Halfords are great - don't deserve such a bad press

belter

My company decided to use the C2W Halfords scheme so I decided to get a voucher - would be my first bike since I was a kid.

I eagerly looked around as to what was best for me. I phoned the Halfords c2w scheme and enquired about a Kona. 'You will have to talk to your local Halfords about Konas' said the woman on the other end.

So I phoned the local Halfords - 'I will have to make an enquiry for you' said the Manager, 'Can I have your telephone number?'. So I gave it to him. 'when will you know if you can get it?' I said. 'I will ring you back in 30 mins' came the reply. No phonecall that day. Still no phonecall the next day. So I rung them up and spoke to someone else in the store 'leave it with me and I will ring you back later this afternoon'. The phonecall never came. I didn't ring back and decided to go with a rockhopper instead.

Now I needed a helmet but thought I'd try and see if I could get a Bell delirium. I phoned Halfords c2w and enquired 'You will have to talk to your local Halfords about ordering one in' said a familiar voice. So phones up local Halfords - 'I will have to make an enquiry for you' said the Manager, 'Can I have your telephone number?'. So I gave it to him. 'when will you know if you can get it?' I said. 'I will ring you back in 30 mins' came the reply. No phonecall that day. Still no phonecall the next day. So I rung them up and spoke to someone else in the store 'leave it with me and I will ring you back later this afternoon'. The phonecall never came.

I rung again and was told that someone would call me back in an hour no-one did. So I rung the next day 'Can I have your telephone number please? and I will get back to you'. No-one did get back to me. Come the weekend and with no-one getting back to me I called into the Halfords shop and spoke directly to the manager. I will definetely get back to you on Tuesday, I will write your name and telephone number in the book and phone you then to let you know eithier way'. 'You definetely will ring me will you?' I replied, 'yes definite ' he said.

Wednesday comes no phone call - so I phoned up again - 'the managers just gone home' came the reply. 'Let me get back to you'. 'Listen I've rung 7 times in total know and nobodys ever got back to me, I have been in to see the Manager , I'm getting pissed off'. 'I will get back to you' the worker said. So I've phoned 7 times given my number and name 7 times. I then get a phonecall from them hip hip hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 'We can't find the helmet in the Bell catalogue' theres 100 and odd helmets' said the shop worker but I'll keep looking and get back to you. 'Forget it' I said. 'Oh and by the way has a rockhopper come into the store yet?' I asked. 'No definetely not' he said. 'Well can you do me a favour and check please?', 'Ok I will' he said.

30 mins passes and suddenly another phonecall - 'the rockhopper IS here'. 'Ok when can I pick it up?' I asked in anticipation. 'Saturday' he said.

So getting all excited like a little kid at Christmas I walks into the shop and there next to clothing in the middle of the shop leant against the wall is my new pride and joy. I started waving the c2w voucher 'thats my rockhopper' I said to the worker proudly'. 'Theres a problem' he replied. 'Halfords head Office haven't sent us a code'. 'Well I have got an e-mail with a confirmation code on it' I said 'but I will have to go home to get it'.

So off I drive get home get the code and back to Halfords. 'This isn't the code'. 'Let me phone my manager'. So he phones his manager, comes off the phone and says 'you can't have it till Monday as we need the code' So my bike is now sat in the Halfords shop cause Halfords head office didn't send over the invoice number.

With service like that from the shop and Head Office HOW CAN Halfords be bad???

adun1408

Lesson one, never buy a bike from Halfords. :roll:

Captain Turok

Halfords should just be honest about how they operate BikeHut.

Pile up a load of unassembled boxed bikes in the middle of the shop. Release a few whooping monkies to clamber over the boxes, shaking tin-cans to colect your money. Plain and simple box shifting with no pretentions at being a real bike shop.

And yes I've bought two bikes of them in the last few years.. :roll:

Northwind

For every bad story about Halfords there's a good one, and there's a lot of silent happy customers. They're no different from any other shop really, I've always had better service from my own local branch of Halfords (over the last 20 years) than I've had from any LBS.

hoolabloom

MMM in desperation i had to go to halfords the other day for a new cassette as none of my local bike shops had one in stock and i needed it quick.


I strolled on up to the kid behind the counter who was on work experience he of course didnt know what i was on about so i patiently waited the manager arriving " a cassette" what s one of those? great guy to be in charge of the bike hut section

I left and had one next day from chain reaction

Captain Turok

Northwind wrote:

For every bad story about Halfords there's a good one, and there's a lot of silent happy customers. They're no different from any other shop really, I've always had better service from my own local branch of Halfords (over the last 20 years) than I've had from any LBS.

Not sure there is a good story for every bad one, atleast not on this forum?!?

Northwind

OK, you've got me, getting carried away But they do get a bad rap, or rather the good shops take the bad rap for the bad ones.

AlasdairMc

I got my Rockhopper in 06 out of Halfords, and they expected me to wait a week after it arrived in store for them to build it up for me (i.e. attach stem, pedals and wheels).

It was only when I threatened to build it myself in their car park so I could ride it home that they relented and gave a monkey a spanner in store so I could have it sooner.

I never intentionally buy anything from them, but there's one open late near me that is good for the emergency items the adjacent Tesco doesn't stock.

Captain Turok

Northwind wrote:

OK, you've got me, getting carried away But they do get a bad rap, or rather the good shops take the bad rap for the bad ones.

I'm sure there are some good ones, maybe.. , just wish I had one near me!

The Northern Monkey

I don't mind halfords TBH.

As long as you tell the staff what your want/go pick it up yourself and don't ask them their opinion you'll be fine.

I don't know why Halfords have staff.

supersonic

TBH I have no idea why Halfords deal with brands apart from what they are contracted with, asking for far too much trouble. Was the same when I was there a few years ago for insurance vouchers - ordering in outside contracts was a nightmare. Never mind accesories and helmets.

I will still stand by the stores that are good, as Northwind says. They sell more bikes than all the other shops in the UK combined. 20% bad out of 600 is a lot though....

Captain Turok

Wouldn't fancy those odds myself if I was recomending a £1000 bicycle to a friend? :shock:

supersonic

Well, it aint good, but compared to a mail order place, you will have better service.

Northwind

Yup, someone said up the page "Halfords didn't know what a cassette was so I went to Chain Reaction". Hang on, you've gone from asking staff a question to a totally automated, unstaffed process there, from insufficient knowledge to no knowledge at all. I dare you to call up CRC and ask them questions about some random products, see if they know more than the average Mr Bikehut or less about the stuff they sell.

Captain Turok

Service?? I'm resisting the temptation to say did you read the OP? (in the politest way possible of course)

I'm sure some are very good, but the REAL point is that too many of them are pants, which is sad

EDIT: You can PM Mr Halfords and I'll do some mysteryshopper calls for you!

supersonic

The OPs case sounds a bit roundabout, but appears to me he got a bike they don't stock in about a week.

Captain Turok

supersonic wrote:

The OPs case sounds a bit roundabout, but appears to me he got a bike they don't stock in about a week.

Fair point

captainfly

I've had some mixed service from Halfords, there are four branches that are close enough for me to use two are hopeless, one has a really good bike guy but the rest of the shop is hopeless and one is really good with friendly knowlagable staff, That is the order I have used the branches just because they are open late and on sundays, same reason I use B&Q but I haven't found a good branch of theirs :roll:

XxxBFGxxX

will leave a reply in half an hour




lmfao sorry couldnt resist

Cheshley

The only reason you'll find me in the bike section of my local Halfords is if I absolutely need something NOW and every other shop I could possibly get it from is closed. I've done the whole "we'll find out and call you back" thing too many times, on the last occasion I was kept waiting for 8 weeks while they tried to source a spare part for their own branded bike rack only to find out that they no longer make spares for it.

phz

to some extent the issues with halfords are partially a reflection of their target demographic i think

they arent necessarily set up to cater for experienced or knowledgeable cyclists - it seems their main market is recreational towpath riders etc (although that does beg the question why then stock 'proper' bikes ? )

because of this do they see the need to invest in staff training ? (although you WOULD maybe expect the bikehut manager to know his basic way round the bits of the bike ! )

case in point as to the 'average' halfords customer - i was in my local one last week to get a rear mech (needed one in a rush to finish my build as id just knackered my old one) and knew they had some decent SRAM stuff in stock - was there at the display for a few minutes checking what they had etc (was after an X5 but they only had X9 on show) before asking the guy behind the counter whether they had any X5 out back - he said do you really want a SRAM since we have a wider range of shimano in stock ? - i replied no it needs to be SRAM for the 1:1 actuation ratio to match my X5 shifter - to which he said do you know that in all the time ive worked here youre the first customer to understand that ?

so - they plug a gap in the market i guess but that gap aint necessarily us and as long as they dont hand out dangerous advice i think we should sometimes cut them some slack in the tech department - doesnt excuse what is just poor customer service though ...

personally im happy to use them when i need something in a rush (they are only 5 minutes away from me) that i know they have - if i know exactly what i want and can wait i use an onloine store for price and if i need something a bit more boutique or need some selection / tech advice along with my purchase its the LBS ...

slainte rob

workhard

my local branch is staffed by a bunch of avid mtb-ers from the local VIth form college. Helpful intelligent young men and women who fall over themseives with glee when someone comes in to buy something that isn't an apollo and are keen to help and always return calls. My next nearest branch is much much bigger and the service is more hit and miss.

I'm buying a bike from them via their bike scheme and will be having it delivered to me in the box at my local branch and will then build it up myself with my torque wrench in the car park. To be honest that's more or less what I've also done for the last three new bikes. two from different LBS's and one off the web. if you've got a great LBS that sells what you want great. I have a great LBS but they sell a very restricted brand range of bikes and to be honest aren't experts in every model of those.

stev68

I love halfords! due to bikehuts (and my banks incompetence),i walked out of my local one with nearly a grands worth of gt! nearly 18mnths still havent billed me! blinding

SDK2007

Northwind wrote:

For every bad story about Halfords there's a good one.

The only good stories I hear are when Halfords gives the buyer a refund to get a bike from another shop

Andy

workhard wrote:

I'm buying a bike from them via their bike scheme and will be having it delivered to me in the box at my local branch and will then build it up myself with my torque wrench in the car park.

You claim to be an experienced bike builder yet you need a torque wrench to do so?

phz

oh the irony ...

having tried to make a reasonable post earlier in the thread about an hour ago i unpacked the FSA headset i grabbed from halfords last week to build up a commuter / hack bike (having resprayed the forks earlier today) ...

... only to find theres one of the sets of bearings missing from the bloody thing !

grrrrrr

slainte :roll: rob

Northwind

andrew156 wrote:

You claim to be an experienced bike builder yet you need a torque wrench to do so?

What a nonsense, I never use a torque wrench on my own bike but how can you possibly criticise someone for using one to build someone else's?

Chaz.Harding

Northwind wrote:

Yup, someone said up the page "Halfords didn't know what a cassette was so I went to Chain Reaction". Hang on, you've gone from asking staff a question to a totally automated, unstaffed process there, from insufficient knowledge to no knowledge at all. I dare you to call up CRC and ask them questions about some random products, see if they know more than the average Mr Bikehut or less about the stuff they sell.

To be fair though, Chain Reaction are normally pretty damn good at returning with answers to, even pretty obscure questions. Cheap warehouse goods, good service, fast delivery. No wonder they are one of, if not the biggest single supplier for parts etc.

Anyway, the Halfords thing... They are IN MY EXPERIANCE (before I get flamed! ) a pretty poor bunch of dudes and dude-ettes. They sell 'proper' bikes like Kona's and Boardman's, but they STILL get confused on which way round to put the forks... Thats just badddd...

However, for VFM, the Boardman's are pretty difficult to beat. Bloody awesome so they are! You get some good bargains, but if you do get a bike, be prepared to have to re-build it yourself, properly.

I'm not saying they are all bad, but my experience ISN'T just limited to bikes. Vehicle spares aswell, but that's a different argument for a different day

belter

The OPs case sounds a bit roundabout, but appears to me he got a bike they don't stock in about a week.

I can honestly say, hand on heart, that the worst customer service I have ever had is through Halfords.

What I will say is that the Halfords C2W people were 1000% better than the people who work in the store and the so called arrogant manager who couldn't manage a piss up in a brewery. He wrote my contact number and name down in a diary in front of me but still didn't ring back.

The point is I haven't got the bike, had to make 7 phonecalls, give my number 7 times and a visit and speak to the manager. I got some sort of semblance of service when I started acting a bit stroppy.

Too right they got a bike they don't stock cause they want to make money but that does not excuse the 6 promises of phone call backs which never materialized, the visit to the store to speak to the manager and his promise to ring me back to let me know eithier way which was not fulfilled and the incompetence of Halfords by eithier not sending an invoice through or losing it and meaning a customer has not been able to get his bike at a time agreed by both parties which is what has happened.

Oh and while I'm at it - when I called in to speak to the manager this is what he said when I asked if all parts would be greased and the bike assembled properly if I had it done with them.......

Me: "If you build do you grease all that needs greasing, and assemble it properly? as I'm a beginner really"

Him: "Don't worry, its not like its a Carrera or Apollo, we will build this one properly, the guys are fully trained in here. How much did it cost you?, about £800?"

Me: "No, £685"

Him: "Exactly, thats why we won't treat it like a Carerra or Apollo"


Absolutely unbelievable.........

supersonic

If he said that, I would report him to head office straight away, absolutely ridiculous! Downright dangerous.

belter

he did say it - but at mo I'm more peed off that I couldn't get on the bike this weekend - and also that the bike was left in the middle of the store where anyone could have a 'turn' around the aisles