Won't be using HiQ in Livingston again .. grrr

[gorrie]

Just venting frustration...
On the past 3 occasions I've used this place as a fitting centre for tyres I've bought through Black Circles .. as it's the nearest place to my house that Blackcircles list & what can you possibly do wrong with fitting tyres to run of the mill cars eh...
Today is the last time... they really don't give a toss.

I had Khumo's put on the rear of the Fiesta the 1st time... rear-end of car was bouncy as hell after that, pressures were sky high, no-where near the correct level. Once I set them correctly it was fine.. wheels & tyres were left a complete mess with white goo & left to dry in as well.

2nd time, I had Avon ZZ3's fitted to the rear of the RX8... again the pressures were to high, and I had to sort the goo.

Today, I had some cheap tyres fitted to the rear of the MG to get it past an MOT later this week. Called HiQ directly last Friday though, to confirm the booking through Black Circles & to tell them that the rears had worn very unevenly (outside was obliterated, inside had loads left). I asked if they could possibly do a full 4-wheel check/alignment while they changed the tyres (I wasn't sure if it was camber or toe-in that was to blame). "Sure, we can do that".
Dropped car off this morning, mentioned to the guy about the rear wear being uneven again & that they were meant to check it after fitting the tyres. "Aye, OK"
Went to pick the car up at lunch time... got no print out of before/after for the 4 wheel check. Even when I asked if it was out... I got a verbal, "yeah, about 5mm"... what the heck !!
They charged me £25, which makes me very suspicious that all they have done is align the front wheels with the rears (therefore assuming the rears were OK before starting, despite the fact there's uneven wear). So I reckon that's £25 down the pan for nothing & my rear wear will continue.
Drove away.... 100yds before I decided the car had to go back. Steering wheel was at a 45degree angle to keep the car straight. Looks like they've done the front alignment without clamping the steering wheel... FFS !! So the boy in the workshop has been told he's got to go do it again.

I've left the car with them ... meant to be picking it up at 5pm... as I was leaving, the young lad in the workshop jumped in to my MG, rammed it in reverse, almost did a J-turn & then roared out the carpark. I'm assuming that was meant to be him going on a test drive to make sure he'd cocked it up first time... why on earth he thought he should take his frustration out on a customers car is beyond me...

Never again....

[StiflerMR2]

Sorry to hear that...I'd not have gone back after the 1st incident!

Hope you get it sorted.

[Shug]

Yup - you get bad service, walk.

'Tis the only way.

[allyrennie]

If your looking for this kind of thing again sir around you area, try the Creamery garage in Bathgate ( near Stevie Walkers ). I have known the guy for years who has it and they have brand new kit for geo etc.

Brand new building ( Bosch service centre accredited ). I shall speak with Tommy tonight if I get a chance and see if I can sort out a deal for SE.

Cheers

Ally

[Neil72]

Was that the HiQ place at Bellsquarry Andy ?

If so, I too had a bad experience with them/Blackcircles a few months ago. No J turns in the car park, but they did manage to make a right royal cock up of fitting a couple of Kumho's to the Vectra.

To begin with, they had no record of my order and the appointment I made for fitting and turned me away. Refused point blank to phone Blackcircles to try and sort it out. So I had to call them myself from the carpark outside and get the Blackcircles woman to call HiQ.

Tyres fitted, drove the car away to find (a) tyre pressures too high (b) major wheel judder as they hadn't balanced the wheels properly (c) sidewalls of the tyres spattered in white paint that one of their monkeys had just been applying to their walls with a roller.

Fixed the pressures/paint thing myself, and they managed to balance the wheels correctly at the 2nd attempt.

Blackcircles were equally as useless when I complained....."err next time you order from us, tell us you had a bit hassle and we can mibees knock a wee bit off the price for you". As if I'm going to bring that up in 18 months time in the vain hope of getting a fiver knocked off the bill.

Back to Camskill next time for me

[gorrie]

Yep... the very same place Neil. Bit of a theme with the pressures & white goo there .. eh. Maybe it's been emulsion on mine...
I was working on the "3rd time lucky" theory... rather than the "once bitten".
Black Circles used to deal with Cliffords Tyres which were a mobile outfit from Livingston. They were really good, but now not listed on the Black Circles website

Anyway, got the MG back now... seems to go straight with the steering wheel pointing straight... but really that just means I'm back to where I was before they touched it. I doubt they even checked rear toe/camber despite me mentioning the wear & the whole reason I was asking them to look at it. £25 wasted... could have got 2 bottles of Jack Daniels on offer at Tesco for that.

I'll keep an eye on the wear.. and if it looks like it's still going uneven, maybe give Creamery a bell... or head to see Willie at CLCM.

pah.

[robin]

If the rear toe is adjustable like the Elise, fair enough; on a lot of FWD cars (which is the majority of what they work on, I expect) the rear toe is adjustable only by undoing the bolts that hold the cross-beam/torsion bar to the chassis. I would not want them doing that to my car ...

Cheers,
Robin

[gorrie]

Apparantly on the Rover 75 / MG ZT you adjust the rear by slackening 3 rear arm bolts off.
My main gripe being that I was very clear about my reasons for requiring it checked (uneven wear on the rear tyres) so if they weren't going to check/adjust the rear they should have been straight with me & said so rather than "sure, we can look at that for you". Basically they've taken a job on knowing it wasn't what was required, then ballsed it up.
In fact, if they've used my rears as a guide, I guess it may mean my fronts are off now... When I went back to pick the car up at 5pm, I asked if they had a print out of the before/after/tolerance but the guy said they don't have that... they can't get that from their system.

Hey-ho... lesson learnt.. I'll avoid them in future.