I sent couple of letters to Kwik Fit after their service on my Honda Accord. Full letter below...

I owned a Honda Accord Silver (W*****B) and took it to your Eastbank street branch in Southport on one evening, around 5 - 5:30pm. They turned me away, saying they will have a VIP visit the next morning so they are cleaning the garage, but they called the Ash street branch to find out if they can accommodate me. So I went there, where one of your engineers took the car.

I did not know what the fault is, but the front left wheel made whistling noise. The engineer took the car for a test drive and lifted it up. After 10-15 minutes he returned saying he fixed the problem with spraying service spray onto the wheel bearing. The noise disappeared so I was happy. They did not charge me a penny, so this little service was free of charge. Made me even more happy, BUT(!) after a while the noise came back and decided that I will bring the car back to have a bit more serious look into it.

Unfortunately I did not have the chance to bring it back, because on 19.03.15 the wheel bearing broke. Thank God I did not drive fast just about 5 mph, because I just left a car park.

I called the AA, because it was in the evening after 6 pm so no garages were open. The AA patrol took a look and said the car has to be put on a trailer, because it cannot be repaired on the road. As well he mentioned, that this fault could be prevented at the time your engineer looked into it. With the service spray he actually caused more damage, than it was before and just “covered” the fault.

He also said, if I drive on motorway or anywhere above 40 – 50 mph then probably I am dead. It was very scary!

Unfortunately I did not pay for your service, so I don’t have any invoice in my hand, but you should have a record of my car being in that garage even was a free service. If nothing else, but CCTV recording should show evidence of your service on my car. Because of all this happening I don’t remember exactly when I was in your garage, (it should be somewhere between October 2014 – February 2015.) but I know, you should have something in that branch about that visit. I do have documents of the AA showing the damage to the car.

This situation caused me a lot of trouble. In that night the AA patrol could only take my car only to my house, where it could not be repaired, the following morning I had to take it to a garage and ask for a quote. The quote was far too high, because the wheel bearing, wheel shaft and the wheel itself were damaged at this accident. So they quoted me at least £700-800. I said that is far to high so I had to take my car back to my house. This cost me £220, I had to scrap my car and received a horrific £138 for it. This is very painful for us, because we loved that Honda. We never had any major problem with the car. Was always serviced on time and it was a really reliable runner, never let me down. Got scrapped.

I needed a car immediately, because my job is a cluster receptionist, so I travel a lot most of the time I work not only in Southport, but in Ormskirk, Preston, Chorley, Wigan. So I needed a car! I ended up renting a car, which cost me the following £160.56, until we sorted out a new car. My working hours are 11 pm – 7 am, so with public transport this is not possible to get to my hotels. For me a car is mandatory to have.

We bought a newer car, a Honda Civic (2011) because I needed a reliable car, but we ended up buying it on finance. We did not want and did not plan to change car and this situation put us in a big difficult financial situation.

But the past is past; look into the future, what Kwik Fit will do in this situation?

For me compensation would be acceptable for my costs, which I had to pay after my accident.

Costs I had:

trailers from and to my home between the garage: £220

lost on car value (car value was £1000 when was running) £1000

Car rental: £160

Off work (3 days, could not get to the hotels)

£7.20 / hour * 8 hour * 3 days £172

Total: £1552

If you agree, that you compensate the costs above, than I wont go to court, but in case you decline it I will and will asks for further £1200 compensation for fees and charges. I give you 28 days in which to accept this offer.

With Kind Regards,

They have phoned me saying its not their responsibility and cleaning their hands... Sent an other letter but nothing came back after.

Does anyone has idea if its worth to take this case to courte. Without an invoice at least in my hand, is it possible that I could win? Any help would be apreciated.

Tibor

The car broke down in March, but you think you might have had it at Kwik Fit in October? I don't see this claim going anyway, IMHO.

need a time machine?

I've moved your posts to a thread of it's own with the subject heading 'Wheel Bearing Collapse'.

Any hope of a claim, especially in court, will require a lot more than 'I think'. You will require proof of what happened and why it happened. You have no paperwork to back up any of your claim.

You mentioned cctv, in the very unlikely event that was still available 12 months after, how would it be found, you can't even remember the date it happened and at most would show you paid them a visit.

I'm sorry, but you will have a mountain to climb if you ever hoped to lodge a claim with the company let alone the courts.

Hi,

I don't usually have many good words for Kwik Fit at the best of times but in this case, I have to agree with the others. This will go nowhere. The wheel bearing would have been failing for a long time prior to Kwik Fit getting involved. They cannot be held liable for this. They didn't do anything to cause the collapse, just sprayed the bearing.

the length of time for any minor case would have Bearing on this!!!

the length of time for any minor case would have Bearing on this!!!

I don't know whether to groan or laugh at that