I couldn't watch the entire video because it wasn't playing properly—too much traffic to the site?—but I got the gist. I'm not too surprised. My JL horror stories:
Five years ago, before I moved here, I got an oil change at JiffyLube (on a practically new car) before driving up here for a three-day stay. Coming back, I got caught in a 3-hour border lineup behind a diesel Volvo, and thought the exhaust smell I was getting came from the car in front of me. During the week after I got home I noticed an exhaust smell whenever I turned on the heater in the car. I figured I had a cracked exhaust manifold, and was trying to figure when I could spare my car for a couple of days in the shop so I could get it fixed, when a friend of mine noticed some brown fluid running down the front grille. At first I thought some kid had thrown the remains of a soda on my car, but my buddy suggested I pop the hood and check. Thank God I did—there was oil all over the engine compartment! They never replaced the cap when they changed the oil! I had driven all the way from Oregon to Vancouver and back (plus another week of regular driving) with the oil spashing out of my engine. There was about 1/2 quart left in it. I had to have several hoses replaced, had to spend three days driving a rental car while waiting for the dealer to order an oil cap, and am thankful that the engine wasn't toast—as it would have been difficult to get any sort of recourse from JL without conclusive proof that they had left the cap off.
Three days later, a stranger showed up at my door because her car had broken down in front of my house. She didn't have a mobile phone and wanted to ring her boyfriend. She couldn't understand why this had happened, because she had just come from JiffyLube. After her boyfriend arrived, it turned out that JL had cracked the plug when they changed her oil, and it had all drained out by the time she had driven about 5 miles.
I've taken a couple of cross-country trips, so I've had to depend on finding a place to get the oil changed on route. To minimise the risk, I usually would get an oil change done by my mechanic right before I left. Once I made a last-minute decision to take a road trip to the East Coast with a guy I was dating. I had him take the car to JiffyLube while I tied some stuff up at work, telling him to have them do a radiator flush and whatever else they suggested. This guy works on his own car, so I figured that they couldn't rip him off. An hour later I got to JL to be presented with a $200 bill (!) that included a bunch of belt replacements and such. Like an idiot I went back to the same JL a month later when I got home. They tried to sell me another radiator flush, showing me how exhausted the fluid was. When I asked them how that could happen after they had just flushed it a month earlier, and that the last time I made a warm-weather cross-country trip it didn't need flushed when I returned, they made up some song and dance about how sometimes they don't get all the fluid replaced the first time.
Six months later I ended up at JL again when I was about to go out of town again and couldn't get in to my regular mechanic. They tried to sell me another belt replacement, claiming that this was a belt that wore out frequently. I didn't want to break down on the road, so I authorised it—but I asked my mechanic about it later, and he told me that they had sold me a line of crap, these belts should last for a lot more mileage than I had put on my car, even with a trip to the East Coast and back. Now I realise that they probably never replaced the bloody belt in the first place.
I have to say, though, that I have a feeling this is a mostly American phenomenon. I've actually used a JL here in Vancouver a couple of times and they've been very reasonable—an oil change and radiator flush costs about half what it does in the States—and the only thing they've tried to sell me is new wiper blades (which I already knew I needed after salt from the last snow ate them up in no time). I'm going to assume that they actually do the work they charge me for. I have a good mechanic here, but they don't even offer you a complimentary ride to work or pickup when you drop off your car, and that usually translates into leaving it overnight just for regular service (thank you TransLink!), which means that your basic oil change is so much easier at JL.
What sucks is that you don't really know whom to trust. I've heard horror stories about those Mom-and-Pop lube places too, though evidently some of them can be OK. Before I moved here I used to get regular promotions in the mail from some place I had gone to in Upstate NY—guess they put everyone who goes there on their mailing list, without checking to see where they're from—but I couldn't justify driving 3000 miles just to save a couple of bucks on an oil change!
