Halfords Autocentre Charlton

"Worst customer service Gabriel. Whenever I call and ask about my car claim and repair quote Gabriel said he is busy and working alone today. Not possible to answer all the question. Sometimes said he is not allowed to tell before approval. Once my claim approved nobody even bother to inform me and I was waited more than a week without car after my claim approval. NOT RECOMMENDED"

"About to take the car for MOT next week. Will update my experience once it’s done. Will give it a 3 star for the moment and hope for the best."

"Do yourselves a favour and AVOID this place. I have used this Halford branch twice in the past with no problem, so thought I'd give them a shot when my car needed servicing. At the time I brought my car to Halfords, I only had it over a year with only around 7k miles. It just recently passed its MOT and went through a thorough health check with Mercedes 4months prior. To my surprise, few hours later they called outlining everything that was wrong with it.. brake pads, battery etc The overall repair cost was around £2k. I refused to have it repaired and said I will need to seek second opinion somewhere else. I took my car to Mercedes who did a thorough diagnostics and everything was ok!! This place is a rip off. Watch out! I have Halfords full report and Mercedes diagnostics if anyone would like to have a look. Then you could see for yourself how I almost fell into Halfords trap! Disgraceful!"

"Its a TRAP and quite a bad one. Booked the car for interm service and MOT with Halfords Charlton. Service advisor tried to sell me extras as usual I politely refused all. Looked like it wasn't just a sale pitch rather they were on a mission to make money from me. 1. Got a call soon saying that my rear brake pads are running thin, the disks are pitted and Calipers have a problem and it needs brake fluid change and few more things. As I took the brake pads apart a 2 weeks ago I knew those are thick enough to go through MOT easily so asked them to go ahead with MOT. Then they failed MOT due to brake pad thickness less than 1.5mm. Asked them if they can replace brake pads they said to maintain the quality of work they will have to do all the work totalling over £1200. Which is minimum needed and i cannot drive the car away, threatened me with £2500 fine. Also told me that the big bill is due to not me maintaining my car properly. Went to garage and measured the pads and they were definitely more than 1.5mm. No one was willing to even have a look and measure those in front of me. Was told that 2 people measured those separately and they can not be wrong. Do whatever you want to but our quote is over £1200. After some time I did manage to speak to another representative who agreed to just to brake pad change but for around £210 which is more than first quote and they will have to order the part in. I asked if they can fit the pads I had and was again refused. 2. Decided the appeal the MOT and got a call from DVSA rep and was told that I can drive the car back home or to place of repair with even with a dangerous fault. Had a camera system fault on dash when I went to collect the call and no one looked at that or even acknowledged that the fault was there when I took the car despite dropping the car with them without any faults/warning. This was not even acknowledged despite asking for it and was refused to give anything in writing or record our conversation. Despite appeal ongoing, did change the pads myself in around 1.5 hrs time, measured the brake pads in question 3.4mm was the actual thickness and those have not even reached the wear thickness indicator. Took the car back for MOT retest. 3. They decided to do full test giving me "system error" as reason and failed the car again with parking brake efficiency low. The reason given was that whoever did the work did not do it properly, Again same threat that i cannot take the car away with major fault (same £2500 fine and 3 points threat) even though my old mot is valid till next month. Did a test on slope and both the wheels were locking when the parking brake was applied. Got this on video. So this was clearly an attempt to punish me for resisting their sales. 4. No response from halfords complaints department yet (6 days and counting) and 2nd appeal already sent out to DVSA with videos in case another test was an attempt to invalidate my old appeal. My issues are MOT failed to push me to get unnecessary work done, Rude staff member who served me (Rachel) kept on pushing for sale telling lies and did not allow me to speak to anyone else. Did not even acknowledge that I had camera issue when driving the car away. Failed the 2nd MOT to punish me to not get work done with them. No reason given why they did the full test again despite asking for me it many time. Hence I would suggest everyone to avoid Halfords Charlton. I will update here as the MOT appeal progresses and I hear back something for the complaint. Before going over there think about why people who are charging £80/hr for work offer cheap MOT and free inspections"

"Not a suprise with the majority of people stating they have had a bad experience in this store. Especially quoting Gabriel (who i believe is the manager?) Well that says it all. If the management is in shambles how can the rest of the team progress. No disrespect to the other staff members! Halfords should really look into this and review their contract with them. Working under Halfords but have their own rules and terms??.... avoid this place if you can...."