Oil change scams: Hidden camera investigation on what really happens to your car (CBC Marketplace)

this week on Marketplace oh boy it came for a $20 oil

change

. You're about to see a Fast Lube franchise do a quick one if you can try changing the transmission fluid. It is necessary? No, I just made a streaming service, that's

what

I did. I thought I'd hop on the Hoist to show you

what

's

really

going on at these chain oil stores. Let me tell you a little about fraud. Experts share the secrets to extort them. I have never worked for a more shady and deceptive company. Track down the man behind all this greasy business. Leave it right next to the door.

Do you want to go look for it? Tom. Just go. We headed to this Economy Lube in G onario. It's part of a chain of oil

change

shops that promises fast and affordable service 10 minutes 20 dollars and you're done according to their catchy ads but maybe not that simple Hello you need an oil change yes please who doesn't Have you ever thought about giving

your

car to some Gearhead and getting a lot of money back? Bill and a bunch of Gobbley Goo, do you have them for 10 bucks? It depends on the type of oil they use. We've heard there's cause for concern at Economy Lube, so we're putting it to the test.

That's our host brand. oil right off the bat, they are upselling that $20 oil change, not bad, but depending on how much you

really

like

your

car, like me, I would only run the $29 package, recommending a more expensive package than advertised , but is there anything worse than that? These guys Let's just say you can bet I've never worked for a company like Gul for a more shady and corrupt deceitful company. They are experts, former Economy Lube employees who still have ties to the industry and do not want to be identified. He totally scammed people and I did it for several years for the dollar for the money.

His years of ripping people off at Economy Lube ended in a bitter fight over wages. You had problems, you went to the labor department and argued. for money that kind of thing, but everything we say is 100% true, there would be many more people besides us who would be willing to say it too, they have no acts to strive for, they say they just have a conscience to clear. This is our opportunity to write down our mistakes and raise awareness about what is happening, so they are suing a company that they say charges you and

scams

you because the boss wants it that way.

I don't remember questioning him. about practices when it comes to sales and his exact words were: he told me to go save the whale somewhere else and he told me it was a world of upselling, but we're not just taking his word, we've put together a team . of testers to help us see for ourselves they all work for CBC a new Steve and Ryan each driving a car with one thing in common they all need an oil change and will just head to that same Economy Lube in Galf and what is about to happen has lessons for all of us, our base of operations for the day is Koga College, they train many future mechanics here and they agreed to let us use their huge garage.

In the morning, everyone, it's a pleasure to see you, so the plan as it is. What we know is that we're going to go to the economic circuit, um, and you're just going to be customers helping us with our test. Expert Mark Sack Anderson, you should not be offered anything more than just the oil change that he is going to perform. everything else is fine on the cars so it should be a breeze to change the oil and Mark has been in the industry for over 20 years. He started as an oil change technician, became a mechanic and rose through the ranks.

He now he runs this workshop in the West End of Toronto. There are many good oil change facilities. Unfortunately, there are some bad ones and that spoils it for everyone. The oil change industry knows it gets a bad rap. It seems like the mechanics are always out to get you. Jiffy. Lube, for example, capitalizes on customer concerns in this ad, but at Jiffy Lube we don't repair vehicles, we help keep them running properly to help you leave the repair shop worries behind, so if the industry knows we suspect Can we finally leave our worries behind? If we only need 1, 2, 3 to do our test correctly, it's important to establish a baseline, which is why Mark spends days reviewing our test vehicles.

He knows the kind of extra services that places like Economy Lube routinely offer, like fluid and filter changes, and he wants to surpass them. them to the max, making sure none of our cars need anything more than an oil change, our

hidden

camera

specialist, Rob, is working hard to make sure we have every angle covered when it comes to capturing our test, oh , great, where is that going? Go under the hood of the Uplander so the guy working under the hood can see his hands. Working hands will be able to see you reaching for all the different dipsticks, so I wonder what to expect at Conestoga College, our first tester is new. plugged in and ready to see if what we're hearing about Economy Lube is true.

I'll open the door for you. That's fine thanks. Good luck. Thanks tom. The Economy Loop store is less than 5 minutes from our home base when a new one approaches, our surveillance

camera

across the street picks it up and follows it. Our experts say that at Economy Lube the technicians count on your ignorance even though they may not know much more about your car than you did when I started. I've never worked on vehicles, I've never removed a drain plug, I've never done an oil change, I have no experience, how about you? I had experience at previous oil change places, but I worked with people who didn't even know anything about cars, they soon learn the ropes. things work at Economy Lube and who trained you, actually the owner of the company Steve Moxy and what he taught you.

To sell all the different services, increase sales, what did that mean in Economy Loop to sell as many services as possible and make a big profit? bill as much as possible on each CU vehicle he didn't care if you did the work, he cared if you got the money and these services were necessary. Most of the time no, you can find a photo of the owner Steve Moxy, right? at the door as you enter the Loop economy Moxy has built a chain of 12 stores throughout southwestern Ontario and, according to our experts, he has done it out of dishonesty, he just needs an oil change inside the store.

Our first tester heard that it needs a lot more than just a power steing oil change P the bright pink has actually turned brown The initial smell like it was burning couldn't have a burning smell and suddenly it wasn't brown because I just did it change and then a former anti-fraud cop weighs in on our findings, I've told people my whole life that fraud is theft with a smile we're inside a quick oil change store called Economy Loop like all these types of stores say they specialize in fast work at affordable prices the insiders tell us they do much more than that like sell you services, no need to wash the engine, charge everything they can get and then often they don't even do the work.

Give me some examples of where you could do something that wasn't really real. One of the easiest things to sell is power steering fluid just take a sample and you can tell a person it should be clear, you can tell a person it should be red or you can just go by the smell of the fluid, smell this, the fluid is badly burned, it was a very easy sell with every lie, they tell the technicians that they make money, they were on a commission system as to what you sold, so if you sold, say, a coolant flush for $59, you'd get $2, if you sold it for $69, you'd get three dollars the bigger it was.

LIE the more money, that's why they lie so much, how often would these things happen where you do a trick like that every day multiple times a day? Will it happen to our first tester that a new car has been on the hoist for only a while? Within a few minutes when she gets the forecast, most of your things are in good condition, but the car needs more than an oil change, he says it also needs a brake flush and a power steering flush, two procedures that involve time and complete fluid replacement, but why take the flu to a bright pink color?

In reality, it disappeared. The smell of brown as if burning burnt liquid, just like our experts talked about the black liquid and it should be clear, as if we remember that our expert mechanic checked this car and assures us that it does not need. that job, but according to our test, we give the go ahead, so power steering fluid and brake fluid and then oil change and then oil change is ok, then you want me to do it for you, yeah sure if I need it perfect so just give us about 15 minutes or so okay 15 okay actually it takes them half that time in less than 8 minutes we get the bill so what? what is my total?

So it's 29 for the O shift, 69 for the power steering and 89 for the The brakes would both be good for 2 years 48,000 normal wear and tear, right, so it's 2804 more than 200 dollars, how did that happen? The guy came in for a $20 oil change. I know what I did ex Sly, uh, the power steering fluid. you change all the solution and the brake fluid, the power steering fluid, yes, okay, and why the power steering fluid is just, we press for a better explanation and get a better deal in the process, We'll give you a deal, okay, I'll give you the R change for free.

It's 184 184 the bottom, our tester pays and returns to home base, so how did it go? You know they were really nice. Can we see the invoice? Sure, good is good, but our expert mechanic, Mark Zack Anderson, says there's nothing to it. In his opinion, that final bill is good. Flushing the power steering and flushing the brake fluid were not necessary. The liquids were not finished. This was all reviewed when I had it in my shop about 3 days ago. Not only was the work not necessary. Mark's suspicion was not made given the short time it took. Mark shows us the four spots behind the wheels where it would be clear if a brake wash had been performed.

There is a lot of rust on the back of this trap or on the trap here and around it. the seal hasn't opened which tells me the system isn't flushed, okay Mark let's go to the video tape can we and see what they did? Our video tape confirms Mark's suspicions, he is tightening the filter cleaning the oil that $90 brake flush never happened, still nothing on the brakes, nothing on the brakes. The same goes for flushing the power steering. Our hood camera shows no evidence that it was done, but the reality is they charged for it and it wasn't done in time for the test number. two our man Ryan is coming in for his oil change and who knows what else I'm here for engine change yeah no problem like last time the $20 oil change they advertise turns into 29 , the higher oil prices, the better.

It will be for your vehicle and just like last time it doesn't end there, after a quick inspection Ryan is told he needs more than his oil change if he can try changing his transmission and brake fluid, brakes again and transmission. Our expert Mark just did that a few days ago. It was a long and complicated procedure that we captured on camera. Our insiders tell us that this type of deception can really add up to as much as if you didn't want to do it, but at the end of the week. when you get $1,000 paychecks, you take them home, the money was too good, you know, with a high school education where you're going to make $65 to $100,000 a year, can I absolutely use my debit now?

Ryan is handing over his money at Economy Lube after just 10 minutes of work in his car, partner, fresh air, okay, okay, on the way with some air fresheners and a bill that stinks, thanks, bye, back to home, we took a look, how was it? It was, yes, expensive, let's see what you came for. up with oh 218, yes you asked for a $20 oil change, right, yes I did this. Ryan's bill of $218 is 10 times what he invested, including $80 for the transmission, that was necessary. No, I just made a streaming service, that's what I thought. We checked our

hidden

camera tape to see how they sell that one.

His transmission fluid turned brown. It should be bright pink and starting to smell like it's burning. There's that line of burnt liquid again. Our expert is horrified because he didn't smell burnt because everything was there. fresh liquid mhm, but I mean there is absolutely no way these services were necessary. Good sales pitch, but it's completely false. It's almost like it's a script. It's almost identical to the service we had in car number one. The same. It's dirty. Smells. Yes, what's up? that expensive brake flush, they actually didn't do it the first timeThey charged it, how about this time?

Mark checks and says no, they couldn't have done a flush, so two for two, two flushes paid for it, that didn't happen on our The third and final tester, Steve, arrives towards the end of the day to change the oil, but will the upsell happen again? The answer comes minutes later, if he can try to change the coolant and brake coolant soon, is it urgent? Honestly, it's up to you, I mean let's work for it, the technician promises to clean the entire engine block and radiator and of course the brake system at home. It was the most expensive 1999 I ever spent, really, oh yeah, let's see. $251, my goodness, that's the highest price of the day, how was the sales pressure on you?

They start out sounding like you can choose, but they slowly shift it to you, you should really understand, we can do it for you right now. but did they do it? Mark is interested in that complete cooling and discharge system they charged for. He says this car uses a special coolant called Dex Cool, which is orange. He shows us what is in that warehouse. Oh, he looks at that bright green, bright green, so not that. the right coolant is not the right coolant for this vehicle, so that's what it is here. We don't know that Mark wants to take a sample from the radiator.

He says that if a real flush was performed, the liquid that comes out will also be green. That looks orange to me, oh yeah, look at that, okay, that comes out of the radiator, that's what's in the whole system, what we've seen. What was changed here is the stuff in the mhm tank and it was changed with the wrong things and what does that mean for the vehicle? It may cause damage to the sensors. It can cause damage and premature wear inside the engine. um, we should really get that stuff out. out of the tank before it causes problems, so not only was it not necessary to cool and flush, it wasn't done correctly, causing cross contamination, which means we have to fix it and yet we pay $250, What do you think of what they did?

It's certainly not right, it certainly gives us a bad name in the industry and it's certainly time to get some answers. Oh what's coming up, so after the break we showed up at Economy Lubs Warehouse. Uninvited, Roxy, this is Tom Harrington from Marketplace. I have never worked for more. Shady, corrupt and deceptive company. Our

investigation

into oil change shops run by Economy Lube leads us to a former investigator. Let me tell you a little about fraud. Mark Simpson used to head Hamilton Police's main fraud division. We show you what they sold us. in economy lbe the brake fluid is black and should be clear as one and what our expert mechanic discovered has not opened, he tells me the system is not flushed so what is his verdict.

All my life I have told people that fraud is theft. with a smile, putting it clearly, you are saying that what they are doing is fraud if they are charging and accepting money and receiving money for services that they did not perform and that you paid for in all honesty, that is fraud and that is exactly what we find time to take our evidence to the top we are as close to the lot as possible so we can see the door we are outside the Lube's Warehouse in Cambridge Ontario he is in the car sitting, is he really looking? to get some answers, okay, you're in, we've already repeatedly requested an on-camera interview with president and founder Steve Moxy, now you're in, you backed up with these Range Rovers inside and closed the garage door, you were given weeks to think about it.

So if he sees the cameras, I don't think he'll make it to the door. More details upon request. I don't know exactly how we should proceed because we're on the other side of the parking lot right now, but Moxy isn't coming yet. On camera, oh what's coming? Do you want to go look for it? Tom, yeah, what do we try now? So when we see the guy who greases the wheels at Economy Lube, he comes out, just go, just go, we decide to roll Mr. Moxy, but. Steve Moxy Marketplace's Tom Harrington won't talk about why his company is scamming people A few days later, we reached Moxy by phone and he denies any wrongdoing.

I have a hard time believing that they took three cars and not one. Those cars were actually serviced because I'm in the shops every day. You know I could be wrong. You know we have 100 employees. Anything is possible in POS. If so, I agree with everyone that that is fraudulent. We communicate with those from Economy. Lube employees caught on our hidden cameras, this one denies having worked on any of our test cars, there you go sir, but the other one confesses that I'm not proud of it, but that's how we were taught to do things in that company that you were forced to break up. people walk away basically because all the owner is after is money and if you're not making money then you're of no use to them as far as the lessons learned in all of this, here are some tips from our Market Survival Guide the Next time you need an oil change, familiarize yourself with a service schedule recommended by your car manufacturer—they built your car and probably know best when it needs maintenance.

Quick oil change shops are good for a quick oil change for anything bigger or unexpected. Go with a mechanic who you know you can trust and is finally Stay alert and know that an upsell is coming that way no greasy deal will catch you off guard.