The 3 Biggest Scams We See In The Auto Repair Industry… - Vidnexa
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The 3 Biggest Scams We See In The Auto Repair Industry…

470.9K views • 4 days ago
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4 subscribers
100 Comments
@willyluciano9036
@@willyluciano9036 1 weeks ago
I do real alignments at my current shop. Caster, camber when its adjustable, everything. We do toe and goes after conversations with the customer as well if that&#39;s all they want to pay for, but that&#39;s the problem. These big corporate stores don&#39;t want to pay the techs for a real alignment because it&#39;s also very difficult to put a number on how much time it&#39;s gonna take the tech to do, there&#39;s too much guess and check involved. <br>&quot;well just pay them for the time it takes them&quot;<br>That doesn&#39;t work either because they&#39;re doing brakes jobs every day, they can get so good at it they&#39;re almost making time and a half on the job. Pay them for the time it takes is still paying them less than they normally make. Inherent problem with flat rate.<br>Im about to take a job with a Firestone because they can pay me better. I&#39;m not going to be doing Caster camber there unless it&#39;s at least averaged out for what time I normally make. But even then that&#39;s a pay cut if that alignment comes in on a day where all kinds of gravy work comes in. Maybe royalty has solved this, haven&#39;t finished the video.
@danieldunn7239
@@danieldunn7239 1 weeks ago
Great advice!! Scenario: Humming noise on a Nissan Murano as you accelerate. Went to two shops, both &quot;DIAGNOSED&quot; it as the dreaded CVT transmission, common with these vehicles. Neither guaranteed their diagnostics but I had gotten great service from them before so I thought I trusted them. I put a special scan tool on it myself and ran it for a couple weeks. No issues found. I finally took it to a Nissan dealer (Cringing all the way). They came back with the best bad news I had heard in a long time. Wheel bearings!! BOTH places had the car up on the rack, no &quot;issues&quot; found with the bearings (they said they checked). The dealership actually spun the car on the rack and diagnosed it correctly. The dealership was expensive for the bearing replacement but well worth the $ compared to jumping to a conclusion, they fixed the problem!
@davidrahfeldt
@@davidrahfeldt 2 weeks ago
honor and integrity ... CHARACTER ... are everything ... now I have no idea if you guys make bucks of significance off your channel ... hope you do ... but your clarity, dedication to setting a standard of competence, education, training, ethical and rational behavior for the industry ... sets an example for shops and consumers all over the world. My son ... who is a mechanic ... out here in the PNW (pacific northwest usa) has ... often commented ...that you are running the kind of shop that all shops should be ... so ... deep and sincere thanks for educating folks in the industry and consumers alike ... WELL DONE to you and all your staff ...
@Boot_185
@@Boot_185 2 weeks ago
I had shop tell me the only time the alignment will be off is if there is something broken. Which is false. I had shops that &quot;aligned&quot; and the steering wheel wasnt even straight saying it couldnt be done went do a different shop and bam was able to be aligned right.
@SerGay_punhetov
@@SerGay_punhetov 2 weeks ago
In my country if, for instance, a mechanic substitutes a good suspension arm, you will be charged for that.
@anthonymosiejczuk8945
@@anthonymosiejczuk8945 2 weeks ago
Have a C5 needed a directional headlight cruise control combo lever and it requires removal of the steering wheel well not so much I replaced it 12 years ago without removing the wheel after destroying a NAPA wheel puller (made in china) and looked at the switch and completed it without any frustration. A dealer would have or maybe not have removed the steering wheel and some serious money for just the cost of the part.
@mechanicdudevlog8788
@@mechanicdudevlog8788 2 weeks ago
Lifetime alignment = front and rear toe, thats it. Hahaha
@h8banks4
@@h8banks4 2 weeks ago
Look, I would rather pay more for a proper diagnosis and get it taken care of FIRST TIME.
@idahotrucker7017
@@idahotrucker7017 3 weeks ago
You forgot to mention the biggest scam of them all within the automotive repair industry: the price shops charge to work on stuff. Absolutely criminal! And the parts markup. I always advise people to learn how to work on their vehicles themselves and save lots of money.
@captainamerica_2026
@@captainamerica_2026 3 weeks ago
Pep Boys ruined my oil pan on 2000 Eclipse back in tge day by jacking it up
@rictaylor1746
@@rictaylor1746 3 weeks ago
I tell you the biggest scam in automotive industry! That is, going by a damn book on how many hours &quot; it calls for&quot;!!! Thats Bullsh*t! If the book calls for 3 hrs to do &quot; whatever&quot; and it only takes the tech 1 hr, thats what you should be charged. Literally charged by the &quot; working &quot; hr, not a damn book that tells you hours!!! That sh*t is dirty business.
@garyr7027
@@garyr7027 3 weeks ago
The biggest scam is the car makers with overengineered crap and junk aftermarket parts that force shops to change their ways to stay in business.
@cashonly2539
@@cashonly2539 3 weeks ago
Mandatory state inspection comes to mind when you mention scams
@cinnamonj5515
@@cinnamonj5515 3 weeks ago
more great info to have im my memory banks
@3ron
@@3ron 3 weeks ago
Hooking the computer up to your vehicle and charging $125-$150 is the biggest scam ever.
@KevinLaBelle-u7m
@@KevinLaBelle-u7m 3 weeks ago
The entire automobile industry is a huge scam
@yanglue611
@@yanglue611 3 weeks ago
As a mechanic who claims to be a friendly neighbor, I give out free diagnostic cause I know I can be wrong. I try not to work on other&#39;s vehicles other than my family&#39;s cause they will give me more work later in the future. I don&#39;t want deal with other people to say these cliche crap about their vehicle. When I&#39;m busy, the least they could do was call or text ahead of time. They don&#39;t care about my time. They only care for their own convenience. It annoys me like a mosquito buzzing around when you are trying to sleep. At the end of the day, everyone been there. Get ripped off by a shop and nothing has been &quot;fixed.&quot; I get it. That&#39;s why I try to help to a certain extent.
@AL1974
@@AL1974 3 weeks ago
Biggest scam is having to deal with you people yearly with inspections
@dennisgallahan7274
@@dennisgallahan7274 3 weeks ago
I would be curious on your opinion of this- I ve been going to the same mechanic for 20 years. But i went back recently to get my AC to be looked at. We agreed on the $500 repair . It stopped working before I got home. I took it back and paid another $400 it stopped working before I left his garage. I a loyal customer but now he wants to charge me again and I feel like either he doesn’t know AC repair or is guessing and charging me to guess
@dennisgallahan7274
@@dennisgallahan7274 3 weeks ago
Leared my lesson with “free” muffler. My original replacement went bad in 18 months. I went back for my “free” replacement and it was double what I originally paid - the reason was the muffler replaced was free but labor wasn’t. Never dealt with them again
@dallasbrat81
@@dallasbrat81 4 weeks ago
Isn’t lifetime alignments tie to tire sales. The biggest scam in auto industry is suspension work . I can go to 3 different shops and get quotes from 2,000-4000
@johnconsoli
@@johnconsoli 1 months ago
Is ROYALTY AUTO capable of software updates or programming any module?
@tommygun5vsrocky
@@tommygun5vsrocky 1 months ago
Dealership it&#39;s all free diagnostics. 😂 You only get paid when you replace the part. Hence why most dealerships say you need all these parts to try to make up for the non-paid diagnostics. 😂
@studzy4900
@@studzy4900 1 months ago
I went to a Firestone to get my tires replaced, they gave me a call saying I was due for an oil change (Keep in mind I&#39;d just had my oil changed not even 1k miles ago) and a transmission flush (I had the transmission replaced with a new one, not even 10k miles ago) and quoted me over 1k for it. Cases like this where they use high pressure sales tactics to sell work that doesn&#39;t need to be completed has made me lose trust in mechanics shops. Watching these videos helps me regain trust and learn that there are honest mechanics out in the world
@Mike_Oxlonng
@@Mike_Oxlonng 1 months ago
Biggest scam is manufacture recalls. I’m convinced that some of the recalls put out are solely to get business driven into the dealership.
@ChrisMoore-u1x
@@ChrisMoore-u1x 1 months ago
I used to go to a BIG national brand for tires and alignments. They offered free alignment checks. Every 5k miles it was out of alignment when I had a free check, and it was because I could feel it. I stopped going there and my alignments last now.
@microsuckrepair
@@microsuckrepair 1 months ago
Napa Auto Care in DFW. 05 Scion &quot;Misfire on Bank 1&quot; after 2 days. Disp the code to service manager with my code tool. $200 Daig Fee. Was told I needed: Mass Flow, O2, Throttle, &amp; Exhaust Manifold!?!?! I could smell the scam from work, So I took off to repair it myself. It passed the swap Coil Pack test. Failed the Injector swap test! I replaced the set. (No Codes!)
@liamwilson1058
@@liamwilson1058 1 months ago
I often wonder if the dealership is giving me full synthetic oil or something else. No way to tell without testing.
@JoeMcGrath-g4s
@@JoeMcGrath-g4s 1 months ago
Dealer diagnostics. Simple things like parking sensors can run 1,200 to fix. Mazda showed a nick on parking sensor, moved it from d/s to p/s then know it was bad charged , $200. For diagnostics, 200 for part, 700 for calibration. It&#39;s a parking sensor, not calibration, simply remove the bad one plug in the new one done. I do in 1 hour and the part I bought wholesale for $100.<br>I can&#39;t believe such dishonesty.
@mtestoni1
@@mtestoni1 1 months ago
Every automotive shop should be run like Royalty. No BS, just honest facts. We have been lucky with the dealerships that we have used. But Sherwood is correct some jobs aren’t completely truthful, some can’t handle the cost of the electronics to repair todays cars and some should not do anything but change the oil and even then you could be at risk
@dogburrito
@@dogburrito 1 months ago
Shops in Raleigh charged me for a wrong diagnosis. They declined to guarantee the repair would fix the issue. I was only out the $150 per bad diagnosis. Both shops were well recommended.
@JamesMCrutchley
@@JamesMCrutchley 1 months ago
I assume any auto shop I go to is going to try and maximize there profit. If I do not know anything about a car/truck I expect they will charge me thousands to change a light bulb. I doubt any mechanic I have ever met has any honesty in them and just want to screw me for every penny they can.
@michaelsiegmund1789
@@michaelsiegmund1789 1 months ago
Here in missouri we have vehicle inspections I had a shop I always used but they stopped doing inspections. I went to another shop to get my inspection and was told it failed because it needed ball joints. I smelt a rat because the vehicle had been in shop ( The first one) in the last month so I took car without the inspection to the other shop. I was told it was fine so went to another place that does inspections it passed with no trouble. I found out the shop only gets 6.00 of inspection fee to do the inspection and the shop that said car needed ball joints had a history of doing this so they could make money. Just a shame.
@bradbuffett2094
@@bradbuffett2094 1 months ago
The technician that upsells a power steering flush on every car in the bay
@trevorwilson194
@@trevorwilson194 1 months ago
No most places I’ve gone to are $100 -$150 for diagnosis. Not one shop I’ve ever gone to has told me why and showed me any kind of diagnostics or explanation why. I’m no mechanic I can change parts like most people. I’ve started to learn how to diagnose things myself now because I’ve learned just replacing parts doesn’t make you a mechanic being able to diagnose things properly is .most of the time if I’m bringing my vehicle to a shop. I make it super simple for them and tell them exactly what I want done. I also buy my own parts before I bring it in for the repairs. I usually already know what’s wrong and what needs to be fixed. If I don’t I will pay for only a diagnosis first then go from there. I’ve paid just for a diagnosis and brought it back to my place and changed the parts myself. not because I don’t want them to do it trust me I would rather that a lot of the time. Mostly because I’m broke and just can’t afford labor and parts and to not have my vehicle for a week until they get to it.
@richardskyking5151
@@richardskyking5151 1 months ago
Sorry to say, but many people don&#39;t have the aptitude (IQ) or desire to do a proper job. A good example is Sherwood&#39;s redo of a problem brake job that 2 other shops did in a careless way. One major problem was lazy or uneducated mechanics tightening lug nuts with high power impact wrenches. Sherwood found 100 ft-lb lug nuts tightened to about 250 ft-lbs! Yikes! When you get complex problems, those people become &quot;parts changers&quot;.
@hmccarty7189
@@hmccarty7189 1 months ago
Worked at g.m as a tech bout 30yrs master/world tech... i guaranteed my diag and my work i retired before the craziness started now i wont even buy a new car an the only thing the stealership is good for is programming find a good shop someone that takes care of your needs willing to show you if your knowledgeable enough write it down or print it from your scan tool definitely know this man has been around
@PeeedaPan
@@PeeedaPan 2 months ago
I always change my own blinker fluid but my local shop tried to upsell me on new rotors after changing the fluid again. The nerve!
@700NitroXpress
@@700NitroXpress 2 months ago
Charging hours of labor for jobs that take a couple minutes like replacing a cabin air filter. All labor should be added together instead of individually itemized, and the labor costs these days cost more than the parts.
@anthonymoore4096
@@anthonymoore4096 2 months ago
Please don&#39;t pretend like you don&#39;t charge for Diagnostics. It does get factored in and you do it as well so don&#39;t say you don&#39;t
@anthonygirardi5771
@@anthonygirardi5771 2 months ago
My dad always said &quot;If you think hiring a good mechanic costs too much money, try hiring a bad one.....&quot;
@frankring8243
@@frankring8243 2 months ago
I told a customer as a joke that the dilithium crystals in his warp drive needed replacing.
@evelynsahoe8896
@@evelynsahoe8896 2 months ago
Biggest scam I&#39;ve seen as a dealer tech is HVAC cleaning service and Nitrofill, Nitrofill is tacked on to a lot of brand new cars in the MSRP it&#39;s literally just nitrogen instead of atmospheric air for your tires. Yes technically it is better but unless you&#39;re racing you&#39;d never know, customers have been wising up though and a lot of dealers around me have ended their contracts with Nitrofill. HVAC service is still sold by a lot of dealers typically when there&#39;s a ton of leaves or debris in your cabin air filter/blower motor. It&#39;s this little bottle of snake oil they spray into your cowl and cabin filter that is supposed to clean it but it&#39;s just a strong air freshener 😂😂😂 Dropping the blower motor to remove debris is typically included in the service as well but probably half of the time it gets sold the tech doesn&#39;t actually need to drop the blower cause the filter stopped all the debris from getting into the blower.
@Morphine7Alpheus
@@Morphine7Alpheus 2 months ago
Progressive auto insurance - Emergency Road Service - I paid $330 dollars for a 63 mile tow,
@dirkdiggler8232
@@dirkdiggler8232 2 months ago
Garage near me does free vehicle health checks and problem diagnosis. Obviously if its a complex diagnosis its not gonna be free, but theyll let you know. They do check your suspension, brakes, fluids, all the typical things. They one of the most successful and best rated shops around. I had my car diagnosed free there and fixed it myself.
@MrShaun1578
@@MrShaun1578 2 months ago
Nitrogen filling tires dumbest shit I ever heard air is like 79% nitrogen
@brandontyler1754
@@brandontyler1754 2 months ago
The problem with having guaranteed diagnostics is like what just happened with my car. My car was a no start. I diagnosed it myself but say I had paid somebody to diagnose it. It would have been diagnosed as a bad starter. I get the starter put in and the car still isn&#39;t starting. Will you guarantee me that the starter was my issue and it turns out it wasn&#39;t the only issue now I don&#39;t have to pay for the starter job and I just have to pay for you to put in the fuel pump that it actually needs to get running
@Teddy_Miljard
@@Teddy_Miljard 2 months ago
In Finland, a certain automotive magazine conducted annual tests on various auto repair shops. Almost all of the repair shops cheated their customers by reporting problems that didn’t actually exist. The shops were also caught failing to inspect the cars properly, even though they charged for the service. The names of the scammers were published in the magazine, and the problem was solved. Then something strange happened. The car magazine continued its investigations and discovered that the same customer scams were continuing year after year. Fortunately, we have YouTube, which allows honest businesses in the auto industry to make their voices heard and compete successfully against the scammers.
@juana.2745
@@juana.2745 2 months ago
A perspective from a different industry. Whether it’s industrial, commercial or residential electrical troubleshooting, the customer called me because they have no idea what’s wrong–not ever. Finding a problem in premises wiring may shake out to be 6 hours of time finding the problem, 15 minutes to repair it and $6.50 in material. Any client ignorant enough to think that time spent fixing things is the only thing we should charge for is not the type of client you want. Anytime a customer asks for a “breakdown” on the price, I tell them: time finding, time fixing, material, operating cost, profit for myself, profit for the business.
@PatrickRoberts-tl3bw
@@PatrickRoberts-tl3bw 2 months ago
Scanning a computer and pulling DTC&#39;s is not diagnosing. I always explain to my customers that I would have to perform a pinpoint test which would not be covered as a free diagnostic test depending upon the actual time involved.
@user-od8yh8xs9u
@@user-od8yh8xs9u 2 months ago
The biggest scam I can think of is 13 hours labor for Toyota control arms.
@mycatsaliberal3848
@@mycatsaliberal3848 2 months ago
I did alignments for years when I worked at an independent shop. If your tires are wearing good and you don’t have a complaint I would never recommend just getting an alignment. If nothings wrong chances are you can just make it worse. You could have a shop do a front end inspection because that’s about the only times you’ll find bad ball joints
@shane250
@@shane250 2 months ago
Free diagnostics doesn&#39;t work like that in Europe (where flat rate is illegal). For example, you pay $150 for the diagnostics. If the labor for the repair is more than $150, you get a $150 discount. If the labor for the repair is less than $150, we just keep the $150 as the entire labor charge.
@944LS
@@944LS 2 months ago
&quot;Diagnostic is guaranteed&quot; that alone is why your shop has the reputation it does. I do majority of work on my vehicles. One time I was busy and took my wifes car in to get checked out for pulling really really hard to the right. I assumed it needed an alignment, so thats what I told the tech, but the &#39;customer issue&#39; was that its pulling hard to the right. They found a loose lower ball joint, they replaced it, and I pickup the car and it pulled hard to the right, the original issue was not fixed. They argued with me saying that &quot;they found other issues&quot; so thats why. It made zero sense.
@michaellow5448
@@michaellow5448 2 months ago
Stop flat rate, stop stealing from the tech, reward competence, incompetence is even worse than dishonesty
@loshie64
@@loshie64 2 months ago
I do warranty alignments, and I&#39;ll do them right. But let say honda odyssey rear and camber is to negative. Camber is not adjustable. So that tells me the spribfs are weak so we sell quick struts and it fixes the issue. That&#39;s why warranty alignments are important for the shop.
@davidc.3608
@@davidc.3608 2 months ago
Por que es usted honesto en su trabajo que Dios lo bendiga.
@ComaroKenny
@@ComaroKenny 2 months ago
Hi Sherwood, that&#39;s why I say everyone should have a basic scanner or get an auto parts store to scan your vehicle for free and note the codes down before taking it to a shop. That way if the check engine light comes back on and you have it checked again and you will know if it&#39;s the same code and if you take it back to the shop and they tell you it&#39;s something else, then you can tell them it&#39;s the same code that they were supposed to have fixed. Depending on how they respond you will have a better idea just how much you can trust them. I just had a shop that was planning on replacing the ABS control unit. I gave them a printout of the codes the vehicle had and it was a T/M code and some history codes. They were going to replace a very expensive part that had no active code. I caught it and stopped them from installing it. I would not have known or been able to argue it If I did not have the codes.
@charleyharkey8183
@@charleyharkey8183 2 months ago
Quick oil changes. Not giving the oil time enough to drain fully.
@s.gibson9329
@@s.gibson9329 2 months ago
How often does PM just not get done, like an oil change or a filter change with an oil change?<br>I&#39;ve thought about marking my oil filters to make sure they get changed but truth is, changed every other time is probably better anyway.
@johannjohann6523
@@johannjohann6523 3 months ago
After working in autoparts and autorepair the biggest unspoken
<br>way to do business is to charge people for items they do not need.
<br>There is no honor in that, and something I cannot do.
<br>I see my job to save people money and work towards getting repeat customers. Obviously, I&#39;m crazy. The Tip$ I get say otherwise.
@johannjohann6523
@@johannjohann6523 3 months ago
After working in autoparts and autorepair the biggest unspoken<br>way to do business is to charge people for items they do not need.<br>There is no honor in that, and something I cannot do.<br>I see my job to save people money and work towards getting repeat customers. Obviously, I&#39;m crazy.
@garyhutzler6395
@@garyhutzler6395 3 months ago
Another great video please keep up the great work
@garyhutzler6395
@@garyhutzler6395 3 months ago
Like you&#39;re saying leave time alignments are a joke. Along with lifetime free oil changes. They are used to get you back in the shop to try to find something else wrong with your car.
@billjohnson6656
@@billjohnson6656 3 months ago
I love it when they tell me they need to replace my cabin air filter… I tell him I just rolled down my windows
@russellborron5231
@@russellborron5231 3 months ago
The Worst Scam is Paying Top Dollar to get Professional repairs and Having the OJT guys damaging things for $15.00 an hour and not telling anyone. When I pay for the Best and the Beginner is Practicing on my Vehicle. Ass Beating Time.
@aa-tx7th
@@aa-tx7th 3 months ago
went in to firstone for an inspecrion<br><br>they quoted me, on my miata worth less than $4000, $4800 for an oil change, brakes/rotors, two tires, and some tie rods lmfao 🤣🤣🤣
@aa-tx7th
@@aa-tx7th 3 months ago
nah free alignments might as well be free inspections. i WANT them to find sh!t to fix. thats the whole point of inspections. i paid $10 for my last inspection.<br><br>i struggle to see how either the FREE alignment nor the FREE inspection are bad things. even if its a &quot;tow and go&quot; i can get a proper one if and only if something happens like i hit a pothole or something.
@onetruekeeper
@@onetruekeeper 3 months ago
If you own a car and the warranty has expired you are screwed.
@bobrad20
@@bobrad20 3 months ago
My mechanic charges me $150 for an inspection I have done before and after every track season. Takes him about an hour. This has saved me thousands by catching problems when they&#39;re small before they become big. It&#39;s money well spent.
@GarryPosty
@@GarryPosty 3 months ago
I have a shop that helps me out, they always show me what needs done before they even start to do it. Then shows me the old parts.
@KeatonWarner-gw4by
@@KeatonWarner-gw4by 3 months ago
Don&#39;t forget all fluids services. A lot of times they don&#39;t even do them all
@kevinz.9785
@@kevinz.9785 3 months ago
A shop near me has a deal where they bundle an oil change and tire rotation plus the diagnostics / inspection, that way they are giving you a discount over doing it for &quot;free&quot;. At least they are getting paid and giving me a service that I need.
@steamer97
@@steamer97 3 months ago
I moved to a small illinois town and had a leak at the oil filter angled adaptor (stock chev s-10, 2.8L). It was winter so I had him put in upper and lower radiator hoses nd a fresh coolant fill. No communication at all for days or maybe a week. I went there after hours and tried to start the car with my spare keys, starter frozen. He pressure washed the oily area and set the car out in the cold. I knew if I kept trying in short spurts the starter would de frost, it did and I &quot;swiped&quot; my car. Upon getting home I immediately had to go out and buy coolant to top it off. Cheapest hoses installed i don&#39;t like but, oh well. Now the oil filter adapter leaks more than it did! A month later I go to his shop, refresh his memory about who I am. He gives me the keys back and a bill. Ha! I calmly calculated the cost of the items he paid for to screw up my car. Paid him about half of his bill. He complained, &quot;it couldn&#39;t have been low, i filled it myself&quot;. I just shut him down and told him of his incompetent work and left. Next shop in town I told them all this and that I don&#39;t mind paying for REPAIRS. I just will not pay for failures. The owner mech and his employee laughed and said, &quot; yeah we have heard plenty about him and recently he cannot buy parts on credit at the parts store&#39;. My new mechanics are regular guys and we do plenty of business since I had four cars and trucks. They liked what I did too.
@steamer97
@@steamer97 3 months ago
Its been a while, 1970 chevrolet monza with the 263ci v8. I didn&#39;t replace the spark plugs myself because the proceedure required raising the entire engine for acess. Local dealer quoted me aproximately $30. &quot; gm sent us a special wrench thats in 3 pieces to remove them so we can do it for that&quot;. Next day, &quot;oh, sorry, your car isn&#39;t going to be ready until tomorrow. Next day I asked how it went ( I kinda knew, lol). He said that they pulled the engine and threw away that &quot;special&quot; 3 piece wrench. But he stood by the quoted price. Wow I thought! Another gm dealer&#39;s garage did an alignment on a car for me. Wife picked it up and I see extra charge for adjusting the control arm strut. I went in there and got that extra charge taken off. That adjustment was part of the alignment i explained, cant do it right (in my case) without it. 😮
@gman7949
@@gman7949 3 months ago
I&#39;m not sure if they do it in America but here in Australia they offer nitrogen inflation in tyres.
@user-hi3iy9me4e
@@user-hi3iy9me4e 3 months ago
Why would anyone do work for free? I mean come on. You get what you pay for.
@JustEnjoyingLife73
@@JustEnjoyingLife73 3 months ago
I got scammed by a transmission shop. Brought my 700R4 in for diagnosis. They charged $400 to drop the pan (in today&#39;s money that would be more like $700). Got a call that basically said that they needed authorization to go deeper because there&#39;s more damage. I paid the $400 and took it back. I&#39;m 99% sure they didn&#39;t even touch a bolt. At least I was smart enough to take my loss and run. I read about other horror stories where the shop kept charging more and more the deeper they got. It&#39;s so difficult to find a reliable transmission shop or any car repair shop for that matter. If anyone knows of any good shops in St. Louis, I&#39;d love to know.
@TitaniumDrillBit
@@TitaniumDrillBit 4 months ago
My 2 cents...<br>Check Engine Light comes on:<br>OMG!!<br>One thing to be aware of, and verify this with your specific vehicle first; <br>If it&#39;s Yellow, you can drive to a repair shop to have it looked at. <br>If it&#39;s RED, pull over immediately, turn it Off, and leave it OFF. Have it towed to a repair shop.
@timsabo4153
@@timsabo4153 4 months ago
I took a car in to have two tires replaced and was &quot;showed&quot; where the calipers wrre leaking. I paid over $800.00 (in the previous mellinium) to have the calipers, pads, and rotors replaced all around.<br>Took the car back 9 months later and they gave me the same story.<br>I asked the guy if the parts looked to old to use longer, and of course he said yes.<br>Then I told him they had replaced them less than a year ago. Of couse he was dumbfounded. <br>I liked them up until that point.
@backyardbasher
@@backyardbasher 4 months ago
Free quotes are not always a scam, I had a diesel ford transit once that had a bad knock from the engine, I contacted a local diesel specialised and he did a free quote and I think he spend about 30 mins looking at it and he said it was one or more injectors were not functioning correctly , I went to pick it up and he let me take it without doing any further work on it.
@Romans7_15.23
@@Romans7_15.23 4 months ago
Brakes. We can see what it all itemizes down to.. this amount for the parts but then a boatload on labor? The prices on the parts are usually legit like yeah that’s about what it costs to buy them.. then it balloons on labor. When you’ve done brakes before and know exactly the steps involved it just makes no sense to skyrocket the total like that.<br><br>Edit: It’s not a slight toward the tech working there having to actually do the job. I get that they get screwed a lot by the same people handing us the bill and if it’s not their shop they just work there. It’s aimed more at whoever makes the call to universally raise rates. Maybe it’s a never ending chain where the shops blame their bills going up so they have to raise stuff or go out of business. Then the places that raised their prices above the garage then blame something else that they pay more for so they have to charge the shops more or they are out of business. Keeps going back and back lol.
@mensaswede4028
@@mensaswede4028 4 months ago
My favorite scam is how the government requires a safety inspection, and the shop that performs the inspection is the same shop that charges you for the repair. No conflict of interest there, what could possibly go wrong?
@brianinthepark5429
@@brianinthepark5429 4 months ago
Paying for diagnostic to get to know things that aren&#39;t working and about to go bad is worth every penny. - Brian
@victorspinetti5145
@@victorspinetti5145 4 months ago
A problem here is that most vehicle owners/drivers do not know about the details of the electronics and mechanicals of their car. So they can be vulnerable to a slick and smiling service writer who tells them they need some work done. As long as the car starts and drives, does not make horrible loud noises, and there are no warning lights illuminated on the dash, most people think that the car is fine. <br>At the same time people are suspicious of shops being incompetent or rip offs since they have seen the things on the internet and TV that show shops that are dishonest. When I was in the repair business this was a difficult situation since it was necessary to overcome the anxiety of the customer and prove to them that you would do the work correctly and not exceed agreed estimates. <br>Also, there&#39;s the problem with &quot;free&quot; diagnosis that is partially mentioned in the video. I have heard from people, even some in the repair business, that if the customer approves repairs, after diagnosis, that there should be &quot;no charge&quot; for the diagnostic time. (and forget all the special equipment that would be needed). For example, it takes over two hours to find a &quot;check engine light&quot; problem that is caused by a faulty sensor and or its wiring. It takes 45 minutes to fix/replace the sensor. If the shop ignores the two hours of diagnostic time, as stated in the video, they will not be in business very long. Or they will have to make it up somewhere else by overcharging for other work.
@woodywoods697
@@woodywoods697 4 months ago
My wife called me up and said the shop said my car was a quart low and needed an oil change, wipers, serpentine belt and a new clutch because the car will not go in reverse. Told her I will be right there and left work. Lets see I told the service manager, pulled out my receipts from the glove box, shows my purchases of all the maintenance items. Oil change 4 weeks ago, ( the car would go to limp mode if it was a quart low)wipers last week and belts 6 months ago. Clutch? carpet was pushed under the clutch pedal. It was there to do an alignment after hitting a pothole not seen due to heavy rains.
@kevinmaxwell6610
@@kevinmaxwell6610 4 months ago
My favorite waiting for the light to go out magically is the leaking tires 🙃 they let it go so long it wears out the $80 tpms sensors and the $150 dollar bill just went to $250. I really can&#39;t prove that is what&#39;s happening but I&#39;ve noticed on my personal vehicle that is the first sensor that fails and is the one I kept inflating every other day 😁. I don&#39;t let the tires go anymore 👇 even if it&#39;s only 1.5 lbs in 2 days.
@jat-ov3dh
@@jat-ov3dh 4 months ago
Scam number 4, FB marketplace
@thomasarussellsr
@@thomasarussellsr 4 months ago
And some vehicles don&#39;t even have caster and camber adjustments from the factory. My 2009 Chevy HHR doesn&#39;t. Toe, yeah, but no caster option, and camber requires purchasing after market cammed bolts to replace a strut to steering knuckle bolts, whether it is the top or bottom bolt depends on which shop you ask. Some shops just say there is no camber adjustment.
@everettdehaven8645
@@everettdehaven8645 4 months ago
In fairness, I went to the dealership 6 months ago. I asked for the $99 diagnosis. They did the diagnosis and told me that I needed the whole rear suspension to be replaced. Only the trailing arm was damaged but in order to certify it, they had to replace the entire rear suspension because the other parts may have been damaged or warped. It was going to be $4500 and they felt horrible because it was right before Christmas. They even showed me a video of their inspection and then told me that they were going to wave the diagnosis fee. <br><br>I went home and ordered the $70 trailing arm, waited a week for it to arrive, and then installed it myself. It was awesome!!! I’m just saying that some diagnosis services truly are free. Heck they even gave me two cups of coffee. That place is definitely going out of business if they keep having customers like myself walk through the door.
@simi.steve57
@@simi.steve57 4 months ago
Just remember, nothing in life is free.
@EngineForensic
@@EngineForensic 4 months ago
Alot of mechanics like to scam and hustle! There is some genuine ones out there though!
@garysgarage3669
@@garysgarage3669 4 months ago
There is a big shop by me, that has free diagnostics and they just guess. Sometimes they guess right, but a lot of the time they guess wrong. My friend brought his car back 4 times and they just kept throwing parts at it. I went there a couple times and they were wrong every time.
@stealthnoodle3000
@@stealthnoodle3000 4 months ago
I was once sold on the &quot;Lifetime alignment&quot; deal. Immediately after paying, they clarified that it was valid unless I changed suspension parts anywhere else. I said &quot;you mean, literally the main reason I would get an alignment? Yeah, cancel that order - I don&#39;t want it.&quot; I won&#39;t say the name of the chain establishment, but it rhymes with &quot;Flame rock&quot;.
@willkizler5118
@@willkizler5118 4 months ago
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3OlcEwXKg0&amp;t=365">6:05</a> Most important part of the video
@_Obiwan
@@_Obiwan 4 months ago
I have been getting lifetime alignments from Firestone since the 1980s and it is checked and adjusted at each oil change. I have never had uneven wear on the tires which is the ultimate proof that the alignments were properly done.
@jamesmatheson4746
@@jamesmatheson4746 4 months ago
175 dollars an hour is a SCAM also.
@stephengreen3566
@@stephengreen3566 4 months ago
I put a mark on my oil filter before I have my oil changed in the winter at a shop. I do my own in the summer. One time I took it to a shop in January and before I left their shop I checked the filter and it was not changed! I went in and told them. I notified the Better Business Bureau and when they responded they said, &quot;We replaced the filter. We don&#39;t know why the customer thought we didn&#39;t.&quot; I let them know that I had put a mark on the filter and that it was a brand that they didn&#39;t even have available! I also know of other people that went to the same place and stated the same type of behavior. I now do ALL my own oil changes.
@steveschaffer9819
@@steveschaffer9819 4 months ago
One fairly frequent scam that rarely gets mentioned is when a customer brings in a car for something simple and inexpensive so they can blame the shop for some other expensive problem it has. For example, customer brings in a car with a grenaded AC compressor just for an oil change and when they pick it up claim that the AC was working fine before the oil change and that the shop grenaded that compressor. Or if a car’s been in an accident and is in for body repair and they claim that something that was busted years before the wreck was working fine before the accident.
@stefanfil4290
@@stefanfil4290 4 months ago
Love your expertise <br>My question is does a technician get annoyed when customer checks on progress on my vehicle?<br> Thank you <br> Steve