Posted 21 hours ago

My experience with Mechanics this week - fed-up!

Rant warning, how can I find a trustworthy mechanic?

So last week battery light comes on. I decide to tackle it the next day. Damn car breaks down on way to Halfords, so I needed to pay for recovery to jump start it.

Get to Halfords. They recommend I get a new battery. Paid 110 Inc fitting. But battery light is still on. So they recommend I go to kwikfit for free alternator test.

Kwikfit tests for free and advises I need new alternator. They also advise that my battery probably didn't need replacing, so that's 110 down drain. They quote me circa 400 inc vat for alternator and aux belt.

Go to my normal garage, he agrees new battery prob not required. Quotes me about same and book car in for few days later for work. Leave car for a day and then get call that it will be closer to 650 based on new branded part. Say no way so go to pick up car.

Book into another local garage that quotes me 10% more than kwikfit based on fitting a reconditioned original alternator and not a cheap chinese one. Pick up car and they have put in a new one (guessing a cheapy) also needed more labour time as difficult to access, so they say.

I notice as well they have stripped one of the screws used to remove battery, that I personally had screwed lightly only days before as I charged the battery standalone to ensure I could get to garage. Now it is completely stuck, perhaps even glued... They also appear to have lost some of the plugs that hold the panel near bonnet lever in place. But apparently they can get new ones for about a tenner....

How do I avoid such cowboy behaviour in the future. How do you complain about these things to industry boards.

All advise appreciated.

Cheers,

L
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  1. Mark_Hickman's avatar
    This is why i do everything myself, i had no experience in repairing cars although i am very handy at most diy aspects which helps, after a few years repairing my own cars and my kids cars with the help of the internet and youtube mostly, i now feel confident doing anything, its really not that difficult.
    Ive replaced timing belts, water pumps, clutches, suspension springs, all sorts.
    I did dual mass flywheel on my old Peugeot 307 2.0hdi 136 which is a huge job took about 12 hours, this is what started me doing my own repairs after being quoted £1000, did it myself for £400 (edited)
    dipsylalapo's avatar
    Whereabouts are you based? Will bring my car around (edited)
  2. slimy31's avatar
    Unfortunately you only find this sort of thing out when you use them, so unless you can get a recommendation from someone else it is just a trial and error thing.

    Sometimes it's not even the garage, it's an individual person. I take my car to the local garage as I trust them. But on one occasion I saw one of their mechanics putting wheel bolts on with an air gun. Up until that point I'd been impressed that they only use a cross wrench and a torque wrench.

    As for the misdiagnosed battery, that is entirely Halfords and I'm not at all surprised. They should have known that a battery light is not an indication of a dead battery, it's a problem with the charging circuit.
    MadeDixonsCry's avatar
    Theyre not colloquially known as halfrauds for nothing!
  4. Uridium's avatar
    Avoid the chains like kwikfit, Halfords etc for anything other than consumables.
    They have fitters not mechanics. If you were a knowledgeable well trained mechanic\technician would you choose to work there?

    Word of mouth recommendations are the best bet for a decent non franchise garage.

    Don't beat yourself up about the battery , I've known duff alternators to kill a battery. (edited)
  5. JimboParrot's avatar
    Perhaps your usual local garage would have been the best out the lot despite being slightly dearer.

    Hey ho, as they say cars are great until they go wrong!
  6. Toon_army's avatar
    I'm baffles why Halfords didn't check the alternator!
    £110 isn't the end of the world, if you're keeping the car a while a new battery isn't a bad thing! Its kind of a waste but not at the same time.
    I do loads of work myself and only use one mechanic who's a friend. It is a nightmare to find good mechanics though, I've felt your pain
    slimy31's avatar
    £110 is actually worryingly cheap for Halfords, especially fitted. I'd be worried they've replaced a perfectly workable battery with a wet piece of tin that will die after the first winter. I agree with your comment, modern cars do seem to be far more hard work on batteries so a new one may have been good, but it needs to be a good quality one.
  7. Xippi's avatar
    This: Word of mouth recommendations are the best bet for a decent non franchise garage.
  8. ApolloCreedXXX's avatar
    So many poor tradespeople in the UK. The great UK customer service strikes again.
    luvadealme's avatar
    Author
    agree, over last 20 yrs this country has gone to dogs, especially when working people rip each other off while the super rich laugh at us from their low tax positions.
  9. MonkeysUncle's avatar
    It is hard finding a reasonably priced mechanic who actually knows what they are on about/doing.

    It may help adding which part of the country you are in as someone local might know someone decent.

    In general, the industrial estate type places, somewhere a little out of the way are generally better as they rely more on word of mouth. If you look on Google maps etc for reviews that's quite a good indicator too.
  10. splatsplatsplat's avatar
    If you had a cheap £30 a year recovery plan, they could have diagnosed your battery/alternator and towed it to a suitable garage.
    luvadealme's avatar
    Author
    i use autoaid as recommended on MSE, but the guy they sent simply jump started it and told me to go to Halfords.

    In past we had RAC and I know they would have definitely diagnosed better on the spot.
  11. redserpent's avatar
    Ask a neighbour who they use.

    I did this and found a really good garage. Change a battery ? no probs, he charged me £30 if I bought a new one off the internet.

    Fix minor things and test why a light was on no probs.. he did it for free. Only thing is hes retiring and selling his garage.
  12. IAmATeaf's avatar
    I just had something similar, my wife’s car failed for track reps ends last year so both were replaced. This year for its MOT it was taken to another place and it failed for just one of the track rod ends. Told them that both were replaced last year and they told my son it did not look new and showed him some metal which my son obviously couldn’t tell apart from another piece of metal!

    So who ripped me off, absolutely boils my blood that trades people think nothing of taking people for a ride. (edited)
  13. Roger_Irrelevant's avatar
    Even if you're not on social media, join Facebook and look for a local community page and ask on there. Cross reference it with the reviews on Google Maps.

    You might get a few negative reviews from an irate customer where it's not really the garages fault. But overall that should be enough to weed out the bad apples.
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