Customer slams poor service and ‘rude attitude’ at NCT test centre
Remarks written by the NCT inspector
ALLEGATIONS of poor customer service, impolite inspectors and doubts abouts the integrity of the test have all been levelled this week at Carlow NCT test centre.
A motorist contacted to express her concerns about the national car test (NCT) centre in Carlow, critical of the “very rude attitude” she experienced from some centre staff.
“I brought in my father’s car and I had a confirmed booking for 4.10pm, but when I arrived at the counter I was told ‘that’s not what I have’ and that on their list the booking was for 5.10pm,” explained Kathryn Nolan from Rathvilly, as she recalled her visit to the NCT centre last month.
“When I tried to show them my email, I was told ‘I don’t want to see that … you may come back’. He was very dismissive and wouldn’t even look at my email confirming the time of the booking as 4.10pm,” said Kathryn.
Kathryn said that a number of motorists had similar ‘incorrect times’, but according to Kathryn NCT staff were totally uninterested in the apparent mix-up and were “quite rude”, which led to a tense atmosphere at the centre.
At 5.30pm, Kathryn was eventually called, but her father’s vehicle failed the NCT test, with the levels of one dipped light deemed incorrect.
“One of the inspectors then called me out of the reception area into the test area and I had to walk through the garage, stepping over cables to get to where the lights machine was. Then he made me take a photo of the results on the screen,” recalled Kathryn.
“I thought for health and safety reasons I really shouldn’t have been in there. It was dangerous and I was very surprised that members of the public would be allowed in there,” she added.
The inspector wrote the words: ‘Too high pls do it right’ on the results sheet.
“I really felt he was very dismissive of me, demanding that I take a photo of the machine … I did wonder if I was a man, would he have been the same with me? I don’t know,” she added.
Kathryn went back to her own garage to have the lights adjusted, only to return to the NCT centre and have both lights fail.
“When I went back to my own garage, they told me that no garage would set lights like that,” she said.
Kathryn then had to pay for a retest, opting to take the test in an NCT centre in Kilkenny. Within minutes, the car emerged from the Kilkenny NCT centre last week having passed with flying colours.
“I put up a post about what happened and the amount of people coming back saying they had issues with the NCT centre in Carlow was unbelievable … there’s definitely an issue there,” she said.
contacted the Road Safety Authority, which operates the NCT nationwide.
In a statement, a spokesperson said: ‘Regarding customers with differing appointment times, the NCT can confirm that it performed a system upgrade, which affected some appointments in Carlow.
‘Most appointment times were not materially affected. Any vehicle that was not inspected within 60 minutes of its original test time was entitled to a free inspection. NCT apologises for the inconvenience caused,’ the statement read.
‘Regarding the individual customer’s experience, we apologise if any offence was caused. However, we recognise that the inspector was seeking to explain the situation re the headlights failure by bringing the customer onto the test lane to demonstrate the problem with the vehicle.’
