[Closed] Stitched up by Kwik-Fit - what can I do?

Usually path would be Manager, Area Manager/Head Office (Customer Service team will try and get in the way by the look of it). But you could always just go straight for https://twitter.com/Kwik_Fit

Get pictures of the engine cover before the glue gets engine grime.

If you go to a garage see if they will put it in writing. Then give their head office a call. No luck there trading standards.

Or hit the social media.

Wife took her car to kwik fit for a new tyre while I was away the other week. She's just had puncture and we cannot find the key for the locking wheelnut so I went into the branch to see if they had it.

After 15 mins of assurances from the manager that they always ensure locking keys are returned to the car, a helpful lad came in and said "is it one of them?" holding a bucket which was over half full with locking wheelnut keys.

Idiots

Cover may have needed to come off to reach the filter. One of our cars had screws in its cover so worth a look there.

Call to head office tomorrow before you go mad on the social media and pictures plus a trip to another decent garage if you can be bothered.

The wife of a mate of mine went into kwik fit to get the brakes done on the car, when she went back to pick it up she was hit with a massive bill, they took upon themselves to renew all the shocks.

They did it without her permission and she told them she wasnt paying and to put the old ones back on, they told her they had gone in the bin.

The bin had been emptied and the old shocks gone. She kicked off big time. The end result was new shocks for nothing!

I've heard too many horror stories to even consider going there.

Passat / Golf/Octavia / A4 /A6 all need plastic cover removing to get to oil filter.
Secured by 3 torx bolts approx 2" long

Kwik Fail fitted non abs discs to my abs equiped car and one day the pads fell out causing pretty instant brake failure.

Yeah. Haven't used them since they fitted a mis-matching Michelin Pilot to my car. Claimed "no difference to the others mate".

Quick call to Michelin (I know, what an ar$e) who confirmed that the tyre they had fitted was of a different compound and had different tread pattern and side wall strength to the other three tyres on the car.

Absolute muppets.

Kwik Fail fitted non abs discs to my abs equiped car and one day the pads fell out causing pretty instant brake failure.

What are ABS discs...

Audi A6, well out of warranty, took it in for fluids (oil, coolant) before a long trip. Idiots somehow removed the coolant hose connection to the cylinder head and didnt reconnect, resulting in the car pissing out all the coolant after about 200 meters. Luckily stopped right away.

Dont kwik fit just suck the oil out rather than drain the sump??
Did they put the right spec oil back in??

Charged me for full wheel alignment, I had a look underneath the car and the bolts were really rusty and had never been touched. Went back and asked them to show me what they had done oh well we adjusted this and that mhhh. They hadnt done anything it was the trainee that had checked it. They then done the job fir free and needed a fair amount of heat to shift the stuck bolts. I have not been back!

Kwik Fit managed to fit all four directional tyres facing the wrong way on my car a few years back.

Cornering was fantastic in Reverse, but it was an absolute death trap going forwards !

The car was in for new Brake Disks !!

They picked on my unassuming gran once. Her car had a puncture. Came out with 4 new tyres, new shock all round and a full stainless exhaust !!! Drove down the road and they hadnt done the wheelnuts up either ! Took a lot of letters, but we recovered most of the outlay. Wouldnt let them do the tracking on my wheelbarrow.

Just as a quick counter to all this negativity and to remind folks that KW is a franchise.

The Bath Branch of Kf is one of the nicest and most decent set of people I've come across. Honest to a fault, very helpful and communicative.

Sorry to hear of your woes OP. I don't think you've got a leg to stand on sadly as there's no proof. You may get a gesture of goodwill if you push hard.

the shocks story sounds familiar... my mum took my old escort in for 2 new shocks (bearing in mind this was, at the time a 12 year old escort, driven by an 18 year old. they stung her for 4 new shocks, top of the range "super comfort" £100 a corner jobs. bill was nearly £600. she just paid it, when I went back to querey it, and suggest they put the old shocks back on "the bin had been emptied".

Local branch fitted a battery to my A4. Knocking noise on way home, turns out they hadn't bolted it down because "we couldn't work out how to do it mate"
Special sort of stupid to get that wrong you'd think!

Wish I had seen this thread a few weeks ago 🙁 New exhaust rear section on a Toyota; drive off think this is noisy, stays noisy so take it back a few days later, "no they're all a bit noisy when new - would i like to buy some new tyres?" complained more so they changed it, the new exhaust appeared to be a different model with a different part number, quieter, but my usual mechanic says the join between the rear section and the middle section isn't done up properly - muppets

They tried to convince me my discs were dangerously warn, wouldn't disapate heat properly and boil my brake fluid. Only wanted a puncture repairing, tried to stop leaving as the car was unroadworthy apparently. The discs were worn but far from needing replacement, utter chancers praying on people hoping for good service from a familiar brand.

Have used Kwik-Fit for tyres, brakes and exhausts for years - never had anything but good service from them. Never any problems with the work done. Perhaps just lucky but think they do vary based on the team in each one.

Halfords autocentres on the other hand - terrible experience, serves me right for not going to Kwik-Fit one time!

Be waiting at their front door tomorrow morning with some bombers.

They'll get the picture.

To be fair I had used them a fair few times without any problems before they reversed all my tyres.

But sending me away with a car that can't go round corners if the road is slightly wet was too much for me to ever go back.

Ooh, by the way.

I once went to Bradford National Tyres to get my brakes serviced.

I drive it away thinking the brakes feel a bit wooden but they'll no doubt bed in. Back over the pennines. I'm coming down windy hill and I tap the brakes. What's happened is they've left the hand brake cable too tight so the brakes have been constantly rubbing, have heated up the fluid and now I have ZERO brakes. Absolutely nothing.

Try that. Driving along in heavy traffic down a big hill at 70mph and your brakes do not work, AT ALL. And the traffic in front is backing up. Try that....

I start going down through the gears and get myself into the inside lane. The cars in front start braking hard and I think a little bit of poo comes out. I'm now on the hard shoulder with the engine screaming and eventually stop with sweat pouring down my body.

AA comes out, listen to my story and identify the fault very quickly. Blinding.

I phone a lawyer the next day.
"Did you crash?" he asks?
"No".
"Can't do anything then, sorry."

Obviously the garage deny all knowledge when I confront them.

HTH

Two mot's done at my local kwikfit. Failed on a rear brakelight twice. Rhe bulb failed both times just after I'd dropped it off.
(I always check all lights, tyres etc first).
The 2nd time the penny dropped. They charged me an extra 12quid (yes!) for a special subaru-specific bulb.

Me thinks they never ordered/replaced just bumped up towards branch targets.

OP did you pay by card by any chance??

They charged me an extra 12quid (yes!) for a special subaru-specific bulb.

That's brilliant.

I hope he used a Subaru Specific lubricant before he bent you over 😉

My brother uses them a lot, always been happy- they jumped through hoops to sort his exhaust when he had a job to do straight after an MOT fail (one fitter went off to another branch to get parts, another nipped out to a friendly welder to repair a bit, class)

Someone said to me once, remember they're fitters not mechanics. Possibly accurate.

Nealglover yep! I was done proper but thankfully a cheap fail.

mate of mine got his car back from kwik fit, took it to another garage to get something else done, and was told his engine had been knocked right off its mounts by something hitting the sump really hard and very recently. he can only think it was kwik fit ragging it over a speed bump or something when they had it.

Lease company forces me to use them, and branches do seem to vary. Closest to the old house was pretty good.

Last visit to another branch, got runflats on the car, they decided that one non-RFT would be good enough. Much rolling of eyes and sighing when I took it back. Ended up with the right tyre in the end. Then spotted the chunk taken out of the rim, touched up with non-matching silver paint. Gave up at that point, not worth the hassle.

Just had another new set this week and they sent out a mobile fitter, guy seemed much more professional.

Paid by debit card.

Does that mean I can do something?

how can an engine be knocked off its mounts?? They are bolted to them and if it had been then Im pretty sure the car would not move......

Never had any issues.

Had:

Air con recharged
Numerous MOTs and services
Probably about 10 tyres
1 spring
1 exhaust
1 wheel bearing

All done at the same place bar the wheel bearing. They tried to tell me that all 4 wheels would need alignment after. I told theem where to go on that one, and will not use the Harrogate branch again. Would have no problems using other branch again though.

Like every where though, get them to ring you before they do any work, and get quotes off other garages!

As to OP. Try the manager, if they do nothing go to HO.

Had 4 new tyres on my lads Fiat Panda - all good. Asked them to check wheel alignment as I had just fitted new suspension bushes on the front. Watched on the screen in the waiting room as they fitted the alignment rig and the tracking was spot on (less than 0.1mm off the centre of the spec (the spec is +/-0.5mm). Fitter called me in and was trying to convince me that it needed adjusting so it didn't wear the tyres out etc. I said it's bang on - don't adjust anything - 5 minutes of me saying "look - it's bang on"; him saying "it'll wear your tyres out". Ended up as a free check, if he had touched a spanner it would have cost £40. Unnecessary profiteering - I wouldn't allow any one else in the family to go there.

OP phone up your debit card backer ie Visa, explain what has happened and ask them to refund or at least put the transaction on hold until sorted..see what they say

Took car in for two new front tyres. "madam, you rear tyre appears to be the wrong size". That's interesting, says mrs Tired, i think you fitted it about three months ago. I expect it's on your system? Cue looking at computer and sucking of teeth. "cant find it madam". "no problem, sir. I think i have your receipt in the glove box...".

We now have threenew tyres. One of which had a puncture which was fixed today. Good ones are excellent. Poor ones are not. Find a good one or go elsewhere.

Dont kwik fit just suck the oil out rather than drain the sump??

That's the reason I won't use them again after my one experience. Would have changed the oil myself, but couldn't get the sump plug undone. Checked the plug when I got home to make sure I could get it undone next time and it was clear they hadn't touched it.

They also tried to persuade me I needed to spend several hundred pounds on new shocks (on a car which only cost me £700 to buy and I got £400 for when I sold it 15 months later - this was over 20 years ago).

In my experience you usually get a follow up call from Kwik Fit in a few days.

Took my car in for a for a puncture repair last year due to lack of time and alternatives.

After fixing it the trainee who looked about 12 drove my car like he had just stolen it back to the customer car park in full view of the waiting area.

Never again

There may be variations from store to store, but quick fit struck me as shockingly low quality workmanship.

And that's bearing in mind just how simple they keep there work. That conclusion is mainly from peer reviews. I only went in twice, once to order some tyres. The second time was after I was phoned and told the tyres "are ready" only to find they had never been ordered Possibly, nobody seemed to know, and the guy I spoke to on the second visit was the guy I spoke to on the first. I decided I didnt want these people installing one of the most important features of my car.

Only used them once when the exhaust fell off a mini, they tried to tell me the shocks had gone, I replied with "I doubt it I put the Spax on about 3 months ago", he just said fair enough and put the exhaust on.

Kwik Fit set fire to my neighbours car once whilst just having an MOT. I can't remember exactly what happened but he came to me telling me to tell everyone I know not to use Kwik Fit.

My experience of any " fast fit " type garages is to know exactly what you need doing and stand your ground. Difficult when you don't know much about cars, I'd probably the same with the bike, but they will tell you the vehicle needs this and that.

My local mechanic used to work at Halfords Autocentre and put it this way, I'm glad the leasing company do their own servicing now rather than use Halfords.

The Tunbridge Wells branch has been spot on for me, luck of the draw i guess.

OP, i also got screwed over by Kwik-Fit. See [url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/car-goes-in-for-new-tyres-come-out-with-new-tyres-and-a-dent-aargh ]THIS[/url] thread from a few months ago.

They are a royal PITA to deal with and it would appear have a deny everything policy.

knocked off engine mounts, ABS discs... lol

me thinks maybe it's not always Kwik Fit in the wrong..

90% garages will suck the oil out from the top now, sumps are delicate and expensive you know.

Took car to KWikFit to fix sticking caliper. Can't remember exactly how it went down but manager claimed that studs on tyres were dangerously stiff because they hadn't been removed in ages and so discs might need replacing if they're threaded(!). Pointed out that mechanic standing by his side had just replaced the studs 15 seconds previously with a pneumatic tool.

Guy didn't blink...

knocked off engine mounts, ABS discs... lol

I certainly won't be using them. Just been quoted £380 for 2 tyres 😯

90% garages will suck the oil out from the top now, sumps are delicate and expensive you know.

I don't let Kwik Fit do anything other than tyres. I had a brake piston go on a car about 10-15 years ago. They took it in, fixed it and sent me on my way. First set of traffic lights, foot goes right to the floor and I sail through the lights at almost unabated speed.

Went back. Mechanic said the trainee had put the seals on the wrong way around so they were never likely to work. They fixed it and refunded me the full amount but I'd never go back.

[s]90%[/s] rubbish garages will suck the oil out from the top now, [s]sumps[/s] engines are delicate and expensive you know.

FTFY. Do let us know which garage you work at so we can avoid that as well.

The thing is with KF, there might be some stories from happy customers, but they're far outweighed by the multitudes of reports of them being useless and/or trying to sell you stuff you don't need. The latter would appear to be corporate policy. You can't even claim it's just the unhappy customers commenting, as if you ask some random punter about KF they'll doubtless have some sorry tale.

Ironically , after peoples thoughts on cars being damaged,there was a case at the Reading branch, where a car owner took his car in for something simple like tracking , to come back later and find his car totalled down the road, as they had taken it for a joyride.

I bet they claimed it was like that when he brought it in.

I took my Mini in to a Lucas Autocentre for a 'free' safety check. Of course the safety check brought up manyfold issues that needed repairing immediately as it was dangerous to drive on a road and they wouldn’t allow me to drive the car away.

I asked them what right they had to condemn my car and refuse to allow me to drive it so they gave me my keys.

I took it to my local independent and he couldn’t find [b]any[/b] of the issues that Lucas had 'found'...

All this moaning about garages and someone had the bare faced cheek to tell me a while back that I shouldn't be replacing my own brake pads because it wasn't safe for me to do so.

Phhhhhhhhhhhh

Reminds me of the time many years ago when I took my car to a kwik fit like place for an MOT, ik learned my lesson quickly.

During the MOT the mechanic walks back into the waiting area to tell me the machine that tests the brakes is broken, but not to worry, they had another method of testing. Looked out the window to see the younger mechanical ragging the tits off the car round the car park. He came back in five minutes later with a failure notice stating I needed a full new braking system. Told him to stick it, took it to another garage and it passed-tried exactly the same with my sister (who fell for it, the thick cow) dad stored down to the garage demanding to see the parts they took off not 15 minutes earlier and amazingly the bins had been emptied

Years later and I've used a garage round the corner from me who are a small chain (about 10 garages) and they've always been fantastic, even replaced a horn that was replaced a year earlier as the guy said he thinks it may or may not have been faulty free of charge

I bet they claimed it was like that when he brought it in.

I used to work inspecting MOT centers & in the staffroom of a KF was an employee newsletter explaining the 'upsell bonus system' basically if a customer came in for X and you could upsell them to X + Y you'd get points that you could exchange for goods at christmas.

Re: sucking oil out, don't forget the vast majority of people just book a car into a chain or dealer garage, they don't go and find a specific garage who will drain through the sump.

Inside a sump nowadays is such a mass of baffles and lips, even the sump plug won't get all the grimy stuff out, tbh a dipstick drain will probably do the job just as well. On a few sumps I've seen the lowest point is designed for dipstick pump draining and the sump plug is 30mm proud.

VW, BMW, Mercedes, all these now put it on a drain machine, and my mates who run garages are now starting to use them because of the faff with undertrays and because that's how the engine is designed to be drained.

ps, the abs sensor rings are not on the discs, jus sayin..

pebble - Member
In my experience you usually get a follow up call from Kwik Fit in a few days.

Those follow up calls are just to try and get you to take an insurance quote. They have absolutely no idea what to do if you say that the service was shit!

ps, the abs sensor rings are not on the discs, jus sayin..

You certain about that?? Last ones I bought sure were!

It's so easy to find reviews of good local garages now, I really have no idea why people use these chains.

You certain about that?? Last ones I bought sure were!

hows about that, turns out, in some cases they can be, never come across it before, that'll learn me to be wrong on the internet!

My kwick fit in brighton seems ok ish.

Bought 4 new tyres online - what can go wrong i thought.
Booked in and fitted ok - checked before i left = different tyres fitted.
They were close - fitting sport contis as opossed to premium contacts.
They offered to change them - but i could not be arsed.

At the same time they suggested new rear discs and pads, which i knew were needed. I let do this, and new oil, and watched while they did the work. All looked OK. Gave me a deal on the price.

I also let them do my MOT - which passed no problems - however they offered to change some slightly rusty front discs that were otherwise perfectly fine.

Actually that rusty disk thing has annoyed me - somewhere else from now on me thinks..

My local independant garage always keeps the parts replaced so you can see them, in fact they often go off and get them to show you, i'm talking things like air conditioning matrix and airbag ECU so not things they'd have lying around as well as the discs etc they've replaced.

Years ago I applied for a job at the local KF. I did a "skills test" in the workshop with the head fitter. Their attitude to upselling was appalling.

"Let's see what we can get her for!" Was one quote that sticks in my mind when a young lady came in for a puncture. Tried to get her to have the suspension bushes replaced.

During the interview I was offered the job, but very firmly told that aggresive targets would be met. Errr...... No thanks.

used them once only because no other place nearby was open....man on the desk was asking all sorts of questions like what's the mileage, when was it last serviced, oil checked, when were the brakes done etc....all i wanted was a bloody pair of wiper blades!!
after "politely" informing him that i would not disclose such information to him, and that i was in a rush...the swine then charged me £30 for two wiper blades then told me it was extra for fitting them...at which point i paid up and left...never again...

I have to use them for my company car because the lease company say so, wouldn't touch them for my own car.

Even fitting tyres they do a quick and nasty job...I found a good online company who do it on my drive, are cheaper than KW and do a great job (careful with the alloys, all fitting paste removed etc).

My local BM specialist is great, when my last car was about to surprise me with a big bill the guy put it up on the ramp and showed me the issues so at least I knew he wasn't pulling a fast one.

Slightly OT- what worries me is when a garage (any garage) goes out of their way to show you parts/'prove' to you that they are good.

Why does that worry you, hora? If it wasn't for places like KF there'd be no need for them to do that. Should I be worried that TF sent me back a bag of old bits with my shock?

How are KF allowed to get away with these type of practices? Is it not fraud?

They sprayed WD-40 on my shocks and said they were leaking.......that's funny I said, they are gas shocks.

Knobs.

I have no sympathy, i woudnt ask them to put air in my tyres.

Lesson learned move on and tell as many as you can, they do not deserve to be in business.

i woudnt ask them to put air in my tyres.

Of course not - when for a little more they can fill with nitrogen for vastly improved handling and ride.

hora - Member

Slightly OT- what worries me is when a garage (any garage) goes out of their way to show you parts/'prove' to you that they are good.

A local garage tried this with me when they replaced a sticky caliper little knowing I had already had a go and knew what my caliper looked like and it wasn't the small rusty thing they were showing me. Same garage I found had tried the same thing on a mates wife with a section of rusty exhaust. My mate was wasn't too happy since he'd had a stainless steel exhaust fitted. The garage has changed hands numerous times since then.

I love the good old nitrogen trick. What about the tyres before they fill them? Isnt it full of air ? So the nitrogen amounts to probably 30 % of the tyre capacity and the air will still permeate out. The nitrogen thing will only work on evacuated tyres, which race teams probably do rather than 'just topping up with nitrogen'

I got stitched up by a nationwide autocentre (before halfrauds took them over). 2 driveshafts ended up as 6 sets as they couldnt fit them properly. Then they claimed the gearbox was damaged....

A letter to the regional manager, photocopies of all work receipts and a letter from local and excellent ford garage did the trick. Full refund, new free of charge gear box and service voucher(which I obviously never used).

A well written polite letter works wonders...but how these garages stay in business I don't know

As for ABS discs...My old Rover 420 SDi has ABS and an same year 414Si has non ABS. The 420 had discs all round, the fronts were vented, different offset and larger/thicker than the non-ABS 414 ones.

The reluctor rings, though, were on the hub.

And Kwik-Fit are shite.

I've not read all the intermediate stuff past about halfway down page 1, but I reckon the engine in your Doblo is the same as the one in our Punto.

The filter isn't one of those disposable canister types, it's a cartidge that goes inside an un-screwable plastic housing. There's a metal cover over that which is held on with some star headed nuts/bolts so that may well be where they came from. Can't remember if it's necessary to remove the engine cover trim or not, been a year since I last serviced it, (which reminds me......... 🙁 )

Why does it worry me? A garage over the top telling you/showing you. It worries me that theres no smoke without fire/they had a rep or were caught and with a new punter they are over-keen.

A good garage shouldn't show you anything post-repair. Only if they are worried that you might not believe them.. a guilty mind?

If I've felt a judder, light or spongy brake pedal, fluid leak etc etc etc I expect something WILL need replacing.

If its out of the blue then I will query what they found. If your the sort of person who does a fluid check-regularly, checks tyres, etc etc before long journey's then you are more likely to be forwarned theres an issue.

You often refer to these as 'jobs to get round to', 'niggles' or plain old 'character' 😆

I've not read all 3 pages but I read as far as...

Popped into Kwik-Fit this afternoon

...and realised this wasn't going to be pretty. Literally the last place in the world I'd go. Main dealer would (and has!) been higher up the list of places to go before Kwik-Fit. Thankfully I've got a totally trustworthy local independent garage that does work on my cars and stuff like tyres gets done by the local tyre place which oddly enough is just down the road from Kwik Fit, has a larger range (and anything they don't have they can get in next day from the suppliers) and is miles cheaper. Running your business out of a grotty little lock-up type thing vs a nice posh workshop like Kwik Fit = massive savings for me 🙂