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Fraud is just theft with a smile

AngliaGT

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When I was doing traffic control for the fire department,
the firefighters gave me a $50 gift card for a local oil change place.
When I finally got around to using it,I pulled up to the line of
vehicles there.They kept trying to sell me treatments/services,etc.
I kept telling them that "I only want an oil change - nothing else".
When I finally got out of there 45 minutes later,I swore that
I'd never go back.Oh,& it ended up costing me almost $6.00 out of
my own pocket.
 

TR3driver

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By no means the only way they rip you off.

Some years back, my (late) wife asked me to look at a friends car. Engine oil was black as tar (and smelled like it too). Oil filter caked with old dirt, even the air filter was filthy. Not even any finger prints on the air filter housing (which also had a thick layer of dirt on it). Looked like it hadn't been serviced in at least 50,000 miles.

The owner had a receipt from the local "quick oil change" place (a nationwide chain) dated less than 2 weeks before, for a complete service including not just oil, but filters and belts. Total bill over $100; and not a bit of the work had actually been done. She had been taking it to the same place every few months for years, and they had been ripping her off for years!

Unfortunately (for her), the engine was dying from long term neglect, and the car wasn't worth the cost to repair it. I told her to drive it until it wouldn't move, then junk it. Not good news for someone living on disability (and genuinely disabled).
 

DrEntropy

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Miami. An oil change "Quick-Rip" shop, 1978... "Ma'm, you need a brake job. This car could kill you in the next ten miles the way it is."

MGB with a complete brake job less than six months before, taken in for an oil change. Put on a lift, wire wheels off. This was Herself's B, I was in suburban Pittsburgh. She called me "collect" (remember those days?) from the 'phone in their waiting room. Asked her to put the manager on the 'phone, told him the car had new brakes less than 4K miles ago and if her car wasn't back on it's feet and out the door in ten minutes, he'd have Miami Dade Sheriffs and channel 2's "Fraud Squad" up his a** in thirty. That was one of the cause-and-effect incidents to see Her and I together to this day.
 
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Basil

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Miami. An oil change "Quick-Rip" shop, 1978... "Ma'm, you need a brake job. This car could kill you in the next ten miles the way it is."

MGB with a complete brake job less than six months before, taken in for an oil change. Put on a lift, wire wheels off. This was Herself's B, I was in suburban Pittsburgh. She called me "collect" (remember those days?) from the 'phone in their waiting room. Asked her to put the manager on the 'phone, told him the car had new brakes less than 4K miles ago and if her car wasn't back on it's feet and out the door in ten minutes, he'd have Miami Dade Sheriffs and channel 2's "Fraud Squad" up his a** in thirty. That was one of the cause-and-effect incidents to see Her and I together to this day.


Love a happy endig :cool-new:
 

pdplot

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We had such a fraudster here in Stamford some years ago. My cousin had a Mercedes diesel with 200-300 thousand miles and he was having it serviced there. Every bill was 400-500. I checked out the car and nothing was done that I could see. I looked him up online and the Net was loaded with stories about him - all bad. His wife divorced him, he sold out and someone else is running the gas station he worked out of.
 

Bayless

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$400-500 is the "standard" minimum bill for any Mercedes work. Yes, I have personal experience in that.
 

DrEntropy

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I do the work on Diesela... I'm underpaid!!! :jester:

...and I just did the front pads on Herself's Toyota this morning. What should I charge her?!? :devilgrin:
 
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Used to work with a lady who had a Saturn. She came to talk with me since she knew I did car stuff. Seems that over about 50k miles the engine had gotten a really bad oil burning problem, meaning put in a quart every day for about 30-40 miles driving distance. And ran really rough. She’d been taking it to the dealer for work and in that 50k, had about a dozen sets of wires and plugs put in which would help running for a short time. Plus 5k for new brakes, although looked to me like nothing but pads were replaced, and told her the old parts were already disposed of so she could bring them into me.

So I had her get the service manager on the phone since they were telling her it needed a service again
due to the plugs and wires wearing out. So I whispered, ask for a compression check, since I was sure what that would show. Service manager told her that wasn’t a real test, that you couldn’t test whatever compression was. I then said yes it is. So the story changed to it was something they stopped doing decades ago when engines became “modern”, and anyway you couldn’t do it without new plugs and wires and running them in. At that point told her they were ripping her off because she didn’t understand how the engine worked and to get the car and find another dealer. She did and they found one cylinder with no compression, one with noticeably low and two good. Ended up being an engine replacement deal since that particular model apparently had a reputation for engine issues.

So then told her to get the district office number and complain up the line, not only about the original dealer but to try to get the replacement done for little or no cost since it was a known issue and the selling dealership wasn’t up front with it. In the end she didn’t and paid the full cost because she didn’t want to make a fuss and maybe upset the seller. So she ended up with something around 14k in repairs for the car over 3 years ownership to that point. Personally I’d have raised a stink, but she was too nice for that.
 
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And just a few minutes after posting my last comment I got what seems to be the popular robo call right now telling me that social security has filed against ne for fraud and that my SSN has been suspended so I need to call the number provided to avoid arrest and prosecution. Third time in the last couple days. Aimed I assume at scaring those of us they classify as seniors, and it probably does to enough. Ain’t technology grand….
 

LarryK

Yoda
Gold
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Online
At the shops I worked at, I hated when someone came in with a story of what happened to their car. Always correcting problems that were not done right in the first place. My record stood with no comebacks for the same thing. Do it right, customer is happy and will be back. Be up front and actually talk to them so both of us understand what is going on. And, NO, HealyRick, there are still plenty of frauds out there. Be diligent.
 
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Helps for everyone to have at least a basic knowledge of how their cars work too. Those I've known who tend to be taken advantage of don't really understand how the various mechanical systems and part function.
 

AngliaGT

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I do the work on Diesela... I'm underpaid!!! :jester:

...and I just did the front pads on Herself's Toyota this morning. What should I charge her?!? :devilgrin:


You should pay her - since she HAS to put up with you........
 

DavidApp

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You as well?
Mine was used in South Texas and I should press "1" to speak with an officer. The voice sounds very robotic. We have had exactly the same call on the house phone and my wife's cell number.

David

And just a few minutes after posting my last comment I got what seems to be the popular robo call right now telling me that social security has filed against ne for fraud and that my SSN has been suspended so I need to call the number provided to avoid arrest and prosecution. Third time in the last couple days. Aimed I assume at scaring those of us they classify as seniors, and it probably does to enough. Ain’t technology grand….
 

waltesefalcon

Yoda
Silver
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I usually do all of my own work, bad habit I picked up as a kid, but sometimes life gets busy the car needs an oil change and I don't have the time. I found a quick change shop in Lawton about two miles from where I work and the first time I went in I asked to go into the pit. I was asked why and I just said I wanted to make sure everything was done. The guy said that he wasn't supposed to but he'd let me go down. I watched, he did a good job we visited a bit and $45 dollars later I was on my way. It's the only quick change shop I'd use around here because it is the only one that relented and let me watch. I've even taken my Caddy there to get greased and he let me come down to make sure he hit all the zerks since it has a ton and he wasn't sure he'd catch them all.
 

DrEntropy

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You as well?
Mine was used in South Texas and I should press "1" to speak with an officer. The voice sounds very robotic. We have had exactly the same call on the house phone and my wife's cell number.

David

Got that same call less than an hour ago. Robotic female voice, South Texas, press one... 949-777-1869 on the caller I.D.
 

DrEntropy

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On repairs.....visual appearance is a big part of it. You just slap new parts on, looks bad, customer doesn't trust the work.
Worked the line at a dealership for six months once.

Timing chain? Clean and paint the timing cover.
Water pump? Paint to match. Valve cover gaskets? Same.

One of the staunch Union pukes in the shop decided I was making them look bad, so while valve covers were drying on the back of my workbench (and I was over drawing new gaskets), he shook floor sweep all over the wet paint.



On the video.....seen that stuff before, but look close.
The two former employees had a beef over wages with the owner, and admitted to doing just what they were reporting.

Takes the focus away from the owner somewhat when employees did it, admitted it, then narc'd out the shop.

Stuff like that other shops should remember...figure out who the numbskulls were, and never hire them.


Then there are the clueless. Talk a good talk, seem to be able to perform the tasks required in the work order....but really have issues.

Worked with a guy once who could never get timing gears, chains, or belts right first time. Sometimes second.
Another who professed high skill levels in GM Auto Trans....did some kind of valve body performance kit from underneath...somehow got the check balls on the wrong side and broke the case.

The Mercedes, though.....front brakes. Turn the rotors, new pads, repack the bearings...and somehow one of the big metric bolts holding the caliper bracket to the spindle he lost.
Didn't say anything, nobody knew...stuck and SAE bolt in the hole....threads didn't even touch.

Came back on a hook with one wheel locked, caliper kicked out against the wheel.

Or the 195o Mercury Pickup for a clutch. Moron worker put the throwout bearing and hub in backwards. First I knew, he called me over because he couldn't adjust the clutch.
Showed him the error of his ways, he pulled the trans, put it back, still a problem...and he put it in backwards the second time.
Good thing he never tried to start it.

You can't watch them on every function.

Boy, I'm glad I am out of that.
 
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