mcflyguy24

Okay guys the story goes like this:

I was in Phoenixville, Pa to pay a speeding ticket (no points thank god!) and while I was there I drove by Tolsdorf Oil Lube Express and saw a sign near the road about a special they were running. It was an oil change, tire rotation, inspection, and emissions for $99.99. I upgraded the oil change to full synthethic so I cost me a little bit more around $120.

So the service takes about an hour and some change, so I decide to walk down the street and do some shopping while I waited. I get back and find that my tires were not rotated, one of my tires is newer but of the same type on the rear axle, and it was on that axle when I dropped my car off prior to service!! Anyhow, I didn't notice this until I got home, so I called the manager and he tells me they rotated my tires based on tread depth...WRONG! I measured my tread depth using my own tread depth indicator which read 4/32" on the fronts and 6/32" on the rear tires. This just the beginning...

Then I also noticed they only inspected my car for 6 months. Back prior to 2005 this would've been ok, since inspection/emissions had to match your registration. I called them again and informed them of this, and the manger told me I was wrong and that I should never bring my car back there again if I didn't trust their work.
Well I just looked up the motor vehicle code for my state regarding this and also called PennDOT and they told me they were wrong and said I could file a complaint if they don't fix the stickers. I have a printout of the updated law from PennDOT's website I'll be bringing them when I stop back today.

Now the fun really begins: THEY DIDN"T EVEN CHANGE MY OIL!!! I decided after discussing things with the manager I would check one other thing on my car, the oil filter. I changed my own oil approx 5k miles ago and used a K&N oil filter. Guess what? IT WAS STILL ON THE CAR!!! I then checked the trunk for my wheel lock key..IT'S MISSING!!! I don't understand why they didn't just rotate the tires when they had the wheels off during inspection. IDIOTS!

So instead of calling the shop directly I looked them up on-line and left a message for the owner about my experience at his facility. I am still awaiting his call back and I hope he will remedy this situation properly. I would like a full refund and a new correctly dated inspection sticker. I would also like to personally witness them perform an oil change and tire rotation on my car right in front of me.

So just a heads up to anyone living in the western suburbs of Philly DO NOT GO TO ANY OF THEIR LOCATIONS FOR SERVICE! They will scam you!! If the owner Chris Tolsdorf (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/2/884/788) doesn't remedy this situation to my satisfaction I will be contacting the PA dept. of consumer affairs and reporting the inspection sticker scam to the county quality assurance officer for inspection stations.

Footnotes:
1. Took my car in for oil change, tire rotation, inspection, and emissions.
2. The work wasn't performed at all, and inspection sticker has wrong date.
3. Wheel lock key is missing.
4. Contacted the owner after management not properly handling my complaints.
5. Contacted PennDOT about the wrong stickers on my car.
6. I'm awaiting a response from the owner of the business.
7. I will be contacting the PA Dept. of consumer affairs and PennDOT to file a complaint if he fails to remedy the situation to my satisfaction.

Razzi

ouch man, a tv station here in st paul did one of those undercover things too with hidden cameras installed in under the hood. brought it into the shop and the same thing happened. hope you get your full share and they get some nice fines

mcflyguy24

I'm still waiting for the owner to call me back. I've spoken with his secretary twice so far this morning. I'll call again in a few hours and threaten to report them to consumer affairs and the Better Business Bureau if he doesn't return my calls. I've been nothing but calm in handling this thus far.

mcflyguy24

Mods: If necessary feel free to move this to car talk.

01tl4tl

You belong to azine and thought a zippylube place was ok for your TL????-
please have the doctor check you out right away

Dont hold your breath waiting for callback after you were already told to take a hike
Threats do nothing
Go in person and retrieve your wheel lock- plain and simple
Then make your complaints to the authorities and the local tv problem solvers.
Those kids make minimum wage and cant be expected to do more than hang out at work.
Care about your car? not a chance

I had a home window installer DARE me to call the authorities on their screwup,
turns out they lived in a glass house after all!!!!!

fsttyms1

Also i hope you paid with a CC. I would dispute the charge if you did.
I would also talk to the secretary again and tell her that if you dont hear back from the owner today you will be contacting your lawyer for fraudulent work preformed by their shop

ChrisQ1980

This is why I am so happy that I have a trustworthy dealer where my friend is the head service writer. Not only is t he work performed, and performed correctly it's at a discounted price.

These chain stores are a real rip off, and my suggestion is if you can't do the work yourself, or if it's just too cold right now; find a trustworthy Acura dealership and have them do the work for you. It might cost a little more but at least all the work is being done, and done correctly.

Good luck, and I hope these bastards end up getting what they deserve.

fsttyms1

^ This is why i do ALL my own work. If you ever bring a car in for stuff now days you should really mark the parts in question that they will be replacing or touching. Sad one has to resort to it but its needed.

mcflyguy24

I paid cash.

Anyhow, I got a hold of the owner and he is going to make sure I get the tires rotated and get an actual oil change. They are holding my wheel lock key for me. I also contacted the QA officer for my county regarding the inspection sticker discrepency and he is going to make sure they give me the correct stickers as well. He said the shop was just recently certified to perform inspections and emissions. The owner was actually really professional about things unlike the retarded service managers he hired. I'm still never going to take my car to one of those places ever again for anything. I'll be going to the independent Honda/Acura specialist in Norristown from here on out from now!

Sidenote:
I usually change my own oil and rotate my own tires in my little brothers garage, he wasn't home that day and I needed to get my car inspected that is why I went there for service.

mcflyguy24

HAHAHA! I was thinking about doing just that before I pulled in there. I now realize I def. should have.

dwest1023

You are waiting for them to call you?? I would be there pounding on the door. There is noway I would be waiting for a call.

loojoohnnyl

where in norristown do u live? i used to live in Norristown near marshall street middle school. norristown is ghetto now lol

01tl4tl

NOTE on tire position
You want the best tread tires on the REAR of the car
Bad tires in back make it easy to spin the car out, even fwd cars

alphason'sac

I had a similar situation with a quick lube place. I say that if you love your car or even just want to drive it longer, drive right past ALL quick lube joints. In most cases, they aren't even any cheaper than the dealership. They cracked an oil pan on my 1st Gen and I made calls and went by almost jacking up the manager. By the time we realized that this was hopeless and went to file suit, the company went out of business (read: changed the name and ownership) My suggestion to you is to not let up. It sounds like you have been pretty persistent. I hope that they make it right.

acutee

Sorry to hear about your problem. I don't know how they think they could do business like that.

Sometimes I don't mind paying to get the job done to save time, but it ends up costing you more headache, more time, stress, and more money to fix their problems. You'd rather don't do anything and it will probably lasts longer then having them doing something to the car.

mcflyguy24

Update:
After speaking to the owner they agreed to rotate the tires and fix my inspection sticker issue. I had to call the Quality Assurance agent for state inspections and emissions first though and then after the owner spoke to him, the owner called me back to tell me they would fix everything. I should have asked for a refund due to all the time and driving back and forth I had to do, but I didn't feel like bothering with it. Oh, and I got my wheel lock key back as well.

However, from now on I vow to change my own oil and rotate my own tires. I was just trying to save myself some time by going there since the price for all 4 services seemed decent. At any rate, this whole ordeal took up way too much of my time, effort, and undue stress. Never again.

salvo24

What happened with the oil change? Did they do it properly.....you mentioned the filter was not replaced.

AcuraBuddy

Ouch, talk about annoying and time wasted dealing with a holes. They should refund you all your money or atleast some of it for such a shady job.

mcflyguy24

I thought I put that in there...yeah they did the oil change too and the tech got written up. Car now has a penzoil filter on it and the oil is a very light color.

Chris.Tolsdorf

The manager at this location informed me of this post today, December 19th, 2007 and I thought that I would reply to the comments made here. As the owner of Tolsdorf Oil Lube Express I hate to see anyone come away with a bad feeling about our service. We have been in business for 22 years as a quick lube, my dad started the business, and we have always prided ourselves on quality service. It is unfortunate that this thread was started before the situation was resolved but such is the world of the internet I guess.

"1. Took my car in for oil change, tire rotation, inspection, and emissions."

The is true.

"2. The work wasn't performed at all, and inspection sticker has wrong date."

All of the work was performed. The customer never mentioned to me or to my manager that the oil was not changed or that the filter was not new. This post is the first I am hearing that complaint. If he had mentioned this at the time that we spoke I could have easily checked our video camera system at the store. All 4 of our locations have 11 cameras installed throughout the store and all services are videotaped. At no time after the original service did we ever redo the oil change.

The tire rotation was done on one side, but not the other because the tire tread depths on that side were already in the correct place. Rotating the tires on that side would have been a disservice to the customer. That is why two wheels were still in the same place. When the customer returned to the store we offered to rotate the tires to where ever he wanted them. He declined.

The inspection dates were wrong. This was our mistake. As the customer said, we just started doing inspections at this location. My manager has been in the automotive field for over thirty years, but it has been a while since he has done inspections. His license is current for inspections, but he had to take a 4 day course for emissions. At no time during that course did they mention the new law in effect as of 2005. My manager was operating under the rules as he remembered them, and those rules have changed. As soon as we discovered the problem (because the customer told us about it, as he should have) we told the customer to come in and we changed the stickers to the correct date.

"3. Wheel lock key is missing."

An honest mistake. The manager called the customer soon after he left to tell him that he forgot to put the wheel lock back in the car and that he would mail it to him. We ended up keeping until the customer came back, at his request.

"4. Contacted the owner after management not properly handling my complaints.
5. Contacted PennDOT about the wrong stickers on my car.
6. I'm awaiting a response from the owner of the business.
7. I will be contacting the PA Dept. of consumer affairs and PennDOT to file a complaint if he fails to remedy the situation to my satisfaction."

This happened on a Friday or Saturday, I can't remember. The customer spoke with my manager on that day, and I called him on Monday. It was taken care of as quickly as possible.

All the work was performed with the best interest of the customer in mind. The oil change was done, there was no attempt to scam. We did, however, make a mistake on the inspection dates. The customer brought it to our attention, we fixed it and that is all there should have been to it.

Like all businesses, there are good and bad ones. We are a very good quick lube, I make sure of that. If you ever need some help finding a good quick lube go to www.aoca.org which is the website for the Automotive Oil Change Association.

Hopefully people reading this thread will read the whole thing.

Sincerely,

Chris Tolsdorf

philly fresh

than that should have been explained to the customer not just left that way and just assumed he knew you had best intentions. if i paid for something and the work was not performed to what is normally expected than i would be mad. i dont need to return to the the quick lube to pick up my wheel key. im sure your place does good work but it only takes one bad complaint to ruin everything. no one ever forgets the fck ups. people dont need headaches but props for making everything right i guess

sbuswell

what about how the manager responded to the OP's complaints in the first place. A good service manager would do whatever it takes to make the customer happy as long as the customers complaints weren't obviously dishonest.

I agree with fsstyms1 I do all the work on my car and my wife's car myself as it's cheaper, I get a hands on understanding on what's right and wrong with my cars and I don;t have to deal with situations like this. I even went as far as to change my rotors and pads in 20 degree weather in my garage.

ChrisQ1980

That seems pretty odd the the OP would state that he saw the same K&N filter on his car "after" the oil change? Do you use K&N filters at your location?

mcflyguy24

^^They use Pennzoil filters and I think I may have also last time I changed my oil before visiting their shop. For some reason I thought I used a K&N, but when I think back at it the filter was yellow so I'm pretty sure it was Pennzoil. I know it looked like the same filter my little brother and I put on it last time I changed the oil and not one of the ones you normally see after taking your car to an oil change place (plain white) which is what I was expecting to see on the car. After I talked to the service manager I found out about that, but since I was already pretty pissed off at the time I never thought to say anything about it on here since the inspection and IMO the tire rotation were not performed correctly. I probably should of, but was embarrassed since I already posted about it.

I do want to say this about Chris Tolsdorf, he did do a good job of remedying the situation and I no longer have anything bad to say about his business. He made me aware of the fact that they have cameras in all the bays so that if someone does screw up he could catch it and I thought that was very honest for an oil change facility. I was not aware of this prior to my phone conversation with him that monday. At any rate, the inspection stickers were adjusted to the proper date and I have my wheel locks. I never would have thought he would show up on here either.

Aman

1. common sense dictates that you change the oil filter whenever you change the oil. The customer does not have an obligation to notify you of that fact, the shop has an obligation to do its job. when you go to have your oil changed, you should not have to ckeck if the oil is changed, such is the obligation of the shop that the oil be changed.

2. Dude asks you to do something, you do it. not answering to the request of a customer is a disservice to said customer.

proudacuraownr

I would contact the better business bureau. you can go to www.bbb.org. When I go to get my oil changed at wal mart. I stand in the garage to make sure they do what I pay for. Theres an area where customers can stand and watch.

proudacuraownr

My mom who is a police officer just told me that you can contact the bureau of automotive repair. The can actually shut down the shop. Good luck with all of this

Chris.Tolsdorf

This will be the last time I post here. Please read the customer's response to my post. He says that he is statisfied with the end result, and that is all I can ask for. I appreciate him writing that repsonse.

We fixed the sticker problem and will never have that problem again. We offered to rotate the tires to his satisfaction, he declined, and the key would have been mailed to the customer for his convenience, but was kept at the shop since he had to come back anyway. The oil filter was changed, the customer seems to concur in his post, our filters are yellow Pennzoil filters.

The manager did talk to the customer the same day the service was performed, but in this case a third party was needed, me, because my manager was not aware of the 2005 sticker rule. We talked, everything I wrote in my post was communicated to the customer, we worked on the issues and fixed the mistake. That is how it supposed to work when a mistake is made. We aren't perfect, but we are pretty darn good.

Thanks for your time.

Chris Tolsdorf

mcflyguy24

Guys, please read my response to Chris Tolsdorf's post on here. I am satisfied with the outcome of the situation. I thought they used the same filters (blank) I was accustomed to seeing on my car when I actually do take it in for an oil change. Lately I've been using either Pennzoil or K&N filters. I usually change my oil in my little brothers garage and get my products from Pepboys or Autozone. When I saw the filter on my car I assumed they didn't change the oil. I was ready to have an oil sample collected from car and sent to a lab for testing at the time (that's how wary I can be about things sometimes). I didn't say anything about it to them, because I was not completely sure. I am actually glad they use quality products at their facilities.

To Chris: I'm glad we were able to remedy the situation and would still recommend your shop to people. I probably should have waited before posting about things on here, but lately we have been seeing a lot of scams from oil change places.

For instance: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...arch&plindex=0

eaglegreen48

This is exactly right. The manager's initial response is what caused this whole thread.

TLover8888

what i dont understand is the fact that you couldnt tell the difference between a new filter and an old filter of the same brand. I know that when i change my filter, there is about 5K worth of dirt on the filter and when i compare the old one to the new filter, you can obviously tell the difference between the 2. If you inspected the oil filter right after you came back from the shop, couldnt you tell the difference??

P.S. If you now think highly of the shop, shouldnt you change the title of the thread or ask the mods to do so??

mestizoracer310

Fyre man: you stated when a customer asks you to do something, you do it....there is one exception I take into consideration when "not doing" said request....is when I try to educate the person the correct info.

I had a customer come into the shop and said "set my tires at 35psi front and back." I proceeded to double check the tire size and the tire placard mounted in the car. They were the correct size and the tires actually need to be set at 35psi. But since he drove more than a mile the pressure increases 4psi and I put them to 39psi. He then got angry at me (from what my manager said after he left). I tried to explain what REALLY happens to the tires after being driven on but the customer flat out REFUSED to learn something.