They Saved My Life! (Lex Autocentres)

Member Name: criple

Product:	Lex Autocentres
Date:	26/09/02 (2498 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Local, Don't Rip you Off, Discounts Available

Disadvantages: None

Lets talk about Lex baby, lets talk about you and me, lets talk about all the good things and the bad things that may be, lets talk about Lex!

Well I can't talk about sex can I? It's the wrong category for that.

Anyway, hands up who has forgotten to get their car MOT done, come on, I can't put my hands up or I wouldn?t be able to write this op; but I am guilty.

Never before as this happened to me and I was absolutely horrified being a law abiding citizen and all that. I started to get organised a few months ago and bought boxes that would actually house A4 files. I thought this was a great idea as it meant things could be kept in a proper order, especially important things like insurance and MOT certificates!

All was well until we got the car taxed at the end of July. For those of you that don't know the procedure you need the wonderful letter that the DVLA send you to remind you to pay your tax along with a valid MOT and certificate of insurance. Thanks to my newfound order I had no problem locating the said items. The problem I did have was putting them back again. Don't ask me where they are, as I just don't know. I knew that the service was due around August/September as we have it services every six thousand miles or 12 months whichever comes sooner. This made me wonder when the MOT was due, I searched for the certificate but it was nowhere to be found.

What I did find was a previous certificate that had December on. I asked my husband and he said he thought it was due around Christmas so this seemed right. We forgot about it for a while and then I had a reminder from the warranty company and it prompted me to look again as they won't insure you until you confirm that date of last service and MOT.

Everything was tipped out all over my bed by this stage and I found another certificate, this one was for September 7th, oh sh**

I remember the company that did the MOT as it
was the local council and I phoned them to check their records. He phoned me back 10 minutes later to tell me that the MOT had run out on the 6th September, worse still they couldn't fit me in until Monday and that meant being without the car for the weekend. I couldn?t do this as my husband is an amateur referee and I?m doing another car boot on Sunday!

By this stage I felt dizzy and a little on the sick side, then! Lightening struck (not literally) and I remember that in my Tesco Clubcard booklet it said that they had teemed up with Lex Autocentres. I could get £10 of an MOT (normal prices £39.25) and 300 hundred Clubcard points. I knew there was one just down the road so I phoned them up to beg for help.

It was 1.15 p.m. and I had to be at school for 3.15 p.m. to pick my daughter up, I had already been unknowing driving without an MOT for far too long and I'm not the kind of person who can just brush it under the carpet. I explained my situation to the guy who answered the phone and he was extremely helpful. He asked me where I was coming from and how soon I could get there. We arranged for me to arrive at 1.30 p.m. I drove carefully on the way so as to avoid an accident, it would be sods law to have one now.

It was situated on the main road near a roundabout and you had to drive around the back to gain access. If you didn't know you might miss it and have to turn back but as the Citroen garage that I bought the car from was right next-door, I knew!

On approach you notice a very large sign that has green background with white writing that says AUTOCENTRE, the name Lex is adjoined to it on the left hand side in Blue lettering with three yellow lines underneath. What I will tell you is that they have now been taken over by Nationwide Autocentres only many garages still have the name Lex. I don't know how long it will be before they start replacing the signs, I can only assume that they intend to. The good thing i
s that the signs are set out in exactly the same way with the green background and white lettering. This makes it easier to spot them and you automatically think that they have a connection.

As I drove around the back there was a steep narrow ramp to drive up and enough space to park about 7 or 8 cars. There may have been more room around the sides but that was my initial thought. To the left was the working area and a small office. I parked up the car and made my way to the reception desk.

Although the guy was in the back room I didn't have to wait for service or start ringing any bells, he remembered out telephone call immediately and confirmed what I wanted, an MOT, and double quick!

He confirmed the price and the special offer available from Tesco and asked for confirmation of the make, model and registration number of the car. He took my telephone number (which was a mobile as I was going window shopping, yeh right!) and said it would be ready in about an hour. I was hoping of course that it wouldn't need a re-test. I went off on my way and sure enough within the hour the nice chap phoned to say my car was ready for collection.

I didn't ask any questions as I was assuming that if it had failed he would have told me. I had a bit of a shock when he said as I arrived, "don't you want to know what it failed on"? err, nothing I hope. He went on to explain that the wiring at the back was out of sink due to an incorrectly installed bulb. I bought a break light bulb a couple of weeks ago and my husband put it in. Unfortunately and unbeknown to us when we put on the breaks the sidelights were coming on. I was expecting a comment of how much extra we owed them but instead he said, "we've put a new bulb in, it's fine and we haven't charged you" I know they don't cost the earth but it was so nice that he did this for us. He knew that I needed the car and he made sure that it was ready
without any unexpected surprises. The only other thing that he pointed out was the wipers would soon need replacing. I asked how much this would cost and he said about £7 each, fitted. That sounds good enough to me.

He presented me with a copy of the MOT certificate (stamped by Nationwide Autocentres, an invoice detailing the cost (this still said Lex Autocentres) a print off of the omissions and my credit card receipt totalling £29.25 (£39.25 with £10 discount)

I also had a print out of my 300 Clubcard points for reference.

I will definitely be going back there and telling my friends about it, hence the writing of this review. It's not very often that you come away from a service or MOT without being told that you don?t need to spend any money.

It's not a top of the range place with a fancy reception area and an endless supply of coffee; the reception area is small and basic. This doesn'?t matter to me as the more facilities provided the more we pay for it in the long run. More important than that is good customer service and honesty, I got both from Lex. The staff are friendly, informative and hard working.

The website doesn't give much away and you will now have to type in www.nationwideautocentres.co.uk as they are trading under that name. They promise:

Most makes and ages of car serviced
Fixed price quotations for all work
Free inspection or advice or help over the telephone
100% guarantee on all work and a 97% customer satisfaction rate. I am one of those 97%

They offer most services including repair work.

You can save money by having your car serviced and MOT'd at the same time and there are vouchers online for you to print off.

There is also a location list online but I have a feeling it is just for the Nationwide Autocentres and not Lex. If you wish to find out where your nearest of any of the two garages are then you can telephone the follo
wing freephone number: 0800 096 4216

Go and give them a try, hopefully they won't Lex you down, they saved my life!

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