Halfords promotes FREE MOT to customers

Fast Fit promotion angers independents as MOT discounting debate goes on

Halfords promotes FREE MOT to customers
Image: Bigstock.

Halfords is offering customers that make a purchase from any of its retails stores or halfords.com a free MOT on their car, with no minimum value stated.

The national fast fit stipulates that the test must be booked online at a Halfords Autocentre and must be redeemed before October 31, 2019.

The free MOT is available to customers in England, Scotland and Wales with the offer running from Monday 10 to Friday September 14.

A Halfords’ Autocentre spokesman said: “As the UK’s leading garage network with more than 300 garages UK-wide, Halfords Autocentres is staffed by friendly, expert and trustworthy technicians who provide the highest standards of service.

“The company has been ranked among the top 30 brands for customer service in the UK Customer Satisfaction Index, so motorists can be reassured that they will be very well looked after when they get their vehicle MOT’d.”

Related: Halfords launches breakdown service with incentives to encourage drivers to its Fast Fits

The latest promotion comes just days after the fast fit chain announced that it launched a new breakdown recovery service which offers incentives for policyholders such as half price MOTs, discounted repairs, ten per cent off servicing and a ten pound gift voucher.

Scepticism among GW readers remains rife, with many questioning the legitimacy of MOT discounting.

Commenting on the GW forum recently, reader, Peter Miles said: “If they can provide a good quality service at this discounted price then why isn’t that their price in the first place?

“Sadly in my local experience all the fast fits offer is poor workmanship at high prices, despite their claims of being cheap.”

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Viewing 25 posts - 1 through 25 (of 28 total)
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  • #163864 Reply

    Halfords is offering its customers that make a purchase from any of its retails stores or halfords.com this week a free MOT on their car, with no mini
    [See the full post at: Halfords promotes FREE MOT to customers]

    #163885 Reply
    Karen Richards
    Guest

    HAHAHA a Free MOT with trustworthy technicians and they are happy to make a loss for the next year?? I think not. I won a whole street of cars from doing one MOT properly a couple of years ago, amongst many others, after they visited a fat fit chain for a free MOT. And were quoted £900 to get the car back to being ‘roadworthy’ and they couldn’t take the car away as it wasn’t safe to drive etc etc… all the usual horse poo they come out with, I re-tested the vehicle PROPERLY…. and found it to need a headlight bulb, a brake light bulb and had an advisory on a misting of oil on a shock absorber.
    So i gave them the bulbs for free and just charged him the test fee. He was over the moon.
    It didn’t need new discs and pads, and shocks all round, or two tyres…. but then the general public don’t understand this. They just see the car as an iphone on wheels, and getting it serviced or mot’d is just a nuisance, and they don’t want to spend money on cars, as 5 holidays a year is much more important. So they end up going to these chains.. and get completely rogered every time.

    #163886 Reply
    graham cox
    Guest

    awesome yet again the mot scheme is devalued by some idiot that is using it as a loss leader,and of course a lot of car owners will think this is a good deal. when will somebody in the government put a standard fixed fee in place and remove the garages that do not uphold a good standard and stop opening up more test bays,then those of us that do try our best and offer a fair mot can get back to covering our costs as it used to be.

    #163888 Reply
    Dale
    Guest

    Obviously there’s no catch….

    We recently had to put the price up and customers appreciate that quality costs time and effort. Hence they always come back because they don’t get ripped off.

    #163887 Reply
    Ken Morris
    Guest

    I think the two responses above have got it exactly…you don’t get anything for nothing and the sooner the gullible public realises that the better for everyone. Let’s hope we get the publicity when Halfords start ripping people off and that the press, media and trade bodies react to it to show the public what’s really happening.

    #163890 Reply
    karen
    Guest

    If they were any good at there job then they would not have to do it for free, big company feeling threatened by small businesses who don’t rip customers off

    #163891 Reply
    Gary King
    Guest

    The usual fat fit scam of attracting customers with cheap deals then telling them they need £100s worth of repairs. The make this profitable to them they are relying on failing nearly ever car. Do you think they will test to the standards or rip it for everything they can. I hope DVSA send them some undercover cars and fine them when they fail it for everything…..

    #163892 Reply
    Sam Hughes
    Guest

    There is nothing for free and the prices that they will charge to a customer in terms of labour and parts will exceed what they would have paid for the MOT if it was at a standard rate. I can imagine that technicians will be targeted on the number of customers and value of bill at the end of the MOT, trying to encourage advisories to be completed on the day of visiting. Not setting a good reputation for our industry.

    #163893 Reply
    Brad Doulton
    Guest

    The type of people who will take advantage of this offer fall into two categories.
    Firstly, the ones who know that their car will pass, and will get something for nothing.
    The second are the ones that have no regular garage, and have a big sign on their heads saying please rip me off.
    Those are the ones that halfords prey on, and to be honest, if a customer has no loyalty to a regular garage, then they can expect to get ripped off.
    But yet again, the garage sector will get a bad name because the government are too lazy to regulate the industry.

    #163894 Reply
    colin porter
    Guest

    Agree with the comments above scam. I think that if the ministry set a price it should be that price and not to be discounted at all.

    #163895 Reply
    A C Comben
    Guest

    They should set a fixed fee just like they have with truck and bus mots but then again they are the ones doin the tests so it suits them that they can’t be undercut and to h*ll with the rest of us

    #163897 Reply
    Kevin
    Guest

    Really a case of what their work is worth, their bike shops can’t fit bulbs and wiper blades without breaking something and their fast fits can’t justify charging for there work.

    #163899 Reply
    Stephen
    Guest

    Unfortunately Mot stations are plentiful around us. They charge £25 mostly, whilst to stay fairly competitive we charge £40. When challenged over our prices we tell them that we don’t look to fail cars, just to make sure they are safe to be on the road. We fit simple bulbs and wipers for free under Prs, only charging for the parts, where as these cheap tests fail and the customers are charged accordingly

    #163900 Reply
    Steve J
    Guest

    in reality it probably costs about or close to £18 for any garage to carry out an Mot, by this i mean taking into account the cost of wages to the Employee who does the test, equipment cost, insurance, heating and general overheads to run the place. so if they are doing lets say 8 or maybe 10 tests a day they are £144 to £180 per day in the Red to start. 5 days a week = £720 to £900 .
    Now where is the common sense in doing that unless there is some kind of revenue scheme to recoup that amount of money. you do the Maths.

    #163901 Reply
    Kevin
    Guest

    Here we go again……We quite often get customers asking for prices to carry out repairs after getting a cheap fast fit MOT elsewhere which fails on items that we rarely do like shock absorbers etc. We now say when they call it would be in their interest for us to check the items as on a lot of occasions we find they are not always needed…..We agree with other comments made that customers need to be more street wise and realise that getting a cheap MOT can lead to unnecessary extra repair bills. Pay a fair price and get a fair MOT

    #163910 Reply
    CompareNewTyres.com
    Participant

    Independent garages always suffer when national chains make offerings like this, but I’m surprised its taken a national chain so long to offer free MOTs.

    Although car owners aren’t required to, most garages know that once the car’s in for test, invariably if it fails the owner will leave the car with the garage to have work done, so it’s clearly a calculated decision from Halfords. Whilst I don’t disagree with this method, what I would object to is garages offering free or reduced price MOTs where they intend to fail a car that is safe in order to generate work.

    #163912 Reply
    Alan
    Guest

    Sadly it is not possible to fix the price of MOTs – Service with free MOT – £130, MOT £54 with discount on service taken at the same time £76 giving total price of £130. Same payment but one would comply and one wouldn’t. I bet many of the complainants are happy to buy promotional items at supermarkets which are used to lure customers in. What is sad is that people assume that big chains are good value but add up the total cost, even of legitimate work, and the costs can be very high.

    #163914 Reply
    SAS69
    Guest

    We charge £50 for an MOT, and do 8 tests every day.

    Don’t need gimmicks to attract customers, just do a fair, honest MOT test, and the customer knows their car is tested correctly and they are not being ripped off.

    #163977 Reply
    Stuart
    Guest

    Are we really to be bothered there workmanship is crap, there mots are generally always test to fail. In there board room there fantastic in the real world there customer more often than not come back to the independent or main dealer.

    #164144 Reply
    Glyn
    Guest

    DVSA Should be all over this as its bad practice and as we all know it never ends well for the customer i have personaly seen quotes from fast fit centres that are ouble the cost of the job – and if you ask the customer why they went there they will tell you they had a voucher offering them the world and in reality they get nothing but being had over and dvsa seem happy with that.dvsa say they dont like heavily discounted MOTs but if your quick fit or halfords thats fine,

    #164138 Reply
    graeme
    Guest

    Sure Halfords can charge what they want. But free? Look, it’s as simple as this. Nothing is really free. They still have to make a profit! So steer clear of them. They will get you on repairs or scaring you into doing even the smallest of advisories.

    Just find a small local garage with no frills or spills and they i’m sure will treat you far and square.

    Graeme.

    #164329 Reply
    Anthony Roe
    Guest

    the reason the fast fits get away with it is because shareholders are in office or government bodies have shares in the business that is why it is brushed under the carpet and the mot test fee will never be a set fee but yes it is ok for vosa to set price their mot test fee as they do not do repairs so they would lose out every time , all you can do as a independent is educate your customers, its frustrating but some people actually listen and appreciate what you tell them , half of them just don’t realise how much it costs to keep a garage running, they just see a business and your making a fortune and have not got one clue to be honest, the one i hate is why are you always open late you’re always here have you no home to go to

    #164363 Reply
    jeffrey morris
    Guest

    I think if voca did more undercover mot tests these places would soon be closed down
    ive known mechanics who have worked at these sort of fast fit garages and if they don’t hit there target by lunch time have been told to fail every thing

    #164741 Reply
    Nishad
    Guest

    Absolute devalues the MOT. What is the point? THE DVSA NEEDs to be on to this. Garagewire please feedback our comments.

    #164848 Reply
    Steph Savill
    Guest

    Please don’t blame the motorist for trusting the garage industry. Depending on which side of the industry fence you sit, it’s always someone else’s fault. Independents vs franchised, competing trade associations, all sectors vs the big national chains and so on. And still the customer complaints roll in, which is what we should be managing. I think we’re all at fault for letting this happen to our industry. It’s not just about YOUR business or sector.

    Here’s the truth, seen from the motorists point of view. This industry is riddled with dysfunction whether we like it or not. Those who sell and repair complex car/machines don’t have to be licensed to do their job. Car manufacturers fiddle new car mpg/emissions. We’re upsold services we don’t need. We’re allowed/encouraged to buy the likes of insurance by price not cover. We see garage brokers promise low prices but they don’t tell us who is repairing our cars. We can buy part worn tyres and cheap car parts. We choose garages listed within The Good Garage Scheme not realising this is based on engine flushing oil sales not garage quality. I could go on but I’m sure you get my drift. None of this is the motorists fault but it’s no wonder they don’t trust us.

    Whoever motorists visit claim to be perfect. Garage One was at fault when we take our car to Garage Two for a second opinion or remedy. Trust me, no motorist goes into garages with a rip me off sign on their head – we want to trust you all to do a good job but there are too many that don’t and we’re suspicious of the rest.

    The solution? 1) Those who rip us off need outing. 2) We need minimum standards for all – including workshop staff that meet these standards and are trained regularly. 3) Having set that minimum standard for all, let competition rip because there’s a place for mobile mechanics, services with courtesy cars, collection services, queue and wait, minimalist facilities, ethical MOT only centres, MOT/servicing packages, warranty products and so on.

    If Halfords can make sense of (almost) free MOTs surely they must be losing their customer base to others or GDPR has cost them dearly? Otherwise they’d be marketing to them. I can’t be the only one to be reminded by this of Hoover, following one sales promotion too far?

    To be good enough for the future, I believe this industry needs MORE REGULATION re minimum quality standards for all sectors. One minimum standard controlled by one genuinely independent body driven by a road safety/motorists/fairness for all agenda (yes, recognising the customer isn’t always right). Until we get there, venting is undoubtedly good for the spleen but it won’t help you feel proud about the industry you’re part of. We need consolidated action and until we out the rogues, none of us will feel the pride we deserve, working as hard and professionally as we do.

    Back to you guys, as ever. Intended to be constructive food for thought btw ;).

Viewing 25 posts - 1 through 25 (of 28 total)

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