F*cking b*astard incomptent Halford F*ckers

[TomM]

I made a biiiiig mistake - I entrusted my Fiat to the care of Halfords. I thought they'd be able to do a simple oil-change without f*cking things up, but no. I was wrong.

I get a phone call: "Er, Dr Brown? Sorry, Dr Moore" - not a good start. :) :rolleyes: The muppet goes on to tell me that in removing my sump plug, he's stripped the threads off it. Apparantly this is not his fault, but the fault of mechanics past.

The long & short of it is that they're gonna try and fit a new larger bung to it - attempting to rethread it by simply forcing the new bung in there. :eek: If this doesn't work, it's a whole new f*cking sump needed! :mad: :eek: :mad: :mad:

And not only am I locked into their incompetent mechanics working on it, I'm also now locked into their extortionate labour charges.

The lesson is simple:

Never trust Halfords with anything more difficult than a can of paint

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[Jezz_S13]

erm?
they need to take the sump off to make sure NO swarf gets into the sump which I practically guarantee will happen if they try to force a sump plug in.

[Martin T]

Tell them to go fvck themselves. They can fix it for free, or they can expect court action.

[Ivanski]

Tomb's :(

Do you have the service bill for the last place to touch the sump plug. You might need to get a letter from them stating that there was no problem with the sump plug and that they tightened it to the manufacturers reccomended torque. (Hopefully it was a FIAT dealer to lend some credibility)

If you can get this its easy, A new sump, at Halfords expense. As Jezz said, forcing a larger plug in / fitting a helicoil isn't an acceptable fix unless :

a) They take the old sump off to do it, and
b) You are happy for them to bodge your car.... :(

IIRC the FIAT sump's are a pressed steel pan, not an expensive alloy jobbie... Not that parts shipped by Gondola are cheap in any case :(

I remember Halfords (Leamington) refusing to change a plug on my Alfa (#6 is a b*gger to get at in the V6) as they were afraid of damaging the head. I guess they'd had some trouble at the top end of an engine too....

[Codemonkey]

Halfords are great, aren't they?

The Leamington branch stripped the sump nut on my Laguna when I put it in for a service. Then they led me on the merry "it'll be ready tomorrow" dance for three days. Each time I phoned up I was told a different story about what was wrong with the car - does make you think that they're making it up, doesn't it? I also asked them to change the front coil springs. Their answer? They claimed the springs they'd ordered didn't fit.

When I went to pick it up that night, I blagged a lift with a mate from work. Got there and asked if my car was ready - "Yep, all put back together mate". No probs I thought, so I told the guy who'd given me a lift to go home - no point him waiting around.

There then followed the usual fifteen minutes of aimless keyboard-tapping which seems to be mandatory for any form of payment there. "Right, we'll just go and get your keys". They bumbled around for a bit trying to find my keys before finally realising that they hadn't put my car back together - it was still up on the ramps with the front suspension in bits, and even better, all the "mechanics" had gone home.

"Er. How do I get home?" I asked. I ended up getting a lift home with the manager - which was the only decent gesture I've ever seen from Halfords.

Booked the car in for next Saturday morning to have the springs done. I phoned up on friday night, just to make sure I was all booked in and everything. "No mate, got no record on here of you being booked in". :mad:

I wrote a letter of complaint to their head office, and received a reply that it had been sent to the area manager. Still haven't had the courtesy of a reply from him.

2@

That was the last time I have ever dealt with Halfords.

Found a little local garage, who are very good, and who do all the work on our cars now - you should've heard one of their mechanics ranting about the Halfords guys - "Fookin' glorified exhaust fitters mate" is a phrase that sticks in the mind :)

Dave

[Iain s14]

Dont even trust them with a can of paint. I did and the fcuker turned from flame red to maroon :mad:

[JB]

What pisses me off most about the place, apart from the fact that they play pounding bassy shit on their cheap goodmans stereos and have a combined product knowledge of precisely zero (200SX sir, are they front wheel drive :mad: :mad: :mad: ) is the fact that each time I go in, everythings been moved around.

Fcuking leave things alone, stop moving it :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[_Rob_]

I bought a DV from them and told them it was for an S13, an S14 turned up and i was told that i had been informed of this and they couldnt take it back as i had confirmed that i know it wasnt fit for my intended purpose. So a lot of writing, visits etc etc got me a Bailey DV and precisely £20 of compensation, i have never and will never use them again.



Not even for paint :mad:

[GenerationNexus]

you may find this harsh, but what did you expect? A good mechanic is hard to come by ...

[yeager]

I would NEVER trust anyone at Halfords with my car, i would only go there for consumables. Sometimes they do deals on oil which is quite cheap, and they do sell some good tools... but dont bother talking to the muppets that work there

[JonGould]

halfords dont do work on cars... its the AA that do that. all the garages were sold of a while ago...


As for the monkeys with the DV e.t.c, as per usual you get good and bad people working there... just more bad. i know this cos i was (note the was) a specialist at the colchester ripspeed, but we did it properly, we had 1 audio specialist and 1 tuning specialist (me)...

still, ripspeed isnt geared out for decent stuff, just the mainstream stuff...

[TomM]

Originally posted by Ivanski
Tomb's :(

Do you have the service bill for the last place to touch the sump plug. You might need to get a letter from them stating that there was no problem with the sump plug and that they tightened it to the manufacturers reccomended torque. (Hopefully it was a FIAT dealer to lend some credibility)
'Fraid not :( I... erm... seem to have lost the service log book :o :rolleyes:, if, indeed, I ever had one in the first place. :(

They shoved a sump plug in for me, and 'flushed it out' with some oil to try and remove the swarf. I queried this with the guy over the phone - he said it was either do this, or fit a new sump. :mad: I considered the expensive option, but I needed the car the same day, and also I wanna sell this car in the next week, so I can't be arsed. I'd rather give the new owner the money off the price (if they notice ;) ) rather than f*ck around.

F*ck F*ck F*ck F*ck F*ck F*ck F*ck F*ck

[_Rob_]

Shouldnt be down to you, its their blunder not yours so they should replace the sump. It was fine when you took it there and now its not.....