Halfords Autocentres Reviews 135,591

I visited your Chester branch on Sunday, where a very helpful member of staff advised that my tyre could likely be repaired rather than replaced. Unfortunately, he was unable to carry out the repair at that time as an appointment was required.

I asked for the earliest available appointment and was offered one for the following day. As I would be attending during my lunch break from work, I specifically asked how long the repair would take and was advised it would be approximately 30 minutes. Based on this information, I booked an appointment for 10:00am.

When I arrived for my appointment, I experienced a lengthy wait while the staff member dealt with telephone enquiries. I was then informed that I would need to leave my vehicle for 2–3 hours. This was extremely frustrating and unhelpful, as I had arranged my lunch break around the information provided. Had I been told the correct timescale when booking, I would not have wasted 35 minutes of my lunch break attending the appointment.

I would also like to raise a concern regarding customer service within the branch. While waiting, several customers were left standing while telephone enquiries were dealt with. During these conversations, personal information such as vehicle registration numbers, email addresses, costs, and finance repayment details were discussed openly within earshot of other customers. This raises concerns around both customer service and privacy.

I hope this feedback is taken constructively and helps improve the experience for future customers.

As you have not contacted me since my google review I will leave a poor review EVERY month until you do so so others do not have to suffer with your incompetence as I have.

Formal Complaint: Service Failures and Safety Concerns
To the Regional Manager,
I am writing to formally lodge a complaint regarding a recent service at your Horsham branch. As an IMI accredited engineer with over 40 years of experience in the motor trade, I am deeply concerned by the lack of professional oversight, the inaccuracy of the records provided, and the disregard for standard safety procedures.

Timeline of Events:

Check-in: I dropped off my vehicle on Friday afternoon for a scheduled Saturday morning start. The keys were handed directly to the branch manager.

Delay & Lack of Record: By Saturday afternoon—20 hours later—my vehicle’s GPS tracker confirmed it had not moved. Upon calling, I was informed that the branch had no record of the vehicle even arriving, despite me handing the keys to the manager personally.

The "Service": I was promised two technicians would begin work immediately. Only one hour later, I was notified that a "Full Service" had been completed. As a professional in this industry, I find it highly improbable that a comprehensive full service was performed to standard within that timeframe.

Verification Failures: At collection, I was assured a post-service road test had been performed. This was demonstrably false. Both the vehicle’s GPS tracker and the zeroed trip meter confirmed the car never left the premises.

Mechanical Oversight: Consequently, an audible noise from the off-side rear brake shoe went undetected—an issue that would have been immediately flagged during a legitimate road test. Furthermore, the service book was left unstamped and tyre dust caps were missing.

Current Status:
I was promised a follow-up call early this week to rectify the brake issue. Five days have passed without contact.

While I am more than capable of rectifying these mechanical issues myself, I have paid £300 for a professional service that was, by all evidence, bypassed or handled with extreme negligence.

Given the falsification of the road test and the failure to complete the basic administrative and mechanical requirements of a Full Service, I request a full review of this incident and an explanation as to why safety-critical steps like the road test were recorded as complete when they were not.

I always use Halfords Riversway Preston for my car serving. Tom from the office is always polite and friendly and Tim who does the Mot and servicing of my vehicle is always professional and friendly. I would recommend using Halfords riversway Preston.

I have had my cars serviced by Halfords for many years. They used to have printed sheets that gave details of the 3 service levels. These details are now only available online via a drop-down box. I have found it impossible to download and print a readable document. I have had to cut and paste the text and spent a long time adding the missing dots. The invoices I receive do not give the details of the work that has been carried out so I need a document for reference. As Halfords change the specification of the 3 service levels over time, a printable document is essential.

Went to Eastbourne autocentre to have my car tyres inspected as they were cracking after only a year. The assistant in reception basically said I don’t do enough miles on my car which left me bemused, he then said it was a long process of sending the tyres back to the manufacturer and waiting five to six weeks for a response which would probably be unsuccessful and then he had the audacity to say the brand of tyre I have is prone to cracking and splitting bearing in mind these tyres were almost £300 for two! Absolute joke of a company and I have reported it to the ombudsman as fortunately I recorded the conversation.

Booked my vehicle into colchester brook street branch,just for front wheel balancing, left it with them, and within 15 minutes I had a phone call saying it needed two front tyres, and alighnment, wanted about £280 insted of the £16 for the balancing, when I asked if they could just balance the wheels as I didn't want the other work they just said NO, I asked for a refund and its aparently on its way, had my tyres checked by another garage, nothing wrong with the tyres or tracking, what a scam, whould I go there again NEVER, I have now found out that two of my work colleagues have been ripped of by thym too, be warned, don't trust them

We have been in Halfords in Llandudno asking about cameras for the car We were served by Luke . He was extremely knowledgeable and explained everything about them expertly ! Thankyou Luke you are an assett to Halfords !

Used Halfords in Gateshead (National Tyre Centre) for MOT and service and whole experience was particularly poor from the service to the prices that were charged. Charged £100 for replacement wiper blades when can get at Halfords retail store for around £25. Total rip off and not even pleasant when ripping you off. Advise to check prices with them and online before you agree to go ahead.

Terrible treatment of a once loyal customer. If Halfords are applying for comedy awards I am not amused.
Halfords had wrongly taken money from my card. After an unsatisfactory and time consuming encounter with chat they emailed me to say they were crediting part of the money. The amount showed as pending, then disappeared. How can they even do that?
Giving one star for this review. Refunding money wrongly taken is not five star. Showing a partial refund as pending, then removing it is really worth minus one.

Halfords out of no where cancelled my appointment and refunded me I had an appointment booked for a service at Halfords Eastleigh. Most incompetent company I have come across in my 45 years on this planet

Arranged for a service collection from my property. Car was returned but the servixe book was not stamped. The garage were rude and dismissive when i phoned. Someone then called back to say that a driver would be in my area and will stamp my book but this did not happen. Halfords customer support team were then equally dismissive - i need to drive the thirty minutes to get the book stamped. Overall terrible service.

My case with West Ealing Autocentre has been open since May 13. It is June 5 and my case 00640742 has not been resolved. The garage stated they've replaced my caliper but cannot provide evidence that they have done so and are refusing to give me a refund for a work they didn't do but have charged me for!

Took my Dacia Duster into Farnborough Autocentre. They diagnosed a damaged coolant pipe and provided the part number. I sourced the part myself as I now had the part number and there was a 15+ wait from their supplier, and had a mobile mechanic come and fit it. It turns out this part number was wrong. So I’ve now paid £54.99 for a wrong diagnosis, £120 for the wrong part, and £100 for a wasted trip by a mobile mechanic.
I went into the autocentre but all they did is claim it was the right diagnosis and they were given the wrong part number from the supplier. Didn’t even offer to refund the diagnosis, let alone the other £220 I’ve wasted.
Terrible, clueless service. I’ll use a real mechanic in the future.

Disaster. Non professionals.

I recently booked an MOT with High Wycombe Autocentre and unfortunately had a very disappointing experience.

The day before my MOT, I visited Halfords on London Road in High Wycombe for a 10-point vehicle check. They identified and replaced a faulty tail light, and no issues were found with either headlight.

However, during the MOT the following day, I was told that both headlight bulbs had failed. Given that they had been working perfectly the day before, this immediately raised concerns.

I was then quoted approximately £50 to replace them (£7 per bulb plus £20 fitting). It made me wonder how many other customers may be presented with similar unexpected charges.

In addition, I was given a further quote of around £600 for other recommended work. While the staff were polite and professional in their interactions, the overall experience left me questioning the transparency of the process and whether there is excessive pressure to generate additional revenue from customers from the top management.

Based on my experience, I would recommend that customers seek a second opinion before authorising any additional work. Halfords is not trustworthy at all and no different from any other local garages

Just read another review on Google

The person was asked for £950 to make it pass its MOT for a car that only did 26k miles. He took the car to a local garage, and nothing was at fault. He paid £270, including the new MOT charge and the advisories (not part of the failure). Can't believe such a level of cheating is going on in Halfords. He ended up paying for 2 MOTs at the end; still, it was worthwhile. He should have got Halfords' licence cancelled, reporting this to regulated authorities.

In my case, £600 was gone, as I did not try doing another MOT elsewhere, as I read that review quite late. No wonder there are overall 2-star reviews; I can understand MOT is something people will come under pressure for, and companies like this taking full advantage of it, racking thousands of pounds from each customer, giving false reports... such a shame

I went to Halfords today at Cleveland retail park
The staff were so lovely,very helpful and polite
Micheal the young lad went above and beyond to sort us a cool box for our camper van , he carried the cool box it out side and helped us to see if it would fit in our allocated space in the campervan he was very helpful thank you

Took my car (Vauxhall Corsa 2013) in for a service on 02/06/2026 at Scunthorpe Autocentre. Got a call later in the day from the auto centre that the sump plug thread has been damaged. They claimed it must have been done at the previous service and they need to replace the sump tray and it wll cost £528.60 for a replacement. I was told the car cannot be moved as they are unable to put oil in it unless repaired. I had no choice than to agree. The £528.60 was in addition to £260 I paid for the service + MOT. In total I paid £744.59 for a Corsa service with replacement of sump tray. The Auto Centre claimed the £528.60 was the cost of the sump tray. Later checked with Vauxhall and a corsa 2013 sump cost is £80! A blatant rip off. Effectively they have charged me almost £450 for labour to put a sump tray. I would never have allowed them to do the sump change if I had been able move the car from their garage.

Re. Foleshill Rd. Coventry

Disappointing service all round. Staff act like you're a bit of an inconvenience to them.

I highlighted a couple of issues to them - they responded saying they couldn't find anything wrong. Took the car to another garage and they had the problem diagnosed within 10 mins!

Won't bother going back.

Yesterday I made a purchase from Halfords for a Back Support for my Drivers seat, I purchased one years ago from one of their shops, it was brilliant, but needs replacing now. I need it urgently because of a long journey I am going on tomorrow. I opted for Next Day delivery, paying an extra £3 for this service. DHL contacted me to say it would be delivered today, a short while ago (approximately 1445) I received an email to say it would not be delivered today, hopefully tomorrow. Being an Elderly, Widowed, Pensioner I do not make frivilous purchases and certainly not extra delivery charges. I have tried to contact Halfords, the email was not delivered, the address shown online is no longer in use. The telephone number took me to the Cycle Dept., when I said how I wanted the Complaints department He put the phone down, the other telephone number shown also is about motoring or cycles. I will have to break my journey tomorrow to get the Support from another
Supplier. Halfords used to be helpful, it would appear not now!! Oh and maybe They should use Royal Mail for next day delivery, in future!!!

I had a disappointing experience with Halfords Autocentre in Braintree. I took my car there under warranty, as they were recommended by my warranty company, but unfortunately the service fell far below expectations.

They declined to complete the correct documentation required for the warranty assessment, which caused unnecessary delays. I was also told they would contact the warranty company directly as they couldn’t carry out the work, but my warranty provider confirmed they never received any communication.

I was later contacted by the autocentre asking for my email address so they could send me an outline of the work needed, but again, no email was ever received.

After having my car for around 20 minutes, I was told the issue was a Cam Carrier leak and that they were unable to carry out the repair. As they didn’t provide the correct documentation to either myself or the warranty company, I had no choice but to seek a second opinion from another garage.

To make matters worse, the Braintree branch recommended I try their Colchester branch instead. However, when I contacted Colchester, they also confirmed they couldn’t carry out the work. I was asked who I had spoken to in Braintree, and from that conversation it became clear that the staff member there used to work at Colchester and would have known they couldn’t do the repair either. This resulted in further unnecessary time being wasted.

After going to another garage, it turns out there was no Cam Carrier issue at all. My issue was actually a rocker cover leak, which is far less extensive and significantly less expensive to fix.

Overall, poor communication, an incorrect diagnosis, and unnecessary delays led to a very frustrating experience. I would not recommend based on this occasion.