Now, you have probably taken your car to the national Jiffy Lube for an oil change or a tune-up. You know, 30 million people do a year

But KNBC, our NBC station in Los Angeles, discovered that you might not get what you pay for. Take a look at this amazing undercover investigation...



GROVER: But were the repairs we paid for really done? Listen to this former insider.

(on camera): Does this happen to customers a lot?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every day.

GROVER (voice-over): Customers of America‘s biggest lube and tube chain, Jiffy Lube.

To conduct our investigation, we wired two test cars with hidden cameras in places we had never put them before to watch mechanics from every angle. Then, we drove one of those cars to this Encino Jiffy Lube to get an oil change. A service adviser named Leo recommends more repairs, like changing the fuel filter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fuel filter every 48 months or 60,000 miles.

GROVER: We tell them, go ahead and do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two-forty.

GROVER: And then we pay up.

But they didn‘t change the fuel filter. We know that because before, taking our car in, we lowered the gas tank, so I could get to the fuel filter and mark it with a big four. After leaving that Encino Jiffy Lube, we checked the fuel filter. And the original one with the four was still in the car.

(on camera): Why didn‘t they change the fuel filter?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It‘s so easy for them to get away with it, and why go through the trouble of doing it?

GROVER: You charge us hard-earned money for a repair that you never did.

(voice-over): We will come back to Leo in just a minute.

But, first, watch what happens when we take our other test car to this Jiffy Lube in Canoga Park.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will change the transmission fluid.

GROVER: A manager named Anthony recommends a top-of-the-line transmission flush.

(on camera): When you do the transmission, how does that work?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do with it the machine.

GROVER (voice-over): A machine called T-Tech, which they are supposed to hook up to the transmission lines under the car to suck out all the dirty fluid. But the entire time our car was being serviced, we noticed, no one ever touched that machine.

And our hidden camera shows no one ever touched the transmission lines underneath. But they charged us for the T-Tech service anyway. We got stiffed at five out of nine Jiffy Lubes we tested. And no one would explain why.

(on camera): Hi, Leo? I‘m Joel Grover.

(voice-over): Like Leo at the Encino store.

(on camera): You charged us for a new fuel filter, but you never put it in this car. Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don‘t remember, to be honest.

GROVER: Can I show you yourself on videotape?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

GROVER (voice-over): But he remembered...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fuel filter every 48 months or 60,000 miles.

GROVER: ... when he saw himself on tape.

(on camera): How do you explain this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don‘t know, to be honest.

GROVER (voice-over): And he rushed away...

(on camera): Were you trying to make an easy buck off us?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

GROVER: ... to call his district manager.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Channel 4 is right here. Well, they caught us on camera.

GROVER: And what would Anthony say...

(on camera): How are you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just fine.

GROVER: ... at the Canoga Park Jiffy Lube?

(on camera): There was a camera in here watching you the whole time.

You charged us for a transmission service that you never did. Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sorry, sir. Like I said, you would have to talk to my district manager.

GROVER (voice-over): So, we track down the district manager, Steven Ayou (ph)...

(on camera): Yes, are you Steve Ayou (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I‘m not.

GROVER: ... who denied his identity.

(on camera): Are you the district manager?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I‘m not.

GROVER (voice-over): He tell us he‘s just a customer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is Alex.

GROVER (on camera): Alex?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

GROVER: Which is your car?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That one.

GROVER: Which one?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The red one.

GROVER (voice-over): But that red car...

(on camera): That‘s your red Camaro back there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. What‘s going on with it?

GROVER (voice-over): ... belonged to another customer, and the district manager was lying to us.

(on camera): I think you are the district manager.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would like for to you turn off the camera, and I would appreciate it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCARBOROUGH: With me now is the reporter who did the undercover investigation, KNBC‘s Joel Grover.

Joel, first of all, explain to me what‘s going on with Jiffy Lube.

Why are they ripping off their customers so brazenly?

GROVER: Well, Joe, insiders me tell me that they are basically pushed to be on a quota system. They are asked to sell a certain amount of repairs per car that comes in to a store.

But tell me, there‘s such a huge volume of cars that come in, they really don‘t even have the time to do all the repairs that they sell. That‘s kind of the bottom line.

SCARBOROUGH: You know, Joel, every time, over the past five, 10 years, when I have taken my cars to these type of places, and not just Jiffy Lube, but other places like it, car service places, I will go in, and I will want to get a tire—a tire fixed, or the tires rotated.

And if my wife or somebody else takes the car in, when it comes back, there are 1,000 different items. And I have learned to say, just do—tell them, we just want done what I asked for.

And, yet, it seems that, again, this may not just be Jiffy Lube. It seems that just about every place I take my cars to, this is what ends up happening. I mean, do you think—do you think there are these type of quotas at all these type of dealerships?

GROVER: I have done a number of investigations on other chains. And, yes, many, if not most of them, seem to have these types of quotas as well.

You got to keep in mind that a chain like Jiffy Lube is not making most of its money selling you oil changes. They are making money selling you all those other services. And that‘s why employees say they are pushed so hard to sell a whole variety of other services.

SCARBOROUGH: So, what...

(CROSSTALK)

GROVER: The company makes more money. The employees get bonuses.

That‘s—that‘s really what it‘s all about.

SCARBOROUGH: And everybody is happy, but the customer.

So, what does Jiffy Lube say about all this?

GROVER: Jiffy Lube is saying nothing to me, at least on camera. We have asked them repeatedly to sit down and talk with us on camera.

I have a lot of questions I would like to ask them. They continually refuse to. When I said, why won‘t you sit down and talk with me; I will lay everything out for you, how we did our investigation, they say, we have absolutely nothing to benefit from answering your questions.

So, they really haven‘t said much. They have sent me e-mails. They have told me in e-mails they have taken our investigation very seriously. They have now done their own investigation, and have taken what they have called aggressive steps to stop the type of fraud that we have uncovered.

Here‘s some of the steps. They tell me that six employees that we caught on tape are now gone, including that district manager who lied to me. They have provided ethics training for all managers in the L.A. area.

And they are now installing video cameras in 31 L.A. area stores, so that customers can now watch their cars being serviced and make sure the repairs are being done, as promised.

But they didn‘t change the fuel filter. We know that because before, taking our car in, we lowered the gas tank, so I could get to the fuel filter and mark it with a big four. After leaving that Encino Jiffy Lube, we checked the fuel filter. And the original one with the four was still in the car.