A frustrated customer, known simply as ‘A.S. form Kent’, recently experienced a series of issues after visiting a Halfords store in Whitstable.
Despite seeking assistance for a battery light warning, the problem persisted, leading to a breakdown and significant repair costs.
After replacing the battery, A.S. continued to experience issues with the vehicle. When he returned to Halfords, the store initially suggested the battery light might be a normal occurrence. However, subsequent attempts to resolve the problem were met with difficulties, including a lack of communication followed by a complicated refund process.
A.S. contacted This is Money’s consumer champion, Helen Crane, to seek assistance. Crane successfully intervened, prompting Halfords to refund the cost of the battery and offer a goodwill gesture towards the breakdown costs.
This case highlights the importance of thorough vehicle diagnostics carried out by a professional garage rather than a retail store.
Source: This Is Money
Martyn Wellfair
I’m not defending Halfords at all, but this supposed issue can be faced by any garage, due to the increasing complexity of modern battery/ starting/ charging etc systems….
I had a guy in for a battery monitoring issue that left his battery light on , and doing all the checks under the sun never resolved it, it turned out since, 3 other garages have since looked at it and everyone is completely stumped as to what it could be and the van runs perfectly…
graham+cox
are they surprised ??
why do people even use this crowd we all know they are low on the scale of quality
the public need to wake up and support quality independents
another reason to get us all checked and approved by a independent body and pay a yearly fee
this would get rid of many of the no marks
Scott Brown
I am a mechanic of 50 years (38 years self employed) i recently had a customer who bought a Citroen C3 Picasso diesel of me, it was just out of my warranty and he needed a battery he went to kwik fit in Berwick and they fitted a new Bosch battery, he continued to have problems he contacted me about it i said i would look at it FOC it might be a drain, after various checks with no drain i suspected a dud battery? i ordered a new bosch battery and when it came it was much bigger, i contacted my supplier and gave him the number of the one kwik fit supplied and it was for a petrol engined peugeot/ Citroen! Unbelivable the grief this caused! Why do people go there!
Teddy Blazer
They should just rebrand themselves to Halfrauds.
anthony roe
As a mechanic for over 35 years there are no complexity issues with battery charging sysmtons , either the vehicle has a battery that has a dud cell, a alternator issue, Alternater is not charging the battery , worn drive belt that allows the alternater to input the correct charge input, the very least common issue would be a bad earth strap.
These well known Fast Fit Centres like kwick fit . halfords etc,i would not trust them to fit a chocklate fire guard let alone attempt to fix standard vehicle repairs, pay peanuts expect monkeys.
The industry is not regulted and this is the main issue , how can somebody get up in the morning and they say they are a tecnician / Mechanic no industry allows this to happen