Halfords Autocentre

The car was booked in for a 15-point check at 9:30 am, but when the car was dropped off the 3 mechanics who approached the car said they didn’t have time to do it and it would be done after the MOT , which was due at 10:10. I specifically booked the check in before the MOT so I could have the car back in good time. I therefor cancelled the check as I didn’t want to be delayed. The tone and manner of the mechanics was abrupt and harsh, and we didn’t feel comfortable speaking to them.

The original MOT cert subsequently provided Halfords in West Street, Bedminster Bristol said that the car failed for major defect.
However, that major defect (the warning lamp mentioned on the MOT), wasn’t showing when the car was dropped off or picked up. When this was queried with the garage there was a hard sell from the garage mechanics for the car to be seen by their auto electrician who would be back at work in 10 days time. At the time they also refused to re-test the car, even if we could get another garage auto electrician to fix the issue immediately.
Pete at the garage wasn’t able to explain why the light that was apparently on at the time of test but not before or after the MOT. It is my understanding that these warning lights do not clear themselves and have to be reset once the underlying issue has been fixed.
The MOT advisories include nail in nearside tyre and two tyres worn close to legal limit.
The test date and time is 23/12 @ 10:57

I couldn't wait 10 days due to it being Xmas and fortunately another local garage, 1 mile from Halfords, has capacity to look at this aparent fault and re-test. Their MOT test certificate shows the car passed the MOT on 12:16 on 23rd December (just over an hour after it was failed by Halfords).
Neither we or the two mechanics were able to see a nail in the tyre and there were no advisories on the most recent MOT. The mysterious 'major defect' was no where to be seen.

I’m lucky that I had a trusted garage to turn to and they were good enough to help out at such notice and when they were due to go home. there was massive inconvenience and running around and being treated poorly by Halfords in the process. The tone and manner of the mechanics at Halfords as unhelpful and intimidatory. There was contradictory information and lack of clarity around a mystery fault that only halfords could see.

If it wasn’t so close to the Christmas break and had I not had the support of a trusted garage I would have left my car with Halfords and bought new tyres and paid for the fault to diagnosed and fixed and considerable expense no doubt. The evidence clearly suggests that the Halfords garage is incompetent and/or dishonest (in order to gain financially through sales of tyres and further investigations and work from their auto electrician). despite me contacting Halfords HO about this and requesting that the matter is investigated urgently so that other customers do not fall victim to these practices and lose money and in the meantime, steps have not been taken to manage the potential risks to other customers and I am left out of pocket as they're refusing to refund me the cost of a the bogus MOT.