Kwik Fit £30 MOT...Scam???

Joe_Horner

The maximum allowed MOT fee of £54.85 is about £5 to VOSA and the rest to the garage. Assuming an hour per test that's not a great rate seeing as for general garages it has to cover the purchase, maintenance and upgrading of the MOT equipment - how many non-MOT garages do you know who have a roller brake tester installed? Or the calibrates tapley meter that they also need for cars that can't be rollered?

For places like MOT-only companies or chains like KF, who have dedicated MOT bays in constant use, it still adds up even if they discount. They may hope to get extra work out of advisories but they don't need to, and generally won't risk, inventing fails. The penalties are severe, up to and including criminal charges if a chain was doing that as a matter of (even unofficial) policy.

The chances are, with the OP, that the £20 additive made no difference, but a good blast around before the retest did. Especially if most of the OP's mileage is in town?

salubrious

Joe_Horner wrote: »

For places like MOT-only companies or chains like KF, who have dedicated MOT bays in constant use, it still adds up even if they discount. They may hope to get extra work out of advisories but they don't need to, and generally won't risk, inventing fails. The penalties are severe, up to and including criminal charges if a chain was doing that as a matter of (even unofficial) policy.

That is a very naive opinion, you clearly do not work within the motor trade or you'd be more wiser to the practices some establishments employ.

Joe_Horner

salubrious wrote: »

That is a very naive opinion, you clearly do not work within the motor trade or you'd be more wiser to the practices some establishments employ.

I know perfetly well what practices some places use, but the big chains aren't among them. They simply can't afford to be because they're too high profile and too easy to target. Any garage (and individual tester) caught trying dodgy tactics is likely to lose it's tesing licence - especially if it's doing so regularly.

The moment that happens to a branch of a national chain two things will happen. The press will get interested, and VOSA wil start looking at the others in the chain to see if it's a one-off or "institutional". Neither of those are good for business

What the big chains will do is scare up a big list of advisories (perfectly legitiately) and suggest that the near-the-limit-but-passed brake pads must also have disks changed, probably fluid flushed, and maybe a caliper or two "for safety, Sir".

They then (legitimately) leave it to the customer's sense of "safety first" to do a whole load of work that isn't really needed but they can't actually be faulted for suggesting.

They also like to sell magic potions which include taking it for an Italian Tuneup when the thrashing on its own would have done exactly the same thing.

goonarmy

Thrifty_Ruby wrote: »

Hi All,

Need some advise! My Husband took my Fiat Panda ActiveEco 1.1 for its first MOT Its only done 10.000miles & has been seviced & is like showroom! We usually use a local guy who takes our cars for their MOT's but as this was the first one for my Panda we took advantage of the Special Offer at Kwik Fit for £30. I booked online & my Husband took it in on Tuesday! Shock Horror it failed on Emissions! My Husband is NO petrol head so was told by the staff that there was a minor leak of exhaust gases from exhaust! Then the guy said he would fill it???? My husband asked how much it would cost & he said £20. The guy then took the car for a run & retested & said i tpassed but he was removing the Advisory item (Exhaust leak) off the MOT form!
Now I feel Scammed!!! On the bill it stated I have been charged for BG44K Fuel Additive for £20 & no mention of a repair to the Exhaust! This sounds very fishy to me as I am sure Kwik Fit don't do anything for nothing!
Help!!! Have I been ripped off?
Dx

You list two seperate "issues" on the mot test(wether they are fails or not).
1 leaking exhaust. A bit of gun gum fill would possibky sort it.
2 emissions. A small low milage engine like yours will be likely to fail due to lack of use. And yep injector cleaner would sort it. Twenty quid seems about right for that. Even though a decent run with a bit of redex would have sorted it.
So fifty notes for a mot with two problems=pretty resonable.
Id recomend joining a car forum and learning what is tested on a mot.

pstuart

salubrious wrote: »

That is a very naive opinion, you clearly do not work within the motor trade or you'd be more wiser to the practices some establishments employ.

We have to deal with Kwikfit due one car leased to my wife via Motability.

This car was taken by me into a Kwikfit depot and I was lied to - not bul1sh.tted but lied to.
After a complaint was made to their HO, an area manager phoned, apologised and said that he would "have a word with them".

He was probably scared due their big Motability contract - I was under the impression that this was the only reason that he called - and I didn't get their usual email PR stock answer,

I have had many years in the motor trade and am perfectly aware of the targets set by the big companies. meaning that many staff can and have sailed very close to the wind - this MOT business comes as no surprise!

OddballJamie

goonarmy wrote: »

You list two seperate "issues" on the mot test(wether they are fails or not).
1 leaking exhaust. A bit of gun gum fill would possibky sort it.
2 emissions. A small low milage engine like yours will be likely to fail due to lack of use. And yep injector cleaner would sort it. Twenty quid seems about right for that. Even though a decent run with a bit of redex would have sorted it.
So fifty notes for a mot with two problems=pretty resonable.
Id recomend joining a car forum and learning what is tested on a mot.

I was thinking the same thing with the mileage. An Italian tune-up would've had the same effect. At £50 all in it's still cheaper than a lot of main dealers are charging and much better than some of the horror stories I've heard from people going the big chains.

Talk with your feet and next year go the council test centre.
In the meantime write a stern letter and send it to KwikFit recorded post, wouldn't waste your time worrying over £20 for anything else.

scheming_gypsy

Thrifty_Ruby wrote: »

Hi All,

Need some advise! My Husband took my Fiat Panda ActiveEco 1.1 for its first MOT Its only done 10.000miles & has been seviced & is like showroom! We usually use a local guy who takes our cars for their MOT's but as this was the first one for my Panda we took advantage of the Special Offer at Kwik Fit for £30. I booked online & my Husband took it in on Tuesday! Shock Horror it failed on Emissions! My Husband is NO petrol head so was told by the staff that there was a minor leak of exhaust gases from exhaust! Then the guy said he would fill it???? My husband asked how much it would cost & he said £20. The guy then took the car for a run & retested & said i tpassed but he was removing the Advisory item (Exhaust leak) off the MOT form!
Now I feel Scammed!!! On the bill it stated I have been charged for BG44K Fuel Additive for £20 & no mention of a repair to the Exhaust! This sounds very fishy to me as I am sure Kwik Fit don't do anything for nothing!
Help!!! Have I been ripped off?
Dx

the minor leak of exhaust gasses would be what it failed the emissions on. They whacked some fuel additives in followed by a run to warm the engine up (which would probably have sorted it on its own), re-tested and passed it for you.
There's no need for it on the advisory any more as they fixed it.

not sure where the scam is. Next year don't drive straight to the MOT station, quick Italian tun-up and then take it in.

salubrious

Joe_Horner wrote: »

I know perfetly well what practices some places use, but the big chains aren't among them. They simply can't afford to be because they're too high profile and too easy to target. Any garage (and individual tester) caught trying dodgy tactics is likely to lose it's tesing licence - especially if it's doing so regularly.

The moment that happens to a branch of a national chain two things will happen. The press will get interested, and VOSA wil start looking at the others in the chain to see if it's a one-off or "institutional". Neither of those are good for business

I deal with problems from the likes of kwik fit on a weekly basis - It's easy to use the mot scheme incorrectly, and not be proven so and that is what kwik fit do.

You would know this if you worked within the trade.

j0nathon2

TrickyWicky wrote: »

MOT rates are set by VOSA. £30 is below the minimum VOSA rate so the MOT station are basically fishing for business and mugs. Congratulations, you fitted the bill perfectly.

My local garage charges £25.

First year I got an advisory on a tyre (they are a tyre place btw) but they didn't even suggest or ask if I wanted it replaced then, and it was genuinely low.

Second year I got a clear pass.

I don't think they're all just looking to scam. £25 is their permanent rate, with free 10 retest within 10 days.

spacey2012

There is no hard evidence anything stuck in your fuel tank actually works, including "injector cleaner"