FocusCanada Forums

So I get a response from some guy named Mario (regional manager) in my email this morning.

you guys ready for this.....

here was my email.

To whom it concerns.

I recently had my car serviced (2002 ford focus) at your Plains Road
Burlington Ontario location. As always the service was stellar, quick,
and pleasant.

I have ALWAYS taken both of my cars to your stores because I always
felt I was getting service I could trust.

Last week I attempted to to wash my windshield on the highway, and to
my surprise when I pushed the spray button on my wiper switch nothing
came out. I know the bottle was full as I watched your crew fill it
while I had my last oil change done.

Today, I took my car into my Ford dealership to see if the problem was
in fact a burnt out pump, or faulty switch. While waiting in the
service area, the manager approached me to take me into the service
bay to show me what the trouble as with my car.

The washer fluid bottle was frozen solid. It turns out that the washer
fluid bottle was filled water at my last service. Nothing but water.
There was no anti-freeze colour to the bottle or ice inside.

Now Living in Canada, when you get an Oil change in November, you'd
think a place that takes pride in filling up ALL fluids in your car
with service would replace low fluids with the proper product(s).

In end, it cost me $162.45 this morning to have a technician heat my
water bottle, chip out all the ice and reassemble my car.

Easily the MOST expensive bottle of windshield washer fluid I have
ever purchased.

Clearly I am furious with this discovery. I can assure you I will no
longer be taking ANY of my cars to ANY of your shops in the future.


I look forward to hearing from you.

-Anthony Duguay.
5173 Dryden Ave. Burlington On.
Licence plate # AMBS 956

Please feel free to contact me at xxx.xxx.xxxx if you care to talk
about this matter.

And here is Mr. Lube's response.

Hello Mr.Duguay,
On October 20th, 2007 we topped up your washer fluid with -40 rated washer fluid. We do not use water to top up washer fluid tanks. We changed from summer bug wash (pink in colour) to winter rating in mid-September. Perhaps someone else topped it off at a previous oil change? If you have any further questions or concerns please call us. Thanks.

Mario
Area Manager
O/A Mr.Lube #94
3520 Fairview Street
Burlington, On
L7N 2R5
(905)639-3118

What a joke.

Now guys.....
What does a disgruntled consumer do?
Do I take this further?

I say find an empty washer fluid bottle and piss in it, then mail it to his attention at the address he provided and dont forget to include the "merry christmas" card too.

Damnit, I was afraid of something like this Anthony,

Legally they know that because of the length of time between their service of your car and your discovery of their shenanigans that you'll have a damn hard time convincing a judge that it was them that put the water in your winshield washer tank. :(

If I was advising you as my client I would have to say honestly that you'll likely be throwing good money after bad trying to go after these jerks in SCC because of the facts of the case.

NefCanuck

So, after you told him you saw THEIR guys filling your bottle, they blame it on someone else. Nice.

Again, this is why I never deal with those places. They know they can largely do whatever they want to your car and you can't do much short of the engine grenading when you leave their lot. Even then, they'd likely blame it on a "previous oil change".

Post this s*** on Facebook, post it in local messageboards... make it known what these assholes did. Perhaps when they start getting more negative attention they'll rethink their stance.

Letter to the newspaper?

That's enough for me to not go back. I was switching between Jiffy Lube and Mr.Lube, not any more.

the funny thing is your e-mail clearly says that you took your car to that place before for all toping up of all fluids / oil changes... so his responce is more or less confirming that they indeed f***ed up.

Furious.

Here was me response to his email back.


Dear Mario:

Is it not your job (as a company) to top up my fluids at EVERY oil change?
You clearly state in your email that you topped up my washer fluid on October 20th (which was my last oil change) If you had in fact switched over to the winter fluid like you said, I would not have encountered this issue. If you'd like, I can take pictures of my odometer with a newspaper to prove to you that my car has NOT been serviced since my last oil change with you people. However, I feel your company has caused me enough trouble so I'd rather not go out of may way any further.

I must say I'm absolutely disgusted with your response to this matter and I will be taking this matter up with your superiors.

Have a good day.

Just me, but I wouldnt bother.

Take it as a lessons learned and do your own oil changes.

I spoke to Aaron about this and here was his response.........

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Who the fawk charged him $160+ to deice a washer bottle? They could have just pulled the car into the service bay, let it sit for a while, thaw out and then drain the old fluid and put in the winter. Total cost=$49.00

Apparently this is quite common and they do about 2-3 a week at CT.

hey man,

sorry this happened..

i agree with others your best bet is just to let it go and do your own oil changes, avoid that place, tell ppl you know not to go there... chalk it up to lesson learned and move on.. you'll just get stressed thinking about it and your time spent trying to resolve this is worth more than $162

also, hate to say it but you kind of should have known it was only a matter of time until they screwed something up and at least it was something relatively minor in stead of say... forgetting to refill the car with oil, not screwing in the filter properly, fram filter blowing up, etc

Yeah, had they not re-installed the drain plug right or something... "your previous oil change" would have been their response as well.

Get The Boy to do the next one?

NOS2Go4Me,Dec 10 2007, 03:19 PM Wrote:Get The Boy to do the next one?
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Should have done that the first time. But I doubt the next time the boy will be available. He is in his last phase of school starting January for 3 months, writes his ticket for Mechanic and then starts looking for a job outside of CTire.

meford4u,Dec 10 2007, 04:24 PM Wrote:

NOS2Go4Me,Dec 10 2007, 03:19 PM Wrote:Get The Boy to do the next one?
[right][snapback]254262[/snapback][/right]

Should have done that the first time. But I doubt the next time the boy will be available. He is in his last phase of school starting January for 3 months, writes his ticket for Mechanic and then starts looking for a job outside of CTire.
[right][snapback]254265[/snapback][/right]

Let me know where he ends up.
He'll have a client for life.

Aaron has saved my bacon a couple times....and he's honest!

I will. But if I bet my money it will be between here and the Kitchener/Cambridge area as he likes the area we are moving to and he is moving with us.

Flofocus,Dec 10 2007, 12:01 PM Wrote:Just me, but I wouldnt bother.

Take it as a lessons learned and do your own oil changes.
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i just hate doing those in the winter time inside of the cold garage....brrrrr

Haha thats why I just grabbed an electrical heater, works great :lol: