOT, by god, practically FOUR TIMES THE ESTIMATE!!!
I can buy cans of Mobil 1 for $5.50, BTW. What if I’d bought and brought in my own oil? THEN would they change it for 19.95 (per coupon) or even 22.76 (per written quote)? This quote does not say 22.76 plus whatever the hell we want to add on here.
I mean, if the original 19.95 [sic] was supposed to include the oil, couldn’t I at least get some kind of discount on my expensive designer oil? Or at least not a 100% markup?
I mean–okay. I know if it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true. I know you can’t get something for nothing. But even Grease Monkey doesn’t charge me $80 for an oil change (although they generally manage to screw up something under the hood that requires me to spend $300 at the Infiniti dealer to put straight, so compared to that, Dick’s Amoco might have been a bargain, if only they’d just said: “Oh, sure. But for what you want, the 19.95 oil change will actually run around eighty bucks.”)
All right. I drive an Infiniti, I must be a Rockefeller, surely I won’t mind paying a little over the estimate. Maybe that’s what they’re thinking. Not true–anyway she’s ten years old!
But hey, I relied on their coupon and their desk person. Was that so wrong?
Dick’s Amoco, by the way, is on South Colorado Blvd. in Denver. That’s the OLD name, not the new name. (Also the name on the invoice.) I don’t know what the new name is, but when I find out I will do everything I can to besmirch it.
I know tha Amoco of which you speak. Savages all.
My advice is to never let anyone touch your engine for something that can be done by yourself.
I swore off ever taking my car even to get it’s tires changed unless I sit there and watch them for this reason: I had a '97 Firebird. I took it to a shop to get new tires put on it. I left the key for the locking lug nuts on the passenger seat. If any of you have ever seen the seats in a '97 Firebird, you’ll know that it has very deep bucket seats. I was told they should have all the work done in about 45 minutes to an hour. No problem.
I proceed to lunch with my hubby and return to the shop an hour and a half later. I see my baby in the garage with the rear hatch up, my spare tire pulled out and half my stereo system torn apart (!). I walk into the office and ask them WTF? The monkey behind the counter tells me that they have been unable to locate the key for the lug nuts, and then promptly tells me that they didn’t drive it anywhere but into the garage (!!). I inform them that I had left it in the passenger seat and it should be there. Meanwhile, my hubby comes in and tells me that he found the key between the passenger seat and the center console (!!!).
There are only two ways this could have occured. Either my hubby put it there so they would have to tear half my car apart, or someone took it for a spin around the block and pulled some major G’s around a corner.
I had them put my car back together and left without tires, took the car home and pulled the wheels off and took them to a different shop sans car.
Savages all.
Did you pay the crooks?
If you don’t want to or can’t change your own oil, you’re better off just going to AutoZone (or whatever your local auto parts shop is called), buying your filter and Mobil 1 there, and then going to a “Jiffy Lube” type place, hand them the filter and oil and have them do it. They’ll only charge you the labor and disposal fees - usually about $15-20. The “Jiffy Lube” type places are used to people doing this I’ve found. $11.50 per quart of oil :eek:
So, did you actually pay the 80 bucks?
Yes I paid the crooks. What else could I do, ask them to take their oil out and then give me back my car? (I considered it.) I wanted my car back.
But I’m figuring out who to complain to because this sucks. And, while there are laws in Colorado that say it’s okay (basically) to lie in the bargaining phase, once terms are put in writing that’s supposed to mean something.
I’m wondering though if I should have refused to pay that, and stood there and argued about it. That hasn’t ever gotten me anywhere. I seem to be more effective in print.
WOW!!! $80 for an oil change??? That’s rather outrageous to me.
I pay $22 for my change (using the “better” oil) and they fill up the wiper fluid, check the air pressure, vaccum out my floorboards and if it’s a Tuesday, they give me a long stem red rose to boot!
WOW!!! $80…geez.
You definitely should have been able to get them to back off the price. They gave you an estimate which was $19.95 plus $2 plus “three or four dollars a quart”. For 5 quarts of oil, that comes out to 42 bucks total at $4 extra per quart.
Yes, they said “3-4 dollars or so” but given how grossly inaccurate this was and how they’re obviously just trying to screw you, I’d have spoken to the manager and insisted that the estimate was for 3-4 dollars extra per quart. And I’d be sure to have this conversation in the tiny waiting room where the other customers could hear. “So when you tell me 3-4 dollars per quart, you really mean 12 dollars?” I’d also be certain to mention that the person over the phone initially told you there would be no extra charge for the Mobil 1 oil.
Two hundred eighty some views and only seven replies.
A direct result of a thread title with the words “Dick” and “sucker” in it but being about an oil change.
They quoted you a price and stated any type of oil was included. Then after they had the car they quoted you (sort of) another price. Then when you picked up the car they gave you a third price well in excess of any previous quote. This is FRAUD.
If you paid with a credit card, I suggest you call your credit card company and tell them the charge is unauthorized. Then when Dick or whoever from Amoco questions you about it, let them know that you will pay the price you were quoted and no more. Pay that amount by check marked PAID IN FULL in the memo line (no real legal teeth to the PIF notation but it can’t hurt) and never go there again. Report them to the Better Business Bureau and your state department of consumer affairs. See if you can get the local media interested. They’re always looking for juicy little stories like this.
No shit. I felt the same. Although, I have to say, I did get vacuumed, windows washed (somewhat smearily), fluids topped off. No rose, though.
Sorry to disappoint. Actual title of thread should probably be as stated at the top of this post.
Good advice. Unfortunately I paid by debit card. Bummer.
Okay, I AM a sucker. Instead of handing over the card I should have put up a fight. I mean, I had other plans for that money. But, in fact, I have reported them to the BBB, the state dept. of consumer affairs (well actually haven’t tracked down exactly who to contact there, but I intend to) and AAA. The local media is a good idea, except I’m embarrassed by being such a wuss as to just, um, whine a little, say "Gee! That’s quite a bit more than I was led to expect, and then hand over the plastic. "I am going to have to think faster and more assertively in the future. And maybe learn how to change my own oil. And definitely never go there again!!!
Um, as above, except in the first post there were too many l’s in actually.
I really hate to tell you this,but you were seriously taken, to the point you should call the BBB> I was a mechanic for 3 years, and can tell you the oil used in commercial places doing oil changes come from actual 55 gallon drums. This is why no matter the filter or type of oil, it’s always cheaper to take the car in than do it yourself.
Unless you can buy a big drum and preserve it long enough to do it yourself over a couple years.