Halfords grumble....

flamite

Why did my employer choose the halfords c2w scheme?!

Bike has finally arrived at the store after 4 weeks on order, for them to tell me that they have no mechanics in the putney store to assemble bike, and might not for a week, I asked if I could take it and assemble myself, they were a bit iffy about it, errr will have to ask the manager etc... will have to go down tonight and do battle with the chumps in there...!

Not the kind of service you expect when purchasing a £1000 bike!!

mind you if i had any choice I wouldn't have gone near the car *cough* bike shop....

rant over...

attica

+1 my work is using Hellfords too, second time around for me and I'll be giving the bike a full service once I get hold of it

Cafewanda

And it's beyond their capability to either bring in a mechanic from another store or send the bike to another store for assembly or is that too logical? :roll:

skyd0g

I'd go down & see if you can take it in a box to assemble yourself (as your post suggests you are capable of doing this). Halfords normally allow this.

IME the "mechanics" at Halfords are of variable quality - a few good ones, but many not so good - and often, to be fair, they may be under pressure to assemble X amt. of bikes in X amt. of time, so may not be able to take the time & trouble to adjust everything as carefully or accurately as a £1K bike deserves.

Personally I'd much prefer to take my time & assemble it myself.

Kieran_Burns

It looks like we're going to be using Cyclescheme. Is this a good or bad thing?

skyd0g

Cafewanda wrote:

And it's beyond their capability to either bring in a mechanic from another store or send the bike to another store for assembly or is that too logical? :roll:

Logical? yes.
Feasible? possibly.
Commercially viable? no.

soy_sauce

at least they don't let a monkey or staff from other dept to build your bike.
ask for vouchers and freebies if they not allow you to take the bike (in the box) home and build it yourself.

Cafewanda

skyd0g wrote:

Cafewanda wrote:

And it's beyond their capability to either bring in a mechanic from another store or send the bike to another store for assembly or is that too logical? :roll:

Logical? yes.
Feasible? possibly.
Commercially viable? no.

Why not commercially viable or is this what is meant by (limited) customer service?

UndercoverElephant

Kieran_Burns wrote:

It looks like we're going to be using Cyclescheme. Is this a good or bad thing?

Good and bad.

Good: You get to buy a bike from your LBS.
Bad: They leech around 10% off your LBS, and 10% off you for doing very little. As such your LBS will likely only allow you to get something for the RRP.

Out lot (hopefully, eventually), are looking to administering it themselves, so we should get the full benefits.

Kieran_Burns

UndercoverElephant wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

It looks like we're going to be using Cyclescheme. Is this a good or bad thing?

Good and bad.

Good: You get to buy a bike from your LBS.
Bad: They leech around 10% off your LBS, and 10% off you for doing very little. As such your LBS will likely only allow you to get something for the RRP.

Out lot (hopefully, eventually), are looking to administering it themselves, so we should get the full benefits.

Well - that's not so bad. There'll be a thread appearing soon asking for the best full on road bike for £1000

skyd0g

Cafewanda wrote:

skyd0g wrote:

Cafewanda wrote:

And it's beyond their capability to either bring in a mechanic from another store or send the bike to another store for assembly or is that too logical? :roll:

Logical? yes.
Feasible? possibly.
Commercially viable? no.

Why not commercially viable or is this what is meant by (limited) customer service?

1.To individually send a bike from one store to another store (that is already "sold"), when they already have a "trained" mechanic there (albeit with a back-log) will generate a cost.
2. To then assemble it via another stores mechanic (who will have their own "job list" of bikes to assemble, so would have to fit in an extra job).
3. To then transport the built bike back to first store (risking damage, as it is now no longer in it's box) again at a cost.

or... Bring in another mechanic from another store (when they run a skeleton staff at the best of times), so will need to arrange and pay for someone to cover for this mechanic, who will also have bikes to assemble in his own branch.

or... let the customer wait a little time, as they are bound to buy from that store group anyway via the CTW scheme?

Which is the more commercially viable?

prawny

skyd0g wrote:

I'd go down & see if you can take it in a box to assemble yourself (as your post suggests you are capable of doing this). Halfords normally allow this.

IME the "mechanics" at Halfords are of variable quality - a few good ones, but many not so good - and often, to be fair, they may be under pressure to assemble X amt. of bikes in X amt. of time, so may not be able to take the time & trouble to adjust everything as carefully or accurately as a £1K bike deserves.

Personally I'd much prefer to take my time & assemble it myself.

If you've bought a boardman, I think part of the contract means they have to assemble it for you, which is rediculous as they generally do a shocking job :roll:

Cafewanda

SK - good explanation. Stll sucks though :roll:

flamite

yes but chap i just spoke to in the shop said he would have a go but he didnt have his qualification, its just a shame that the mechanics are halfords staff with a qualification in cycles instead of actual cycling enthusiasts...

skyd0g

flamite wrote:

yes but chap i just spoke to in the shop said he would have a go but he didnt have his qualification, its just a shame that the mechanics are halfords staff with a qualification in cycles instead of actual cycling enthusiasts...

I'd still say take it home in a box, if you know which is the pointy-end of a screwdriver & have any mechanical ability yourself, rather than let someone who is by their own admission untrained, "have a go". :shock:

All you'll need is a set of decent quality allen keys, time & a little common sense.
If you get at all stuck, or unsure, fire a post up on here & you'll get any help you need. 8)

Trev71

I think as people have said previously, there is a large variability in the quality of service from Halfords. We have two stores nearby, one of which seems to have staff that are fairly switched on and another where this is definitely not the case.

A couple of years ago, I bought three bikes for my children from the 'wrong' one (I did not realise this at the time) and was told that the bikes would receive a full safety check before collection. A week later I collected them and when I got home realised that all three had flat tyres and the brake blocks were not properly aligned in the calipers. I phoned the store to complain and they offered to correct the fault, but I just decided to sort it myself and it only took about ten minutes. If they can't get a simple thing like a six year olds Disney princess bike done right, how do they cope with something more complicated?

Kieran_Burns

My local Halfords fitted my wifes new bike forks on back to front... this was a little scary, Oh yeah and the seat post clip was on backwards as well - so when we were 6 miles from home it collapsed and she was forced to cycle back with her saddle right down.

Never used them again

biondino

Trev71 wrote:

a six year olds Disney princess bike

Nah, mate, you don't want one of them, you want a full on balls-out road bike for your little girl. Get a grown-up one - she'll grow into it. Disney Princess bikes are just a compromise.

Jay dubbleU

Just heard today that our HR dept has decided to use Halfords for our C2W scheme this year - no chance of getting the Pearson which would have been my first choice and I've also been told by the guys at my local LBS that I won't be able to get a Specialized - they are Specialized dealers but they got fed up with Halfords buying bikes from them at trade for the C2W scheme and then sellling them on at the full price :evil:

prawny

Jay dubbleU wrote:

Just heard today that our HR dept has decided to use Halfords for our C2W scheme this year - no chance of getting the Pearson which would have been my first choice and I've also been told by the guys at my local LBS that I won't be able to get a Specialized - they are Specialized dealers but they got fed up with Halfords buying bikes from them at trade for the C2W scheme and then sellling them on at the full price :evil:

I'm sure I heard pearson will take halford vouchers, just a thought.

Jay dubbleU

Really ? must investigate further

flamite

yes condor take them too

snig

yep pearson take halfords vouchers I'm getting one just emailed that and asked,so glad I dont have to use halfords ,was in there when someone else was picking up a bike and got talking to one of the "mechanics" he told us at the same time pointing to a sign saying that all bike staff were fully trained was a joke he had never been on any course,he said when he first started there he new nothing about bikes and just had to pick up what he could(he was putting together a kids bike as we were talking)he also said the pay wasshocking and the working conditions bad,as we were still talking a customer asked to get fitter with a bike bag carry frame,he said she would have to bookit in and it would take afew days to do,she said dont bother,after she left he said it was only a 2 min job but that is the way halfords have made him ie bad pay,no training so he said why should he put himself out,he sounded a good lad so understood his point...so pearsons he I come!

snig

as for the point of why could halfords not send the bike to get made else where,they could and in the long run going the extra mile for a customer would make them money not cost them,shipping one bike to anther store would on paper cost but in reality not make any differance to their bottom line,but now how many more people have read this and thought I'm not using halfords!

chuckcork

snig wrote:

as for the point of why could halfords not send the bike to get made else where,they could and in the long run going the extra mile for a customer would make them money not cost them,shipping one bike to anther store would on paper cost but in reality not make any differance to their bottom line,but now how many more people have read this and thought I'm not using halfords!

From the number of negative comments and given the lack of a decent bike range to choose from anyway, and not having a job let alone access to any scheme, I'd be very likely to give Hellfrauds a miss.

skyd0g

snig wrote:

as for the point of why could halfords not send the bike to get made else where,they could and in the long run going the extra mile for a customer would make them money not cost them,shipping one bike to anther store would on paper cost but in reality not make any differance to their bottom line,but now how many more people have read this and thought I'm not using halfords!

As mentioned earlier, they physically probably could send the bike to another store for assembly.
However, putting aside the cost and logistics of doing this, there is also the risk of loss or damage to the bike whilst in transit.

There is also the fact that the mechanic in the other store will have his own job-list to attend to, so will have to create extra time to fit-in an additional bike. Hardly the ideal recipe to receive the bike perfectly tuned. For instance, you can "throw on" a gear-mech in seconds, but it takes far longer to perfectly align it.

If you then get the bike X days later, and find the paint is scratched and the gears don't index properly, it wouldn't do a great deal for customer satisfaction, would it?

snig

i'll be getting my bike ready made though the post and wiggle and others all ship their bikes ready made so your point of chipped paint etc does not really hold up ok it "could" happen but what HAS happened now by upsetting a customer is just reinforced the fact that halfords are not the best place to get a bike from,which do you think has cost them the most,shipping the bike and maybe getting it damaged or the bad PR that halfords have!

il_principe

snig wrote:

i'll be getting my bike ready made though the post and wiggle and others all ship their bikes ready made so your point of chipped paint etc does not really hold up ok it "could" happen but what HAS happened now by upsetting a customer is just reinforced the fact that halfords are not the best place to get a bike from,which do you think has cost them the most,shipping the bike and maybe getting it damaged or the bad PR that halfords have!

@ Snig - 2 things:

1: You'll find Pearson to be v helpful and they know what they're talking about. Can't go wrong there.
2: For the love of God, please punctuate your posts. My head's hurting from reading them!
:shock:

snig

skyd0g

snig wrote:

i'll be getting my bike ready made though the post and wiggle and others all ship their bikes ready made so your point of chipped paint etc does not really hold up ok it "could" happen but what HAS happened now by upsetting a customer is just reinforced the fact that halfords are not the best place to get a bike from,which do you think has cost them the most,shipping the bike and maybe getting it damaged or the bad PR that halfords have!

You will probably find that your "ready made up" bike will be shipped to you in a box and require some "minor assembly" - little more than fitting the pedals, handlebars straightening & front-wheel inserting. Other than that, just fine-tuning of the indexing of the gears & checking that everything's tight & aligned true.

The bikes that are shipped to Halfords and other stores are shipped in a very similar way. They're not shipped as a box full of loose components & parts to be built entirely from scratch. However, to complete a build, you would have to take the bike out of it's protective box. The bike is then openly at risk of loss and damage during transit.

Yes, Halfords have a bad reputation - often deserved, but you have to look at these things realistically. What HAS happened here is a cutomer who is getting a £1K bike for roughly half that, will have to wait a week to have it assembled for him. He could also not wait & assemble it himself, at his leisure & take all the time he needs to do so.