Category Archives: garage services

garage services like car servicing and accident repairs should be female friendly experiences

garage services

The Role of a Garage Broker

Several years ago, brothers Oly and Toby Richmond received funding from Deborah Meaden in the Dragons Den to run an online car servicing garage brokerage.

This business relationship then broke down for mutual reasons.

We’re told this was either because of Deborah’s lack of motor industry experience or because she read about too many complaints at that stage.

Here we look at the role of a garage broker and the quality issues this raises today.

What is a Garage Broker?

By an online garage brokerage I mean a branded website promoting garages that customers think are operated by that business; the motorist books and pays through the broker who then places the work with a local garage that has agreed to the broker’s rates and processes.

Servicing Stop’s website is a good example of one that is clear and simple. It tells us their garages are approved by them, that their mechanics are qualified (they don’t mention licensed which would prove they’re up to date?) and that they use OE parts so all repairs meet warranty standards. But they don’t tell motorists who their garages are. That won’t worry most motorists who’d welcome the convenience of this sort of service but perhaps it should raise some concerns?

At the time, the Dragons seemed to think that this was a unique concept (yet NSN and Prestige were well established brokers at that time) and Deborah Meaden offered them £100k.

All did not go according to plan afterwards…

Reasons Why Dragon Deborah and Servicing Stop split

Oly and Toby initially accepted Deborah Meaden’s offer of a £100,000 investment but decided to continue on their own when they later met Deborah and learned she had no experience of the motor trade. They subsequently found a more suitable investor – to the disappointment of Ms Meaden.

This is how they explained this.

“We secured a promise of investment by a Dragon but decided not to follow it up as it would have proved bad for both parties. Our message to potential entrepreneurs is that there are numerous ways of securing investment and backing so think twice before accepting the advice of a Dragon.”

And this is what Deborah Meaden placed on her website…

*Important announcement re Servicing Stop*
Following a number of complaints regarding the service provided by Servicing Stop, Deborah would like to make it clear that although she made an offer in the Den, the investment did not go through and Deborah is not in any way connected with Servicing Stop.

__________________________________

Since then Servicing Stop has gone from strength to strength and we hope they’ve ironed out quality issues and processes by now. I can understand why they’d prefer a business mentor who understood the motor industry. Although, perhaps being an industry outsider might have been a good thing for Servicing Stop?

Deborah could have added her weight to insist on better quality garages for Servicing Stop at an earlier stage.

We could certainly have done with her support to help raise standards in this industry sector!

FOXY
FOXY Lady Drivers Club

NB: FOXY is not a garage broker. We run an award-winning and not for profit motoring club for women drivers, supported by garage subscribers that meet our FOXY Lady Approved ie female friendly standards. They have all signed the FOXY Lady Promise to ‘never overcharge, patronise or sell women services we don’t need’ and are required to EITHER be part of a Chartered Trading Standards Institute Approved Code of Practice scheme (operated by The Motor Ombudsman, Trust My Garage or Bosch Car Service) OR be listed at the IMI Professional Register. Finally we require sufficient online female feedback to secure their network place – in exchange for this, their female customers get a gift membership of FOXY Lady Drivers Club from that subscriber.

Women can join the Club here.

Garages can apply to join our network here.

garage services, Tyres

Are wheel alignment services a rip off?

A tyre industry expert tells me “In over 90% of cases, imperfect wheel alignment will not cause premature wear to tyres. Yet at least one major tyre retailer pays a bonus when their fitters sell this service to more than 80% of their customers.”

I was reminded of this statement after I gave a tyre safety talk to The Women’s Hub in Worthing recently where I was asked why alignment wasn’t included in the cost of a new tyre.

‘Shouldn’t a new tyre be sold as fit for purpose’ was one of the questions I faced. By that she was suggesting a new tyre should come correctly balanced and wheels aligned.

In principle she’s right of course but I explained that a good tyre fitter would identify if there was a problem with a car – he’d be able to tell this from uneven tyre wear of course. But not all are that honourable it seems.

Wheel Alignment Options

In my experience, you’re asked if you need your wheels aligned when you buy new tyres and, if you don’t know why you might, you’re told various reasons why you should.

I have enclosed examples of the sort of thing we’re told at leading tyre sales websites. Advice ranges from the informative to the downright pushy.

But shouldn’t ALL wheels be checked for correct alignment BEFORE the tyre centre/garage/dealership sells you alignment services on the basis of your genuine need, tyre safety and future financial economies?

After all, we’re talking about an added £29 or more to a tyre bill here. And perhaps there’s suspension/steering work to be done to the car too?

Understandably suppliers of wheel alignment equipment sell theirs to garages by promising ‘a major contribution to their profit line’ as stated by the Supertracker website, when they up-sell this service to motorists.

NB: FOXY Lady Approved tyre centres, garages and dealers have all signed the FOXY Lady Promise ‘to never overcharge, patronise or sell motorists anything we don’t need.’ This is because we know that many automotive businesses incentivise sales staff to sell us services like alignment that we don’t need.

Website Advice re Wheel Alignment

This is what some of the bigger tyre businesses say about their alignment services.

From National Tyres & Autocare

Have you noticed any difficulties when steering? A vibration or pulling to one side? It may mean that your wheel alignment is in need of attention. At National Tyres and Autocare we use specialist equipment to make quick and accurate adjustments to the front wheels of your vehicle and with a front wheel alignment cost of only £29 why not add this to your next safety inspection?

They recommend this every 6000 miles.

This seems a reasonable and un-pushy explanation to me.

From Halfords Autocentres

Correct wheel alignment improves road holding and maximises the life of tyres. Aligning the front two wheels resolves alignment issues for most vehicles, but if additional work is needed a quote will be provided.

This does suggest financial and safety benefit for an outlay of £29.

From ATS Euromaster

ATS is selling three options costing £36.99 to £64.99 for a choice of alignment services.

Quite frankly this text baffles me (and most motorists) with its terminology and diagrams.

Knowing very little about the subject, I suspect that most motorists may fall for this pitch, even if they buy the cheapest option (which is still some £5 more than most others).

From Kwik Fit

Checking your wheel alignment regularly can prolong the life of your tyres by up to 12,000 miles and increase fuel efficiency due to the reduced rolling resistance with the road – saving you pounds at the pump.

Keep an eye out for unusual wear on your tyres, such as premature wear on the inside or outside shoulder, which could be a sign of incorrect alignment.

Kwik Fit offers a free wheel alignment check at all of our UK centres so stop in if you need any help.

NB: Kwik Fit offers front two wheel and four-wheel alignment options. The price of our four-wheel alignment includes the Hunter Hawkeye four-wheel alignment inspection and the front toe adjustment only. Additional charges will apply if further adjustments are required including any rear wheel adjustments. You will be advised at the time of inspection prior to any work being carried out. Should we find that no adjustment is necessary, we will happily refund you.

I have yet to see any evidence for their 12,000 mile claim or increased fuel efficiency, but the free check and an offer to refund where no four-wheel adjustment is necessary will reassure many.

Recommended Wheel Alignment Best Practice

I’d like tyre centres/garages and car dealers to agree to tell motorists that

1) “In most cases imperfect wheel alignment will not cause premature wear to tyres”
AND
2) “We won’t sell wheel alignment services unless we’re sure/can prove they’re needed”.

Then the wheel alignment suppliers will need to convince garages that they can STILL afford their equipment. Good luck with that sales pitch I say!
_________________________________

Clearly wheel alignment is yet another ethical challenge for the automotive industry.

So, as I see it the challenge is for tyre service providers to

EITHER continue earning easy money selling £29 alignment services that most motorists don’t need or understand

OR do the decent thing and prove the need for wheel alignment services before selling them.

The likely outcome here, dear blog reader, is that good businesses will do the right thing (which is why you need to know who they are) and bad businesses won’t, getting richer from rubber-related rip offs.

This is all the more likely because garages, including tyre centres, aren’t regulated, allowing cowboys to trade alongside the genuinely good garages, tarnishing the latter’s reputation in the process.

By all means tell FOXY your good or bad stories relating to tyre sales and/or wheel alignment services – whether you bought these in a tyre centre, garage or franchised car dealerships. We can then share these within The Club.

FOXY aka Steph Savill

NB: To ask for tyre advice, Club members contact FOXY Helpdesk.

To find a good tyre centre you can trust, check our FOXY Lady Approved Tyre Register

By all means comment here via Twitter @FOXYTweets

Or Steph Savill via info@foxyladydrivers.com

garage services, women, women drivers

FOXY issues Red Card for Oaks Vehicle Service Centre in Hersden

We are issuing a Red Card via this blog. This means we are blacklisting Oaks Vehicle Service Centre in Hersden, a village just east of Canterbury in Kent. This is because they are not, and never have been, a FOXY Lady Approved garage, despite pretending to be by carrying our logo at their website without our permission.

Earlier this year they signed and completed an order form to subscribe to our female friendly garage network. After we’d checked their IMI credentials we set up their FOXY Page and Club listing before issuing our invoice, payable within 30 days.

After 30 days, we nudged the garage for payment several times, by email and phone, without success. This is a rare instance for FOXY because garages usually pay us promptly to get their Subscriber Pack which includes Female Friendly Approved promotional materials and online gift memberships of FOXY Lady Drivers Club for female customers.

Finally we caught up with their elusive business manager and requested a card payment to speed matters up on both sides. We were given card details but the card failed when the bank declined this later on.

FOXY is blacklisting Oaks Vehicle Service Garage in Kent

Having exhausted every reasonable method to obtain payment for their order or to obtain an explanation for a delayed/failed payment, FOXY’s Area Manager referred this to me.

I then left an ansafone message and emailed the business manager, asking for a final explanation or rectification of the situation.

We are not unreasonable people here but we are professionals. Clearly a business that would pass off membership of our scheme and treat FOXY this badly is not one we’d want to introduce to women in Canterbury even when we are perfectly within our rights to insist on the full subscription payment.

After an email explaining Oaks’ options, including our issuing a Red Card within The Club, the garage’s business manager offered to pay our bank charges (an estimated £20) for the failed card payment and remove the FOXY Lady Approved logo from their website.

I agreed to this so we could all move on. We re-invoiced the garage by return (that’s ten days ago now) and requested this payment and the removal of our logo from their website by 18 April 2017.

A week later this second invoice remains unpaid and our logo is still in place at their website.

This constitutes ‘passing off’ in law and we’ll be reporting this to Trading Standards.

Their business manager is also a member of the IMI (Institute of the Motor Industry) which means he has signed the same ethical business promise as I have.

But he has not honoured his by
1) placing a sales order and failing to pay for this
2) using the FOXY Lady Approved logo without permission/purporting to be a member of this scheme when he is not
3) failing to do what he said he would do ie not paying a revised invoice or removing our logo as requested
so we’ll be reporting him to the IMI accordingly.

Fortunately the issue of a Red Card is a rare occurrence for FOXY but I have no hesitation in issuing one to Oaks Service Centre on this occasion because of their evidently premeditated and cavalier commercial behaviour in their dealings with us.

FOXY Lady Approved garages in Canterbury

To avoid any confusion, our FOXY Lady Approved ie female friendly garages in the Canterbury area are

Protyre Canterbury
Dargate MOT Centre
Six Mile Garage

Female Motoring feedback

If you’d like to tell us about a female friendly UK motoring business that isn’t on our FOXY Lady Approved network yet please do so here.

FOXY

garage services

FOXY lays down Kwik-Fit gauntlet

It can’t just be me that links bad media PR with the brand name Kwik-Fit.

But is this because they’re more likely to be targeted in national ‘sting’ operations, as one of the biggest UK garage groups, when a publication wants national not local coverage?

Maybe the time is right to bury that bad PR once and for all Kwik-Fit?

If you want to walk the FOXY walk we’d be happy to work with you to defend your business and promote that message.

Here’s why we’re suggesting this matters, as an example of how damaging this sort of PR can be. Here’s the latest rip off tale of customer woe about Kwik-Fit along these lines…

So what are you doing about this, Itochu (who owns Kwik-Fit)? Probably lots is happening behind the scenes that few motorists know of.

So I’d like to invite you to join our network of FOXY Lady Approved garages so we can police your quality standards and together we’ll put the record straight – one way or another.

To join the FOXY Lady Approved garage network

To join us and start the ball rolling you’d need to…

1/ Get Kwik-Fit staff to sign the FOXY Promise to ‘never overcharge, patronise or sell us anything we don’t need’.

2/ Demonstrate EITHER staff on the IMI Professional Register OR that branches are members of a Chartered Trading Standards Approved Code of Practice scheme like The Motor Ombudsman, Trust My Garage or Bosch Car Service.

As such, Kwik-Fit Directors and Centre Managers could not incentivise retail staff to sell certain products or services motorists’ don’t need.

3/ Confirm performance levels by regular female feedback.

PS: FOXY has its own complaints handling processes which it’d happily share with Kwik-Fit re women drivers.

Is this too much to ask of Kwik-Fit?

Undoubtedly Kwik-Fit does a lot of good work but it’s a big operation and wherever staff are involved, there’s room for human error. But if Kwik-Fit wants to do a better job, we’re here to help them move the bar upwards in terms of customer service.

They’d need to make a commitment to better motoring services for women, by working with us.

And we’d then be in a position to stick up for them when the media turns on them again.

As I see it, this’d be good for the automotive industry as well. Because they get tarnished by customers’ bad tales, fairly or otherwise.

By all means give me a ring on 01903 879988 to get the ball rolling.

You really should do something Itochu and standing up for your business values, working with us, sounds like a positive way to make a difference.

FOXY

To have your say about Kwik-Fit. please use Twitter and our @FOXYTweets feed.

garage services

Should our cars be MOT’d after 4 years?

This logo was last used in January 2012 when this change was last proposed.

FOXY is asking women drivers for their opinions about increasing the period before a car has its first statutory safety check from 3 to 4 years.

Much as it did five years ago, the Government is seeking views on whether the age a vehicle gets its first MOT should be increased from 3 to 4 years.

Just to remind readers, the MOT is a car’s only statutory safety check and it is required annually after a car’s third birthday, even if it’s just a snapshot of safety areas on the day. Drive without one and your insurance is likely invalid.

As things stand, some 40% of vehicles fail their first MOT after 3 years so there is a definite safety concern were we to extend this period by a further 12 months.

The likely MOT verdict?

On first glance FOXY’d expect

+ motorists to say yes, because it’d mean them saving money and spending less time in garages.

+ car manufacturers and dealers to rewrite car servicing requirements to bring them more regular business in these early years.

+ garages and associated MOT service providers to be up in arms as this’d mean less business/more unemployment.

But I wonder how car insurers will feel about this knowing the relationship between safe cars and accident levels knowing that so many vehicles fail their first MOT at 3 years, concerning critical safety items like tyres.

And is it really a good idea to have vans on our road doing c50,000 miles a year for 3 let alone 4 years (150,000 to 200,000 miles without a check?) before they are subject to their first statutory road safety check?

Too important for women drivers to ignore

FOXY is preparing a response for the DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency) representing the views of women drivers and we’d welcome your opinion here.

As we see it, the UK’s MOT regime is ultimately about YOUR road safety and that of YOUR family, including pedestrians. This makes it too big a subject for women to ignore or allow men to make this decision, simply because they are more likely to be reading about this in the motor trade press.

I am particularly interested to learn why the Government is raising this debate, as it would surely earn less VAT money in the event of a first MOT after 4 years?

And surely this government has more important matters on its horizon.

But above all, I’d like to know who stands to benefit most from this proposal, if anyone.

We will then reflect your opinions and any concerns in our response to the DVSA.

Please have your say through FOXY by EITHER emailing your thoughts to info@foxyladydrivers.com or add to the thread at our Facebook Page.

Steph Savill

NB: The options being proposed are:
1. to keep the current period for vehicles requiring a first MOT at 3 years, with no change
2. to increase the age all vehicles get their first MOT from 3 to 4 years
3. to increase the age cars and motorcycles get their first MOT from 3 to 4 years, but keeping it at 3 years for vans in classes 4 and 7