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PDJames
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Location: Belfast
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JL
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Location: Oxon
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Sarah@Rpoints
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 Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 12:25 pm Post subject: |
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Good finds JL!
I don't think you can actually use both offers together but there's nothing to lose by trying. If you book online but present Clubcard Deal Tokens as payment they'll treat the booking as full price, so it looks like the best thing could be to take along £50 of deal tokens and expect to effectively pay £12.85 for the MOT! 
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Sarah
Marie Claire, In Style, iCreate or Corel Painter - try 3 issues for £1 + earn 300 rpoints! |
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PDJames
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| Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 6:05 pm Post subject: |
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| In Northern Ireland where I live things are a little bit different. All MOTs are done by a government agency called the Driver and Vehicle testing agency. There is one fixed price of £30.50 for cars which sounds a bargain compared to what its like across the water! |
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Scrounger
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Joined: 02 Feb 2002
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| Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 3:13 pm Post subject: |
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I managed it once a few years ago. I booked in with a CSMA 33% discounted ('no-pass no-fee') offer and when it came to pay (£28.85 at that time) I then asked if I could use my Tesco deal tokens. The manager was in a good mood and said that although, strictly it wasn't allowed, he agreed to take them but advised that he couldn't give any change from £30 (with an MOT for £7.50 I wasn't going to argue with that).
These days I just do what Sarah says: pay with deal tokens and get my MOTs for £12.85 (or £12.50 if they occasionally let me off with the cash.) - 3 cars per year and I do my own repairs and servicing. 
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JL
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iMac
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Joined: 20 May 2000
Posts: 86
Location: Lancashire
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| Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 5:44 pm Post subject: |
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| JL wrote: | Scrounger
Thanks for that. Bearing in mind there can't be any profit in it for them at that price, have you ever had any suspicious failures? I've no idea what my local one is like (yet) but I have read some stories about this firm. |
Personally I would avoid going to Nationwide Autocentres. I used Tesco clubcard vouchers to get a full service from them about 1 year ago on my Vauxhall Corsa (Blackburn branch).
They told me it needed 2 new tyres on the front as the tread was below 2mm, the battery needed replacing as it would go at any point and it needed new front brake discs and pads as the discs where worn thin.
I suspected they where telling lies (I had looked at the tyres not so long ago) so I took it to National Tyres and got them to check the tyres and battery. The front tyres had 5mm of tread on each, and the battery was good and had 93% start capacity.
I have since had an MOT and there has never been any problems with the brakes and the battery has been fine thru the last winter - not one problem with starting.
When my car was serviced by Nationwide they did not spot an oil leak from the oil pressure switch (common fault on corsas) which caused a loss of 1.5 litres of oil! Luckily I checked my oil and spotted this myself and took it to another garage. It cost me £20 to fix but luckily I caught it in time or the engine could have gone!
I wrote a letter of complaint to the head office and they rang me a few days latter and said had I paid cash they would have refunded me in full but as I paid in vouchers they offered me a free full service for use in the next 12 months. They said I could pass it onto a friend or family member. I took the voucher and sold it on ebay for £95 - I will never take any car back to that company. I don't feel that it was an honest mistake but the company and many others like it don't do the job you pay them to do and to bump up their profits will find work to do when it is not required.
My advice is find a small local garage and avoid big name compaines like this one. |
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Ric
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| Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 6:01 pm Post subject: |
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Another bad experience here.
About 4 years ago I tried Nationwide Autocentre out. Was called and told that although it had just passed the MOT my brakes were below the service recommendation limits and I'd need new pads and discs - cost circa £600! I told them to stuff off.
Purely by chance I found this website: http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/ and in the Good Garages section I found a local recommended place. Suffice to say that I still have the same brakes 4 years later. |
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Scrounger
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| Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 4:43 am Post subject: |
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| JL wrote: | Scrounger
Thanks for that. Bearing in mind there can't be any profit in it for them at that price, have you ever had any suspicious failures? |
No bad experiences in over 10 years (more than 30 MOTs).
Mind you, for years I used the fantastic CSMA deal - no pass no fee (and 33% discount if it it passed) so there was always an incentive there for a pass. I had the odd failure but usually could put things right myself the same day and take it back. I always thorougly check the cars over prior to taking them for MOT and put right any obvious defects. The other thing I do is watch the MOT being carried out - sometimes the mechanic will point out things that I should keep my eye on.
With the Tesco deals I don't get the 'no pass no fee' deal but it is cheaper and I still have had no failures in the last 3 years (about 9 Mots). (Incidentally, my car is 18 years old, done over 150,000 miles and passed its last MOT with no advisories!)
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