Anyone who uses Kwik Fit be warned.....

 

Dropped the Mazda 6 into a branch week last Sunday for 2 new front tyres, got there about 11am, the guy said it would be a 2 hour wait but as we were going to a show in town said it was no problem as we could collect the car about 3. He said that was ok and he would call me when ready so off we went, no calls so we headed back at 3 to get the car. Car was all done when we got there so he gave me keys and off home we went. The drive home is about 40 minutes and involves the A48/M48/M4 and another duel carriageway.

 

I did my usual speed along these roads (70mph:sneaky2:) but just as we pulling off the warning light for tyre pressure came on so we detoured to a garage to check the pressure. The front drivers side tyre looked low so tried to put some air in but everytime I touched the valve it let out air:scared:

 

The car has tyre pressure sensor valves in and it seemed to be damaged, this was 3.40pm so we called the branch. The guy answered and his words were, the valve was damaged when it came in and I forgot to tell you when you picked up the car! He said they don't stock the special valves but if I come back they would fit standard ones for now, but I said as it's a 30 minute drive back they will be shut. So he arranged for me to go to another branch in the morning, in the meantime take it steady with the car and it should be fine.

 

So off we set onto the bypass which is a 60mph road, came round the roundabout and started to accelerate up the straight and BANG tyre lost all pressure :cursing: car swerved some what but controlled it and pulled over. One flat tyre and stuck on the side of a 60mph road with no hard shoulder- f##king great!!! The wife rings the branch while I look for the spare, she goes mental at the guy as he could off killed us if this happened earlier in the journey at 70mph! His suggestion call the lease company as they will have breakdown cover. She insists on a call from the area manager the next day. I find as the car is a sport model it doesn't carry a spare only a bose subwoofer in the boot.

 

Anyway RAC come out, both front valves damaged, strange how I did 900 miles that week with no issues and Mazda checked the car 3-4 weeks ago and only needed to replace 1 rear tyre valve:confused1: RAC then call out mobile tyre fitter to replace both valves and charge £63 and after checking the Kwik Fit invoice which is £163 a corner!!!! they have charged for valves!!!! Finally got home at 7.30pm.

 

Next day area manager called to apologise, I managed to stay came as I vented our anger at his idiots nearly killing us, says the car will be collected Friday to have the valves replaced and will conduct an investigation to restore our faith in the company and call me Saturday. So last Tuesday still no call although the car was collected and fixed as promised, the wife finds out the customer service directors name and sends him a 5 page letter!!!

 

Had a call the next day from HQ and they are going to investigate and contact us shortly......

 

Should we take this further or see what happens???

take it all the way! as you said it could've been serious.

Thats shocking, but not surprising. Never had any sort of decent service from any of the big companies, always go to independent tyre places.

I would see what the head office has to say about this and how they're prepared to rectify this - then decide whether to take this further. Trading Standards would be my first point of call under any circumstance tho

I wouldnt trust kwikfit to change my bicycle tyre.They are some of the worst tyre monkeys going.Glad you got it sorted though.Get a claim against them for losses if i was you..Lee

Kwik Fit - the McDonalds of tyre and exhaust places. :slap: As Janus says - the smaller ones always seem to be the best - there's a Kwik Fit and a Walkers opposite eachother about 2 mins drive from me and I use Walkers every time.

 

on a more important note glad you and the fam are ok!!

yup all the way mate time they started taking reponsibility their track record is awful!i had the garage swap over the spare on my van at work.(no time to do it myself...)anyways they informed me that the spare wheel carrier underneath had been zip tied on as the bolts to realse where seized. and the spare was flat to allow it to fit. the bolt would normally compress the tyre. i knew they wherent full of bull because i saw the zip ties when the car was on the way up on the ramps.

take it all the way! as you said it could've been serious.

 

I shudder to think if it had gone 5 minutes earlier on the M4, normally my 9 year old son would have been in the car to.

I never trust these types of garages as there all fresh out of collage.

 

You cannot beat the old little guys that have been doing it since cars were invented:lol:

I was told it's best to take it steady for the first one hundred miles to allow the tyres to bed in, if you new you already had a problem with the tyre why drive at that speed?

 

Paul

I was told it's best to take it steady for the first one hundred miles to allow the tyres to bed in, if you new you already had a problem with the tyre why drive at that speed?

 

Paul

 

I've never been told to drive steady on tyres for 100 miles, I've been driving 11 - 12 years, been a mechanic and had tonnes of different cars that have had hundreds of tyres changes, and not once has anyone said that to me. I've even had tyres changed in order to go straight on the track with a 450bhp GTR and not been told that.

 

I just had two new front tyres put on the 300 yesterday (Not at Kwik Fit), watching the guy using a crow bar to get the old tyres off my 18" alloys is always painful.

 

I haven't used Kwik Fit for tyres in years, but strangely enough, they are the ones who currently insure the Z lol.

take itall the way m8

ivfound some kwikfit branches to empoy incompetent and arrogant employees.its a joke

this could have caused either you or your wife to be hospitilized.

i remember i took my golf in to the kilmarnock branch to have a new cat fitted..all seemd well untill a serios rattle developed tund out the didnt fitt all the hangers and failed to put gaskets on aswell..

theyr exuse was we were running out of time and theyre wasnt gaskets on to begin with.

biggest load of rubbish iv ever heardput a complaint in and the guy that done it was fired for serious misconduct..not just because of me but he done worse to other costomers

That's ok then, I'll disregard my 37yrs of driving and 20yrs of racing experience then.lol

 

Even if I had not be told this, I still would not be driving at that speed knowing that I had an under inflated tyre.

 

Paul

'The wife rings the branch while I look for the spare' & ' I find as the car is a sport model it doesn't carry a spare only a bose subwoofer in the boot.'

 

 

no harm meant. this just tickled me so much. :-)

all these tyre exhaust garages are full of bodgers with very small knowledge, if u want stuff done or changed you should always go to a garage where you can have the work carried out by a mechanic not some jack the lad tyre exhaust fitter.

I was told it's best to take it steady for the first one hundred miles to allow the tyres to bed in, if you new you already had a problem with the tyre why drive at that speed?

 

Paul

 

If you read my post it doesn't say I drove at speed knowing the tyre was underinflated. As we came off the motorway the light came on and we made our way to a garage to check it. The tyre then went not more than 1/2 a mile after finding it was damaged and leaving the garage and THEY advised me it was ok to go on.

 

As other people mentioned I have never been told to go easy on new tyres

Kwik Fit,Youll be amazed at what we do,yeh fukin really amazed. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1348989/Ryan-Fleming-8-killed-Kwik-Fit-workers-taking-customers-Porsche-spin.html

 

Kill Kids in customers cars,spot on :cursing:

That's ok then, I'll disregard my 37yrs of driving and 20yrs of racing experience then.lol

 

Even if I had not be told this, I still would not be driving at that speed knowing that I had an under inflated tyre.

 

Paul

 

Lol disregard what you like, I wasn't having a pop, or saying you were wrong, just that I've never been told to do that.

 

I've driven all sorts of cars from Ford Orions to GTRs and Supras, I've driven round tracks like Silverstone and Brands in fast cars, had more tyre changes than I can even remember, usually not from Kwik Fit either, and no one, has ever once, mentioned that I should drive carefully because of the new tyres.

 

I'm actually quite concerned, because typically, if I have new tyres on, the first thing I usually do, is go and take some bends lol.

ok, no problem.

 

Paul

they are complete cowboys at kwik fit, take it all the way, that's terrible about the little boy,

 

i took an s13 into them for an mot, said id pick it up the next day as i dropped it off late, got a call from a mate about 10pm ish said he'd just seen my car speeding down the A27, when i went to collect it the car was pouring out with smoke and the turbo was winning, so god know what they did, *******s failed its mot then claimed it was like that when i dropped it off.... they bloody got away with it too as couldn't prove they had take the car out...

they are complete cowboys at kwik fit, take it all the way, that's terrible about the little boy,

 

i took an s13 into them for an mot, said id pick it up the next day as i dropped it off late, got a call from a mate about 10pm ish said he'd just seen my car speeding down the A27, when i went to collect it the car was pouring out with smoke and the turbo was winning, so god know what they did, *******s failed its mot then claimed it was like that when i dropped it off.... they bloody got away with it too as couldn't prove they had take the car out...

 

Had a similar expericene with a local independent Garage, Dropped my tuned Saab off in the morning for some minor work, whilst driving home for lunch in the missus STi saw a black saab heading the otherway and said to my wife that saabs giving it some, then heart in my month, F**K me that's mine, needless to say done a rapid U turn and chased the little pr**k back to the garage, as he was heading back to the office to hand the keys in with me hot on his heals, asked him if the car was fast enough for him and he said he was not going that fast and in front of his boss I said that I couldn't catch you in an STi so i think you are a lying Bar-steward. (still angry about it & that was 4 years ago)

Got the work carried out for free, set for premium tyres at cost & the guy got the sack!

I am now very picky who gets hold of my cars to carry work out, there is to many bad stories out there.

 

Beware

 

Mike

email watchdog as they did a piece on them and slated them take them to the cleaners!!