Halfords Autocentres Reviews

Name: Halfords Autocentres
Rating: 1.86

1.9 Rating 822 Reviews

21 %

of reviewers recommend Halfords Autocentres

Company Reviews

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Metrics

1.9

Based on 822 reviews

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Own Driver, Courier
Average Delivery Time	Next Day
On-time Delivery	Greater than 10%
Accurate And Undamaged Orders	Greater than 68%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Telephone, Email, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In	Under An Hour
Customer Service	2.2 out of 5
Returns & Refunds
Refunds Process	Difficult

Phone:

0800 037 0800

Location:

Halfords Autocentres Ltd. 7/9 Richmond Road, Olton Wharf Olton,
Solihull

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Halfords Autocentres 1 star review on 26th July 2024

Andrew

Halfords Autocentres 1 star review on 29th June 2024

Mrs Helen Dehkordy

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

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“I dropped my car off for an MOT, they made some repairs to the brakes and all seemed fine. However, when I picked my car up it was almost undriveable with the clutch being broken. Mechanics denied all knowledge and claimed not have given the car a test drive, something which later turned out to be a lie. Phone customer services twice, the first attempt I was hung up on, the second I was called a liar. Absolutely shocking service bordering on criminal damage. Avoid at all costs.”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

“Poor service , Nation wide warranty is just joke . They put 2 liter extra oil in my car , I went to their two autocentres in reading both centre did not bother to even check my car and did not offer me to book a time even , but told me to go back to borehamwood centre to get it checked and fixed . I ended up paying extra money to BMW specialist for removing this extra oil from my car , When i went to their borehamwood centre for complain,one their Engineer misbehaved with me and threaten that he will ban my entry in autocentre , this is the way they are treating their customers .”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Overpriced”

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Posted 6 years ago

“I did not have a nice experience at this Halfords (Deepdale, Preston) with my MOT. I was emailed a 'deal' for my MOT; half price at £27 (£54 was their original price online) so I very naïvely jumped on it. I failed the MOT and was told that the retest was half of their MOT price at £18(?). As it failed for the lights, I was told to just pop round whenever for the retest as it wouldn't take long. I came back a week later as I don't have the time to during the week and they were too busy to see it... So, I scheduled in a retest this time for a week later, after my MOT had run out. They checked it and OK'd it, then realised that it was a day past the retest limit so they had to do a full MOT for it. Which cost £30(?) and left me hanging around Deepdale for 4 hours. Despite the reasonable excuses for everything that happened and the price fluctuations, I found the staff to be very unhelpful and their system way too rigid for a garage. There was not a nice atmosphere and the employee couldn't even look us in the eyes when we paid and took the keys. We left feeling pretty f**ked over. I will not return and will tell everyone I know to avoid it.”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

“Took car for mot and service failed on tyre being wrong size .Halfords fit that tyre previously but they say they did not. Also while on test drive they said the car cut out,its never done that before .The manager said it was due to a broken pipe that was broken on the last service and clued back but now it has broke . H alfords did the last service and broke it and never told me or replaced the part . I have now had no car for over 30 hours they haven't repaired the car yet still waiting”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

“I was told that MOT was free when taking a service. According to Halfords, my car failed because 3 bulb lights. They wanted me to buy the light bulbs from them and pay the fitting. I can do that myself and save some money. They were no happy when I said that. MOT was not free, on top of that, I had to call them and ask for a retest and pay a fee. Is this free? I don't think so. I checked my bulb lights and there is nothing wrong with them. Bad service, they want to charged you for something you don't need.”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

“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.”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

“How do I even begin. Booked our car for major service that was to include parts replacement @£264. They change the oil and oil filters and then call to inform us that we need to change the brake disc @£380 we tell them not to worry just do what we booked the car in for and leave the rest as it is. They then give us a warning note that our car is not road worthy, we call our local mechanic who looks at everything and gives our car a clean bill of health. Be very careful with Halfords autocentre they will rip you off and try damaging your car to charge you for replacing nothing”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

“4 spark plugs needed replacing and they charged me £435 for them, with no breakdown of labor or parts used - just an invoice with 'Renew of all the spark plugs £435' I thought it was extremely excessive but I don't know anything about cars and needed it fixed for work”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

“Ignorant and obnoxious customer service. Paid for brakes to be fixed and the emergency light came on saying return to work shop. The nea ws wiper also doesn't touch the screen and the oil that was replaced, well guess what? The oil light came on!!! #halfordsarerubbish#”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

“Was told my drivers side wing mirror would be replaced and fitted one lunchtime, then when I rang it had not even arrived. When my mirror did eventually arrive it was the wrong side and not electric, so then told it would arrive in the week (whilst i was away and had to drive with a temporary fix wing mirror i could not see out of). I arrived and waited for 40minutes (after booking in for an early appointment) to then be told the part had arrived broken. Had to wait another two days for the wing mirror to be fitted and somehow was only offered 10% off, when i am not really sure i received any kind of customer service?! Poor communication through and through with Halfords Autocentre. Either need new suppliers or a better customer refund policy!”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

“After having the RAC attend my van they showed me the broken washer jet and said go to halfords auto centre to get a new one ,arrived to ve greeted by a muppet who wants to book my van in for an investigation told said muppet that the RAC had allready showed ne the broken washer jet to be told we dont believe anyone and that an investigation was needed, I will be imforming my company to take their fleet of vans and cars elsewhere . I took my van to Volkswagon van centre not even there 10 minutes and washers now work avoid halfords at all costs worst service you will ever recieve. And the comments on here giving five stars is obviously their own staff .”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“What went wrong? Nothing thankfully. I had intended having all four tyres replaced at my local Halfords centre (price seemed quite competitive). But after reading through all the reviews here I'll look elsewhere!”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“My wife too our car which had perfectly aligned headlights for an MOT at Folkestone Autocentre. The tester adjusted the headlights unnecessarily without consulting my wife and charged her £20. The reason given for the adjustment was that they were low and the adjustment was necessary for the car to pass the MOT. As soon as I drove the car at night it was obvious that they had been set high and were dazzling other drivers. When I took the car back to the autocentre and informed the Manager that they were set high he stated that they must be correctly set as as they were checked using their equipment. I suggested that the headlights were probably aligned with the adjuster switch not set to zero and was told that the mechanic would have checked this. When I stated that the headlamps alignment had been satisfactory before the MOT and that nothing had happened to cause a misalignment I was told that they gradually lower during normal driving. Eventually our car was booked in for a headlamp alignment recheck and they were found set too high and were re-adjusted. We were not offered an apology or a refund. Our cars headlights are now set lower than they were before the MOT. We wish they had not been interfered with, and will not be using Halfords again.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“Booked my car for a free suspension check. They found that I needed repairs to front and rear passenger suspension arms and link arms etc, new tyre and tracking at a cost of £440. I declined and took my car with the report to a local garages for them to quote price to repair and was told that the rear suspension arm that halfords said needed replacing doesn't even exist on my car so how can they give a price. I decided to goto another garage for a third opinion and he inspected the car whilst I watched and he found no issues with passenger or driver suspension rear and front. What a rip off they should be banned from trading.”

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Posted 7 years ago

“Visited halfords autocentre as I have a VGS warranty for my car and wanted to make claim for a faulty thermostate and faulty clutch. Explained them what the problem is with the car and we booked time for diagnostic. After diagnostic they said that there was some air in the system and the temp gauge needs time to move up. I've just done 200 miles and the temp gauge didn't move up so connected the OBD scanner and it was showing 52 centygrade celsius. I have also checked the temperature on the in/out hoses to radiator and they were warm (whichever engine is cold or warm) as well hence the thermostate was fully open all the time. They quoted me £1200 just to assess what would be the problem with clutch!! After some google research I have replaced the clutch master cylinder myself (cost £70) and the clutch is like new :) Halfords autocentre ipswich blokes are completely useless!”

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Posted 7 years ago

“Visited Halfords Autocentre at Ashford on Saturday 23rd December 2017. The woman on reception was the most rudest person that I have ever come across, not at all helpful, in fact she was very condescending. Now moving onto the technicians. Well, they were the most miserable bunch of idiots that I have ever come across. Seems like Halfords have gathered together the worst bunch of staff from the whole country and sent them to the Ashford branch. They stood around talking to each other for 20 minutes, probably discussing the previous nights goings on, rather than carrying out the work that poor customers like myself had booked their cars in for. Smoking outside the side door and tea breaks seemed to be more important to them rather than customers cars. Could they have been more helpful and friendly, definitely, could they have been more unhelpful, unlikely. Would I use Halfords Autocentre Ashford again, never. Would I recommend the Ashford Autocentre, definitively not. Note for Halfords Management, this whole outfit at Ashford should go through re-training on how to deal with Customers and how they put them first rather than furthering their skills in how to chat to each other and ignoring their customers.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“I booked a MOT test at Woking the week before. Having experienced Hellfraud's appalling time-keeping I decided to telephone before I left to ensure all was well. The telephone rang and rang and rang and rang, and was then disconnected. The same happened again. Upon arriving I was informed that the MOT had been double-booked and that I was the loser, followed by a shrug of the shoulders and the advice to contact customer services; really helpful! I would never use these clowns for a car service; they are not mechanics in any definable sense of the word. I will now also no longer be using them for the MOT; it really is not worth the trouble.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“I went into Halford Autocentre in Chadwell Heath, London and was served by that sleepy sloppy lazy guy called George if he has said his name right. I went there as I had a great impression about halford. However, I can't remember receiving any worse customer service in my whole life in any place than what I received yesterday. I felt like he hated us. Never mind the smile or greetings, he would not even talk or willing to serve though there were no other customers. The car service was done and we could see the car key and the file was ready for invoicing and handing over. So dumb that it took hours to just prepare a simple invoice and taking payments. He was taking so long doing nothing that his colleague had to point him out that the file and key is here and customer is waiting, why don't you process it. Then he sat at his computer kind of reluctantly, fiddling with it incompetently and spend more than a hour to just produce the invoice. Also, utterly dishonest, all lights were working in the car before we went in the but during the MOT he called to say that three lights are not working and we cannot pass you unless you agree to chage it, kind of extortion. Felt like he charged for a lot of things unnecessarily and abused the trust of customer. There was no politeness and not even a minimal sense of decency or respect for customer. I felt like he just hated us. Waste of money and time for this utterly rubbish, rude and con service.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“I booked an appointment at 10:30 to have 2 new tyres fitted to my Freelander. I arrived on time but was asked to sign a printed form that had boxes pre-ticked to say I wanted marketing emails from Halfords and it was OK to pass my details to other companies. I crossed both out. The receptionist told me it would take about an hour to replace the tyres. I went and had a coffee and went back after an hour or so to see my car on a ramp with the bonnet up. I asked why this was being done and was told it was a general check-over. They hadn't even started replacing the tyres by this point. After almost 2 hours the technician came out and after a while doing something on the computer, told me that the rear brake pads were below specification. The receipt shows a quote of £368.63 to replace the pads and discs. What he didn't know was that the car had been serviced by the local Land Rover main dealer the day before and nothing had been said about pads and discs. Just to make sure, I called back into the main dealer on the way home and was told that the discs were good for another few thousand miles yet. I won't be recommending Halfords autocentres to anybody.”

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Posted 7 years ago

Halfords Autocentres is rated 1.9 based on 822 reviews