Stitched up by Kwik-Fit – what can I do?

Ok.

Popped into Kwik-Fit this afternoon, just to price up an oil and filter change.

The bloke on the front desk sounded competent, so thought I’d give it a go.
Big mistake.

Took an awful lot longer than expected, and when I got the car home I found:
1. Two small star headed bolts resting in the recess at the bottom of the windscreen.
2. The plastic engine cover has been broken and glued back together!

Returned the car to KF who completely denied all knowledge.
Said they hadn’t removed the bolts and hadn’t had to remove the engine cover at all.

My word against theirs = I think I’m completely screwed.

Now I have to try and find out where the hell they’ve removed the bolts from and get a competent garage to look at the car and see what else they’ve broken.

I know there’s not much I can do, but I just wanted to warn anyone else never, ever to use Kwik Fit.

Feel slightly better now, but not much.

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.