Halfords Autocentres Reviews 135,549

My daughter booked her car in for a routine service. They told her that they had found metal debris indicating that there damage to the engine, and that she needed a complete new engine for about £5,000. On probing further their story got more and more preposterous. She took it elsewhere, where they found the problem and sorted it out. Halfords have a reputation for trying to persuade customers to have unnecessary work done, but fraudulently suggesting that the whole engine needs to be replaced is taking that to another level!

TOTALLY RUBBISH! NEVER EVER USE THEM! Booked a dpf service for 8.30am booking time, but it stated to arrive at 8.10am to prepare. Took car there 8.08, it stated. Saw service manager, he took keys and said it shall take a while and he shall phone once completed, as the car needed to warm up, (Lie 1) so I left and wandered round local stores for over an hour, not had a call so about 9.40am I thought I would go back see when car would be ready, I could see the car was still parked Service manager said it was not ready, had to warm up! (Lie 2) I said you have not even started? He said no, it would probably be done this afternoon! so he could have had me walking all day around the town waiting for his phone call!!! I asked for refund and left.

On the 27th May, my car was booked in for two new tyres for the following Tuesday 2nd June. In the 6 days between the booking being made and the appointment date, I had numerous emails and texts reminding me about the appointment and advising to get there 10 minutes before the allotted time. This we did and the car was duly dropped off with reception. Half an hour later, instead of getting a call to say the work had been completed, we were advised that the new tyres had not been sent and that they thought they would be there at some point that day, no timescale and not even any certainty that they would even turn up today. The appointment was for 08:30.

So despite having 6 days to get the tyres sent in, despite the numerous reminders about the appointment and despite actually dropping the car off, it was only over half an hour after the appointment slot did they advise that the tyres were not even on the premises. I presume they don't think people have anywhere else to be, jobs to go to and can just hang around on the off chance the tyres show up.

So we cancelled the appointment and now have to wait for a refund - which I am sure will be something I need to chase up and now have to go elsewhere to get the new tyres. There was no apology from the garage (Ruislip, Middlesex) for a wasted morning. They clearly cannot see the irony of spending all week reminding me of my appointment when they didn't even have the product on site! Perhaps they need to do less of reminding us, the customer, and more making sure their own ducks (or tyres in this case) are in a row first!

We will definitely not be using Halfords again and I would certainly not recommend them.

I drive a range rover with a very sensitive 4x4 system that works on everything being as it should. A week before visiting halfords I had brand new tyres put on at another garage, a week later one burst as I hit a curb. Rang Halfords who were nearby and requested the specific tire I needed (22" pirelli scorpion which they sometimes don't stock, hence why I specifically rang up to check) and they confirmed they had it, and I had it fitted it within the hour and I went on my way. However began having problems with the 4x4 system and differentials, when taking it to a garage they spotted the problem straight away that one tire was completely odd compared to the other others. Halfords had put on a completely different tire to what I asked for and gotten me a bill of around £5000 in repairs. Halfords handled my complaint like a parent would handle their child's death, terribly. in the end I sued them and paid out

Absolutely appalling service. Never book their Mobile service.
There is no feed back , you are charged a fee for the call out but noone turns up and you left stranded with no number to call. The main number you get a call centre somewhere in Africa ,and all they say is we cant get through to the hub. One tried to fob me off with a £20 voucher yet could not even give me a time of when they would arrive to fix my car. I was then booked for the next day and assurred it will be done first thing in the morning , and guess what again noone showed up!! So had to stay in again and loss of business and I had to do the calling again to find out if they were turning up, only to be told that (standard Answer) " We cant get hold of the Hub".... worst motorcare business ever, stick to the cheap gimmicks in their store but as for Mobile service and all the others, they are useless and a joke. Stay clear and all they do is take your money first. But when you want refund, then you must wait. Absolute shambles and disgusting service.

Damaged 2 of my alloy wheels during tires change. Manager admitted to damaging one, then customer support refused a whole case.

I had an MOT at a Blackpool auto centre and 30 minutes after the test was due I had a call to say I had no oil (fair enough I should have checked this beforehand but forgot). I was told they didn’t have any oil to top it up for the test (I found this unbelievable, I’m pretty sure most garages would have some spare for such occasions? If I wasn’t desperate for the test I would’ve cancelled and asked for a refund and gone elsewhere).

The technician was helpful at rearranging my MOT quickly as he knew I was going on holiday. Unfortunately I was working on the rearranged day and needed up spending £28 on taxis to/from the garage.

The staff were pleasant & friendly and did do their best to book me back in before my MOT expired. Very easy online booking process at the beginning.

I score 3/5 purely for the inconvenience and the extra money I spent on taxis, which I know was partly my fault, but anyone I’ve shared this experience with has also been surprised that they didn’t have any spare oil on sight.

Awful experience in Dundee
Don’t try to phone they don’t bother to answer ,If you want a diagnostic test don’t waste your time and money in this place ,unfortunately feel like I have been ripped off and won’t set foot in the place again.

Made the mistake of going to Halfords to sort my aircon.
Was working when I went in, after regassing from an aerosol there was a problem which they refused to acknowledge and wanted to charge £140.
Took it to a professional who diagnosed Halfords had caused the problem by introducing air into the system, sorted professionally at half the price!

Took my car in for an MOT at 8:30 Saturday, at 9:30 they rung to say it need a new tyre and the only one they had available was £100 (i can get a part-worn for £30), i had to go ahead with the tyre in order for my MOT to be passed the same day. They then rung me at 4:30 to say i can collect my car but the car wont be passed until i bring it back on monday morning because the man had went home! I could've in the mean time got a cheaper tyre but they just blatantly lied to me to rip me off. Awful!!!!

Spoke to Dave on the front desk lovely chap very helpful took a van in for service needed repairing and also new wud b a few days without it as the work takes time to get parts but i was more than happy to wait great communcation all the way when picking up Van Ian handled payment again lovely chap talked us through everything that was done highly recommend very good place nice customer service the team were great defo be servicing all vehicles through here again thank you Adrian is very happy with the repairs and quality service

Normally a big fan but they got this so badly wrong: I booked a MOT last night for today 11:00. It transpires there was no availability and it shouldn't have appeared as such on the online booking system. I took the afternoon off for nothing. I called CS and they couldn't help not explained. Asked for a refund and they haven't refunded. Incredibly frustrating and incredibly poor in this day and age. Massive inconvenience and customer detriment for no fault of my own.

One star so as to give a review, Halfords were known as the people to go to for bikes, by the reviews their not that clever at that, their biggest problem was THINKING that they could enter the motor vehicle repair and service area, big mistake, they should have stuck to bikes
Purchased a dashcam to be fitted at Rustington complete with fitting kit and SDcard, then non stop emails asking to collect from store, even given a last chance to collect what I had paid and booked a time and date to have it all fitted, 5 hours before fitting time it was cancelled as the fitter was absent, tried to contact Rustington , even their own team centre couldn’t get Rustington to pick up and answer the phone, looks like total incompetence once again, I was a birthday present for my grandson, well done Halford for a grand balls up .
Looking at the many poor reviews they just seem to ignore the customer once thy have your money

Appalling service i have tried to cancel motoring club for 3 months and every time get an email saying sorry you want to leave can we offer you this, i reply no and have no further contact and continue to take payments i've called emailed and done online chat and nothing.

When i told them the reason for the cancellation - car broke down 2 weeks after service for issue that should have been picked up i just got an oh dear not good.

Black stars please
Rude unhelpful person on phone, call centre
If can't drop car at 830 or 1130. Then no deal.
If you are working and want to drop you car in WITHOUT TAKING A DAY OFF for someone to look at a fault. Then don't go to Halfords......

I used the Halfords online facility to order two replacement tyres. These were to be done by mobile service.
30 mins into the delivery slot, which I had paid extra for, I was contacted to state they couldn’t deliver the service.
There was no alternate for the day, which meant I lost a day at work due to Halfords lack of service

Confused and disappointed. Booked and paid for a re-gas for the car's air con. When I arrived, I was asked if I'd had a diagnostic, did I know it needed a re-gas. I had not, and was under the impression a leak test was part of the re-gas service. Apparently not. You have to buy both services, an air con diagnostic and then the re-gas. Either they're trying it on, or they're selling a service that can't be done.

Thank you to Stuart and Victor at the Stocksbridge branch for a super quick service. Customer service was outstanding.🙂

I was mis-advised on the phone call and Halfords invoice as to which tyre my car had failed its MoT on. I therefore replaced a tyre that did not need replacing. The garage nor the central customer service team have owned the £137 this has left me out of pocket, outside of a complimentary MoT next year, which does not cover even half the shortfall

I had booked for a A/C check on Monday as the fault had occurred over the weekend and Halfords were the most convenient at the time. Everything went well with the booking process and drop off. I was called a couple of hours later to pick up. I was advised there were no leaks just low pressure. I drove away turned on the A/C waited for the cold air but it was still blowing out warm air. I then drove back and they looked at it straight away after 10mins of investigations I was advised it may be a faulty pressure switch which would need replacing and advised it would be in the next day and I would receive a call. Gone midday I hadn’t received a call I then called which took over 20 mins to get through. I was subsequently advised it’s on back order and may not be in for a couple of days! I had to travel to Sheffield as we were visiting family for Eid celebrations with my wife and 4 kids with the windows down on the motorway to keep us cool. Thursday came and still no call I then called again after 20+ minutes I finally got through to be told the part hasn’t arrived and they would chase it and get back to me in 30mins I had called in the morning at 5pm I received a voicemail advising the past has arrived however it’s too late to sort it now. My wife needed the car desperately on Friday so we decided with the garage to bring it in first thing Saturday. I then received a call @ 11am advising me they had replaced the part however now they had found a leak in the condenser which was missed on Monday. At no point was I advised how this may be rectified. I will now have to go to another Main dealership garage to look at repairing the condenser. Appalling customer service. Inability to do simple checks properly. Wasted my time and money having to take taxis to pick up the car. I’m back at square one. Yes they refunded the money that’s the least they could do. I will be making sure I go on all available review sites and warn others about Halfords Shirley and to go to a main dealership which I have always done in the past. Yes I may have to pay more but at least the service and quality of workmanship has always been great.