Here is a heart warming story about a man named Barry who works for Kwikfit in Brentford. He is the the hero of this blog – there are some nameless villains but they shall be forgotten – this blog is about Barry.

About a month ago I started losing pressure in one of the tyres in my car. I topped up the the pressure and finally took the car in BMW’s Maidenhead outlet where I asked them to sort out the leak around the wheel rim.

They returned the car to me and told me the problem had been sorted. It had not been sorted, they had simply topped up the air and after a few days at Cheltenham, my tyre was virtually flat (and it split).

The AA got me to a garage who put on a new tyre – they promised me the rim wouldn’t leak – 100 miles later the new trye disintegrated. They had done enough to take my money and get me off their back.

The AA helped me to get to Barry. Barry listened to what had happened , asked me how much I drove and promised me that he would not let the car leave his garage with a leak. He made me help him clean the rim until he was satisfied where the problem was, he showed me why I had lost the tyres and (without dissing the other garages) he explained what they hadn’t done.

It took an hour of his time to sort the problem. I drove away 100% confident that I could drive the car without a further problem and (so far so good) my confidence has been justified.

There was no question I’d have to pay for all this – it was a matter of personal pride to Barry that I left his garage not with a promise but with that confidence that what had happened twice before would not happen again.

I am not assuming that every Kwikfit garage has a Barry (though I have used the company a lot and never had a bad experience). However, for me Barry now defines the Kwikfit brand and it’s not about speed it’s about getting the job done right first time.

It cost me £500 in tyres to get to Barry and I could have had a serious accident along the way. The other garages haven’t done anything illegal and having spoken to them, I am sure they wish they’d have had a Barry too. That said – I didn’t hear them offering me any of my money back.

the whole tyre episode has been a bit painful but it has a happy ending. It’s made me more determined that what I do , I do properly and that means making sure my customers are as confident in their pension plans as I am in my tyres. More importantly, that they stay that way.