Don't think I'll use KwikFit again

Mr_Toad

If you take your car to Kwik Fit for a £35 MOT and it passes they are losing money as the proper cost of an MOT is £54:85.

It doesn't, or it shouldn't, take a genius to work out that the £35 is bait and that they will always 'find' something that needs doing that will not only cover the apparent £20 saving on the MOT but will also make them money! As it's a car and most people don't know enough to argue the point they usually lay it on with a trowel that the problems are safety issues and potential killers. Even if they showed you the old parts 99% of people wouldn't know if they were faulty or not, in fact they probably wouldn't even know if they were off their own car!

When it comes to garages you need someone you can trust. I've been using the same small independent garage for 30 years and have always had great service at a good price.

usignuolo

Had bad experience with misfitted exhaust at Kwikfit. Prefer local ATS. More professional and more experienced staff.

TrickyWicky

I stopped using Kwik Fit a while back I had a very good relationship with them until I bought a battery from them. It came with a 3 year warranty however within a couple of months it couldn't hold its charge longer than a week.

I took it in and left it on the kitchen floor for a couple of weeks. I finally got around to taking it back and told him what was up with it. He pulled out the most ancient looking piece of junk on earth to do a load test on it saying it was ok. "Sure it is, I recharged it LAST NIGHT as I had left it on the kitchen floor for a couple of weeks". At that point he blew a fuse telling me that he wouldn't honour the warranty as leaving it on a cold floor would destroy the battery etc.

Hang on, when it sits on the floor of my kitchen inside a centrally heated house, surely thats better than being sat on a freezing cold battery shelf inside a car engine bay at -5 through the night? - He wants to treat me like I'm gullable thats fine, I just won't return. We used to spend several hundred pounds there every few months and now they see none of it - I've bought my own tools and fix my own problems now where possible. Anything else goes to the local independant back street garage.

They also severely stuffed up a repair on my partners car and at £600, the MOT centre should not of failed it on a repair that they had done. Granted they put it right however its the time, effort and hassle that it takes to get it seen to. They shouldn't of blundered it.

[Deleted User]

I am no Kwik Fit fan but they are not losing money on a £35 MOT. Plenty of independent garages charge around that price. The actual fee they have to pay to VOSA is only a few pounds.

JBR*

Despite seeing the number of poor reviews on this and other sites, I decided to give Kwik Fit a try when I needed a new battery.

This afternoon I called into the Stockport Road branch to enquire whether they offered a mobile battery replacement service, as I could neither jump-start my car nor remove the battery. The young man on reception assured me that they do, and gave me a telephone number which I called upon return home. The recorded message asked for my tyre size (!) and gave no other options. Clearly this was a tyre replacement service. I then telephoned the local branch I had just visited to be told by the young man that he could not help me as he had no idea and suggested I call the AA. Not a very helpful response.

Despite the number of poor reviews I have seen online, Kwik Fit has clearly made no improvements to its service, and this episode assures me that I cannot trust their staff to offer reliable advice nor, probably, competent service.

Paperbird

I don't mind using K F. I wanted a pair of tyres so checked the net for the best price and phoned to see if they had the ones I wanted in stock then asked if they would price match, he said yes so I said I could get them for £86 each would they fit them for £85, yes, ( I didn't say the lowest price I could get them was only the tyre not including delivery or fitting ). Their online price for the same tyre was £130 fitted.
While I was there they told me I needed new discs and pads all round, it did I'd already priced them up and their quote was only £40 more than I could buy them for so I said go ahead and do them. I heard him on the phone to the supplier and he must have been told they didn't have them in stock because he got the book out and started phoning round to get them.
I managed to get a look at the invoice when the parts were delivered, they had come from the main dealer and the cost was a lot more than I was charged.
They are staffed by idiots but that's not always a bad thing.

TrickyWicky

Paperbird wrote: »

I managed to get a look at the invoice when the parts were delivered, they had come from the main dealer and the cost was a lot more than I was charged.
They are staffed by idiots but that's not always a bad thing.

Result! When I hear things like that I'm glad after they refused to honour my warranty.

Paperbird

TrickyWicky wrote: »

Result! When I hear things like that I'm glad after they refused to honour my warranty.

A friend got an exhaust system from them with a 3 year warranty, when it started blowing after 2 years he went back and got it changed and they gave him a 3 year warranty on that one, Another 2 years, another new system fitted under warranty.

Kwikfit_company_representative

JBR* wrote: »

Despite seeing the number of poor reviews on this and other sites, I decided to give Kwik Fit a try when I needed a new battery.

This afternoon I called into the Stockport Road branch to enquire whether they offered a mobile battery replacement service, as I could neither jump-start my car nor remove the battery. The young man on reception assured me that they do, and gave me a telephone number which I called upon return home. The recorded message asked for my tyre size (!) and gave no other options. Clearly this was a tyre replacement service. I then telephoned the local branch I had just visited to be told by the young man that he could not help me as he had no idea and suggested I call the AA. Not a very helpful response.

Despite the number of poor reviews I have seen online, Kwik Fit has clearly made no improvements to its service, and this episode assures me that I cannot trust their staff to offer reliable advice nor, probably, competent service.

Hello,

we saw your comments on this forum and would like to investigate what happened, but given there are personal details involved, please could you email us? Please let us know more details, your car's reg number and your contact number, and we'll contact you directly.

You can send it to me at kwikfitwebcare@kwik-fit.com.

Kind regards,
Andy

[Deleted User]

Kwikfit_company_representative wrote: »

Hello,

we saw your comments on this forum and would like to investigate what happened, but given there are personal details involved, please could you email us? Please let us know more details, your car's reg number and your contact number, and we'll contact you directly.

You can send it to me at kwikfitwebcare@kwik-fit.com.

Kind regards,
Andy

You still never investigated why one of your branches ripped me off for £20 for BG44K fuel additive which my car did not need to pass the MOT.

Yes you sent me my money back in a cheque but no explanation why your branch were doing dodgy MOT's?