Utah Jiffy Lube owner, concerned about reputation management, calls me back

For those of you who read yesterday’s blog post, you know that I have had a major bone to pick with the Highland Utah Jiffy Lube. If you are interested in following the saga here is a short update. Today I received 2 voice mails and 2 emails from different high level Jiffy Lubers. (I have to admit, these people have both written and spoken to me as if they know a few things about customer service and I appreciate that – I told you customer service counts!) In a nutshell, Jiffy Lube confirmed that the service center had a camera, which did show that their employee shut my door thereby locking my keys in the car! Now you know I did not just make this whole thing up! To try and “make it up to me” the company has offered to pay for my oil change, and to provide gift certificates for dinner and a night out with my wife. Although, I by no means consider this as equal “payment” for the 6 hours I wasted and the enormous headache this whole experience cause me, my wife, and my 2 police officer friends, it was partially appropriate as Tuesday’s fiasco caused my wife and I to miss half of a Christmas party that my wife was VERY excited to attend. Now I can hopefully partially make that missed event up to her by taking her out sometime soon. The store owner was a nice guy and apologized profusely for the conduct of his store manager. So, in fairness, I wanted you guys to know that at least some of the people connected with the Utah Jiffy Lube’s seemed to be very concerned about the service their customers receive. I hope each of you have an opportunity to interact with one of these guys, if you decide to get your next oil change at Jiffy Lube in Highland. Case Study I have been involved in countless campaigns to counteract negative press online. But, believe it or not, this was the first time I personally had ever written anything negative. (I am typically a pretty cool-headed guy and I think it takes a lot to get under my skin. In addition, I do not think it is fair for people to unfairly leverage situations to work in their favor, therefore I do not post negative things about every company I feel has done me wrong. However, b/c of the sheer extent of the disservice I was provided here I made an exception to that rule. On top of that, I specifically told “Mike” what I did for a living and that I planned on writing this post if they did not pay for a locksmith to come open the door. So fair warning was given.). All that said, I was slightly surprised by how quickly this blog post turned into a reputation management concern for Jiffy Lube. Within 5 minutes the blog post was in the top 5 positions in Google for either Highland Utah Jiffy Lube or Utah Jiffy Lube. By the next morning the blog post ranked number 1 for Highland Utah Jiffy Lube. When I spoke with the Highland owner he informed me that my blog post had been read by people at the corporate offices in Texas! It is eye opening the way the Internet evens the playing field and allows one person to have a voice, even without spending a dollar. I think this serves as good data for companies trying to decide whether it is worth investing money into online reputation management. Answer = Absolutely.

11 thoughts on “Utah Jiffy Lube owner, concerned about reputation management, calls me back

  1. Mat Siltala says:

    Yea, but it makes you wonder if they would have ever contacted you if you had not done any of these posts? Its like the people that do stuff wrong and feel bad, but only feel bad because they were caught. This is great, thanks for sharing and hopefully it gives you some feeling of justice for walking in the snow late at night, and missing your party. The lesson for any Internet business here is simple – Don’t put the “Cus” in customer service because you never know when you are going to be dealing with an Internet marketing lawyer like David Mink – huh?? So funny!

  2. David Mink says:

    @Mat – I guess there is no way to be sure, but I did feel that “Matt” the store owner was sincere in his apology. I literally hate that this whole thing happened and I don’t get any satisfaction out of rubbing their noses in a mistake. (In fact, I may remove these posts sometime soon). However, I do feel that I got the short end of the stick and am glad to see people our making an effort to right the wrong.

  3. Mat Siltala says:

    @David Mink
    Don’t forget what these idiots put you through (how far did you have to walk in the snow during a snow storm?) – if it wasn’t caught on tape, and if you didn’t write what you did they would not feel bad and would be laughing at you.

  4. Big Hoss says:

    They sure messed with the wrong guy. I love that you did this. You better not stop this onslaught if they don’t make things right.

  5. Nate Moller says:

    This is awesome! I’m really surprised you got a call and give some of the guys at Jiffy Lube a tip of the cap.

    I had a similar experience with reputation management at the Provo Utah Taco Bell. Not only did we wait for our “fast food” for over 40 minutes, but we got the “LAMEST” (is that a word) excuse as to why the Provo Utah Taco Bell is pathetic.

    If you Google Utah Taco Bell, Provo Utah Taco Bell, or similar phrases, you’ll see how they’re not protecting their reputation online either.

    Look forward to how Jiffy Lube resolves this whole mess they got themselves in to. I definitely wouldn’t remove the post. In fairness to other customers that are checking options, they have to know what happened, especially if Jiffy Lube comes back and completely resolves the situation – they can win back some trust.

  6. David Mink says:

    @Big Hoss – I don’t know if I am the wrong guy, but I did tell the store manager that “I am an attorney and own an Internet marketing firm, and I want you to know that I will do every thing in my power to make sure that you do your job.” (By the way, I did not ‘go there’ until he made it clear he had no intentions of listening to me or helping me.)

    His response was, “Don’t give me that crap. I don’t care who you are….”Fair enough, but hopefully if I have accomplished anything, it is that next time Mike will actually listen to one of his customers and try a little bit harder to make something within his power happen to solve one of his employers problems.

  7. David Mink says:

    @Nate – You bring up a great point as to providing information to other potential customers. Nice job with http://utahcountyreviews.com. I will definitely utilize that site in the future.

    Another one of my friends started a site called gomerknows.com which is a review site specifically for mechanics and auto shops. His whole intention was to help honest shops get business and to help potential customers spot the dishonest shops before “auto repair hell” set in. (Unfortunately, I think his seed money has failed and that he will have to give things another go down the road. It was a great idea and I hope he can resurrect it.)

  8. Mark says:

    The You Tube video that Andrew posted is incredible! My son has a friend who worked at the Highland JiffyLube and told him that they did the same things that it showed in the video all the time but I didn’t believe that the company would do something like that. Well apparently it is a corporate culture.

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