Halfords

If you want any work done to your car I suggest you look elsewhere for anything that might be described as ‘service’.
Halfords make all sorts of claims on their posters and hoardings outside this location, but you’ll be hard pushed to make any of them come to fruition.
Two examples: —
1) A year or so ago — when he was was a healthier human being, if a little ‘feeble’ and unsteady on his feet — my Dad had a battery issue on his Toyota. Halfords were boasting ‘free installation’ for any battery bought from their store. So he managed to get to this Woodside Avenue branch, bought a battery and asked if it could be installed. The response… «Sorry mate, we ain’t got no fitters in today». Indeed, there was not even anyone willing to help carry the battery to my Dad’s car, despite his evident weakness. After arguing his case the staff eventually coughed up a young girl who said she would carry the battery out to Dad’s car but told him that she was not qualified to fit it. Instead, my 82 year-​old father had to stand in the rain and fit the battery into his car in Halfords’ car park, exactly the kind of thing he had hoped to avoid by going to them in the first place. Disgraceful service Part One.
2) Part two came more recently. I flew in from America to look after him for a while, and decided to use his car, having initial reservations about the tyres as the vehicle had sat unused for over 6 months. Again, a hoarding outside Halfords boasted a «free tyre pressure and condition check». I went in and enquired about this service only to be told (just as my father experienced a year earlier) that there were no staff in that day who could carry out the test. Not in a friendly, apologetic way but in a brusque manner that suggested I had perhaps asked them to cough up a chicken for charity.
I cant abide businesses that advertise a service but can never deliver. It seems that Halfords — or certainly this branch — make a nasty habit of this. It’s a simple fix for them — take down the banners when there’s no staff to carry out the promised service and/​or cease advertising things that they clearly have no intention of actually doing having lured the customer to their store.
Halfords used to be a brand I could trust. Now I won’t give them the time of day, because they obviously can’t give it to any of their customers. My advice is to avoid them for all and any car servicing — including MOT’s — as you can never be 100% certain they will have staff available to do the work.