Saturday, September 5, 2009

Free Oil Change For Only $24.90

I took my truck in today for a free oil change (I had a coupon) and to check my brakes. I really expected to need at least front brake pads because it has been around 6 years since I had new ones and they were making noise. The place was swamped with customers on this holiday weekend and they were turning away all walk-ins. Luckily I had an appointment but had to wait 30 minutes for the shuttle driver to get back so he could drive me home. Just as I was leaving with the shuttle, they brought my truck in to the bay. I got home and they called me 10 minutes later with the prognosis.

They said my brake pads were still ok and only made noise because they were low grade. They recommended upgrading to ceramic pads. I said thanks I'll do that later when I actually need to replace the pads. Then they said that the air filter looks really bad and there may have been some pack rat activity in there. Ick. I hate pack rats. I told them to replace the filter and do the oil change. An hour later they said it was finished and I asked to have the shuttle pick me up. TWO HOURS LATER! the shuttle driver showed up. I wasn't expecting to spend my whole day without a truck.

Later, as I was paying I remembered that the air filter is not included in the oil change. I probably could have handled changing the air filter myself. The total for my free oil change and air filter? $24.90. Ouch. They charged me $19.99 for the filter. I looked it up on the Checker auto parts website and I could have bought it for $12. And the Checker guys probably would have told me how to change it. Oh well. I learned my lesson.

4 comments:

Over the Cubicle Wall said...

Not bad to get both for $24.90 though. Too bad it took so long.

Good news on the brakes!

Daizy said...

I'd rather spend $24.90 on other things. I'm just annoyed because I totally forgot about the air filter. I could have bought the super-deluxe filter for $20. Next time!

moocifer said...

mark "buy new air filter" in your calendar for july 2010.

mark brake pads on there too.

and, since you have time to think about it, maybe you'll change your mind an decide to get the tools for your brake pad change since you'll have months and months to prepare. you'll pay for the tools the first time you change the pads. And the whole job takes about one hour.

Anonymous said...

You guys sound retarded! How selfish a.k.a frugal are you willing to get. you paid 24.90 for a oil change , air filter , services rendered to perform the work , waste oil disposal fees, state sale tax, and got a free brake inspection with a estimate?? And you think you got ripped???? That sounds like a hell of a deal! Grow Up!!! Everything in life cannot be free!!! I would love to see any of you auto gurus perform all that service for someone else for that price.And to the guy that thinks you can buy the tools to do a brake job correctly with the profit margin you save not paying a professional labor.What realm are you living in?? you cannot buy a $7000.00 brake lathe to machine your rotors ,caliper slide pin lube, Brake safety clean, proper ton jack , jackstands , or a Torque wrench to insure you don't warp your rotors or lose your wheel going down the freeway.That's not even including basic hand tools to do the r+r. Maybe you could buy some pot metal knuckle busting china set and get stuck with costly hospital bills! Remember you let a monkey work on your car You get a banana in the tailpipe!!