A Kwik Fit manager has been disciplined after performing a karaoke session – with a customer’s sex toy.
The prank at the repair centre in Dalkeith, Midlothian, is alleged to have been carried out in front of another customer.
But the joke wasn’t seen as funny by Kwik Fit bosses, who launched an investigation.
The employee was slapped with disciplinary action for the breach of a customer’s privacy and trust.
The incident on November last year emerged and a whistleblower has also revealed that the centre was carrying out services improperly, which resulted in customers being contacted and jobs being redone.
The whistleblower said: “The video was circulated of a manager singing into a sex toy, taken right out of a customer’s car – in front of another customer.
“How can you trust Kwik Fit when they are grabbing your personal items out your car instead of putting you back on the road safely?
“Going through customers’ cars is strictly a breach of their privacy and company regulations.”
The incident on November 27 came after a member of staff highlighted that his name was being recorded on jobs that had been carried out while he was on holiday.
The former employee claims that a junior member of staff was doing jobs he wasn’t properly qualified for.
He also said there were irregularities with wheel alignments, which were uncovered in an audit. He said his name had been put to jobs between October 21 and 26, while he was on leave.
He said: “Now not only is this unfair on me as any mistakes by these untrained staff could result in an investigation on me if anything went wrong. But my main concern is the customers here below who’s safety could be at risk.
“Kwik Fit always claims the priority of the company is to keep customers safe on the road and offer the best professional advice.
“An employee who has not been on a training course on how to do a service does not offer best advice.”
After being approached by the Daily Record, Kwik Fit admitted the claims had been investigated and action taken.
A spokesperson said: “We are aware of a video of an employee behaving inappropriately in one of our centres.
“As soon as we saw the video we began an investigation and have taken formal action in line with company protocol.”
On the servicing claims, the spokesperson said customers had been tracked down after some work was not done correctly.
The spokesperson said: “We are aware of claims made by an ex-employee regarding servicing.
“We have investigated the jobs in question, and although they were carried out by a staff member who had not completed our service training, there was an experienced service technician present.
“Our investigation did reveal however that the jobs weren’t recorded correctly in our system. “We are contacting the customers involved to invite them to come in at their convenience to have the work reviewed free of charge and the record updated.”
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The spokesperson said some wheel alignments had been wrongly recorded, stating: “All work carried out in a centre is subject to regular audits designed to ensure all teams are following company protocol.
“If irregularities are found we will take action and monitor for improvement.
“During its first audit of 2024, in April, the centre received a score of 87%, marked down partly due to the fact that they had not provided the wheel alignment report paperwork to a small number (less than 4%) of customers.
“In response, retraining was put in place on the alignment policy and in the most recent audit (Oct 24) the centre achieved a score of 98% with all paperwork correct.”