Halfords autocenter charges more than the halfords shop that it shares the building
hettyGreek
Posts: 70 Forumite
in Motoring
My car failed it's mot there and apparently I'll need to pay for a new mot unless they do all of the work.
The basic job of changing a lightbulb they charge £25, even though the halfords shop they share the building with 1 minute walk away charges less to buy and fit it. So it works about the same as if I just get a whole new not done!
Just seems weird that two places in the same building, under the same brand do the same job for a significant difference.
Also they will take a few days to fix it as they need to order the part, the part they are apparently only allowed to buy from car europarts but they will charge me over 150% the cost that I could buy the part for!
Am I a mug going to halfords for an mot or do they all do this?
The basic job of changing a lightbulb they charge £25, even though the halfords shop they share the building with 1 minute walk away charges less to buy and fit it. So it works about the same as if I just get a whole new not done!
Just seems weird that two places in the same building, under the same brand do the same job for a significant difference.
Also they will take a few days to fix it as they need to order the part, the part they are apparently only allowed to buy from car europarts but they will charge me over 150% the cost that I could buy the part for!
Am I a mug going to halfords for an mot or do they all do this?
0
Comments
-
hettyGreek wrote: »My car failed it's mot there and apparently I'll need to pay for a new mot unless they do all of the work.
If you leave your car at the test center and have the work done within 10 days then the retest 'called a partial retest' should be free. If you remove it to get work done else where they are entitled to charge a full fee for a re-test. Note i said they are 'entitled'. The local garage that does my MOTs is more flexible. So long s they get the car back for the retest then they wont charge whoever does the work.hettyGreek wrote: »Am I a mug going to halfords for an mot or do they all do this?
Halfords have a bad reputation on these boards. Personally i wouldnt even trust them to fit a lightbulb but most of the 'chains' typically used for MOTs will charge like this. Always better to find an independent locally.0 -
Only an idiot would not check their lights before going for an MOT.
It is not clear from OPs post, if other part(s) need replacing?"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Ride hard or stay home :iloveyou:0 -
^^ Your going to upset our resident snowflakes.
My Mrs is great, she checks her car quite thoroughly before it's MOT, in fact I have to stop her sometimes and tell her "that's not tested on the MOT". She doesn't have that debilitating condition that a lot of people in the UK suffer from, the "I can't do that" syndrome.“I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an a** of yourself.”
<><><><><><><><><<><><><><><><><><><><><><> Don't forget to like and subscribe \/ \/ \/0 -
I've had both my cars MoT's done by Halfords Autocentre locally (and Nationwide before Halfords bought them out) for about 9 years now, had a light bulb problem a couple of times, fixed it myself on their forecourt (including one time having to borrow a pair of needle nose pliers from them), had it checked by the tester and received the pass cert straight away for no extra cost. I always carry a complete set of spare bulbs in the cars, especially since I put LED's in the MB's sidelights!0
-
If you leave your car at the test center and have the work done within 10 days then the retest 'called a partial retest' should be free. If you remove it to get work done else where they are entitled to charge a full fee for a re-test.
Not any more.
If you take it away and return by the end of the next working day for a retest on certain items (list available here:
http://mottesting.org.uk/mot-retest-information-fail.html ) then they can't charge.
If you take it away and return within 10 working days for any other faults then they can only charge a partial retest. But note that, in that partial retest, it's possible for them to fail something that passed last time.
If it was ONLY the bulb that it failed on and they told you it'd be another test fee if you had it done elsewhere then ask them for their complaint procedure because they're not allowed to use the MOT test for up-selling repairs like that.
Obviously, if there were other fail points as well that aren't on the free list then the above doesn't apply because if you take it away to do the bulb you'll have to pay yhe partial retest on the other stuff anyway.0 -
Bulbs can fail at any time. Even while driving to an MoT test.:cool:
True, it's just a good little earner for them.“I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an a** of yourself.”
<><><><><><><><><<><><><><><><><><><><><><> Don't forget to like and subscribe \/ \/ \/0 -
You know what I did check everything pretty well, I didn't know you could fail for an indicator not being orange enough. They look pretty orange to me and not sure how they quantify it as a fail.
Yes it did fail on something else that I could probably fix myself if I had a week and the time. But figure it's better to pay them the 60 to fix it and it be done in half an hour. Still feel like they are ducking me.
Is it halfords the shop or halfords mot center that gets a bad rep?
I've never paid for the little things to be replaced before as I always check.
I feel like rather than fixing parts they are looking to just replace parts and be wasteful as possible.0 -
Only an idiot would not check their lights before going for an MOT.
I gave my wife's car a thorough check over before taking it to my usual tester. All the lights worked but What I didn't notice was the the rear half of the exhaust system was completely missing from the catalyst back. She hadn't mentioned anything unusual and it wasn't any noisier than usual, despite the back box being awol.
I was a tad embarrassed. In 20+ years of using them, that is my one and only fail.0 -
hettyGreek wrote: »Is it halfords the shop or halfords mot center that gets a bad rep?
The term "Halfrauds" doesn't discriminate.“I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an a** of yourself.”
<><><><><><><><><<><><><><><><><><><><><><> Don't forget to like and subscribe \/ \/ \/0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 343.2K Banking & Borrowing
- 250.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 449.7K Spending & Discounts
- 235.3K Work, Benefits & Business
- 608K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 173K Life & Family
- 247.9K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 15.9K Discuss & Feedback
- 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards