Goddam Kwikfit

Another happy customer. Your fleet department may eventually get the message that they're shit. But if they're anything like my employer then they won't give a damn and keep doling money out to them whether they can do the job or not.

I used Kwik Fit once ;-) I had to return three times to get them to fix the back box falling off problem.

Why? My experience says they're as good as any such place.

I'd only replace tyres in pairs.

Have you had one new tyre fitted to the front along side a worn one?

Everyone with any sense checks tyre pressures *immediately* after having work done. However, out of balance wheels don't cause the car to pull to one side. They cause vibration.

Are you saying you're not capable of checking and setting the tyre pressures yourself? Good grief.

They once told me I needed a new gearbox and shock absorbers, to fix a vibrating wheel. I took the car somewhere else and they replaced the worn wheel bearing which was the real problem. That was many years ago. Recently I gave them another chance and had new tyres fitted by them. They managed to disable one of my front brakes. I won't be using them any more.

There is a reason they call themselves KwikFit rather than KorrectFit ;-)

Well, to be honest, did you expect any different? They're hardly the highest-skilled, most intelligent people, are they? :-/

"Simon" wrote

You don't buy parts from Kwik-Fit, Kwik-Fit sell parts to you.

Well actually no. Past experience taught me this, and when the fleet department moved the contract to KwikFit I actually contacted fleet and told them I didn't want to use them. But when the company pays for the car, there's not much I can do...

FWD? I'd be putting the matched pair on the front, and the back can have the slightly different pair. (This is different to the normal 'new tyres on front or back?' question, in that the existing one is presumed to be ok..)

cheers, clive

Given the circumstances, I think I'd play by the rulebook and insist on the work being done by the company contracted to do such work as well. I might put them right for my own safety but I'd still insist on the car going back for corrective work. The only way you convince beancounters that they've got it wrong is to make sure that their choice costs more than yours.

All together now.....

"You can't get shiter than a kwikfit fitter."

They did me a good deal on a set of tyres once, until I had to spend 300 quid getting the alloys refurbished after they finished butchering them.

You can't get thicker than a kwikFit fitter

Hello,

It will be because you refused to have rear shock absorbers fitted. I used to watch them stalling cars and trying to say the clutch had gone at the branch near me. Then anything with a child seat fitted got the "oh the brakes are faulty" treatment and "I couldn't let you take that out on the road". Don't forget that places like that have SALES targets, so force and pressurise the staff into making as much money out of each car as they can. The people doing the jobs are probably fairly decent, it's the management that appear not to be fair with them. If they dropped the "make money or else" attitude they might get more custom based on trust. I had a nasty experience with them when they broke the back lights on one side and didn't say anything. They attempted to do the tracking and forgot to centre and hold the steering wheel. They also kept offering me finance and finding new things wrong each time I said no - until I said I would go elsewhere. They even said the car was in a dangerous condition, despite passing an MOT two weeks earlier and only covering 50 miles. They wouldn't put that in writing so I went back and told the garage that did the MOT.

I would NEVER use KWIK FIT again based on the experience I had and the refusal to admit anything or put it right again. I don't like people trying to con me and will not watch others being conned in a similar manner.

hello,

If you could prove they did it, why didn't you sue them? Or is that a load of rubbish you're coming out with to hide the poor state the wheels might have already been in?

Tell me about it. I spent upwards of 5 hours at a kwik fit the other week -- had a couple of new tyres fitted and afterwards the wheel balancing was completely off. Took it back, they "fixed" it, I drove off. Wheel alignment still off, car kept drifting to the right. Took it back, they "fixed" it. Car now started drifting to the left. Took it back, cycle repeats.

All in all I had to take it back and have them "fix" it 6 times before it was good enough for me to give up and go home. Total incompetance.

Hello again Brian.

Yeah, FWD. The tyre they didn't replace has about 12k miles on it.

The tracking being out won't make the car pull to one side IMHO. You have another fault.

I recently replaced my steering rack - and as you can imagine the tracking was miles out. The steering wheel although centralised on the rack was a

And let the back end that you have no real control of let go first? Clever.

Nice snip. I'll restore it:

Looks like you're merely answering the normal question, not the one I'm answering here.

clive

Yeah, pulling indicates that the camber is out, and on most front wheel drive cars you cannot adjust the camber, so it would suggest something is bent