Kwikfit - great experience...
Discussion
Thought Id let you know...I had a slow puncture in my rear off side tyre. Took it into the above in Sutton Coldfield. I waited maybe 5 minutes before driving the Griff into the garage shop floor. Chap fixed the puncture (bloody great screw in the tyre), checked all the pressures on all the tyres and topped them up...all for the princely sum of....FREE !!!
Great experience to have these days. Checked with him too - he can order any tyres in that I want (rears have maybe 2k left on them) or fit any that I bring along just for the valve and balancing fee.
Its the little things in life but I was well chuffed (slipped the lad a fiver for a beer or two). Great marketing - he now has me as a customer permanently
Worth sharing with you, I thought
Great experience to have these days. Checked with him too - he can order any tyres in that I want (rears have maybe 2k left on them) or fit any that I bring along just for the valve and balancing fee.
Its the little things in life but I was well chuffed (slipped the lad a fiver for a beer or two). Great marketing - he now has me as a customer permanently
Worth sharing with you, I thought
Think it is a policy thing that they do punctures FOC. Just to offer balance to the thread I had a nail in one of my newly refurbished, immaculate wheels. So as to reduce the risk of them marking it I removed the wheel myself and expressed concern over it getting marked. Despite that something “slipped” and they removed three fairly large chunks from the rim. An accident I know but for that reason I have not and will not give them any of my money ever. I use a local company where the boss man is on site not away in a corporate office in the City.
griffter said:
That's good news indeed, but I wouldn't trust them with jacking up the car, in case they damaged the chassis or worse the GRP floor pan. This stems from having had the sill on an MR2 damaged by thoughtless positioning of a jack by tyre fitters. I'd take the wheels in seperately.
Id agree with that - none of the local tyre places have a jack low enough to get under my Golf V5 let alone the TVR. I have a local garage I use now who are used to dealing with TVRs for MOT and general inspection stuff (but not services). They have a hydraulic lift that goes flat into the floor so no ramp to drive up. Then they lift the car and place the jacking kit in the right places - I go in with them and double check before lowering the car then removing the wheels. And mostly they will check out any concerns I have or rebalance the odd wheel for free :-)
Make friends with your local back street garage, you just cant beat it.
Dodsy
bigdods said:
That's good news indeed, but I wouldn't trust them with jacking up the car, in case they damaged the chassis or worse the GRP floor pan. This stems from having had the sill on an MR2 damaged by thoughtless positioning of a jack by tyre fitters. I'd take the wheels in seperately.
Id agree with that - none of the local tyre places have a jack low enough to get under my Golf V5 let alone the TVR. I have a local garage I use now who are used to dealing with TVRs for MOT and general inspection stuff (but not services). They have a hydraulic lift that goes flat into the floor so no ramp to drive up. Then they lift the car and place the jacking kit in the right places - I go in with them and double check before lowering the car then removing the wheels. And mostly they will check out any concerns I have or rebalance the odd wheel for free :-)
Make friends with your local back street garage, you just cant beat it.
Dodsy
Well if can't trust them, just watch and advise them where appropriate.
Never had an issue with Kwikfit or National Tyres. Both have been very helpful and always asked about jacking before making assumptions.
Had much the same experience at my local ATS a few months back. Again it was a chuffing great screw stuck in the tyre so I motored slowly down there on a Suturday afternoon. Waited about 5 minutes before they allowed me to drive the car into the workshop myself. Two blokes then spent 10 minutes trying to find a jack that fitted under the car and jacked it up in the way that I requested (as opposed to however they saw fit) to take the wheel off. Whilst one of the chaps fixed the puncture I chatted to the other one about TVR for about 10 minutes. The wheel went back on, they checked all the pressures for me and all it cost was a tenner in beer money for the blokes who did the job.
I suspect they enjoy working on something a bit more unusual than a 106 with a holed exhaust!
I suspect they enjoy working on something a bit more unusual than a 106 with a holed exhaust!
FlipFlopGriff said:
Graham,
I take ours into Lodge Tyres in Aston who are extremely careful with the wheels and have rubber bits on all the metal bits to minimise any damage.
I do take the wheels off first and take them in to fit tyre, and balance.
FFG
Cheers Paul - good info
All - I take on board the comments on the jacking but , again, the chap was great. I drove the car onto a slightly elevated block, he put a rubberised block between the jack and the frame plus he jacked it exactly where I wanted/it said in the book ie not under the floor pan but under the spars.
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