kwik fit,no help with MOT

purpleboy

After contacting them 4 times with emails and sending a letter they still have not got back in touch with me---


just a vent from me and yes i was fully aware of kwik fit before i went and what they have done in the past but a simple MOT could not be that hard for them.




Dear kwik fit customer services car reg-*******
Re- Mot test at ********11th of April
Mot test number**************
Location -****** kwik fit branch



I write to you in a total state of shock today after the way I was treated at your ******* branch of kwik fit, here is my experience-
It was the time of year again for my MOT and i booked it on the fantastic website that you have at a convenient time to myself and promptly turned up to my local branch.
Upon parking the car in the spacious new car park and entering the building i overhear the kwik fit employee at the counter using such language to his fellow employee that i was left discussed and felt rather sick at the way they were freely chatting so crudely about their weekend in such an unprofessional way in front of a cutomer, but I can rise above this as it just seemed to be normal for them.
As the 2 chaps in front of me could not some up a good morning or even a little smile towards me i introduced myself and asked how long the MOT would take?


An hour or so seemed fine and a hot cup of coffee and wait in the new customer room would be great.


Then an hour or so later I hear the words “Volvo” “Volvo” “VOLVO” “VOLVO” getting loader,ah,must be Mr ********* i think they mean the Volvo owner he is calling as i am 1 of 2 customers sitting waiting in the room.
The chap proceeds to tell me the car has failed the MOT, no problem I say and he shows me the list.


I then asked him that he has said that I have less than 1.6mm on the two front tyres and they are illegal and very dangerous in his words but when I had checked them that very morning they had a lot more on them than 1.6mm on my device for tyre tread testing and got 3-4mm.


He quotes me £444 for 4 new tyres and i ask him what are the reading on the 2 rear tyres as he tells me they are “close to the limit of 1.6mm”,he then proceeds to evade my question for over 5 minutes and will not tell me the exact reading of the tyres also asked him what he means by “travel on the rear brake” means?, so i can understand what i would be paying for when the job has been fixed, he then waffled on for nearly 10 minutes about the internal rear brake system at which point he still did not explain what was wrong to make it fail the brake test.


I then asked him what was wrong with the N/S ? front light as it had failed and i wanted to understand why and what it would take to fix it?, he evaded the question and would not answer a simple question, as this was the 4th straight question he had not answered I gave up and requested a re-test on Wednesday the 18th of April at ****am and promptly left the store relived to have fresh air etc.


I decided i needed to get all the work done elsewhere and quickly as my tyres were not legal according to the MOT tester.
On the drive home (3 miles) it got me thinking that maybe I was wrong on my tyre tread check and i should get an second opinion from a reputable local garage, they then test the tyres and they have as follows on them in their opinion and it’s from a professional MOT tester opinion.
Front 3.6 mm on 75% of the tyre left and 3.2mm on the right
Rear 3.7 mm on 75% of the tyre on the left and 3.4mm in the right


Now for a 3rd opinion I went to the ATS store in ******* for a free tyre check and they tell me that they are as follows-
Front 3.5-6 on front left and 3.2 on the right
Rear 3.7 mm on the left and 3.4 on the right


I was extremely confused at this point as to who is correct.
They then test the brakes on the machine at tell me that there is nothing wrong as they are at 24% on rear and i just need the handbrake adjusting, a simple job of 20 minutes and maybe i would benefit from a rear brake inspection to confirm and a simple clean and grease on the rears as a precaution and i agree so that upon returning for my re test at kwik fit it will pass along with having the front head light readjusted and a new bulb fitted etc.


I decided on a new set of tyres as they were low and I use my car 6 days a week and was given a super deal on tyres elsewhere and needed the mot completing ASAP.


I telephoned the store (*******) to re –arrange the test earlier and asked if there would be a charge and he could not tell me as he was “busy” and the manager would sort it when I came in, this was not satisfactory in any way, shape or form in my eyes.


I then took my car back for a re- test at ****** kwik fit on the 12th of April at 10am but as i pull in to the car park at kwik fit i can see that my hands free mobile phone system is ringing in the car and it is kwik fit ******* calling me,i get out of the car to be greeted by the manager who tells me that due to the computer system being down for over an hour there will be no re-test today.


He tells me he has just tried to call me at 955am,5 minutes before my appointment and after me driving 45 minutes to get there!!!!!!.


The manager was absolutely no help and did not even try to apologies to me or as to why he had not tried to contact me earlier and cancel, what i object to is i took an extra day off work un-paid for this appointment and lost over £**** in wages that day.


The manger was absolutely no help and could not offer a suggestion to sort this problem apart from “ring me the next day”.


I had to suggest myself maybe he should call anther kwik fit centre locally and book me a re-test today as you have a “next working day for a no fee re-test” to which he denied all knowledge of this policy of kwik fit, strange it is quite clearly stated on the kwik fit website I inform him.


I explained to him that this is the worst service I have ever received from kwik fit in over 8 years of using them and spending over £7000 on various cars I have at home in my family and will not use them again to which he replies “what ever”.

Anyhow I got an appointment at the ******* branch 20 miles away for my MOT re-test the same day and was very happy with the service and customer care skills I received there and would highly recommend this branch to anyone who asks.

To end my letter/experience/complaint I would just like to highlight the way I was treated by the staff at the ******store and the way they could not explain anything to me so i was able to fix the problems to atchive my MOT test and the potential £600+ bill that i nearly had from kwik fit that actually only cost £104 to be fixed for the MOT test as after all the tyres were legal and not under 3mm on any of the 4 tyres.


Yours sincerely and awaiting your response


Mr ****** *******

davetrousers

purpleboy wrote: »

i overhear the kwik fit employee at the counter using such language to his fellow employee that i was left discussed

could not some up

Have you sent this yet? Think you mean disgusted and sum up.

I stopped reading after this.

Why would anyone go to Kwik Fit anyway?

verityboo

I was under the impression that complaint letters should be as short as poossible stressing the main points without waffle. Also, if a response is requested I think its best to make clear what you actually want.

Sorry to hear about your experience but I think if you get any response it be just be a standard ' we'll take your comments on board' type letter

s_b

fell asleep thankfully otherwise im sure i would have cut my wrists trying to read the Forsyte Saga

mgdavid

purpleboy wrote: »

.....yes i was fully aware of kwik fit before i went and what they have done in the past but a simple MOT could not be that hard for them.........

you failed the logic test - nuff said.

david39

When writing a letter of complaint, you should sum up your grumbles in about half an A4 page at most and, if you feel necessary to go into detail, attach it as a supplemental item on another sheet.

That way, your main complaint will be read and the reader will be able to see what you are expecting them to do about it.

With your letter, the reader will lose interest after the first paragraph, then skip to the end to see if there is any threat of legal action and finally put it in the pending tray for someone to send a sterotype sorry-we-have-upset-you response.

vax2002

You will get nowhere, they are trained to SELL and SELL they will by failing cars with a list of easy to swap in stock parts that never go beyond the experience of the fast fit bandits to work.
If you are truly annoyed do what I did when a Pontefract garage failed my wifes car and refused to give me the keys backs as it was too dangerous to drive, demanding £700 of repairs.
Used the spare key and drove it straight out, went to another MOT station with the failure sheet, they could not find any of these serious faults, the death trap shock absorbers had been sprayed with old engine oil, the bolts in the tie bar ends had been loosened which they tightened.
They advised I appeal the failure before they did any more work and wrote me a letter about the loosened bolts.
I took the car to a place in Lofthouse where they examined the long list in detail, took lots of photos, thanked me and asked if required I would be a witness.
It was not required the garage admitted the fraud and permanently lost its MOT testing status, they "dont do" warnings apparently.

So perhaps look at how to appeal the refusal to issue a certificate.

Notmyrealname

THe thing is, had the OP not had two new tyres put on and other work done then they could have put a complaint into VOSA and challenged the MOT. VOSA would then have found what they'd done and there would have been serious repercussions far more than would have happened from sending a letter which is likely to end up in file 13.

Idiophreak

You seriously need to re-read that letter, OP - or at least put it through a spell checker. "Achieve" and "atchive" are some distance apart.

What I don't understand is that you claim to have had 2 other places tell you that you had about 2mm of tread left in your tyres, yet you still decided to have them changed then and there? Are you really that rich?

Witchfinder_General

I lost the will to live at the first major spelling mistake.

worried_jim

I don't know which is the biggest shocker-
-The grammar
-That Kwik Fitt tried to rip you off
-Two grease monkeys shared a dirty joke.

Good luck with the complaint though.