Auto repair rip-offs are a common practice among some auto repair shops. These shops prey on unsuspecting customers using tactics designed for deception. If you’re bringing your vehicle to a shop that you’ve never tried before, it pays to practice caution and to be on guard to avoid rip-offs. Below is a list of the most common deceptions practiced by some repair shops:
Free Inspection and Free Service Scams. You’ll see these ads posted by many repair shops—free auto inspection, free change oil, and many other services offered for free. It’s important to note that many of these are genuine, services designed to serve customers. However, there are some that are formulated as a means of deception. How? Some auto repair shops will perform an inspection or service for free, only to tell you afterwards that they have found a problem with your vehicle upon inspection and then recommend that you let them fix it—at a very expensive rate. In most of these cases, the problem they will tell you is not even existing.
Accelerated Service Intervals. When you check your vehicle manual, you’ll see a list of common maintenance procedures that you need to perform at given intervals—according to the manufacturer. However, when you bring your vehicle for repairs, some shop mechanics will tell you to do maintenance—replace parts like filter and change fluids—at a shorter interval. Some of them even go to the extent of doing the service (without your permission) and charge you later on.
Sudden Price Hikes. In connection with the second, you must watch out for auto repair shops that charge way higher than the usual estimate cost given by the mechanic. They’ll tell you they found other problems, which they repaired without telling you, and then charge you for them.
These three are just among the few, but there are other practices that you should watch out for. You must know how to deal and avoid things like this when going for repairs. How? Watch out for the next post.
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