halfords fitting service damaged my car!

highstx

I have a ford focus sport and the main bulb went in my right front light so I stopped of at halfords as it was dark and had a long motorway jurney ahead of me, so I paid the £6.99 fitting service.

Turns out the young lad had fitted it wrong as the bulb was facing up and causin the light to shine down at a steep angle, so went back yesterday to have them take a look. The lad could see it was out of line and long story short after 20-30 mins of messing around he couldn't fix it, and told me if it was damaged as a result of fitting halfords would pay and suggested I take it to my ford dealer!

When I got home I took a look my self and managed to fit it correct the lad was doing it all wrong and in a result has damaged the electronic connector and also the main housin the for lamp a bit.

They said they would cover costs and fitting but I'm after advice on what I'm entitled to claim from them for example that was meant to be a £6.99 hassle free fitting for convenience has result in me fitting it, making two trips to halfords 15 mile round trip each time. My personal time driving back and forth as well as cost and about an hour so far at halfords.

I've also had to call the main dealer on an 0845 number from my mobile to request a quote and fax sent to halfords prox about 10+ mins. And have yet to make a trip to my dealer to have the parts fitted etc

Overall I'm prob looking at about 60-80 miles driving, around 3-4 hours driving and no doubt about 3 hours if not more of my personal time wasted.

I'm really hacked of to say the least!

somethingcorporate

Probably your £5.99 fitting charge back for a start!

You might be able to wangle something for the petrol and phone bill - so about £10 maybe?

Everyone has to spend time doing stuff, not sure you are entitled to claim for your "time" but probably a bit more for the inconvenience you've had to go through.

Have you had a quote for fixing the damage? you should include this.

If you write a nicely worded letter to the HO about the shoddy service then I would have thought you would get a bit for the whole ordeal.

highstx

The dealership quoted £140 ish which covered fitting too, and asked them to fax the quote to the store in question.

Nine_Lives

I highly doubt you'll be able to claim for EVERYTHING!

I had to wake up at 8am, i usually wake up at 8:30am, i was so inconvenienced.
I then discovered all the coco pops had gone, this made me flip my lid & i threw my bowl at the cereal cupboard, which then dropped and smashed into a million splintered pieces.

I want refunding for this also.

It could go on & get silly. I'd say you'll be very lucky to get refunded on your fuel costs & anything on those lines.

I'd say:

* fitting fee: £6.99
* get a garage to fix the fault (don't know if their T&Cs would specify main dealer only or not) and get a receipt - i'd expect refund of this as well

And that is that. Good luck on anything else, but don't expect it.

I don't know about Focus bulbs, but i'd never pay a Halfords worker anything to fit a bulb on mine. I saw someone paying a Halfords worker to fit some wiper blades & i'm thinking come on honestly. The instructions are often on the box & it's not really difficult. Just have a try first!! It may only be £1.99 or £2.99 whatever it is, but do people have money to burn? If so, please send it my way!!

Although if anything like the Escort bulb i was working on one time, that had a really stupid retaining clip on which took me forever to get back in place on the drivers side i think it was (or passenger - one of them).

kajstring24

K_P83 wrote: »

I highly doubt you'll be able to claim for EVERYTHING!

I had to wake up at 8am, i usually wake up at 8:30am, i was so inconvenienced.
I then discovered all the coco pops had gone, this made me flip my lid & i threw my bowl at the cereal cupboard, which then dropped and smashed into a million splintered pieces.

To be fair, if those events were to happen that would be the fault of family members/partner or yourself. Pretty different context to what the OP is describing.

Becles

K_P83 wrote: »

I don't know about Focus bulbs, but i'd never pay a Halfords worker anything to fit a bulb on mine.

It depends on the model of Focus. My left hand bulb went and he had to remove the whole headlight to change the bulb. This involved him getting a long handed spanner to undo some bolts underneath the car, plus the bolts on the top of the light and he had to loosen the grill and pull that forward to get the headlight out. It took a while to take it out and then put it all back together again. As it was icy cold and snowing and I don't have a long handled spanner, it was worth paying the fitting fee and getting someone else to do it

Nine_Lives

kajstring24 wrote: »

To be fair, if those events were to happen that would be the fault of family members/partner or yourself. Pretty different context to what the OP is describing.

Some times you have to get a bit silly and go to the extremes to make a point.
My point was that it'd be unrealistic to expect a refund on fuel used. What if OP drove from his house to Halfords via France? They're not going to pay fuel, but i would congratulate OP if he got Halfords to pay it.

Fitting fee & repair fee is fair though.



As for the headlight in the last post - is that really how a bulb HAS to be done on a Focus? Makes me not want to get a Focus.
It's like the speedo unit on a MK4 Astra. You can either whip it out quickly in 10 minutes if you're happy to pull it THROUGH the steering wheel, but if you did it the 'proper' way you'd be removing the steering wheel & surround too.
There's often more than 1 way to tackle a job.

bris

They told you to go to a dealership but you chose to do it yourself, you may have shot yourself in the foot by allowing them to claim you could have caused the damage yourself. The agreed to pay for Ford to correctly fit it, they won't be so helpful if you go in now claiming for damages as well as time and petrol money.

molerat

K_P83 wrote: »

As for the headlight in the last post - is that really how a bulb HAS to be done on a Focus? Makes me not want to get a Focus.

The official way is to remove the battery which can bring its own problems. If you have little girly hands you may be able to do it but the other problem is getting the cover back on which has to be fitted under lugs and the battery stops it from angling back far enough. I can do it in 10 mins taking the headlight out, usually the quickest way.

bod1467

If you want/need to change a bulb in the rear light cluster (either side) of a Citroen C3 you need to remove the whole cluster assembly!

Oh for the days when self-service/maintenance was relatively easy.

timbstoke

K_P83 wrote: »

Some times you have to get a bit silly and go to the extremes to make a point.
My point was that it'd be unrealistic to expect a refund on fuel used. What if OP drove from his house to Halfords via France? They're not going to pay fuel, but i would congratulate OP if he got Halfords to pay it.

Fitting fee & repair fee is fair though.

Why is it unrealistic? If the OP drove to a store 15 miles away when there's one at the end of his road, then maybe you'd have a point, but even then, his complaint is with that particular store. He incurred additional fuel costs as a result of their mistake, and I don't see why he shouldn't be reimbursed for that. Time can't be claimed for, but fuel is a legitimate cost which can be recovered.

I'd start by being polite and nice about it, but operating under the assumption that you're being fully reimbursed for petrol. Don't be ridiculous about the cost of petrol, but something along the lines of this should be fine:

"Dear Sir,

as agreed during our visit of <date>, please see my attached breakdown of costs and Dealer's quote:

Repair: £140
Refund of faulty fitting: £6
Petrol costs (30 miles @ £x/mile): £x
Total amount due: £x

I look forward to receipt of the above amount. "

They're already shelling out £140, another tenner or so isn't exactly going to break the bank, and they'll probably consider it not worth arguing to maintain goodwill.