I phoned Halfords autocentre to see if it was okay to get my car battery checked. The following morning was confirmed as fine. Upon arrival I asked how long it would take. Halfords said 1 hour. I walked home. Most of the morning was spent chasing up this simple procedure via phone, which is very poor. Around 1pm Halfords still had not phoned me so I phoned them. Halfords told me I needed a new alternator. I asked how much? They said they would find out. Surprise, surprise I had to chase this up as well. At around 1530 hours I phoned again, they said the car was ready for collection. A little confused I said you have not quoted me a price for a new alternator nor have you told me you cannot undertake the work today. I urgently needed the car the following day, which caused a massive inconvenience before the Easter holidays had started. I went to collect the car around 1630 hours and was quoted over £600 to replace the alternator. I said I would think about it, but I had already made up my mind not to let Halfords proceed any further. For a comparison I was quoted £400 including VAT from another local garage. The car was subsequently taken to another garage as I was not convinced of Halfords findings. This garage was completely in a different league in terms of professionalism. The car was booked in properly. A parasitic drain test was performed along with diagnostics etc. It was concluded there was no issue with the alternator or car. The garage informed me that Halfords had fitted a poor branded/quality battery several weeks ago and that one of the positive terminals was loose. This should have been tight and was most likely the cause the issue. The car battery was fully charged and the terminal replaced at a cost of £37. This really frustrated me that Halfords were trying to charge for work that did not need to be undertaken. In the future I would avoid Halfords autocentre at all costs and use a more trustworthy and helpful establishment. Halfords autocentre is too profit driven and they lack customer service skills. As soon as a fault is found they try and charge you for it rather than examine and investigate the root cause of an issue, which is poor workmanship. I am very shocked by this experience and I wish these companies were investigated fully so other innocent individuals are not handing over there hard earned money to what I perceive as a very fraudulent profit driven company. I would hate to think based on this experience and past I have had with this company how much they have taken out of the pockets of vulnerable individuals. My wife and I will not be using them again and they will 100% not be recommended to anyone that I know. AVOID