I contacted Halford Autocentre, at 1 Ampress Park, Lymington, earlier today in order to take advantage of the advertised "free brake pad check" as my front left wheel was squeaking and I have an MoT due in 2 weeks. It didn't fill me with confidence that the mechanic couldn't work out how to open the boot to access the locking wheel nut key, and wheel spun the tyres, just reversing the car over the hydraulic lift. They raised my vehicle and the man at reception, brought me over to the car where the mechanic, a tall, dark haired, foreign-accented guy, who took off the wheels, was also standing next to my car. They told me that the brake pads looked fine, with approximately 10mm remaining, but they couldn't remove the front right wheel retaining nut, as it had seized tight and they were afraid that any further pressure on the nut might round it off completely and would mean they would have to weld the nut to remove it, at a cost of £100. The tall chap then walked around to the front left wheel, looked at the man on reception and said, "Oh, I think this brake disc is warped". This seemed a bit suspicious to me, and fortunately the receptionist said I brought it in for squeaking, not vibration, so it clearly wasn't a brake disc issue. Nice try though. As I was discussing the options, the man at reception, suggested they complete their inspection report and he would get back to me if I waited in the reception area. After 20 minutes or so, he had a clipboard with the "completed report" and took me over to the car and said the left rear brake caliper piston had seized, causing the brake pad to over heat, and that it would be an MoT failure,( I told him I had an MoT due in about 2 weeks). He told me it would have to be replaced at a cost of £315.99 for the brake caliper and £98.34 for the rear brake pads. He asked if I'd like them to do the work now, and I said no, I'd like to think about it and look at getting a replacement retaining nut key for the "seized" front right wheel. They then eventually put the wheels back on the car, after a good 30 minute wait,9 funnily enough, when they thought they had my business, it took them only about 8 minutes to take them off). I IMMEDIATELY drove straight to a local tyre garage, which I have used before and trust. I explained that apparently the front right retaining nut was seized and wondered if they had any advice or specialist equipment to help me out. The man there asked me to drive the car in, where he grabbed a normal extended socket wrench from the wall, attached my retaining locking nut key to it, and immediately and without any issue, released the nut within less than a second. This indicates to me that clearly Halfords Autocentre had fabricated an issue with the front retaining locking nut, and were trying to get me to pay £100 for a problem that didn't exist. I asked the guy to recommend a local garage to look at the rear brake caliper piston, (they only do tyres and exhausts) which I suspected was also a possible fabrication, given my experience with the front retaining locking nut. The price quoted by Halfords also seemed extremely high, given that I looked online at the cost of a brake caliper for my BMW, and it seemed to be approximately £110 - nowhere near the £315.99 quoted by Halfords. He recommended a local garage. I drove there, explained the whole story to the guy at reception, and he told me of the numerous times he's had complaints from customers about pricing and unnecessary work from Halfords. He recommended I wait for the MoT and a report by whoever did it, would highlight any issue, if any, with the brake caliper. I was hoping he'd inspect the caliper than and there. I asked what the approximate cost of replacement rear brake caliper and pads would be, and he quoted a total figure of £220. FAR less than Halfords. I strongly believe there has been a clear case of falsely claiming work to be done that is unnecessary as well as blatant overcharging. I think Halfords Autocentre in Lymington needs to be investigated for malpractice. I won't ever go there again, and reading other reviews, am wondering how they stay in business.