Halfords Stirling damaged my car during an MOT

macphee70

I thought the days of really dodgy car garages had passed, you know the ones where they rip your wiper blades to try and get you to pay £20 for new ones and report faults on your car that ant there.

Well it hasn't as I've just been to the halfords autocentre in Stirling for an MOT and one of the reasons that it failed is because the wiper blades are damaged, yes I agree they are ripped 6 inches in on either side but that's not how the car was presented to the garage. This is damage that this garage has done during an MOT inspection that is meant to only be an inspection and secondly meant to be a safety inspection. So they've made the car unfit to drive during an MOT.

This garage and its examiner should be struck off.

They also missed the advisory on the crack in the windscreen and the crack on the headlines, also an advisory but failed it on the brake discs, so now I have to take it somewhere else to get it retested and they better hope it fails on exactly the same things,

Shower of crooks avoid the Stirling branch of halfords autocentre

jbainbridge

Report them using the details on the fail sheet.

Strider590

Naivety?
Sure they introduced the computerised MOT and fault recording system to help stop dodgy garages using MOT time as an excuse to rip people off and sure it's stopped some of the more major faults being falsely identified (like the old practice of ramming a crowbar through your sils and claiming it's rotten and needs welding), but that was years ago and they've figured out how to get around all that by stacking up minor faults..... Not only that,but if your MOT and VED come up at the same time, they still have you by the balls as it's illegal to drive without a valid MOT (unless to a prebooked MOT) and undoubtedly most people need the MOT quickly in order to get their VED sorted (which is why mine is always staggered by 6 months).

It's sad, but I don't know a single honest garage within 15 miles of my home town, the one I use doesn't normally try anything on because they know i'm not easily fooled. My friends have had issues with them in the past, one took his last car (Clio 182) for MOT, walked home and was passed 2 mins later by his own car being driven at high speed around a roundabout, with the tyres squealing.
When my kit car goes there, even though I stay for the MOT, I lock the rev limiter to 3k rpm.

[Deleted User]

macphee70 wrote: »

I thought the days of really dodgy car garages had passed, you know the ones where they rip your wiper blades to try and get you to pay £20 for new ones and report faults on your car that aren't there.

Kwik Fit are still dodgy. It was only 2 and a bit years ago they tried to fail my car on the emissions test and guarantee me it would pass if I paid them £20 for BG44K engine cleaner.

harveybobbles

Your wipers probably wasn't clearing the screen correctly so they did that to your wipers so you will replace them (for yours and everyone else around you's safety) and so that you don't go back in a few days for a retest and hope you get a different tester who will pass them.

I had a car with a 6 inch crack in the screen that passed an MOT for many years as it wasn't classed as a fail.

Hardly grounds to be struck off.

Astronaughtwannabe

harveybobbles wrote: »

Your wipers probably wasn't clearing the screen correctly so they did that to your wipers so you will replace them (for yours and everyone else around you's safety) and so that you don't go back in a few days for a retest and hope you get a different tester who will pass them.

I had a car with a 6 inch crack in the screen that passed an MOT for many years as it wasn't classed as a fail.

Hardly grounds to be struck off.

And by what right would they do that?


Going back and getting another tester .... For the sake of a couple of wiper blades? Anyway, you're missing the point on that.

straighttalker

OP, every MOT station has a viewing area. Did you sit there and watch them actually rip your wiper blades?

macphee70

harveybobbles wrote: »

Your wipers probably wasn't clearing the screen correctly so they did that to your wipers so you will replace them (for yours and everyone else around you's safety) and so that you don't go back in a few days for a retest and hope you get a different tester who will pass them.

I had a car with a 6 inch crack in the screen that passed an MOT for many years as it wasn't classed as a fail.

Hardly grounds to be struck off.

Nope wipers were fine because I checked them before I left the house for the MOT centre, I've also had the other one independently checked by another garage and its fine too.

Of course they should be struck off that's malicious damage to private property, they are lucky I haven't called the police (yet) The MOT is a safety test and by doing what they did they made my vehicle unsafe. Dodgy garage wont be going back there ever.

macphee70

straighttalker wrote: »

OP, every MOT station has a viewing area. Did you sit there and watch them actually rip your wiper blades?

Nope and I've now learnt from that mistake, thank you halfords in Stirling for that, I did sit in the waiting room for a while and noticed the tester looking back very sheepishly as he leant over the car..

I also keep an eye on wiper blades, tyres, lights on my car and fix them when they need fixing, these blades were in a pass conditions until Halfords autocentre in Stirling pulled them apart. Thungs and crooks.

macphee70

harveybobbles wrote: »

Your wipers probably wasn't clearing the screen correctly so they did that to your wipers so you will replace them (for yours and everyone else around you's safety) and so that you don't go back in a few days for a retest and hope you get a different tester who will pass them.

I had a car with a 6 inch crack in the screen that passed an MOT for many years as it wasn't classed as a fail.

Hardly grounds to be struck off.

So if your garage had smashed in your windscreen you would have accepted that? It would be safer that way than a 6 inch crack in the windscreen - which I'm assuming was neither in Zone A or B given that it kept passing.

Where do you deem the limit is for damaging your car to get parts replaced? screwdriver in the exhast, nail in the tyre? cutting the brake lines?

An MOT is an inspection test, its non-destructive, that's not what I received in the Stirling Halfords Autocentre

Retrogamer

Is it possible that when the tester was checking the wipers for damage the rubber was so weak that when pulled it ripped?
Normally you need to pull it gently to check for cracks and tears but if the rubber is old it can tear from this gentle pull from becoming weak.

I'm not saying it is or isn't an accident or on purpose but i can't see them damaging it on purpose. If you could see the inspector performing the test from where you were it would seem a bit risky to damage them on purpose.

The advisory for the windscreen and headlight crack are optional. There is no obligation for the MOT inspector to mention them.