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

belter

Also, I was extremely put off when I heard what the manager said about assembling as I have detailed above - but still had it built by Halfords - as I phoned around 3 different LBS as a direct result of what he said but they quoted £50 - £60 which I could not afford.

supersonic

Which store was it?

belter

A store in S. Wales. Until the bike is in my hands tommorrow I'm saying nothing more!!!!!!!! Despite me being extremely pissed off with them I don't want them to have work related problems (well maybe the manager!!) but the rest are young kids (16-19 yrs old) who haven't learned yet. But Halfords should employ/train people who can at least realize the importance of fulfilling customers expectations......i.e. phoning a customer back when you said you will.

Captain Turok

must resist, must resist...

Chaz.Harding

C-T, it's too easy isn't it!! :twisted:

kazzie

Captain Turok wrote:

must resist, must resist...

having the same feelings.....

Captain Turok

I genuinely believe Halfords couldbe a good thing..
But they seem to get the simple things so wrong!! :roll:

My comercial sensibilities finds it so frustrating :evil:

kazzie

Captain Turok wrote:

But they seem to get the simple things so wrong!! :roll:

Don't tarnish all stores with the same brush...many are excellent. It's just you need to know where to look

Captain Turok

kazzie wrote:

Captain Turok wrote:

But they seem to get the simple things so wrong!! :roll:

Don't tarnish all stores with the same brush...many are excellent. It's just you need to know where to look

Fair point, again..
But where is the good one near me?, I've more chance of finding the end of the rainbow

Daz555

My buying experience with Halfords from C2W right through to collecting the assembled bike instore was first class.

bails87

The guys in my local store are good , know what they're doing tech wise, and customer service has always been top-notch too.

Sounds like the OP unfortunately got a lazy manager who ruined everything else, Although when he said "I'll call back in 30 mins" and didn't, I would have been calling him back after 35 mins, if you make a nuisance of yourself then he'll get your questions answered just to get some peace!

My advice is go during the week so you don't get the weekend part-timers.

Maybe us Halfords lovers need a list of good stores! I think it's almost like comparing different LBSs, the standards are so different between stores that if they didn't have the same orange sign on the fornt you'd never know they were the same business. So it's very harsh to judge all by some bad apples (which admittedly do exist)

mrmcdean

Having worked as a sales assistant for a well respected company (not Halfords by the way) I am used to giving a good level of service. Unfortunately im no stranger to poor service and thats from countless companies. Household names tend to come out badly more often than not (except John Lewis). Im not making excuses for anyone for failing to return a simple call but if I said my local bike shop treated my badly most people wouldnt be that bothered as they will never have any dealings with them.

Perhaps tempting fate I think ive decided to purchase a Carrera Fury the next time they drop in price (ive ordered a nice toolkit in anticipation of problems ) so would appreciate it if anyone from the Macclesfield are could suggest any particularly helpful branches of Halfords nearby. I popped into my local but was told that they dont allow test rides of their bikes so i'd rather go to one that does.

Any help would be appreciated - I dont mind a bit of a drive if I get what I need.

Cheers

flester

They do have some good points:
Open late
Are on my way home.
They sell tubes (And Tesco here in Cork don't)
Downstairs they sell car stuff
My kids like going up in the lift.

The Northern Monkey

Feel sorry for the guys at the old bikehut store in twickenham.

The store has been converted into a Halfords metro, with car related bits and bobs.
The guy said "I know FU*K all about cars, I only got this job to be able to work on bikes".

All of the Boardmans, Spesh's and top end Rocky Mountains that they had in there have gone to the big generic halfords down the road - a place where bike products and advice do not go together.

They're actualy really helpful in the old bikehut, not you usual halfords retards. I've seen one of the guys out riding at swinley and he really knows his stuff. The guys in there took the job to work specifically on bikes, not to work for halfords.
Both the guys in there today are currently looking for new jobs.

gutted.

supersonic

They are buggers for doing that. They told me they were thinking about putting me on Auto for a few weeks to improve experience, and have the auto guy run the cycles. Hapless idea. They were more interested in how the store looked than giving the customer decent service.

MrChuck

To be fair, not phoning back seems to be policy for an awful lot of bike shops, and that includes 'proper' ones.

Roger_This

Sorry to report that they aren't so great, or at least not consistently so. I took delivery of my bike a few weeks ago through the Cycle to Work scheme and discovered:

Front derailleur not working
Speedo not working
Handlebars loose :shock:

Now that is rubbish setup. Unfortunately, following the six-week check, and after pointing out the above, I find:

Front derailleur still not working
Speedo still not working - fixed it myself later.
Handlebars ok - having fixed them myself

Still rubbish :evil:

Worth taking back again or should I just spend a few quid at LBS and get it done properly?

supersonic

Yes, be worth having it checked over, but I would learn the basics too. Even after a thorough service they still need to be checked and maintained by the owner, and periodically readjusting.

hoolabloom

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.

I wasnt asking advice on a cassette i merely wanted one asap! And I knew exactly what I wanted. The knowledge of the product was never in question!!!!