Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be thinking "today I will be told I have nails/screws in my tires"

121 replies

LovelyFriend · 20/07/2015 10:12

Today I've taken my car in for MOT/Service.

The last 3 years I have done this (at 2 different places) I have received a call to be told I have nails/screws in 2 otherwise perfectly good tires and they need to be replaced.

Apparently I am both very unlucky to get so many nails/screws in my tires, and also very lucky that despite the high number of nails/screws I have in my tires I NEVER get a flat.

So I'm beginning to think this is a con - but I don't know what to do about it?

I wanted to ask them to check my tires before I left this morning but there was a huge queue. And I wimped out. They came out to someone waiting in the waiting room and told him he had a screw in his tire and he just smiled and nodded. Yeah I know the feeling mate.

I am doubly cynical about this as I have been driving for 30 years, and it it only the last few years since I split from XP and have been getting the car serviced myself again that this unfortunate affliction has been affecting me.

I don't know anyone else who gets so many, or even any, nails and screws in their tires. I drive on perfectly normal London streets.

So AIBU to think these car service places are fucking me over?

Is this a "thing" now?

Or is getting screws and nails in your car tires a really common thing these days? And if it is a common thing, how come nobody gets flats or blowouts?

OP posts:
ImperialBlether · 20/07/2015 12:53

KwikFit is really awful. There's a lot of pressure on them to sell and they will do relentlessly. Not sure they'd stick nails in your tyres but they will certainly frighten you into buying things you don't need.

Seeline · 20/07/2015 12:54

I have had several nails in tyres over the years. Sometimes the tyre goes flat, but once or twice I have just spotted the nail in the tyre before any major damage occurred. I have always used our local Kwikfit centre and never had any problems. They have mended a couple, and the one they couldn't I could see the nail was in the side wall. I have also had good advice from them over the years - they have even advised that tyre treads were getting wearing, but no need to replace yet! I have always taken my car in myself, and have never got the feeling of being treated like a dumb blonde!! Staff always take time and trouble to explain what is wrong, what needs doing etc.

DadfromUncle · 20/07/2015 12:55

Totally ignorant of London, sorry. Google says Wandsworth Council has a test centre - I know it's South of the river and all that.....

Fissues · 20/07/2015 12:55

I organised my MOT for the first time two weeks ago (my lovely Dad usually sorts it out for me but I was too scatty to give it to him in time Blush) and it was quick and easy. I used a government run centre in Hounslow, and as they don't do repairs, there's no incentive for them to fail you.

list here

Fissues · 20/07/2015 12:58

Whoops x posts with everyone else telling you about them!

Original poster
LovelyFriend · 20/07/2015 12:59

oooh Hounslow will work. I can nip down the A4 at lunch time.
I'll take a look - too late for this time - why haven't I found them before?

OP posts:
Original poster
LovelyFriend · 20/07/2015 13:02

not that was very useful thanks Fissures
I've made a diary note re the Hounslow centre for next year :)

OP posts:
Original poster
LovelyFriend · 20/07/2015 13:03

ignore the "not"

OP posts:
Fissues · 20/07/2015 13:06

Not sure it would be applicable for tyres but in the same website :

One MoneySaver tells how, after being quoted £700 for MOT repairs from his local dealer, he took it to his council test centre where it passed without any need for repairs.

He then reported the dealer to his local Trading Standards department, which had it re-tested; it passed with no need for repairs. So he wrote to the dealer requesting his test fee be returned for "non-compliance with the Road Traffic Act", and got a refund.

If you're not satisfied with the way a test has been carried out, get an appeal form, either from the garage in question, from Gov.uk or DVSA's MOT enquiries phone line, and DVSA will re-test your car.

Fissues · 20/07/2015 13:08

Oh good! Glad to have been of service pun fully intended Grin

trilbydoll · 20/07/2015 13:10

We use main dealers, I know they're expensive but they come and pick the car up and are generally very convenient.

Bizarrely, I have to book the car in, then it gets valeted. If DH sorts it out, it comes back in the same state it went in and I'm not paying main dealer prices to not get my car cleaned!

SoupDragon · 20/07/2015 14:22

is Kwick even a word though

Yes, it means "slower than an exceptionally slow snail called Mr Slow McSlow from Slowsville"

GiddyOnZackHunt · 20/07/2015 14:35

I had a spell of getting nails in tyres. Just random bad luck. But always in the tread and always repairable by our decent local garage. Which is good luck.

Kwik Fit are a bunch of lying, incompetent shysters ime. I used to use them for cheap oil changes when I ran an old banger. Haven't darkened their doors since.

ThreeBeanRap · 20/07/2015 14:49

KwikFit are absolutely awful. We once took our car for an MOT there, they rang DH and said that the windscreen wash dispenser wasn’t working, no liquid was coming out. There was definitely damage somewhere in the sysytem, it might be a blockage in the pipes which they'd have to test for by blowing air through, but if not there was probably a leak in the fluid container in which case they'd have to replace it, either way they were going to have to charge us for the work etc etc…DH said the reason it isn't dispensing liquid is because it ran out of windscreen wash yesterday, I know that because it happened while I was driving. On the same test they wanted nearly £500 for 'essential' work, we took it to another garage who charged us about £170. They will absolutely try to rip you off at every possible opportunity.

Original poster
LovelyFriend · 20/07/2015 14:51

OK I'm on high alert for any bad behaviour from KwikFit.

OP posts:
IamtheDevilsAvocado · 20/07/2015 14:54

Driving best part of 30 years... Do 30 000 miles pa.
Had 3 screws in tire.. ever. I always wait and watch when i go to sort tyres, especially if a new place for me.

Also it IS a well - known scam.. It feeds into all safety worries... As are any unecessary stuff to do with brakes /steering.

Kwik ft absolutely awful. Reported them to trading standards - tried to get almost 1k out of me for what turned out to be completly unnecessary MOTwork ona 20 year old car-telling me it was essential for safety!

It cost 150 in independent local mot garage.

verystressedmum · 20/07/2015 14:55

I've only had 1 nail in a tyre in 15 years.
In NI mots are only done at a government test centre. If it fails they tell you exactly what it's failed on you go away and get it fixed and book in for retest. A lot easier and no scam repairs.

mintpoppet · 20/07/2015 14:56

Lovely friend , it's not just their bad behaviour you need go be careful about. It's their scary and dangerous incompetence.

IamtheDevilsAvocado · 20/07/2015 14:56

Cross post with 3bean. Wonder if same branch? Are you in Gloucestershire.??

IamtheDevilsAvocado · 20/07/2015 14:59

Oh yes same branch didnt secure a wheel properly on colleagues car... Luckily was picked up by AA patrol before sje was belting on motorway...

starsandunicorns · 20/07/2015 15:13

I got a flat had it changed went to kiwk fit to get the flat one changed they charged me etc year later got another flat went to change it knowing that the spare was ok but no the fuckers at kwik fit hadnt bothered to do it a year later by which time i had moved across the country this was 8 years ago since then i have never used kiwk fit and always check any work done etc at the time i was a single mum living very rural the way they behaved was awful

LuckyCornish13 · 20/07/2015 15:15

KwikFit are awful! My DP worked there for less than a morning before quitting in disgust.

He had checked a little old ladies car (something small like brake pads/tyre pressure check) and as he was walking through the office, the manager asked him what was wrong with the car. DP replied it was all fine, nothing needed and he was just going to hand back the keys. His manager laughed and said "that's not the way we work here mate. Once a car goes up on the ramps, you always find something to charge them for." And then insisted he bill the old lady £600 for nothing

DP refused, quit the job on the spot and told the lady her car was fine, and to never, ever use this place again.

Sorry to derail your thread OP but I dread to think how much money KwikFit scam out of people everyday

AWimbaWay · 20/07/2015 15:17

Thought I'd come on with a good experience of KwikFit, I managed to rip a large hole in the side of one of my tyres by parking too close to a kerb, they replaced it immediately and it cost the same as a previously replaced tyre elsewhere. A few weeks later I managed to pull the plastic tray thing off the underneath of my car reversing over a speed-bump. KwikFit put it back on and didn't charge me anything. So although I'm quite sure some are bad, not all are.

Hope you have a trustworthy one Op!

zipzap · 20/07/2015 15:20

I've only once had a nail in a tyre. And the tyre was only 3 weeks old Angry

Got the man back to put a new tyre on - we'd got one of the mobile services to come and do it as they're so much cheaper - and he was saying that he'd probably be able to repair it as it was such a new wheel - until he found the 'nail'. Which more of a large industrial bolt nearly an inch in diameter...

Cue one very surprised tyre man, saying he'd never seen anything like it in a tyre before, and would normally have expected something that big in a tyre to blow out. I was saying that it was typical that it had been in the new tyre and not the old ones - his response was thank god it was - if it had been in an old tyre, chances are it would have blown out and you could have had a nasty accident which was the way I thought about it from then on. We also realised that I had recently joined a new gym which was brand new - the car park hadn't been finished and there were other buildings still being built nearby, so chances are the bolt came from there.

Is it worth contacting trading standards to say that you're fed up of always being told you have nails in your tyres and would they be interested in checking your tyres before they go in to be checked to see if they are running a scam? I'd also complain about the car being sent out without the wheel attached properly so that was on their records too.

You could also pre-empt the tyre thing and that you've checked the prices of the tyres with etyre and black circles (or whoever is cheap local to you -those are the ones that I've used and had best prices from) and that if they do find a problem with your tyres as it seems that has happened at every service you've had recently, then up front what are their tyre prices and to leave it as you'll get etyres/whoever to come and do it instead as they're so much cheaper and more reliable...

not sure if they will pass you for an mot with nails in your tyres though - not sure how that works!

Original poster
LovelyFriend · 20/07/2015 15:48

I should point out that my previous nails in tyres experiences weren't at KwikFit by at official VW service place and trusted local independent (who didn't bolt my wheel back on last time).

I've only gone to KF out of slight desperation due to not wanting to use the previous ones as I'm suspicious they are scamming me!

No call yet!

OP posts:
Swipe left for the next trending thread