31-12-2014, 10:48 PM
Hi, having worked for both Formula one auto centres and Kwik fit, I thought I'd offer you some insider advice.
Formula One use the Supertracker set up which in my opinion is a much better system. They also employ mechanics who know about cars and know from how it feels as its unfastened if a bolt's going to snap. They understand that if one of the machine's wheel mounted sensor heads gets dropped, it will require recalibration before any more cars are tracked up. Formula One's staff are on a bonus which is calculated on how much profit is in each job and whilst the staff would rather track up your car ( tracking is a labour job so lots of profit in this ), most of the staff I worked with would be prepared to do you a deal on the tracking as the full alignment check is completely free of charge and once the guages are fitted, it doesn't take long to adjust. They also give you a before and after print out from their computer and don't mind showing you how it's adjusted.
Now for my experience of Kwik fit..... The first time I worked for them was between 1995 and 2001. Back then, we were trained from inexperienced people, though I had previously been a mechanic, and were all trained to the same level. We were told that doing the job right first time and "delighting" our customers was our main priority. The people I worked with in several of Kwik fit's centres were pretty clued up, pretty knowledgeable and usually interested in cars too and were proud of how good a job they did. We had plenty of repeat customers too and quite a few of these would follow individual staff as they moved to other centres. Working for them back then was OK and I too was proud of my job. I had a complete change of career then in 2001 and ended up doubling my wage in doing so. Anyway, fast forward a few years and I found myself out of work following a loss of contract for my employer meaning he had to downsize his workforce. 20 minutes after I was laid off and I was in the last Kwik fit I'd worked at 12 years previously. I got the job and expected to fit back in pretty much as I'd done all those years ago. How wrong was I? Now they seemed to have employed completely clueless idiots. Now I found myself working with people who hadn't got a clue about the workings of cars. They used the same torque wrenches that were for torquing wheel nuts up with, as breaker bars! They didn't grease the backs of new brake pads and would send cars out with new squealing brakes. They would track up cars with worn bushes and ball joints ( even track rod ends! ) hanging out. They'd track up cars with broken springs and all sorts of other things that were dead against what I'd been shown all those years ago. The staff I worked with didn't care a damn about customers getting the job done right and just wanted as much money as they could get out of everyone no matter how they did it. I've even witnessed staff incorrectly track up customer's cars to scrub the tyres off, but drive straight so they'd return quicker for another set of tyres. All they cared about was getting extra sales from trackings, extra wheel balancing which were rarely done and nitrogen tyre inflation from a machine on the wall, which never ran out of nitrogen and had an air line feed into it straight from the garage's compressor! I wouldn't trust these idiots to even blow up my tyres. Kwik fit also have a ban on their staff getting involved with any comments on social media and regularly check the internet for post like mine, so I hope they see this. I put up with these cave men for about Six months until I couldn't bare being associated with them any more and then found another job, again more than doubling my wages and left. In my time at Kwik fit I've been told by the centre manager (who's been in this job for 14 years ) to "Think like a rapist", "f**k everybody that drives through our doors today" and "get what you can out of everyone no matter what." I've also been forced to service cars with knocking engines, fit new brakes and springs to the front of a really rough 206 without telling the customer about this car's collapsed rear beam ( an uneconomical repair on a car worth about £300, and I had a Fiat Bravo in for Mot which showed no oil on its dip stick. This is grounds to refuse to test it in case it damages the cars engine ( according to Vosa ). The manager then sold the customer a fully synthetic oil change on a rough 1998 140000 mile car. As I sent the car up on the ramp I noticed a badly rusted front subframe that would make this car not worth changing the oil on and not worth wasting the customers time and money on Mot-ing it. I suggested we should ring the customer and give them the bad news that their old Fiat was well past its best and not worth bothering with. I was ordered not to do this, but to change the oil, Mot it and then fail the subframe. This way we'll have £45 for the oil change and £35 in the till for the Mot. So much for putting the customer first, again they just wanted his money. Sorry, after all this ranting but I can't reccomend Kwik fit to anyone for anything, unless you like getting your leg lifted by people who know less about cars then their customers do. Also, in that last Six months of working there, I didn't see any repeat customers' apart from ones who's repairs hadn't been done properly. Kwik Fit's "Hunter "wheel alignment equipment may be state of art, but you're still relying on the idiot working it to actually adjust your car properly, and don't even get me started on how many tracking lock nuts I've seen left loose!
Formula One use the Supertracker set up which in my opinion is a much better system. They also employ mechanics who know about cars and know from how it feels as its unfastened if a bolt's going to snap. They understand that if one of the machine's wheel mounted sensor heads gets dropped, it will require recalibration before any more cars are tracked up. Formula One's staff are on a bonus which is calculated on how much profit is in each job and whilst the staff would rather track up your car ( tracking is a labour job so lots of profit in this ), most of the staff I worked with would be prepared to do you a deal on the tracking as the full alignment check is completely free of charge and once the guages are fitted, it doesn't take long to adjust. They also give you a before and after print out from their computer and don't mind showing you how it's adjusted.
Now for my experience of Kwik fit..... The first time I worked for them was between 1995 and 2001. Back then, we were trained from inexperienced people, though I had previously been a mechanic, and were all trained to the same level. We were told that doing the job right first time and "delighting" our customers was our main priority. The people I worked with in several of Kwik fit's centres were pretty clued up, pretty knowledgeable and usually interested in cars too and were proud of how good a job they did. We had plenty of repeat customers too and quite a few of these would follow individual staff as they moved to other centres. Working for them back then was OK and I too was proud of my job. I had a complete change of career then in 2001 and ended up doubling my wage in doing so. Anyway, fast forward a few years and I found myself out of work following a loss of contract for my employer meaning he had to downsize his workforce. 20 minutes after I was laid off and I was in the last Kwik fit I'd worked at 12 years previously. I got the job and expected to fit back in pretty much as I'd done all those years ago. How wrong was I? Now they seemed to have employed completely clueless idiots. Now I found myself working with people who hadn't got a clue about the workings of cars. They used the same torque wrenches that were for torquing wheel nuts up with, as breaker bars! They didn't grease the backs of new brake pads and would send cars out with new squealing brakes. They would track up cars with worn bushes and ball joints ( even track rod ends! ) hanging out. They'd track up cars with broken springs and all sorts of other things that were dead against what I'd been shown all those years ago. The staff I worked with didn't care a damn about customers getting the job done right and just wanted as much money as they could get out of everyone no matter how they did it. I've even witnessed staff incorrectly track up customer's cars to scrub the tyres off, but drive straight so they'd return quicker for another set of tyres. All they cared about was getting extra sales from trackings, extra wheel balancing which were rarely done and nitrogen tyre inflation from a machine on the wall, which never ran out of nitrogen and had an air line feed into it straight from the garage's compressor! I wouldn't trust these idiots to even blow up my tyres. Kwik fit also have a ban on their staff getting involved with any comments on social media and regularly check the internet for post like mine, so I hope they see this. I put up with these cave men for about Six months until I couldn't bare being associated with them any more and then found another job, again more than doubling my wages and left. In my time at Kwik fit I've been told by the centre manager (who's been in this job for 14 years ) to "Think like a rapist", "f**k everybody that drives through our doors today" and "get what you can out of everyone no matter what." I've also been forced to service cars with knocking engines, fit new brakes and springs to the front of a really rough 206 without telling the customer about this car's collapsed rear beam ( an uneconomical repair on a car worth about £300, and I had a Fiat Bravo in for Mot which showed no oil on its dip stick. This is grounds to refuse to test it in case it damages the cars engine ( according to Vosa ). The manager then sold the customer a fully synthetic oil change on a rough 1998 140000 mile car. As I sent the car up on the ramp I noticed a badly rusted front subframe that would make this car not worth changing the oil on and not worth wasting the customers time and money on Mot-ing it. I suggested we should ring the customer and give them the bad news that their old Fiat was well past its best and not worth bothering with. I was ordered not to do this, but to change the oil, Mot it and then fail the subframe. This way we'll have £45 for the oil change and £35 in the till for the Mot. So much for putting the customer first, again they just wanted his money. Sorry, after all this ranting but I can't reccomend Kwik fit to anyone for anything, unless you like getting your leg lifted by people who know less about cars then their customers do. Also, in that last Six months of working there, I didn't see any repeat customers' apart from ones who's repairs hadn't been done properly. Kwik Fit's "Hunter "wheel alignment equipment may be state of art, but you're still relying on the idiot working it to actually adjust your car properly, and don't even get me started on how many tracking lock nuts I've seen left loose!