Halford’s Dashcam Fitting Service Review – Is It Any Good?

Update: If you’re looking to have your dashcam installed by a professional installer who aren’t Halfords, follow this link to find a professional dashcam installer near you.

Halfords Dash Cam Fitting – Is It Worth It?

Dash cams have seen a huge rise in popularity over recent years. Fortunately, they have become far more advanced technologically in this time, meaning that there are far more features to take advantage of. A dash cam could potentially save you thousands of pounds in insurance claims if you have an accident that was not your fault. When it comes to installing a dash cam in your car, there are two options. You can either do it yourself if you feel confident enough to do so, or if you don’t, you can use a professional fitting service to install the dash cam in your car and hardwire it. Hardwiring your dash cam actually has a few benefits over using the 12V charging port to power it. Here are a few examples of how you can benefit from having your dash cam hardwired:

The Benefits of Hardwiring a Dash Cam:

  • Better Aesthetically – One of the problems that many people find when they use the 12V charging port to power their dash cam is that it can sometimes look quite untidy. There may be wires trailing in your car which is not only potentially dangerous, but doesn’t look good at all. By having your dash cam hardwired, you are able to make it look much better as you won’t be able to see any of the components.
  • Leaves 12V Socket Free – We use technology everywhere we go these days, especially our mobile phones. Of course, in order to be able to use your mobile on the go, the chances are that you are going to need to be able to charge it. A lot of people will use the 12V socket in their car to do so. If you are using this socket to power your dash cam then you won’t be able to charge your phone. By hardwiring the dash cam, you free up the socket for your phone or any other devices that you want to charge.
  • Offers Constant Protection – One of the issues that you might encounter with a dash cam is that it will only record at certain times, making it unreliable. By having your dash cam hardwired, you are offered constant protection as it will power on every time you turn the ignition on.
When it comes to having your dash cam installed by a professional, there are a range of options. You might want to use a local mechanic to do the job for you, for example. The problem with this is that it’s likely to be expensive… One of the most popular places to use at the moment is Halfords. However, there have been quite a lot of negative comments made about their service.

Halfords Dash Cam Fitting Service – An In Depth Look

Every Halfords store up and down the country has a team of professional fitters who take care of things like hardwiring dash cams. This will cost around £30, and take about 30 minutes. We looked into the process thoroughly, and were quite shocked to see the sheer amount of negative feedback that the company has gotten over their supposed professional fitters hardwiring dash cams.

Messy Work

After examining lots of feedback online, one thing that came up a lot was criticism of the tidiness of the work carried out by these professionals. Many customers have stated that bits of the car were not put back correctly, or wires have been left dangling in the foot well. For a supposed professional service, this is really worrying. One customer commented that the wires had been fitted outside of the car, rather than inside. These are basic things that every mechanic should know not to do, so it was quite surprising to learn that incidents like these have happened.

Unprofessional Service

Another comment that has cropped up an awful lot is that some of the fitters come across as very unprofessional. A service like those offered at Halfords should be incredibly professional. The fitters should know exactly what they’re doing and be happy to answer any questions that the customer might have about the process. Worryingly, many people have said that their fitter has come across as rude, unprofessional and like they don’t have a clue what they’re doing. If this is something that we’d experienced, there is no way the fitter would be trusted to hard wire anything at all.

Extra Costs Incurred

Finally, there have been a lot of people saying that they incurred extra costs for certain brands of dash cam or dual cams. The Halfords site is quite vague in terms of the costs that you will incur for having a dash cam hardwired. The best way to avoid this is to talk to a member of staff directly before the hardwiring begins so that you can make sure you know exactly how much you are going to be paying. Overall, it would seem that the hardwiring service from Halfords is best avoided. You can either do the job yourself with the help of online tutorials you may have already come across thanks to their high viewership on the YouTube provided by The Marketing Heaven, or you can get a qualified local professional to take care of it for you. If you are going to go for the latter option then definitely make sure you do your research into the company or individual to make sure that you don’t run into the same problems.

21 thoughts on “Halford’s Dashcam Fitting Service Review – Is It Any Good?

  1. Calum MacKinnon says:

    Absolutely useless. They advertise that they do all the stuff applied on here yet they don’t! total waste of time

    • Rod Woliter says:

      Their e mails, website, etc suggest that they will fit your own dash cam but when I tried to arrange this they say only if the dash cam is purchased from Halfords. Very misleading.

  2. Mr Phillip Spry says:

    Bought and had halfords fit front and rear dash cams. Shortly after my drivers airbag fused and after forking out £600 on damage done decided to get a professional independent motor electrical installer to assess Halfords handywork.
    There finding were wiring poorly fitted and driver’s airbag plastic cover forced open. Almost certainly causing airbag electrics to blow. Halfords denied all responsibility

  3. Darren Allix says:

    Had a Blackvue DR750S 2 Ch installed into my BMW 4 series Convertible, by Andy at the Basildon store, I initially had to return as the dashcam was installed on the passenger side and I was not picking up the full windscreen, however Andy then rewired the front camera to just underneath my rear view mirror, and I can see everything central now, the work done was neat and tidy, and no visible signs of installation, and Andy was a nice friendly guy who appeared experienced, the rear wiring was also run into place behind the back seat, as I need to adapt the car slightly for rear camera to function correctly.

  4. Graham Swinney says:

    Just had front and rear cameras installed– 2 hours, no problem apart from DB radio doesn’t work , I think rear camera close to aerial

  5. Carlo says:

    Thank you for your comments and sharing your experience. I arranged an appointment to get one to be fit on my new BMW. After all negatives comments, defiantly NOT going to get any.

  6. Simon Hoyle says:

    Thanks for all the feedback. My car was booked in at Halfords today but they phoned me 1/2 hr before I was due to take it in to cancel. Thank god for that. Won’t be going back either. Thanks for the advise. Very useful

  7. Darron says:

    Phone Halfords because I’ve got dash cam to fit in my car the bloke said you can only have one fitted if you buy one of ours last week my mate room up and had one fitted and he bought it from somewhere else someone give me a reason why they don’t fit mine

  8. bill goligher says:

    Tried to purchase and have a dash cam fitted but told the fitter did not start till 12 noon and to try another branch. This was in Hamilton and nobody was really interested!

  9. Paul Warner says:

    I was given a webcam for Xmas 2018, had it fitted by Halfords April 2019 by Halfords Aylesbury Branch. During the summer my rear windscreen wiper failed to work so I took it to my garage to look at they found it had been wired into the fuse for the rear windscreen also with the wrong fuse in. And they said it was a dangerous fire hazard. So I got them to put it in writing and decided to go and see the manager well having spent my life in retail (running my own business for 40 years) I was meet with the most rudest arrogant assistant manager I have ever meet. He said they could not give me 5 minutes to even look at it. This I objected to do and I would have to come back at their convenience not caring about the people who pay their wages the customer. So besides untrained staff doing the work and Uncaring management staff I would strongly advice do not spend a 1p with this unprofessional staff.

    • Ronald Payne says:

      When you buy a dash cam from halfords make sure that the box is properly sealed I was not happy as it did not look brand new and returned it .When bought on line it was properly and double sealed

  10. trevor leavey says:

    Had my nextbase 322 dash cam fitted at Halfords Hedge End, Southampton branch and touch wood so far so good. The fitter was pleasant in his manner, was happy to listen to how I would like it positioned, and totally professional in all he did, when finished apart from the camera on windscreen you would never have known he had been in there. Just shows good and bad !!!!!!!!

  11. john henry rowe says:

    We have just bought a Seat Ateca Xperience Lux , and i am wanting a dash cam fitted, but after reading some of these reviews i am having second thoughts. As it is a brand new motor, we dont want any problems just by fitting a Dash Cam

  12. Andrew Seward says:

    I purchased a dash cam online from Halfords and also paid for it to be fitted by their “professional installer” at their Taunton shop. When I arrived the installer said he could not do the job as it was too complicated and he hadn’t installed one in my model of car before. He said he would “have a go” but was then told by his manager not to do it as he might compromise the safety of the car (Mazda MX5). I will not be spending any more of my money at Halfords again.

  13. P. Bernie says:

    My son purchased a dash cam including fitting. It was a surprise to see a Halfords van outside my house. I should have got rid of him at that moment because I know how they work. His first remark “I’m no good at taking off interior panels cause I break em” second remark “ we are not insured if we damage anything” followed by “ can’t hide the wiring cause it’s got a electric opening tailgate” followed by “ can’t do permanent feed cause your car is strange” etc,etc,etc. I advised him to go forth and multiply to save smacking him in the chops. Read this! NEVER GO TO HALFORDS AS YOU ARE LIKELY TO GET SOMEBODY TURN UP WHO NEEDS MEDICAL INTERVENTION. THEY ARE HOPELESS AND IN THE SAME LEAGUE AS QUICKFIT. If you go to them you deserve all you get, Nuffield said

  14. Gerald Mackenzie says:

    Had a dashcam fitted by Halfords a Garmin all pleased with the work only to drive away not being able to see warnings the cam gives out been fitted on the passenger side.. just had an email back stating that’s company policy .. smells to me

  15. Jason Harris says:

    Couldn’t fit their webcam to my Toyota verso Corolla mpv 2017. I waited in and had a day off work . I have them my reg as well so they should have been prepared .
    The lads were nice but I bought a hardwire kit . The threaded it myself after watching YouTube

  16. Norman Paragreen says:

    Have hard wired two Skoda Yeti’s that I owned and my wife’s Skoda Karoq with no problem. I have hard wired my last two Skoda Kodiaq’s but both times I could not find the right fuse so I spoke to the Principle at my Dealership, he lives just up the road from me, so he comes and leaves his car and takes mine in the morning and brings it back in the evening, all fixed, he has done this twice now, no charge. Fantastic Dearlership and Principle. Hardwiring is easy but fuses are the problem. What is said on the internet is not true and confusing. I have had 12 Skoda’s from this Dearlership and they are the tops, nothing is too much trouble.

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