When I have gone here for just an oil change, this place has twice convinced me that I needed services that I did not know at the time were actually not needed on my 2002 Honda Civic.
The first time, on 6/18/03 I was told by the technician that my air filter needed to be replaced. Not knowing a thing about cars or their maintenance, I trusted the young man that told me this and allowed him to replace it and spent the extra money to do so.
Then on 10/8/04 I went in for an oil change and was told that I need to have my transmission fluid flushed. Again, not knowing anything about this, I believed the technician and allowed him to do this and paid the extra.
After doing this, I mentioned it to a few people who told me that it is not necessary to have that fluid flushed and it can actually be bad for the car. I decided to look up maintenance services in my Honda owner's manual book.
According to the maintenance schedule, the air filter needs to be replaced at 30,000 miles. When mine was replaced, my car was at 19,328 miles. I do not drive in any severe conditions, just regular roads to work and back. Also looking up when to replace transmission fluid, the manual states that it should be changed at 120,000 or 6 years. I have had the car for almost 3 years and there is 38,362 miles on it. My car is in very good condition overall, and it is clear that flushing the transmission fluid was an unnecessary service.
I believe that because of the fact that I am a female bringing in my car myself, and that I look like an average woman who probably does not know the inner workings of a car's engine, that these technicians are taking advantage of that fact and getting me to pay for services that are not necessary. This is an immoral business practice, and I believe that I should not have had to pay for these unnecessary services.
I mailed a letter to this specific Mukilteo Xpress Lube location, to the manager attention, asking him to contact me and giving my contact information. I heard nothing from them. So then weeks later, I went to the Xpress Lube website, to the comments and complaints page and attached my letter to an email and sent it. I also heard absolutely nothing back. I will never, ever go here or to any Texaco Xpress Lube again, and would recommend that anyone who doesn't have a ton of extra money you want to spend on needless work, doesn't go to any either.
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