Car failed MOT for incorrect reasons, what can I do?

MrDoppler

Hi all!

Recently my car was in for an MOT at my nearby Halfords, I've taken my other cars there in past years and they've been perfectly fine. This year I took mine there and they failed it on its shock absorbers, headlight adjustment and handbrake efficiency. I knew it would fail on the headlights and handbrake but not the shocks as they seemed perfectly fine. They quoted me nearly £700 to replace them.

I took the car to another garage to, hopefully, get a cheaper quote. After booking my car in at the garage the next day, as they didn't have one of the replacement shocks yet, I decided to leave the car there. The next day I got a call from them to as me to come in to check something, upon arriving I was informed that there was nothing wrong with the shocks at all but there was some pretty bad rust. Three different qualified MOT examiners had checked the shocks along with myself and the car is still in that garage now for repairs to the rust, handbrake and headlight and won't get it back until Monday next week which they will also be MOTing it.

I'm self-employed and now losing a week of earnings while the car is in for repairs, half of that was because of Halfords failing to MOT the car properly, the car would've been repaired by now if Halfords had done their job properly. What can I do about this? How can I potentially go about getting a refund? I've tried searching online but can't really find any answers that I understand.

Thanks for any help!

DiddyDavies

What exactly was the reason for the shock absorber failure? and how many of them failed?
This will be shown on the paperwork that you received 

Aylesbury_Duck

You can report the Halfords MoT centre but if in their view the shocks were a concern, they may argue they've done nothing wrong.  Similarly with the rust; if it's a borderline issue then it might be a fail at one centre, an advisory at another and maybe even a pass at another.  Some things like that have a degree of subjectivity to them unlike a light or a seatbelt which either works or doesn't. 

To be frank, if you rely on the car for your earnings, you've been negligent driving around in a car you knew would fail an MOT on headlights and handbrake.  What else might be wrong with it?  Your insurer would take a dim view of it, I'm sure.  If your attitude is to run your works vehicle into the ground between MOTs then it's unsurprising it's now failed on rust as well.

DiddyDavies

Aylesbury_Duck said:

To be frank, if you rely on the car for your earnings, you've been negligent driving around in a car you knew would fail an MOT on headlights and handbrake. 

Not only negligent as depending on the reason for the shock absorber fail and on the measured efficiency of the handbrake, the OP could have been driving illegally by taking the car to another garage.

williamgriffin

MrDoppler said:

Hi all!

Recently my car was in for an MOT at my nearby Halfords, I've taken my other cars there in past years and they've been perfectly fine. This year I took mine there and they failed it on its shock absorbers, headlight adjustment and handbrake efficiency. I knew it would fail on the headlights and handbrake but not the shocks as they seemed perfectly fine. They quoted me nearly £700 to replace them.

I took the car to another garage to, hopefully, get a cheaper quote. After booking my car in at the garage the next day, as they didn't have one of the replacement shocks yet, I decided to leave the car there. The next day I got a call from them to as me to come in to check something, upon arriving I was informed that there was nothing wrong with the shocks at all but there was some pretty bad rust. Three different qualified MOT examiners had checked the shocks along with myself and the car is still in that garage now for repairs to the rust, handbrake and headlight and won't get it back until Monday next week which they will also be MOTing it.

I'm self-employed and now losing a week of earnings while the car is in for repairs, half of that was because of Halfords failing to MOT the car properly, the car would've been repaired by now if Halfords had done their job properly. What can I do about this? How can I potentially go about getting a refund? I've tried searching online but can't really find any answers that I understand.

Thanks for any help!

Your car failed you took it elsewhere for repair so what have Halfords done wrong?

photome

I am at a bit of a loss, it reads to me that you took your car to another garage who kept it for repair ( regardless of wether it was shocks or rust)  so how did Halfords cost you a week without a vehicle

Carrot007

MrDoppler said:

Recently my car was in for an MOT at my nearby Halfords

I knew it would fail on the headlights and handbrake but not the shocks as they seemed perfectly fine.

What can I do about this?

Be thankfull you did not get a fine for dreiving an unroadworthy vehicle and learn to take things for fixing when needed?

As for a refund, probably just differing opinions. Why go to halfords when you have this better other garage anyway? You can report them, but nothing will occur unless your car is not fixed for an independent assessment first. As for a refund. Again independent assessment and do without car or pass on it.

Hasbeen

The ops post does give an insight to what people think these days though 

Ditzy_Mitzy

The way I read this is that the OP was happily driving around in a car with defective headlights and a dud handbrake.  He took it to Halfords for an MOT test, which the car failed on the known issues plus dodgy shock absorbers.  Halfords's quote to repair the suspension was excessive so he took it to another garage and asked them to quote for repair to the suspension.  Doing that is legal, as I understand it.  
The second garage examined the suspension in preparation for fitment of the new shock absorbers and, to the OP's benefit, declared the shocks that were on there O.K.  Or possibly just about good enough to hang in there for another year, which means they would pass the MOT test.  To the OP's chagrin, however, the second garage also discovered rust underneath the car which would result in MOT failure.  As a result the car has been/is being welded and will then be put through for a year's test, which we assume it will pass.
OP now seems irritated because Halfords didn't identify the rust issue and apparently would have passed the car in its rusty state.  The OP feels that would have been a good thing, although common sense may say otherwise.  He also believes Halfords should not have failed the car on the shock absorbers as the second garage was happy with them.  
In sum:  OP wanted the car to pass its MOT without repairs to either the bodywork or the suspension.  That did not happen, so he now wants a refund from God only knows who because it took a week to have his unroadworthy car made roadworthy.  
I think....  

DiddyDavies

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

The way I read this is that the OP was happily driving around in a car with defective headlights and a dud handbrake.  He took it to Halfords for an MOT test, which the car failed on the known issues plus dodgy shock absorbers.  Halfords's quote to repair the suspension was excessive so he took it to another garage and asked them to quote for repair to the suspension.  Doing that is legal, as I understand it.  

Maybe, maybe not. It all depends on exactly what the suspension and handbrake failures were.

Grumpy_chap

MrDoppler said:

I'm self-employed and now losing a week of earnings while the car is in for repairs, half of that was because of Halfords failing to MOT the car properly, the car would've been repaired by now if Halfords had done their job properly. 

I'm certain that, whatever redress you may have against Halfords (if any), it will not include consequential loss.
If you are self-employed and rely on the vehicle for work, then the vehicle should be maintained in tip-top condition regardless (so that impact events such as this are less likely) and your business plan should include some contingency for the non-availability of the car, such as hire car, another car that can be borrowed, public transport, UBER, etc., etc.  Lots of ways of getting to work if your car is off the road.