Formula One Autocentres - Woodford Green Reviews 

I booked my mot for my van online via the website.
This was 3 days before the booking date,
I arrived 15 minutes early as asked when booking, as I arrived I recived a phone call
This was telling me my van was too big for the ramp.
The staff were very condescending and said you should have book direct
After and horrid interaction which the staff tried to turn back on me I was told to call another branch so I did and was told the same thing head office is the problem
The head office is unaware what services the location offers and the booking system is flawed
To avoid this happening to you phone ahead to check and don’t rely on the website.
Better still use another company there are plenty to choose from
I booked at kwikfit the next day maybe you should do the same
This post will revive a stand bot response
I expect

I booked my MOT and service online and paid in full upfront. When I arrived, the receptionist did not mention that my vehicle was too large for their ramp.A few hours later, I received a call informing me that my vehicle was ready for collection. I assumed this meant that both the MOT and the service had been completed. However, when I asked, I was told that only the service had been carried out because they were unable to perform the MOT as their ramp was too small for my vehicle.What makes this even more frustrating is that I had my MOT carried out at the same garage last year without any issues. If they were unable to accommodate my vehicle, they should have informed me before accepting my booking and payment, rather than wasting my time.
The lack of professionalism, communication, and customer care was extremely disappointing. I would not recommend this garage based on my experience

Diagnosis done twice with in 11 months with out my authorisation and I had pay £99.98.
Cheating. Or free money.

We took our car to the garage in Woodford Green, East London, in the recovery situation as the alternator has failed.

Was charged absolute fortune, £746, for the new one. Considering Euro Car Parts, located virtually next door, quotes £503 for the exact same part we've been taken for a ride for over £200!

Oh, and you only get a detailed invoice once you've paid your money. After that, the office manager was distinctly disinterested.

Went to the Woodford ig8 location.
Expected to put my hand in me pocket big time as this test centre was new to me.
What I found was honest people,and friendly approach all round.
My car failed it's MOT. The issue was explained simply and well to me to correct it.
I successfully re took the MOT a few days later and was not charged for it.
Top marks to you lads at Woodford,also the initial cost of it was cheaper than most other places!
Would definitely recommend these boys.
Tony

Had a few problems with the service we had, went back today and talked to a nice guy called Simon,
he apologised for the wheel nut and checked everything else on the car while it was on the ramp.
Topped up the Anti-Freeze.which was missed on service.

The service at the Woodford Green branch on Southend Road is terrible.

They make you wait an extortionate amount of time whilst they have a chat in the back of the garage between colleagues, which was about 30 mins wait for me. They are in no rush to deliver the service and treat your car really poorly when they are testing it for an MOT.

Im so put off by that garage, please take your car to people who will handle it well.

I've used Formula One Woodford Green regularly over the last 5 + years for family cars. Objectively I have to say that the service and professionalism has deteriorated significantly over the last 12 months. Communications are poor, timekeeping/appointments are flexible(!) and FOH staff do have an attitude when dealing with customers - in short this is a difficult organisation to deal with and I will not be using them again.

My recent example on a MOT illustrate these observations. It took three visits to complete the process with incorrect information, flawed communications and lack of any accountability or ownership of the issue. For example the MOT tester said the remedial work had not been completed correctly when I had paid for one of his F1 colleagues to complete it!

Personally i can do without the stress and their attitude and will be using another garage/competitor in the future for my business.

Booked and paid for MOT online for 8.30 Saturday morning at F1 Southend Road Woodford. We arrived at 8.15 and it was closed At 8.35 we left the car with a staff member outside who told us they had no keys to get in. At 9.05 got a call to say the car needed oil so we agreed they could some in. 5 hours later I called and asked what was happening with the MOT they said they would call me back as there was a few things wrong they called back and said it's failed and needed £685 worth of work and they could do it in Monday the attitude started when I said I will get the work done myself. My husband collected the car because I felt intimidated by the guy in the phone he clearly wasn't happy I wasn't having the work done they tried to charge for brake inspection which they said I asked for ( not true) they didn't do the free wheel alignment check that came with MOT so all we had to pay for was the 1.5 litres of oil. They had to get 5lts of special oil for our Peugeot delivered apparently ( which they left in our car with less than a 1/4 used and it was for a Fiat) and charged us £76.99 for it. Don't use they people they just want to rip you off. The majority faults were Dirty number plate, dull head lamps " brake disc obviously worn" " headlamp aim obviously incorrect" their words on fail certificate. Don't use these people they just want to rip you off and intimidating to women.

Came for a MOT here and it had failed because the screw holding the battery was loose. The technician showed me it and then went to tighten the screw by himself and failed to mention that there will be a charge for that so I assumed he was just being nice as it was just a screw that needed to be tightened (otherwise I would have done it myself as I had my spanner set in the boot). So at the end when getting my keys I got told I have to pay £31.40 (for 10 seconds of labour btw) and when I complained I got told things like an engineer worked on the car so we have to charge you etc. etc.
Wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone because of this unfortunately.

worst company formula 1 Woodford do not buy never from this company, i order with 1 week before 4 tyres i went there only 3 tyres delivered and told me to come next day 5 afternoon and my tyres not been there and again told me to come next day,what a hell its going on with this people

Told me the MOT failed and then charged me £877 to address the issues. When I arrived to pick up the car they had completely messed up the MOT certificate with items on the advisory’s supposedly addressed still on there. They didn’t even replace a light bulb on the number plate which as I read the MOT certificate was the only reason the car failed. I’m still waiting for an invoice to confirm what work was done. I’m a pensioner and the additional cost has caused me financial difficulty. I’m paying off the cost in instalments. I won’t be going back to A1 anytime soon

Told me they had reset the service light but they didn’t, drove back and they said the machine wasn’t working. Then drove back another day and said they can’t do it even though I checked they could before booking in. Now it has to go to the main dealer to do the whole service again to get the light reset

I have contacted them as they mentioned, where they listened to the phone call where I asked if they can reset service lights, but theyre still contesting this

Booked in to have 2 tyres fitted Sat 3pm. No one on reception. Didn’t get a member of staff until 3:30pm to check me in.
Asked what was going on at 4pm and why my tyres had not been done and told they were short staffed and I can rebook another day if I don’t like it. After waiting 1 hour already. Why not tell the customer that in the first place. ??? After waiting 2.5 hours my two tyres were finally fitted. Manager with a panicked attitude, swearing in the back room etc Do yourself a favour when going in for just tyres, go somewhere else dedicated to tyres only. A 15 minute job takes 2.5 hours here. If i knew that at 3pm, I would have gone somewhere else.

This is perhaps my 4th or 5th time using this garage and I’ve been delighted every time. Whether it’s getting an MOT done, having our tyres changed or realigned; the staff have been nothing short of great. Reese was particularly helpful about 4 months ago when my little son and I came and had an issue with the sensor on our rear passenger wheel. He didn’t charge and just did some sort of magic that stopped our alert from going off!!

Thanks again, see you soon!

I went in for the mot today and the tecnician refused to do that telling me that the ramp was too small. I have done my mot the last 3 years there. Even the manager and the customer service did not even bother to apologise for making me lose my time. Such a disgusting service.

Damaged one of my alloy during tyre fitting. I had taken good photos that morning as record to compare, however Nathan and his team were quite rude, dismissive and deny any responsibility when brought up, and tried to gaslight me with a lot of excuses.

Furthermore, all four alloys and tyres were covered in grease, and they refused to wipe them off, left me with a massive mess to clean up at home. lastly, tyre pressure on all four tyres were wildly off (they should be 250kpa all round).

I have lodged a formal complaint for the service provided, and demand compensation for the damaged alloy.

Ordered tyres from blackcircle to have them fitted by this autocentre, to cut a long story short it has taken me 3 visits abd a total of 4.5 hours waiting time to fit 4 tyres, im not joking. The staff are rude and aggressive, if black cir le continue to use this outfit than im taking my business else where. AVOID

Jodie was excellent and professional on arrival Jamain very polite and professional who carried out the work advised me well on a safety aspect and mark
And mark as before was excellent
Excellent service

I took my 10-year-old car (not a luxury model by any means) to this garage for a service six months ago. I was told it needed £1,100 worth of repairs. Trusting their assessment, I paid for the work.

Recently, I returned to the same garage — the Woodford branch — for an MOT. They informed me the car had failed and quoted £950 for the necessary repairs. I was shocked and immediately questioned the cost, saying I’d prefer to get a second opinion.

They handed me a report listing only two issues: one was an advisory (i.e., not urgent), and the other was a supposed problem with the wheel bearings.

After driving the car home, I found two nuts on the passenger seat. Concerned they had left something undone, I called the garage. They dismissed it as nothing to worry about. Not reassured, I took the car to another reputable garage the very next day.

What I was told shocked me: the wheel bearings were completely fine — in fact, the new garage believed something had been deliberately loosened to cause the MOT to fail. In other words, this garage appears to have tampered with my car and fabricated a repair job worth nearly £1,000.

This kind of behaviour is not only unethical but downright dangerous. The advisory issue (which they also tried to upsell) didn’t need immediate attention and was recommended by the second garage to be handled within the next six months.

I’m appalled that this garage is operating in such a dishonest manner. I strongly advise others to steer clear of the Woodford branch — or better yet, avoid this company altogether.