Gullible mugs and little competition on Sundays. Word of mouth used to be great to tell whether a garage or especially a tyre fitter was good or not - these days, with the Interweb, liars abound and unless several of your most trusted friends or family have frequented one of these and know their stuff (technical side), then quite often its a lottery as to whom to believe.

Customer service in this country has gone to pot over the last 25 years. Very few genuinely good firms left - some branches of fitters are fine, most seem not to be, at worst technically ok for simple stuff, but as you say wanting to get business by conning punters into thinking there's more wrong with their car than there actually is.

My local (literally a stone's throw away) recently changed hands to be a Tyre City - to be honest, I'd never heard of them before this, and given most if not all the major chains are franchises, I can't see any difference to them from before. I used my main dealer 12 miles away instead - I wouldn't use them unless forced to, which is where I'm sure they make most of their profits.

A lot of people have no knowledge of cars and have done whatever they are told needs doing, I know several people caught out by them but they had no idea they were being mislead.

One occasion I got a phone call from a member of family who took their car in for MOT, they were told it needed a new rear silencer new pads and discs, plus a pair of dampers to to front to pass

the work she agreed to as car was needed for work and had to be on the road asap, the work took 2 days to do? and was retested, it failed again because they bought the wrong silencer that did not fit properly and leaked, and also failed on rear dampers which passed 2 days before.

to cut long story short she was left in tears because parts they fitted were wrong and failed MOT yet again, anyway she reported what happened and had paperwork to prove what happened, I never found out the result of the complaint as she always said she was asked to keep it quiet

but she is not the only one to have problems, but asaia no one else took it further!

Edited by Avant on 11/08/2018 at 11:58

Too many cars don't have spare tyres, or if they do these are a different size to the running wheels and the motorist is restricted to 50 mph. (I don't consider these to be a very safe option, being restricted to 50mph on a motorway forces all others to overtake, a recipe for accidents)

As we all know, any distress purchase comes with a price penalty, even if that is only not being able to take advantage of competative prices. (eg Blackcircles and other online tyre retailers). In defence of Kwik Fit opening on a Sunday morning, carrying stock at all their branches and having trained staff on hand "ready waiting" costs and they are not charities. One possible way to get around the price aspect is to order the tyre online on their website for immediate or next day fitting, the online prices are more reflective of a competative marketplace.

As for the case in hand, probably different people have different interpretations of what is safe to repair, and perhaps the fitters are paid a commission that would have been lost with a repair - and that weighed greater than any brand reputation consideration did.

They're not all the same. Each branch is a franchise, I believe, and a lot comes down to the manager or whoever sets the tone.

I've told this one before: I had the misfortune to have an alternator fail on a Mk2 Ford Focus a few years ago. It was a wet Friday getting on for 5 pm on the M1. Limped off the motorway into the nearest town and came across a Kwikfit. They agreed to do the job, but it was too late to get the part in, so we found a hotel and returned the next morning.

By soon after 11 am a new alternator had been fitted and we were on our way. We had not been sold anything extra, nor told any fancy stories about this or that needing replacement. I had my trusted indy check the work later and he said it was fine. What we were charged seemed pretty much on the mark.

Edited by FP on 10/08/2018 at 21:35

Our company lease scheme used KF, and as I was doing 30,000 miles a year, I visited a few.

Some were outstanding. Others were dire.

One of the most useful things they do is a free exhaust check. Just recently before a longish journey-I had one.

Not only do they put the car on the ramp and have a good look round--but they invite the driver to come and have a good look too. Since the car I had was ten years old and Mr Kwik Fit said it was all "ok at the moment" plus the fact that I could both hear and see that all was well--I reckon that was a good 15 mins worth of piece of mind.

I also had a nice look round everything else underneath, which looked fine and clean.

I reckon they're fine and as others have implied, If you know what you want and are wise to their "come on in" approach.Great.

I would not however commit a complex electrical repair jobby to them and i would be suspicious of a cheapo cheapo MOT !

I used them once in 2005 (forgot what for). This is what happened. They did the job and it came to about £90. I placed the cash on the counter and waited for my receipt. I was then asked my name and address but refused to give it, they said it was for the guarantee, I replied that the receipt will be sufficient guarantee. They then said till will not open until I give name and address. I declined several times and eventually left a note detailing the work done and my satisfaction with it and their refusal to accept payment; I added my reg number too. I took my keys and cash and drove off. I never heard from them again.

So I had an excellent experience with them.