Reader Andrew says he’s certain that Jiffy Lube purposefully filed down his oil plug so that he couldn’t change his oil himself. Conspiracy? Or incompetance? You decide.

Andrew writes (to Jiffy Lube):

My wife and I purchased a home this spring with a nice garage. I could finally change the oil in my wife’s car. She needed her oil changed badly and had gone to you before. Your team had tightened the nut to the oil pan too tight (pneumatic tools I’m sure), so I mentioned to her to have your shop change the oil and to please ask them to not over tighten the nut so I could release it for the next change.

My wife spoke to a member of your team and asked them to not over tighten the oil plug if possible. Not only did she get a horrible look from both the team member and the employee standing next to him, the oil plug head was completely rounded off smooth.

In order to remove the plug without damaging the oil pan, I had to hammer a wrench head 1/16th size too small onto the plug head to kind of form it into the wrench. I then had to use that same hammer to hit the other end of the wrench in order to loosen the plug. I now had a ruined plug and ruined wrench.

The new Pontiac G6 has a new size plug different than most cars. I found this out when I had to run up to the car parts store to buy a new plug. They didn’t have any of the new plugs and I had to wait a week for a new one, thus rendering the car un-drivable.

Neither my wife, myself, friends, or family will ever use your services again.

We asked Andrew if he was certain the oil plug had been purposefully tampered with, and he says he’s sure:

Yes, they filed it by over tightening it with a pneumatic drill. The drill’s pressure was so high that the tool stripped the ridges off the bolt, thus making it almost impossible for me to remove without bringing it back into their shop.

You could say it was job security for them since they saw a potential customer about to leave and do it themselves.

He also included a picture of the ruined plug. Yikes. What do you guys think? Would someone do this on purpose?

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