Halfords Autocentres Reviews 

Outstanding MOT service from Jimmy and the team at Surbiton!This was absolutely a 5-star service. I left happy and they really took care of me. I highly recommend the Halfords on Hook Road, Surbiton. The team spirit here is fantastic, and a huge credit goes to the manager, Jimmy, who goes above and beyond to ensure the branch runs smoothly and that customers are genuinely looked after. They looked after me through both my MOT and the retest, which included an oil change and a clean. Every single staff member I spoke with was professional, incredibly welcoming, and showed a genuine willingness to help, creating a brilliant and reassuring atmosphere from the moment I walked in. The whole process was smooth and stress-free, and my car ran beautifully afterwards. I definitely wouldn't hesitate returning - in fact, I will be back for my next service and anything else for that matter. I would certainly without hesitation recommend others to go and see for themselves. They really set the standard for excellent customer care. Keep up the great work!

I experienced shocking customer service at the Halfords Isle of Wight store when trying to buy a dashcam, resulting in a completely wasted one-hour round trip. When I complained, they initially offered a measly 10% voucher, which escalated to a £45 cash offer from the Executive Office when I pushed back. I have formally rejected their money. My complaint was about principle and respect, not a cheap payout. Halfords has permanently lost my business, and I will be taking my vehicle to an independent garage that actually values customers. Avoid.

Took car for mot they failed it on a few things including a major fail for number plate, which had a slight crack the mechanic (salesman) quoted nearly £400 to get it road worthy so I decided to take for retest at a different garage and it passed, even with me not rectifying what they told me was wrong, do not trust Halfords auto centres from what I’ve experienced they are salesman on commission. Extremely disappointed will never use again

Review for the Halfords Morden AutoCentre branch. Booked in for a MOT, arrived early was greeted with friendly staff. MOT was done swiftly earlier than i expected. Overall 10/10 service from this branch. Will definitely use again.

The lads at this garage were extremely helpful. They even changed my key’s battery free of charge. Their prices were very reasonable too. Would highly recommend.

Title: Exceptional MOT Service at Finchley Autocentre

I recently booked my MOT at Finchley Autocentre, and the service was exceptional. The MOT was completed in around 30 minutes, making the whole experience quick, efficient, and stress‑free.

What truly stood out was the reception area. Most autocentres smell of oil and feel neglected, but Finchley Autocentre was spotless. The manager, Monire, clearly takes great pride in maintaining a clean and welcoming environment — he even cleaned the restroom himself, which is something you rarely see in this industry.

He was polite and friendly, going the extra mile to ensure customers were comfortable and happy while waiting in a clean environment. That level of care made a genuine difference.

The service was fantastic, fast, and carried out with real attention to detail. This is the nicest autocentre I’ve ever visited, and I highly recommend it. I will gladly return.

Andrea

If i could have left a Zero Star rating i would.
My Company Vehicle was sent to Halfords Autocentre Shirley for a Service & MOT 15/08/26.
The vehicle was returned to me with Black oil smeared across the front of the vehicle, the oil level barely touching the end of the dipstick and on starting the vehicle a flashing red oil light, with a warning stating low oil! There is oil splattered all around the engine bay, exhaust manifold, engine and gearbox. The coolant level is below minimum. I didnt trust that the cabin filter would have been changed so educated myself and removed it for inspection. The white filter assembly is almost as black as the oil all over the paint work.
As a fleet vehicle user over 12 years and numerous experiences across various Halfords Autocentres, this is "situation normal", my experiences have at best, been annoying, and at worst dangerous.
I would never utilise the group for working on my private vehicles, and dont trust them working on my fleet van. I have seen Halfords stamps in car service books when looking to buy, and seen as a red flag and declined to purchase.

Extremely disappointing experience – Wolverhampton Fox’s Lane Halfords Autocentre

I’ve now had a number of visits to the Wolverhampton Fox’s Lane Halfords Autocentre, and unfortunately, on virtually every occasion I’ve come away with another issue. At this point, I genuinely cannot recommend this centre.

On my first visit, I had four tyres replaced. The tyres themselves were fitted correctly and I had no issue with that work. However, upon receiving my car key back from the centre and opening it, the key broke. It was a flick key — the type where you press a button and the key blade springs out — and it had been working perfectly before I handed it over. I appreciate it is difficult to prove a direct connection, but the timing was certainly unfortunate.

The second visit was more frustrating. I had some work carried out which included a wheel alignment, for which I paid £49. I drove approximately half a mile and immediately realised something was seriously wrong. The steering wheel was around half a rotation out, and the alignment was clearly worse than before I had paid to have it corrected.

I returned to the centre and had to ask them to check it. When I asked whether the alignment was actually out, I was told, “Yeah, to be fair, it was out, but it might have settled.” There was no apology or meaningful explanation. I then had to wait around another hour for it to be rectified. If I pay £49 for a wheel alignment, I expect the job to be done correctly first time.

The third visit involved an MOT and around £500 worth of suspension work. The MOT was completed, but I subsequently continued to have suspension-related issues, leaving me with very little confidence that the work had properly resolved the problems.

Immediately after this suspension work, I also developed a screeching/whining noise whenever I put the car into reverse. This had never happened before the work. I returned to the centre, but was told there was no issue and that they couldn’t hear anything. I accept it may have been difficult to prove a direct connection, and the garage maintained it was nothing to do with the suspension. However, given that the noise appeared immediately after the work, and that I had already experienced two other issues immediately following visits, I find the timing coincidental at best. The noise then continued for around another 12 months.

What makes this particularly frustrating is that I have been more than reasonable throughout. I haven’t shouted, caused a scene or demanded compensation. I have simply expected work I have paid for to be carried out properly and problems to be acknowledged and put right.

The attitude I’ve encountered hasn’t helped either. On several visits, the general atmosphere among staff has been one of moaning and complaining, rather than giving the impression that customers are valued or that people take pride in their work.

One isolated problem can happen at any garage. Repeated issues across multiple visits, poor communication and a lack of acknowledgement when things go wrong becomes a pattern.

Overall, an extremely poor experience. I have lost confidence in this centre and would not recommend Wolverhampton Fox’s Lane Halfords Autocentre.

I would genuinely appreciate an actual response to the issues raised in this review. I have taken the time to explain what happened, so I hope the response acknowledges the specific concerns and explains that they will be investigated. A generic, automated-sounding response telling me to “contact us via the help page” would completely miss the point of leaving a detailed review.

I’m not looking for an argument or unreasonable compensation. I simply want the issues raised to be taken seriously.

One final point regarding the wheel alignment: the person I raised this with was the manager. I had returned because I had paid £49 for an alignment which had left my steering wheel around half a rotation out. While I was waiting for the issue to be dealt with, the manager appeared more interested in talking to another customer about Formula One and then spent around an hour taking down the Christmas tree.

From a customer’s perspective, it was incredibly frustrating to be waiting for a problem with work I had paid for to be rectified while the manager was occupied with other matters.

Taken together, the repeated issues, poor communication, lack of urgency and overall attitude have left me with one overriding impression: really shoddy workmanship and a disappointing approach to customer service.

I took my car in for an air conditioning diagnostic as my air con had stopped blowing cold. I had it re-gassed a week or so before at another garage (not Halfords) and they said it was full with no leaks. When I returned to collect my car, I was handed the report and told by the employee that it needed a new compressor and it would be over £1000. I went and got a second opinion and got it confirmed that it was not the compressor but a relay switch, which I had replaced for £180 as I also needed a full regas as the system had been emptied by I can only assume Halfords. This is absolutely disgraceful that Halfords can quote for a repair, which if I would have accepted would not have fixed the problem. After contacting their customer services, and raising a complaint, they kept closing the complaint down before it was resolved and agreed by myself, i was promised phone calls from managers which never happened. If you do go to halfords i would certainly get a second opinion as I wonder how many have taken their quotes on face value and paid for a service they didnt need. I Will never return to Halfords for repairs, and I will be taking this further externally with the Ombudsman.

Avoid Halfords at all costs. I have now given them four separate opportunities to complete a standard tire fitting and wheel alignment, and every single visit has been an absolute disaster due to sheer incompetence and broken systems.
​Fail 1: Booked and paid online, only to be told they didn't actually have the tires in stock. It then took five days to receive my refund.
​Fail 2: Rebooked at a national branch, paying another £430 upfront. I arrived in my van only to find out the vehicle physically couldn't fit through their entrance gate. Why their system allows van bookings at branches that can't physically accommodate them is baffling. Halfords was now sitting on over £800 of my money across pending refunds, leaving me without the funds to take my business elsewhere.
​Fail 3: Once my money finally returned, I booked a Halfords Autocentre. They managed to fit the tires, but then informed me their wheel alignment gauge was broken with no backup available. I was forced to drive away with unaligned wheels, actively risking uneven wear and damage to brand-new tires.
​Fail 4: Booked the alignment again a week later for a 10:30 AM appointment. I arrived on time only to be told they couldn't even start the job for another hour, let alone finish it, and that I'd need to leave my vehicle with them for the entire day. None of this was communicated at booking or payment.
​Four appointments, hundreds of pounds tied up in refund delays, zero respect for customer time, and a job that is still not properly completed. Completely unfit for purpose.

Do not join motoring club, near impossible to cancel
Their own ai chat bot does not understand the term cancel subscription and there is no way on website to cancel. try live chat and i think it know that you are trying to cancel so there is nobody avaliable, funny that.

Absolutely awful service - Passed from pillar to post with no resolution.

Tried to book an home visit for an air con re-gas. Kept checking the local availability and saying available, allowing me to select a timeslot, but every time I went to checkout, the booking kept failing saying there was an error with the booking system.

Spoke to someone on the online chat - They said they were unable to assist and I would need to phone.
Phoned up, only to be told they are unable to do home visit - Why have this option available then if you're not able to do them?!

I decided to book at my local garage instead.
What an utter sh*t show.
Booked a date and a time slot, proceeded to checkout and pay, only to be told there is a problem with the booking and I need to phone.
I phoned the number given, pressed option 4 to speak to someone about a booking, only for the call to end.
I then phoned back, tried option 5 to make a complaint, again, only for the call to end.

Currently £75 out of pocket, not knowing whether to turn up at the garage or not. Trying to resolve with online chat, but I don't have much hope. Wish me luck.

Never using Halfrauds again.

I booked an MOT and my car failed they quoted me approximately 1500 pounds for the work, my local garage have quoted 556 the same day using genuine parts.

They don't deserve any star as they are very incompetent and not able to do any repair work.
I got my brake discs and pads changed through them when they had this so-called "Brake4Life" scheme, and now, when my pads require replacement, they are simply refusing, even though I am an existing customer and had my discs and pads replaced through them.
They simply don't help with anything, and customer service is a total time-waster.
There is no point in raising any complaint with them, as they simply do not listen.

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I tried all the options before leaving the feedback but I didn't get anything. I managed to raise a complaint with reference 01319895, so please look into this as a matter of urgency and help.

I made the appointment and drove ten miles to get there only to find that it could never have done because the person who does it had been off sick. No sorry here’s your money back or attempt to sort. A total waste of time and now I’ve had to complain just to get my money back when they could never have done the work. Total madness

Deliberately difficult to cancel auto-renewal

I bought a Halfords membership at the Thetford store for around £55 for the year. Before signing up, I specifically said I was only interested as long as I could stop it from auto-renewing. I was told that although it automatically renews, I could simply cancel the auto-renewal straight away while keeping the membership I'd already paid for.

That was simply not true.

I went online to turn off auto-renewal and found there is no straightforward option to do it. Instead, you're pushed through to a chatbot, which just said nobody was available to help. I then had to phone Halfords and, when I finally spoke to someone, I was told I cannot turn off auto-renewal now. Apparently, I have to wait until I'm within 50 days of the end of my membership.

The alternative? I can cancel the membership now — but then I lose the benefits I've already paid £55 for.

This feels deliberately designed to make cancelling as inconvenient as possible in the hope that customers forget about it and get charged for another year. Whether that's the intention or not, it's an incredibly poor and customer-unfriendly system.

I specifically checked this point before buying the membership and was given incorrect information in store. If I'd been told the truth about how the cancellation process worked, I wouldn't have signed up.
Absolutely ridiculous. Halfords should allow customers to switch off auto-renewal at any time without cancelling the membership period they've already paid for.

Car booked for MOT directly with Halfords Auto Letchworth and Service on same day through MotorEasy. Service reception said there would be no problem and was very helpful (think his name was Bally). Different customer service chap on reception when I dropped off. He was unhelpful and obviously thought the customer was always wrong an everything is too much trouble person. I got a text to say car was ready for collection only to walk 30 minutes in heat to collect to find it on the ramp and they had only just started the service. No coordination between jobs, no explanation or apology, just a grunt. Fortunately when I collected original guy back on who was jolly and friendly obviously striving for excellence whilst the other striving for mediocrity . Whole experience left bad taste and after 10 years I am divorcing Halfords Auto Letchworth

Booked an mot it was failed I took to another garage for repair which the staff didn’t like it because of sales achieving targets went for retest lot of bla bla bla never recommend thugs

MOT claimed tyres were required, the work was approved. hours later I’m phoning them for an update, they’re waiting for the tyres to come in. These are basic run of the mill tyres, no 23” low pros
I won’t be using them for any of their services again. 5 hours for tyres. What a waste of a nice day, amateurs

Epsom branch useless!! Ordered battery to collect and roofs that would receive text within the hour...... nothing.... called customer service (South Africa!) And Alex's if my order was ready - yes it was. Went to collect it and had to wait 10 minutes while the staff just sauntered around. Asked why it was not at the counter waiting.."heavy item" but they're are other batteries waiting for customers.... never received a text to say the order was ready but 3 houses later got an email saying it was ready..... total water off a company and poor staff