Busted!
After he had to pay an expensive bill and an overnight stay he quickly let it go. But when he returned to see how they’d done, he knew something was up.
He got cameras installed in secret to survey his car. And just a day later saw a scam that made him phone the authorities.
David Sherman
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David Sherman had more going on than it would seem. He had a business of his own and would take part in amateur racing in his spare time. This meant he knew more about cars than a regular guy would.
David collected a few cars and loved them to pieces. He knew every detail of the car well, so when problems emerged he decided to take it to the Economy Lube garage, but he already knew what the problem was.
Oil Change
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He had already checked his car and knew the only issue was the oil – it needed a change. Everything else was pristine. So he hopped on google and found the closest garage – Economy Lube. It was only $20 for an oil change, what a steal!” he thought.
He took his car into the garage that very evening, expecting a simple oil change.
Unexpected Problems
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Oil changes shouldn’t take very long to do. An experienced mechanic should do it why you wait. So he was quite surprised to find that they said they’d have to keep the car in overnight.
They kept telling him that they saw more problems when they looked over the car. It needed all sorts of flushes, including a coolant flush, brake fluid flush, and even a service on the transmission.
Wrongly Overlooked
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David couldn’t believe that he had missed all of those things when he had looked at the car. He didn’t want to argue with experts though.
He gave them the car and expected to find it in good working order the next day. They almost got away with it until he got the bill they sent him.
Expensive Bill
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He couldn’t believe what originally was a $20 bill turned into a $287 charge! He didn’t understand how it could have cost this much.
David knew he could have done all of the work himself for free. He wanted to check out the work and see if it was legitimate.
Something’s Wrong
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It hadn’t been long before he realized that something wasn’t right… The oil change was done, but everything was left… the same?
Did they even do anything that they promised? He had to make sure, and there was only one way to do that.
The Plan
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After he had to pay an expensive bill and an overnight stay he quickly let it go. But when he returned to see how they’d done, he knew something was up.
He got cameras installed in secret to survey his car. And just a day later saw a scam that made him phone the authorities.
Deja Vu
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David’s friend also took his car to the same garage looking for a simple change of oil. They would also end up sticking him with a huge charge.
This couldn’t have been a coincidence. Something was very wrong. How dare they do what they were doing. They were both about to figure things out.
Watching The Footage
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After David’s friend was charged $280, they raced back to David’s to watch the camera footage. David hit play and watched the mechanic get to work.
The further the film played, the more David’s jaw fell to the ground. He watched what the mechanic did in complete shock before his face turned red with anger.
Facing Consequences
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There was no way he wasn’t going to let this company get away with this. Did they have something against David and his friend? Did they know them? If not, why would they do this?
David packed up the evidence and brought it to the cops. If he wanted to bring this big garage chain down, he needed to call in professional help. What did the camera’s capture?
Caught Red-handed
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David watched in astonishment as the cameras caught the mechanic changing the oil but carrying out none of the flushes or transmission servicing that they charged for.
In essence, what they did was fraud. And David had a sneaking suspicion this hasn’t just happened to him and his friend. The way the company persuaded to upsell both of the with the exact same speech seemed rehearsed. But what did the cops say?
Calling An Expert
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The cops had their hands full so they put the men in contact with a former fraud chief with the Hamilton police. Mark Simchison built his career dealing with fraudulent behavior.
With a company as big as Economy Lube, they needed to be careful when confronting them. That’s where Simchison’s expertise came in handy. But even he had never seen anything this blatant before.
Fraud
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“If they are … receiving money for services that they did not perform, that you paid for, in all honesty, that’s fraud,” says Simchison. There was no doubt in his mind that this company was dirty. But the problem lay in proving it.
When David and Simonchison confronted the workers, what they said was crazier than their wildest imaginations.
Explanations
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“This is what we were trained to do. Yeh it doesn’t feel great but when your job is to make as much money as you can for the company and you come home with 1 or 2 thousand dollars every week, it’s hard to say no to that”, one worker said.
“It’s bad but we get a lot of people coming in who don’t know anything about their car. It makes our job easier. If we don’t make enough money, we get fired so it’s us or them”, another said.
Lesson Learned
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David confronted the CEo of the company but couldn’t get him to admit any fault. He denied any responsibility for individual workers and said he had no idea any of this was going on. He also agreed that it was fraud and would deal with the situation swiftly.
But David wasn’t convinced. If this teaches us anything, it’s to learn about your car while you have it or take it to a garage that you know and trust!