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VA State Inspection Scam!

2K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  tony_2018 
#1 · (Edited)
Hey all, its been a while...I should update my build thread...

Car is now garage kept 6 years later, this is what it looks like as of the 17th this month:





Yesterday I took it to get inspected, I've always had the issue of shops wanting to replace the front wipers because of rips or cuts in the blades. If I'm waiting I usually ask to see the wipers and sure enough there is problem with the wiper blades. So usually 40-$50 later the car passes inspection. This has been a clear trend every inspection for both my Integra and 2017 GTI over the past 5 or so years.

Last year my local shop installed 2 new front wiper blades during the inspection. These blades probably spent a total 30 hours outside all year, half of which was after sun-down. The rear blade was replaced two years ago. So these new blades hardly saw any use or sun at all, no reason for them to be bad. So yesterday before I had the car inspected I checked and cleaned all three blades, they looked fine...as they should have. This was just before I left the house for the inspection mind you on a sun-filled day.

Car goes into the shop...sure enough I get a call saying it failed for several reasons (this wasn't my usual shop) the last of which was for....you guessed it...wiper blades! OH BOY....

I talk to the tech, he had good things to say about my Integra and said he really didn't want to fail it blah...blah. I then asked for him to point out what is wrong with the wiper blades. He showed me the right side blade was torn about ONE INCH on the end and the left blade was torn HALF AN INCH from and end. It took a lot to keep my cool, unfortunately I didn't want start a ruckus since the shop manager had likely gone home by now anyways since it was getting late. There is no way I missed such huge defects in the blades just hours before, I even tested the rear blade when I got home which is the older blade of the three...I'd say to begin a rip on that blade would require a knife as it didn't rip easily by hand. Confirmed: Shops will scam you out of wiper blades, its probably something we all suspect, but its crazy how obvious it was this time around. They intentionally ripped the blades, there simply is no other explanation.

I'm now trying to decide on what to do, I'm thinking about going back to the shop, asking for the garage manager, showing him the ripped blades and asking him to attempt to rip the third one. As the tech claimed he only need to "flick the ends" for them to rip. I want to see how easily the shop manager can rip the blade. Maybe they'll give me a full set of new blades or something...who knows, I just think this is BS and I deserve new blades and an explaination.

Also, from now on I'm going to have a set of new front blades for each car, these new blades will be installed the day of the inspection. The packaging will be left in the passenger seat. I've probably been scammed 300-$400 over 5 years between two of my cars due to "bad blades"...no more!!!!


Anyone have any more ideas?
 
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#6 ·
I would say that might spook em if they see the dash cam. They'll probably ask you about it and say 'wow man so cool' and try to get you to talk about its setup. I'd say it runs on battery backup and goes off of motion, viewing angle is the entire length of the windshield..
 
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