Kwik Fit Fake Repairs...

[stuttgartmetal]

Porsche offer free inspections then rape your fking wallet
The German money grabbing cts

For instance, they won't sell you a set of plug leads
But they will sell you 12 individual ones at eighty fking quid each.
You'll need twelve of them sir, plus two mor for each of the distributors.

You can buy OE, in a Beru box from Matt at Type911 for £215, or pay Porsche £1120 plus 20% vat
They only want six hours to fit them
Plus twelve plugs
And a few more hours labour.

I'm getting fking push bike
And never stopping at a red light again
Plus, once I've got one, I'll know fking everything about driving

Edited by stuttgartmetal on Sunday 12th February 18:34

[williamp]

You cant get better then a kwik fit fitter, we're the boys to trust...hey!

[Digby]

V8 FOU said:

Jaguar steve said:

They've admitted to the plugs. Given the vindictive story about nothing nature of the article and to redress the balance I'll happily go with that one genuine example in the whole piece being a oversight rather than a deliberate attempt to deceive. Easily done in a busy garage environment - I know because I've fked up more than once myself on detail like that whilst working at a main dealer.

The rest of that article is the usual sanctimonious contradictory, fact free bks that The Mail all to often excels itself in publishing. I kinda hope Quick Fit lines up a good Barrister and takes them to the cleaners on this one.

This. And your previous post Steve. Agree. Funny how us, longterm in the trade see through this. Oh, it IS 1/2 term now.......

But this has been going on for decades!

From when they fitted me the wrong tyre which cost twice as much, to my friend apparently needing various bits looking at when he only went in for pads, to someone who worked there leaving due to such policies etc. Then we have Watchdog involvement, as many Google links as you need dating back years re: service and suggested work not required etc.

I don't know anyone who uses them due to bad experiences, almost all of whom stopped doing so in the 90's!

Let's just say then that they have a massive history of oversights and incorrect suggestions re: work required.

"Watchdog exposes Kwik Fit for ‘overcharging’, ‘dishonesty’ and ‘negligence’ over tyres, brakes and servicing"

2010

"Report into how KwikFit have been charging for nitrogen filled tyres, but only using air"

2015

There are even anti-Kwik Fit pages dedicated to them and as with almost any link you will find, testimony in droves.

Enter something like Kwik Fit rip off into Google (or anything along those lines) and you could spend the rest of your life reading about years and years of dodgy practices.

[Digby]

I forgot all about their Motability scam, too, dating back to 2003 where dozens of managers and staff were sacked and suspended.

One insider said: "The Motability scheme allows for anyone with a Motability car to get free tyres, exhausts and brakes at any Kwik-Fit.

When a punter came in who wanted to pay cash, it was put through as a Motability claim.

They had already won the fleet contract and been paid for it, so it was simply a matter of logging it as a Motability job on the computer accounts.

They were all earning between £180 and £200 each a month on top of their wages"

[traffman]

Honda were sending out letters to all the Type r owners , claiming the timing belt was due a change at a certain mileage. Thing is the KA20 has a Timing chain.

I wonder how many people were duped into having there "belt" changed.

It's not just Kwik Fit...even though i do advise people never to stroll into a Kwik fit centre.

[PenelopaPitstop]

I use local Kwik Fit for changing tyres and they did some work for free as well and I will be going to them again with simple things. They are across the street from me and they know it so expect me to come back. I used another Kwik Fit in previous location for MOT and it was fine. Had trusted tyre guy before but after moving it's just too far to go to him with every small thing.

[Trabi601]

Sheepshanks said:

Not just shady practices but poor quality work.

For years I was forced to use them for tyres on company lease cars and it was rarely trouble free. Being able to avoid them was a big bonus in the decision to opt out.

I've been using them for company car tyres for years. Never had an issue, aside from the waiting times as they're so busy! - and they almost always have the tyre in stock.

We've changed provider now to 'Fleet Tyre Network', which opened me up to a whole world of pain when I did a front tyre check and found they'd worn in a really bizarre way, with the outside edge going from tread to nearly canvas in a few hundred miles. Needed tyres urgently, but, despite being only a few miles away from a very large tyre depot / fitting depot, which was part of the network, they needed 48 hours notice.

[itcaptainslow]

Vantagemech said:

...discs were evenly worn with a 1.5mm lip....

Those discs with a 1.5mm lip on the face-that's 3mm below the new thickness-typically discs will only have a 2mm or so wear allowance. E.g. new thickness = 26mm, minimum = 24mm. Therefore the discs in question are almost certainly below minimum thickness.

If you'd fit new pads go ahead but the main dealer has to go by the manufacturer's guidelines; apart from anything if that disc subsequently cracks, fails or causes an incident then the customer would be screaming blue murder.

Sometimes those in the trade just cannot win...

[hyphen]

Would never use Kwik Fit again. Ever.

In my younger days they ripped me off. Ended up going up the chain there and getting my money back. Suspect the managers are tasked with sales targets and incentivised to make money.

AVOID KWIK FIT.

[Digby]

I found a report from 1991 saying "Of the 43 Kwik-Fit outlets visited by the inspector, as many as 12 advised expensive, unnecessary work"

And that was before they got bigger, bought a few places out, had larger overheads etc.

If you find a decent one, result! Most people I know will never take that chance.

Have just been searching some local to me. Talse such as..

"Battery mysteriously died during an MOT"

"Told needed new coil spring, got the work done, then told the other one had just gone"

etc still don't fill me with confidence even after all these years.

They used to employ people with zero skills in the industry and then train them as they went along. Problem is, they were given tagets to hit.

Deduce from that what you will..

[Gareth79]

Digby said:

I forgot all about their Motability scam, too, dating back to 2003 where dozens of managers and staff were sacked and suspended.

One insider said: "The Motability scheme allows for anyone with a Motability car to get free tyres, exhausts and brakes at any Kwik-Fit.

When a punter came in who wanted to pay cash, it was put through as a Motability claim.

They had already won the fleet contract and been paid for it, so it was simply a matter of logging it as a Motability job on the computer accounts.

They were all earning between £180 and £200 each a month on top of their wages"

I'm surprised that Motability weren't reconciling bills against eligible vehicles. Even if they were just checking that a vehicle was eligible then the leaser could swap their tyres with worn ones and make multiple tyre replacements. In fact I expect that has been done many times.

Edited by Gareth79 on Sunday 12th February 19:50

[briang9]

If you think Kwik Fit are bad, avoid Arnie Shark, once had a 5 cylinder car serviced there, few weeks later we were on holiday in the Lakes and car was not running well, took it into local dealer and he correctly diagnosed faulty plugs, and when checking them they had not been replaced for some time. Quick look at Arnie's invoice to see I was charged for four new plugs...on a 5 cylinder engine. Would never use either Kwikfit or Arnie..

[shake n bake]

hyphen said:

Would never use Kwik Fit again. Ever.

In my younger days they ripped me off. Ended up going up the chain there and getting my money back. Suspect the managers are tasked with sales targets and incentivised to make money.

AVOID KWIK FIT.

Targeted to make money? Whatever next! The outrage!

[traffman]

briang9 said:

If you think Kwik Fit are bad, avoid Arnie Shark, once had a 5 cylinder car serviced there, few weeks later we were on holiday in the Lakes and car was not running well, took it into local dealer and he correctly diagnosed faulty plugs, and when checking them they had not been replaced for some time. Quick look at Arnie's invoice to see I was charged for four new plugs...on a 5 cylinder engine. Would never use either Kwikfit or Arnie..

Arnold Clark? Aye , he's as bad. Soo many nasty stories about there practices.

[MysteryLemon]

Found a recent quotation printout for replacing the exhaust system on the Lexus is300 I just bought in the service history.

Kwik fit wanted £814 to replace the backbox and mid pipe... The previous owner sold it to me still with the backbox blowing. I'm not surprised.

Funnily enough, I replaced the backbox for £65 myself. The mid section looked as good as new.

[Jakg]

spaximus said:

I too have taken lease cars there under instruction and been told they have adjusted the tracking

My car came with a service history that amounted to the receipt for a budget tyre and an alignment adjustment a year ago.

I changed the track rod ends - the nuts were welded to the end of the track rod ends, and the track rod end had seized solid on the inner rod ends with corrosion. Had to cut them off with an angle grinder. Absolutely no way they'd been off the year before.

It's not just Kwik Fit et al - this was at an independent tyre fitter.

[mph999]

Du1point8 said:

I went to kwik Fit once in my 306 as they had a deal on for tyres, back before black circle was around.

when I came back to pick it up they tried to sell me discs and pads stating mine were worn out and unsafe, asked them if they were sure about that as one of their other stores had only fitted them 6 weeks prior, if they would like to state they were not new pads and disc to the manager as they were definitely not 6 weeks old, so I could get my money back they could... shut them up.

Never went back to them as they fitted my tyres, but the aholes didn't put them up to decent pressure, lowest one was something like 22psi when they should all be 32+

You can't complain at 22 psi, the nuggets didn't put any in my run flat I had replaced .... As I had reset the tyre monitoring system I didn't find out for 70 miles when the handling started feeling a bit funny. Fair play to the performance of the tyre up till that point though, really had no idea it was 'flat'

[Geffg]

briang9 said:

If you think Kwik Fit are bad, avoid Arnie Shark, once had a 5 cylinder car serviced there, few weeks later we were on holiday in the Lakes and car was not running well, took it into local dealer and he correctly diagnosed faulty plugs, and when checking them they had not been replaced for some time. Quick look at Arnie's invoice to see I was charged for four new plugs...on a 5 cylinder engine. Would never use either Kwikfit or Arnie..

My mrs' s friend has a golf and took it to arnie sharks to get looked at over a problem and that came back with a couple of issues, one being it needed an air con re-gas! Strange one as it doesn't even have air con!

[edgyedgy]

Yipper said:

A Watchdog-like article in the Daily Mail today, about how Kwik Fit fitters allegedly scammed several cars at several of their garages for unnecessary or overlooked repairs.

For example, according to the Mail, mechanics charged for 4 new spark plugs as part of a £196 car-service package -- but they were never fitted.

The article implies, to me, there is a widespread company culture to rip off customers...

No surprises for PH regulars, but interesting, nonetheless.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4215926/Th...

http://www.name-n-shame.co.uk/kwik_fit.html

. Looks like the Kwik fit on lea bridge road.

[Alex_225]

Out of interest do Kwik Fit staff get some kind of inventive for pushing for additional work? I just wondered what is in it for the employees, other than the managers of the branch.

I actually had one of the staff try the whole, "you need a new tyre" bullsh*t. I'd had a leak from the tyre and drove it with about 11psi in it for a short journey. The guy tried to convinc me that it had done enough damage to require replacement. I had him replace the leaking valve and re-fit the tyre which was perfectly fine for another 12 months.

I'm not surprised by the article at all but then I suspect it's common that this takes place in many places, not jus Sh!t Fit!