I had a long talk with KF area manager yesterday afternoon. He claimed they asked my girlfriend if she would like them to balance the wheels while they had them off to check the brakes, which is a definite lie, she was never asked any such thing and would not have agreed. He positioned it as though he was on our side and had got the fitters to agree the nitrogen inflation was not strictly necessary. He told me the fuel additive was a fantastic product positioning it as though they were doing her such a big favour by adding it he said "to help it through any future mots", why would they need to ask first? He made great play of how onced added to the fuel tank it lasted for the full life of the fuel in the tank! When I persisted pointing out the ridiculously low emissions reading on the mot he said I needed to google it. They claimed they changed the brake fluid because my GF didn't know when it was last changed. I never got an explanation for the tracking, he just repeated several times that he had get the fitters to agree they had done a couple of jobs which were not strictly necessary. In light of that he was prepared to offer a refund for what he said were the unnecessary (low cost) items, so for 3x wheel balancing, 3x nitrogen filling, fuel additive and alignment he said he was prepared to send a refund cheque for £89.70. No mention of the VAT which would take this to £107.64. No mention of a refund for replacing the brake fluid.
I suggested that as they agreed they had done unnecessary work for no good reason, it called into question the need for the other jobs to which he responded that it was all documented so in his mind he was happy it was all correct. (so although fitters lie about what they have said to the customer and do unnecessary work not requested, they apparently always tell the truth when typing into the computer?) They agreed it drove in fine, claimed they noticed the spring when they put the car on the lift to fit the tyre so they fitted 2 springs before the mot. They claimed on their system when a car fails the mot on anything to do with brakes it automatically triggers a full brake check, (though earlier he had said they hadn't checked the rears because they didn't want to make any more work for the customer). They said on the (fitter's) report the brake check revealed one front disc was 0.3mm below the minimum 18mm and the other 0.5mm. As the discs are long gone now I have no way of checking this but equally I have no reason to believe in it, the calibration of their equipment, or the skill of the fitter (who wants it to be low) when measuring fractions of a mm either. When I asked why the discs were not mentioned on the MOT he said they couldn't see them to check on an MOT so they only check the efficiency of the brake pedal. Similarly, I raised the question of whether the spring really was broken as I had driven it to the airport with my GF and my luggage without clanks, creaks or handling problems only a few days before. He said he understood what I was saying but they didn't take photos so he could offer me no evidence on that.
The call finished with him pressing me to accept a cheque for £89.70 then re-iterating that he was happy with everything except the items he was prepared to refund and me saying "well you would say that wouldn't you, I will have to think about it"