Servicing Stop

Buyer Beware! Unnecessarily large service bills
Buyers Beware! This example is ******* miles 2013 skoda roomster driver aged 74 lured in with £137.17 service & £18 MOT minimal mileage new to area they are happy to mug off the vulnerable without offering to quote first - no scruples prices all +vat
1.00 full service (labour) 114.47
3.90 change oil 0.00 0.00
1.00 change oil filter 0.00 0.00
1.00 mot 18.00
1.00 collection & delivery 0.00 0.00
4.00 remove & refit: spark plugs 30.91 123.62
1.00 renew: brake fluid 89.00 89.00
1.00 remove & refit: pollen filter 84.51
2.00 remove & refit: tyres (front) (mot advisory) 95.00 190.00 (cheap Europa brand circa £45 online)
1.00 perform: tracking reset (service advisory) 65.00
1.00 oil 24.99
1.00 remove & refit: auxiliary drive belt 189.67 (not due til 60K miles)
1.00 perform: lifetime engine flush (service advisory) 64.50
Total Net Amount £963.76
Environmental Surcharge (2%) £19.28
SKODA ROOMSTER /
Fluid Top up Charge £5.99
Mileage: *******
Total VAT Amount £194.21
Total £1,183.23!
Advice here is deal with a local garage yourself & especially if you are vulnerable get a quote for extras in writing then get a second opinion

I booked a service and mot with these guys and after bombarding me with emails about saving money by prepaying they offered to provide these service at some farm 75 miles away! So I checked the details, yup no garage there and certainly no registered MOT test centre (locations of all of which are publicly available). I did question this and they replied that the garage is "behind the farm", sorry I must have missed it within that green field I'm looking at!

Anyway the point is nobody would even come 75miles to pick up my car, then drive it all that way back taking maybe 2 hours and then do the reverse process at the end of the day for a £100! From all the other reviews I've read I seriously doubt that they bother to do any mot testing or car servicing at all.

At best it's all just a scam to get people to pay up front for a service that they won't get (and then lose £25 for asking to cancel). At worst, well who knows what they actually do with your car when they take it away. These people need serious investigation because I'm worried there is a nasty scam going on here.

Last month I booked my car in for an MOT and service tomorrow. There were a few issues with the booking system but today at 1600 a message was left on my phone saying that couldn't be done today but might be able to do next Wednesday. No apology, no resilience and my MOT runs out on Friday. DO NOT USE THEM - they will let you down.

DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS COMPANY EVER! They pay to be at the top of google search engine but are based on LIES AND DECIET. I had my service and MOT booked in for over a month, and was told collection between 8-10. That very morning I got a text at 7.30am to expect collection between 8-10. It got to 09.45 and I wondered where they were, so attempted to call. YOU CANNOT GET THROUGH TO ANYONE ON ANY PHONE NUMBER AVAILABLE, EVEN THE NUMBERS THEY PROVIDE YOU WITH. I had to then speak to Live Chat, who was a robot, who then passed me onto a human, who told me that my booking has been cancelled because of sickness. WHY HAD I NOT BEEN CALLED AT ALL TO BE TOLD THIS? WHY DID I HAVE TO ASK? WHY DID I GET SENT A TEXT REMINDER OF SERVICE THIS MORNING? I asked then for an urgent call back, and the most unhelpful and un-remorseful man explained that due to sickness, my service could not be completed today. He did not say sorry, or even take any responsibility for the fact I was not informed of this. I re-arranged my whole week to fit around this, and yet the team here could not give a single hoot about this. I would suggest NEVER booking from here, if you actually want a reliable service. The fact you cannot even call them on the number's provided is the biggest joke of all. Thank god I did not pre-pay for this service, as I would be at loss of money.

I booked my car in for a service never thinking I would be conned. The only reason why I chose them was my car would be collected and delivered back and they have "as seen on Dragons' Den" on their site. Obviously, with them mentioning Dragons Den I thought it would be a good option to go with. I can't believe that they would have their name associated with such scam artists.
A man from a garage near me collected the car so I thought everything will be fine. A matter of a few hours later I had a call telling me I had to pay another £249 for oil change, brake flush amongst other things. I asked to speak to a manager (still waiting now). Also up to 4.50 I did not even know which garage had my car - despite me contacting them on several phones and email. So had to start ringing around local garages to find it, with this company closing at 5pm. Spend over 3 hours in total with them today and no one called me back.
I will be contacting trading standards tomorrow to report them, especially after seeing their reviews and articles online. So I am not alone. No one should get away with ripping off people, especially in such difficult times. £350 for a service - what planet do they live on. I even threatened them with the police if they didn't call me back - no response.
DO NOT USE THIS FIRM

These people disappeared with my car for several days, did not reply to calls and only send tardy and evasive responses to emails. They claimed, falsely, to have tried to contact me but would not tell me where my car was or why it had not been returned. There was no communication at all for several days. I thought they had stolen the car and reported its theft to the police. Then I eventually received their customary recommendations for unnecessary, overpriced "extras" including their nortorious "special oils" - a con for the naive.

They told me they would not release my car until they had been paid, despite my having paid in advance and declined all the "extras".

I was actually surprised to get my car back.

Their published phone number goes straight to a recorded message directing the called to the AI Q&A service on their website and they call numbers which just cut out when you try to call back. They use no-response text numbers. This has all the hallmarks of a fraudulent operation and is well worth avoiding.

Booked, paid, reminders received, no one turns up! Phone numbers used by company mostly don't work or connect to garages which aren't going to do your job! Don't bother with this company

THEY LEFT A COSTED SERVICE SHEET IN MY CAR WHICH WAS FOR A VERY VERY BASIC SERVICE. THEY ACTUALLY CHARGED ME 4 TIMES THAT INCLUDING EXTRA WORK UNDOUBTEDLY NOT DONE!
NOT ONLY THAT THE SERVICE LOG BOOK WASN'T SIGNED AND THEY IGNORE AND DONT REPLY TO YOU ONCE THEY HAVE YOUR MONEY BEFORE RELEASING YOUR CAR.

Stupid me did not check reviews however like everyone, paid for the service online, got my car collected, before the garage serviced the car, received a call from service stop that extras are needed like engine flush, brake fluid but declined on the cabin pollen air filter as replaced last year, however a few days later, checked the oil in the car and it was still dark brown and not light brown or amber in colour, took snaps and sent it over to service stop, emailed me back and go back to the garage that did the work, the nice guys explained that engine flush is a bad thing to do, secondly it's normal to have carbon deposits after an engine flush, I beg to differ as oil replacements on previous oil changes are always light brown or amber in colour… the garage has told me that to replace the oil again I will have to pay extra and refer back to service stop, no problems I have written another email raising these issues and the work is not to current industry standards and will be taking it to the proper channels to resolve my dispute, either get the work done again that I paid for or refund me the money minus the brake fluid that is excessive anyway and the MOT… still waiting for a reply before escalating to the appropriate channels or a small claims court to reclaim my moneys under a consumer protection and sales of goods act… if anyone has had work done, check your oil to see if you are happy it is nice and clean as it should be…

NOT RELIABLE!
Need an MOT and service? DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY, THEY ARE TOTALLY UNRELIABLE!

My car was booked in for an urgent MOT but the appointment was cancelled and rebooked for 10 days later. This was NOT acceptable as the original appointment chosen was from a list they provided. The delay would leave my car without an MOT and therefore not taxable.

They are also very quick to take your money up front, but won't give it back as quickly (they say I will get it in 5-10 working days, but we'll see!)

USELESS!

I was quoted £96 all in for an interim service which included a ridiculous environmental fee of £7.99 which incidentally the garage that carried out the service were unaware of. My final bill was £141.83. I had a call from Gary their customer service guy who tried to sell up the service with all the "safety" extras I needed (but didn't need at all) I have a Renault Captur which uses standard C4 oil but was told by Servicing Stop that it was special oil which was an extra £24+VAT. I confirmed with Renault that they recommend standard C4 0/30 or 5/30 and there is no special oil. I bought the car on 22/11/20 and had a full AA check. The AA topped up all the fluids including brake fluid, anti freeze, windscreen wash etc. Servicing Stop said they had to top these up and charged me £5.99+VAT. This was on 26/11/20 4 days after it was done by the AA. Gary from SS said that in the 20 years he had been there he had never had a complaint or anyone requested documentary evidence and a photograph of the 'special oil' they had to use. A complete lie as the company was registered in April 2008 so didn't exist 20 years ago! I spent 3 hours trying to get through to them but with no luck. The garage that carried out the work did say that they have had a lot of customer complaints with SS and the hard sell tactics and unnecessary extra charges. Read the reviews and honestly avoid like the plague. An Interim service from my Renault main dealer is only £160 inc VAT so what appears to be a great saving is actually not. AVOID AVOID AVOID

DO NOT EVER USE THIS COMPANY. THEY ROB PEOPLE OFF.
PAID ONLINE FOR SERVICING MY CAR OIL CHANGE £100 FOR A £12 OIL FILTER, EXTRA £30 FOR ADDING OIL NOT CHANGING IT BECAUSE THEY ASKED £100 FOR CHANGING THE OIL. I USED TO DO MY CAR SERVICES WITH THEM FOR 4 YEARS 5 DIFFERENT CARS. NOT ANYMORE. MOST RUBBISH GARAGE I HAVE EVER MET. IN TOTAL PAID £130 FOR AN OIL GILTER, COLLECTION AND DELIVERY AND ADD A BIT OF NEW OIL TO THE CAR. HOPE THEY GO BUSTED.

This company took my booking emailed the confirmation date and time, offered more discount if pay up front which I did. Service due 9-days after booking it to receive a missed call saying sorry we are unable to carry out the service for another two weeks.
1-4-mails no reply
2- 6 Calls no answer or reply
3- received call promising refund 7 days on nothing
4- 4-More emails nothing
5- 6 more calls nothing
REF: *******
Name:
Mobile Number:
Service Type: Full Service
MOT Required: No
Service Date: 4/3/2022

Make: HYUNDAI
Model: TUCSON
Fuel Type: Petrol
Free Parking: Yes
Collection Time: 08am-10a

These cowboys should be drummed out of business. I wish I had read the reviews before trusting them. Their dipstick mechanic turned up outside my door & before I knew it, vanished with the car - no formalities, form filling & worst - I had no clue where they were taking my car. Couple of hrs later another dipstick called - car failed MOT. Read out a long list. Wanted £1195/ to fix the faults. Just to top up the antifreeze (which did not need topping up, cause I had checked the week before) £90. Adjust the hand brake £112. Fuel Filter £87. Break Fluid £89. Replace ball joint boot - a whopping £747. My car had gone in for a service & an MOT. Another oil surcharge £30 on top. How can they justify these charges? Tried calling them - reverts to their inbox "cannot take any messages as the inbox is full". The car was delivered late in the evening, no MOT. Complained to the dipstick about these horrendous charges & his response was "Oh it's nothing to do with us, these cowboys are a separative entity! We get it in the neck whenever we deliver cars!". DO NOT believe any positive reviews. They are fake & easily bought. STAY AWAY FROM THESE COWBOYS.

They collected my car for full service I got an email saying that all work done and everything was ok with no advisories 2 hours later. Then got a phone call 30min later saying car needed brake fluid replacing@ £77and coolant replacing@ £66 I said BS as I've got report from garage and hung up then they didn't return car till next day. DO NOT USE YOU WILL BE SORRY

A full 19 days after my complaint, Servicing Stop have not paid the us the courtesy of a response. We had our Mercedes Serviced to attend a funeral. The car was returned late - ON THE MORNING OF THE FUNERAL, as opposed to the evening before so we could travel up. Desite a comprehensive list of checks and changes. The Oil change was not made and 20 miles into our journey the OIl warning light came on, the Windscreen wipers were not reconnected properly and fell off, The car was exceptionally sluggish for our 4 hour journey north and we lost a night in the Hotel. Theu charged me more than £400 in addition to the Service fee and one doubts if that work was done. I will never use them again. I am a syndicated Radio DJ, once I return I think U will extract more than £400 worth of rip Off. Shame on you Servicing Stop!

WHAT EVER YOU DO IN YOUR LIFE DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED AT THE WAY THEY TREAT PEOPLE. CUSTOMER SERVICE IS A JOKE. ALL THEY ARE AFTER IS YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY THEY HAVE TREATED ME LIKE A FOOL. BUT I'M DOING ALL I CAN TO TELL AS MANY PEOPLE AS I CAN NOT TO USE THIS COMPANY.

The collection, communication and delivery were good. However, what was disappointing is very aggressive upsale - I have always used standard engine oil for my car, but they called to say they will only do specialist oil (extra £30). The windscreen wiper blade needed changing - I was charged £51.00 for one of this. Have never had to spend more than £20-25 on a single wiper blade. They apparently only do the 'best". I was called twice to convince me of additional "advisories" (and the always came with warning - 'if-you-don't-get -this done, your -car-is-doomed type). I was almost given no option but to agree to other advisories which cost a fortune - I knew I was being taken for a ride, but felt like being in a trap. So the supposed 'service & MOT deal' at the end turned out to be not quite so! The other frustrating part was trying to call them back - you'll be lucky if you get through. I gave up after several attempts, only option is email. I wish I had read this Guardian article before falling for this supposed deal: "Servicing Stop charges can start to add up" (if you google it, you will find the Guardian article)

Have used Servicing Stop in the past and while not brilliant, they got the job done. Have spent the last two months trying to get a simple car service. Has been a nightmare? Three last-minute cancellations from my local garage, with a variety of excuses, ranging from "our electricity isn't working" to "we are closed Tuesdays." Some vehicle collections were arranged without notifying me at all, not that this mattered, as the collections were always cancelled. In the end I had to complain and insist that Servicing Stop use a different, and hopefully more reliable, local garage. They promised they would... then gave the job to the same garage. Have requested a refund.

I realise that a lot of the above may be more the fault of the garage than Servicing Stop, but to the customer, this doesn't make much difference. The net result is the same - a car that hasn't been serviced.

Take my advice and find yourself a reliable local garage instead. Don't be tempted by Servicing Stop's cheap prices, as once they factor in oil change, new spark plugs etc, their prices aren't that much cheaper than your local Kwikfit.

Don't make the mistake I made!

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. THEY ARE A COMPLETE RIP OFF. I BOOKED A SERVICE AND MOT, PAID IN ADVANCE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE DISCOUNT. THE MOT WAS NOT DONE. THEIR EXTRA CHARGES ARE ASTRONOMICAL - FORTUNATELY I REFUSED TO HAVE THE EXTRAS DONE. THEY DO NOT ANSWER THEIR PHONE. THEY DO NOT REPLY TO EMAILS. STAY WELL CLEAR.

Worst service ever. Yesterday they picked the car at 11 am which was supposed to be picked by 8:30- 9:30. And was supposed to be delivered same day by 6 pm. But it is not yet delivered. They do not give direct number to the person who is picking and delivering or who is working so that we can know the status. And the garage closed at 5 pm. Yesterday we waited for any update from them that the car will not be delivered. We waited till now. But nothing from there end. We called the customer support after 30 minutes waiting time we got into the line. And they were asking what's the status.
We really do not know if they will deliver our car today also or not. And we do not know what they might have used our car for the whole night. What if they are doing crimes using our car. It's our biggest mistake that we used this service. Never believe this service please.
The statements they are using in there site like ‘if not delivered same day it will be free' is totally rubbish. Yesterday at 5 when we called they charge 120£ and asked us to pay that much money, else they won't deliver. We did paid that much money and still waiting for our car to be returned. Forget about servicing what they might have done we really don't know. We are not getting our car plus we are spending money in cabs plus so much stress we are going through. If the car will not be delivered today by 5pm we have to inform police. Because God knows what they are using the car for.

The old adage of if it seems to good to be true it probably is too good to be true. Sucked in by the low advertised cost of a full service. I even asked are there any hidden costs? Any add ones I should know about? Operator told me no. The cost is as stated unless the garage find anything when they have the car an they will call you before doing the work. Which they did and told me on top of the price I had already paid I had to pay an additional £228 for
Oil surcharge (specialist oil)
Renew: Brake fluid (Service Advisory)
Perform: Engine diagnostics (Service Advisory)
All of which I expected to be included in the cost advertised for a FULL SERVICE. £172.33, which I paid upfront.
Turns out this full service cost me £400 way over what the Ford Dealership would have cost me!
Once they have your car they will not release it until you pay in full. When I said I don't want the extra work doing they said thats fine I wouldn't get a refund on the price I had already paid and my service record would not be updated with this service. Meaning I would have to pay again for it to be done elsewhere.
To add insult to injury the one thing I asked them to check, the tyre pressure malfunction, wasn't even looked even though when they rang to tell me how much extra I had to pay they said it had been done.
Rip off if you ask for my opinion.

I wish I read the reviews before I booked my car for mot and interim service, first they don't answer their phone lines, no customers service. I know this company is a broker and I had phone call from a garage who was servicing my car he started talk but I had not a clue what he was saying with his fast talking funny accent, I just couldn't understand and I asked him to repeat what he was saying and told him to speak slowly and calm. He was trying to sell me extra jobs which happens with this company they always call you and tell you that something wrong and need replacing which probably isn't true, it's totally ripping you off or in my case he tried but I wasn't having any of it and I told him I did NOT want anything extra and oil he was saying need changing which I have changed it 4 weeks ago and he was telling me about my engine flush but that got done on the last service 6 months ago but he obviously didn't know that. When I said they all got done and don't need doing again this nasty man put the phone down didn't even let me talk or finish what I was gonna ask. Total ignorance. Never again with this firm in million years. Am going to complain and get my money back as he said without engine flush or oil change he can't do interim service. Total waste of money and time.