Urgent help required halfords auto centre mot failure

Beckyf84_2

New member here but hoping someone can advise me:

I took my car to my local Halfords A C last saturday for an MOT, i had previously taken my car to them the day before xmas eve for a brake check and they had advised me that i needed break discs and pads all round and the cost came to over £700 (we are a low income family with 4 children, 2 of which are disabled so i rely on my car heavily) i was on my own, i was crying hysterically as we don't have that kind of money to lay out and in the end i had to agree to do the 4 month payment plan to have them fixed which i'm paying at £170 pm over 4 months.

Anyway i drop the car for its MOT they recognised me obviously they don't get many hysterical women wailing in their garage and i left my car and the keys with them and walked into town with my children. Two hours later i walked back as i hadn't heard from them and my car was parked out in the car park and i thought 'ah great must be good news' as i walked into the office the man looked at me and said your not going to be happy, i asked what the damage was and he told me that as soon as they hooked my car up to the emissions test it failed immediately, and in fact he told me it was almost off the scale and that my car 'filled his workshop with black smoke'.
well i was horrified but didn't expect what he told me next, he showed me the failure sheet and it had 2 side light bulbs needed replacing, a reg plate light replacing, a new wiper blade on the front, the CV boot had a crack in it so needed replacing and then the big one.. he told me my car needed a new DPF Filter!!

i asked him how much this would all set me back and it was around £170 for the CV boot and £469 for the DPF, that's not including the labour and the little bulbs and wiper blades that needed replacing. i was shell shocked, we had no money like this at all and we were using all our savings to pay for a little holiday for our children which we had already paid a deposit on back in august so our savings were for that and now had to be used for the car, but the car is our priority.
I drove away with there quote devastated, plus they couldn't fit me in to do the work until a week Thursday so 4 children school rounds to do, work to get to and no car!
Anyway long story short my dad told me to shop around and see if any other garages could fit me in sooner as i need the car to get my children to school and i contacted a garage in my area that my friend had used has brilliant reviews and they were a DPF specialist garage, they could fit me in on the Tuesday to take a look, they investigated and turns out that the DPF was completely fine, they agreed with all the other things, cv boot, lights etc but nothing wrong with the emissions, in fact they retested my car and it passed with flying colours first time they didn't even need to do a forced regen or a clean etc they fixed all the little bits, the CV boot and retested the car and passed it and all for under £200.

The damage was already done though, we had cancelled the children's holiday (i know it was probably stupid of me to do that just on the word of halfords but i was emotional and panicking and i trusted them) so myself i lost £500 deposit and my mother in law lost £300 and my sister lost £300 as our holidays were all booked together and linked.

Question is do i have a case to complain? also can i recover any costs, loss of deposit for holiday or emotional distress as i have anxiety and the worry and stress has made me ill.

if i do complain how do i go about it and who do i complain to or contact?

Any help at all is very much appreciated, Thank you

Nasqueron

Remember with diesels with DPF you need to do regular long drives at good steady speed to clean them up, doing lots of school runs and that sort of driving is bad for them.


Now you know the expense is not needed, why not ask the firm if you can book them again?


You chose to cancel the holiday based on that say so, I can't see how you can blame Halfords for that when you could have got a second opinion

Beckyf84_2

Nasqueron wrote: »

Remember with diesels with DPF you need to do regular long drives at good steady speed to clean them up, doing lots of school runs and that sort of driving is bad for them.


Now you know the expense is not needed, why not ask the firm if you can book them again?


You chose to cancel the holiday based on that say so, I can't see how you can blame Halfords for that when you could have got a second opinion

because there was nothing wrong with the emissions at all so they had lied? they told me in no uncertain terms my car NEEDS a new DPF Filter and that it failed so badly on the test it was like nothing they had ever seen yet 2 days later (not having driven the car at all as the MOT had failed) it passed straight away with good levels>?

Broadyx

Unfortunately I doubt very much you can get the deposit money back, it isn't Halfords fault that you chose to cancel the holiday.
You of course can complain about the service you have received but there is no guarantee what you will get back - complain to the store first / head office & see how you get on.

AdrianC

Beckyf84 wrote: »

I took my car to my local Halfords A C last saturday for an MOT, i had previously taken my car to them the day before xmas eve for a brake check and they had advised me that i needed break discs and pads all round and the cost came to over £700

Apart from the total non-surprise that they suggested you needed discs and pads, that is a ridiculously high figure. What car are we talking about?

he showed me the failure sheet and it had 2 side light bulbs needed replacing, a reg plate light replacing, a new wiper blade on the front

But you knew about all of those cheap minor consumables already, right...?

Question is do i have a case to complain?

For what? They didn't do the work.

also can i recover any costs, loss of deposit for holiday or emotional distress

No. You got a high quote, you shopped around, you got the problem fixed elsewhere cheaper.

DPFs give problems if used for unsuitable driving patterns - like constant short journeys. This is not news.
The car failed the test on emissions because of a clogged DPF, typical of a car that's been used for constant short journeys. One place said "You need a new filter", the other said "It can be cleaned instead of replaced". Cleaning may be a long-term solution, or it may not. Only time will tell. If you don't change your car or your driving pattern, you can bet that DPF problems will return sooner or later.

Beckyf84 wrote: »

...yet 2 days later (not having driven the car at all as the MOT had failed) it passed straight away with good levels>?

So why did the other garage clean the filter? Did they do that before or after they tested it?

waamo

They aren't called Halfrauds for nothing as you have sadly found out.

As others have said cancelling the holiday was a rash decision and not their fault. Never use them again.

Beckyf84_2

The other garage didn’t clean the dpf?

Broadyx

But Halfords didn't do the work - you would be complaining about a quote.

AdrianC

Beckyf84 wrote: »

The other garage didn’t clean the dpf?

Ah, sorry - I misread "they didn't even need to do a forced regen".

Perhaps they simply got the car hot enough to regen itself automatically.
Perhaps Halfords did fake the emissions. But since somebody else has worked on the car, you can no longer appeal the test.
https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/problems-with-your-test-result

Herzlos

I don't think you'd get the deposits back - do you have any opportunity to re-instate the holidays?


Complain anyway and see what they say, you could also try and report them to VOSA for the dodgy MOT and Trading Standards (via Citizens Advice), complain on their facebook and review sites for all the other stuff. It's almost certain you didn't need a full set of brake discs and pads, and if you did, £700 is crazy (I got a full set for about £350 for a sports car).



Never use Halfords again unless it's changing a bulb/wiper you know needs it in advance, and make sure your friends don't either.

gardner1

OP....you've learnt a hard lesson but in the future once you find an honest garage stick to it
Avoid crooks like Halfords & Kwikfit