Well, after much editorial input and a huge number of customer complaints here (all unanswered by Kwik Fit management) the bell is tolling for this crafty corporate.
A corporate which delivers life-threatening service, shocking customer treatment, and appalling employee practices, too, judging by some of the feedback on the anti-fan Facebook page established on the back of my original blog. Now, payback time.
BBC Watchdog will be highlighting Kwik Fit in their flagship, primetime programme this Thursday evening. To millions.
No more running, no more evasion, no more silence – the bell is tolling for you, Ian Fraser, Simon Benson, Dave Rees and associates. Your corporate PR team can’t save you now. Karmic Law in action. Bring it on.
Tweet your pre-programme thoughts and inputs to BBC Watchdog’s Twitter feed. Let’s ensure the show hits Kwik Fit hard.
Try getting hold of Kieron Mortlock, Steve Georgeson, or even Kes Lal (area saless manager on south coast) see what they have to say about ‘up-selling’, over selling, bull crap about un-repairable punctures (allegedly) and needing new tyres… they bully the staff to sell, sell, sell…to protect their bonus’s and jobs. Screw the little people below them!
Sorry i took soooooooooo long to get back to you had some family issues
Anyway i work for a BMW dealership at the mo(area and name will be withheld as i dont want to loose my job) but previously in a Ford dealership further down south and upselling goes on here too which i dont agree with but hey it puts food on my table to feed my children, The thing is the shiney sign outside that says “Yes sir/madam you need a new giggle pin on the tickle shaft and it will cost 300″ they believe you and dont argue or request to see what needs doing so my point is its not just sh*tfit that upsells its everyone! oh did you all know the average price for labour charges in dealerships is 126 an hour not including parts? no? well you do now!!
looks likes stevie b knows wot heres on about all day every day being threaton with ur job u if ur not performing they threaton u with the sack happens day in day out u can see why they keep getting caught out would love to see more managers from k f to put some comments on here
I’ve used two Kwikfits in the last couple of years and incompetent doesnt even begin to cover it. Completely messed up changing a tyre and 2 more trips to rectify had my tracking and alignment so far out the car was trying to drive itself off the road.
Oil change, yes but you’re meant to take the old oil out first, thats what change means, and theres a maximum level on the dip for a reason.
They cant change oil, they cant change a tyre, what can they do? Oh charge, yes they manage to charge alright. Never again.
I have worked for kwik fit mobile dealership department and can vouch for being bullied sell five tyres minimum per day and if it dosent get hit jobs are at risk ive witnessed with my own eyes customers being ripped off and know customers with repairable punctures have been sold tyres ,and also there was a rule when things got tough and it was if only one tyre needs changing on an axle to fit BOTH?? Ive heard fitters say I do anything to hit target ……reson being if you dont you may not have a job,pure bully tactics.
Shocking stuff – and many thanks for your candid honesty.
It appears that Kwik Fit treats internal customers (employees) as badly as it treats external customers (us lot) on a regular basis.
You have to remember that the current owners of Kwikfit paid over the odds for this business and have other investors to answer to.Their only interest is to make themselves a fat profit on their shares like all these ‘consortium buyouts’.
They have’nt the slightest interest in improving the ‘integrity’ of the business which of course if they were able to do this might just induce some customer loyalty therby improving longer term profitability etc. etc.
Because so many of these company buyouts are financed by debt i suspect the pressures to repay this debt is intense with the lenders breathing heavily down the directors necks. Yes no!!
Hi Graham
Excellent points, and thank you for the insight.
However, I’m confident that the majority of unhappy ex-Kwik Fit customers are not too concerned with the financial state of the parent company, but very concerned with the poor service they’ve received.
Thank you for your comments – useful stuff.
I admire when somebody stands up and speaks the majority of. There are there are not enough bold people on the planet to stand ” up ” for what they also believe in.
i have worked for Kwik fit since last year, and everything was going smoothly whilst i was hitting targets , the moment i moved depots to a failing one , my ops manager became a nightmare to work with, the constant pushing and bullying to “look” for the extra faults or work was unreal, and because i dug my heels in my supervisor suddnely started clocking me out wrong on my days out, i can only assume he was told to by the ops manager and the reason for this wil become very clear in a minute.
I took some leave and spoke with another ops manager who agreed to transfer me to another region so i phoned my ops manager and told him from that moment onwards it has been unbareable, to the extent now he has refused to transfer me to the other region (even though I have gone) he is still booking me out as absent, which generated a HR disciplinary against me , because i managed to get that one put down he has now raised a second one against me , now i just learned that I have just worked this month for free as because of his actions in not transferring me i will not get paid. HR response is get him to transfer you then we will help….. Kwik Fit say they are for the little people and for their customers but from a centre manager POV all they want is to rape the customer as much as they can and come across as the good guy, it is an evironment where if you don’t tow the ops managers line or the DD’s line your life is hell and they will try to force you out as quickly as they can unless you do as they bid.
The man you should be going after is the head of the pack..PAUL BOULTON who is the real head of KF
This guy is the main threat to all the staff including the ops managers..he is an absolute bully and has instilled such a reign of terror over KF that what he says goes.I was a former ops manager for KF while he was at his worst and the endless phone calls and daily threats to hit the targets which can only be met through ripping off customers….when a customer complains he gets sudden abnesia will sack the staff involved who are following his orders.
He really is a modern day FAGAN who gets all his little followers to do his deeds.
Kwik-Fit will never change as the beast is too big and they continually advertise to try and keep customers…they allow staff to do brake work after a short course and they have ran out of proper mechaincs and motor trade trained managers now so they are taking guys trained by mcdonalds and other fast food chains.
These guys are a joke
I am self employed and Kwik Fit damaged my vehicle replacing spark plugs during a servicing. I had to go to trading standards, a solicitor and the local small claims court. Kwik fit were obstructive and awkward throughout and the manager, customer service and fitter who did the damage lied 20 times in court. The Judge found Kwik Fit’s evidence not credible and granted me the full amount claimed for (loss of earnings) and 10% to cover costs as per small claims rules.
It took me a full year to sort out and my business has still not recovered as I lost regular customers I had for 10 years.
If Kwik fit damage your vehicle have evrything in writing (although kwik Fit will try to avoid this), always have witnesses with you when speaking to Kwik Fit, contact trading standards and take legal advice. Do not let this shoddy company get away with it!
Kwik Fit ripped me off for £400 by running down my battery & alternator while the car was left in their care. I put my car into Kwik Fit Cheltenham Road, Bristol for an MOT the day before I was due to go on holiday. The car failed its MOT and Kwik Fit told me that they needed to order a small part in order for it to pass and I should keep the car on their forecourt while I was away, otherwise I’d have to pay for a retest if I took the car away.
I left the keys with them and they said they’d fit the part and pass the car’s MOT while I was on holiday. I came back from holiday to be told that my battery and alternator had both died while the car was on their forecourt and it would cost £400 to replace them. Both were fine when I took the car into them, and also when they originally tested it for the MOT. When they gave me the news I was back at work so couldn’t get down to the garage to verify their claims. Assuming the battery or alternator weren’t working I couldn’t take the car to another garage, so I had to pay them the money. Looking at the bill they gave me there was no original part they had to order on it as they’d claimed. Avoid these con artists at all costs
My beef is not with the quality of service – I’ve used a small garage in Bristol called Renatec for over 15 years and they’re great.
No, it’s the fact that the Cheltenham Road, Bristol branch is so run down it’s a disgrace – weeds in the forecourt, hasn’t seen a paint brush in many many years, filthy windows. Says a lot that a business has zero pride in itself, is in such a state and brings the whole area down.
I have had a similiar experience to many contributors and still have an unresolved dispute with Kwik Fit. Unresolved because they hope that if they delay enough I will go away. I think the easiest way to resolve all our problems is to get together and bring a class action against the company. It may sound scary and expensive but need not be. All those who may be interested could make themselves known on here.
I have just had a frustrating trip to my local Kwik Fit,
I had pulled in with an issue with my brakes,one of the hoses had split and was dripping fluid, after almost an hour waiting the guy comes back to me with a price…£379! yes, £379 to replace the hose which apparently only come in pairs, he then informed me it was for replacement pads and replacement disks as mine are ” Pitted severely and need changing” funny that, seeing as 4 weeks prior Kwik Fit had passed the car in an MoT with no advisories, when i mention this he tries to fob me off with the excuse “they only do a mechanical test on brakes during an MoT” a fact i know is untrue. I ask him if he can just replace the broken hose to allow me to get home to do the disks myself to be told “no im afraid i cannot let you do that” He then comes back to me after i tell him the price is rediculous and cannot afford it with a different price stating that he had found out other cheaper parts will fit and work on my car, the customer service is a disgrace, seems they are only ever out to rape people’s pockets and 9 times out of 10 do a half assed job avoid at all costs!
Hi there, I discovered your web site by means of Google at the same time as searching for a similar topic, your site came up, it looks great. I’ve bookmarked to favourites|added to bookmarks.
Thanks for this insider insight Rob – very revealing.
Hi. I recently used Kwik Fit on Cheltenham Road, Bristol for a brake problem. I booked my van in online for a 9am check to look at a grinding brake. I’d booked in a couple of days in advance, as I knew I’d need the van during the afternoon on the same day. When I dropped it off I checked that they would be able to do the work in plenty of time – I was reassured that it would take 20 minutes to check the brakes, and then perhaps an hour to fit any necessary parts. When I called them at midday to find out how they were getting on, they hadn’t even looked at it yet! I told them again that I needed the van in the afternoon, so they said they would get straight onto it. Two hours later they called me in to collect it – the manager was very apologetic, but reassured me that everything was fine, the brakes were ‘perfect’, all the pads were ‘fine’, and all they had had to do was strip off a rust ring that had built up on the edge of the brake disc – all for no charge. I was quite pleased with this, until I drove about 30 yards down the road and the brake started grinding again! Exactly the same as before – and I mean EXACTLY the same. Almost as if they hadn’t bothered to look at it at all and fobbed me off with a load of b******t. When I looked at the wheels they were all still covered in road-dust and there was no suggestion that they had even been removed to check the brakes.
I blame myself entirely for taking my van here – everybody seems to know someone who got ripped off at Kwik fit. I took my van to a local garage around the corner a couple of days later, who took half an hour to find a worn pad grinding against the disc (which they showed me), and replaced both within an hour.
I’m most annoyed that they seemed quite happy to lie to my face. It would have been much better to just tell me that they were too busy to get the work done in the time I had, and offer to book me in on another day – I would have been a bit annoyed that they wasted my morning, but not half so pissed off as I am now. What kind of stupid management policy suggests that lying to customers is ever a good idea?! I wish I’d come across this blog earlier, and avoided Kwik-Fit altogether.