national service network

A total waste of time, don’t even consider using these guys go to a local garage!
I booked 2 weeks prior to the date of the service through Elephant garage network. It states on the website that they can pick your car up from work and return it by the end of the day, which sounded ideal for me. The price also seemed quite a bit cheaper than my local garages. Thats the end of the good bits
I was told my car would be collected around 9am, but I had to phone them up at 11.15am to ask what was going on. Obviously NSN didn’t know what was going on (and in the terms and conditions you cannot contact the garage directly) so they said they’d have to phone me back which they did 15mins later. The garage had overlooked my booking they either hadn’t been told about it or had completely forgotten.
Eventually my car was collected just after noon and I started to doubt that it would be back on time for 5pm. After phoning NSN several times, I found out at 25 to 4 that the car would not be returned to me that day. A courtesy car was offered, then the offer was retracted 20mins later. A taxi would be paid for apparently, but it was 5 to 5 and no taxi company nearby had a wait of less than 30mins. I got a lift to a train station and got a taxi from there.
The following day, after no news from NSN so I phoned them at lunch. Eventually after a few more phonecalls, the car was returned after 5, meaning I had to wait around after work. I looked up the garage and saw that it was 14miles away from my work! Much more than the maximum of 10miles stated in the terms and conditions. The advertised free car wash wasn’t great either!
After writing a 2 page letter of complaint, and having to phone NSN again after over 2 months of them not re-​imbursing me for the taxi journey, I was eventually re-​paid and received a letter in response to my complaint, which didn’t refer to most of my complaints.
NSN is supposed to take the stress out of getting work done on your vehicle, but I cannot imagine a more stressful car service experience. All they succeed in doing is putting a middle man between you and the garage making everything take longer and adding un-​necessary complication.

Stay away from this lot (apparently the largest garage and service network in the UK) where they tried, but failed, to defraud me out of £250 for brake pads and a windscreen wiper that did not require replacing.
I booked my Nissan Murano in February 2010 for a full service involving replacing brake fluid and the engine coolant which came to total of £263. They came to collect my car in the morning of 15^th February. At approximately 2.00pm I received a message from Jane at NSN to inform me that the brake pads had been worn down to 1 mm and a windscreen wiper was defective which would cost £250.00. She then asked if I was happy for the brake pads and windscreen wiper to be replaced and I said no as the price sounded a bit high for this work and I hadn’t noticed any problem with the windscreen wiper. They then dropped the car back to my house later in the afternoon for me to find that they had not washed the car or vaccumed the footwells as stated in the terms and conditions of contract if you spend over £75.
I then brought the car to ATS Euromaster in Lewes and asked them to look at the brakes and a price for replacing the brake pads. They rang me to say that there was nothing wrong with the brake pads and there was more than half there life left on them. They then said that they would clean them up, oil and grease them for £35.
I called NSN numerous immediately to inform them of this and ask for an explanation which I have never received. They asked me to send the ATS invoice to them so they could refund the money. I scanned it and sent it to them by email. I never received either 1 call back from Customer Services in response to my calls or a refund for the ATS invoice. Avoid!

Okay, so this isn’t a testing centre as such, but a company that has developed a national network of car mechanics for servicing and MOT testing. Basically, you contact them for a quote on your MOT/​service, and they use a reputable garage near you, organise everything, including pickup from your home/​workplace and a valet service, and they deal with you throughout. If you need anything doing repairwise, they get the parts, as they can get them cheaper than the garage, and they keep in phone contact with you throughout the day so you know what’s going on.
I was a bit apprehensive at first, as I’ve generally gone to the car dealership for my servicing, but as they were about £60 cheaper, plus I didn’t have to go to the garage, nor did I have to deal with the dealership who kept telling me contradictory information on the phone, I was really pleased with the overall outcome. The garage chosen did all the work they were supposed to and didn’t do any extra. So I’d definitely recommend it as a service. Oh, and if you work for the NHS you can get a discount using the NHS discounts website.