halfords employee

heez29

supersonic wrote:

Was this a bike 'reduced' from £320?

LOL obviously! it sounds like a Trax bike tbh and i even tell customers to steer clear of em.

Kudders

steveknight wrote:

The bars require 5NM and the forks 9NM pressure for the safety of the rider and to make sure you do not damage the parts this varys alittle from bike to bike. if you touch any of these you would have to carry a torque metre with you to tighten up again.

my "finger in the air" has served me well for the last 13 years of riding

Kudders

You get what you pay for in terms of bikes, trouble is people don't appreciate that- they want Ferraris for Fiat money- sign of the times unfortunately!

I bought a Kona Dawg from my local Halfords and never had any issues, even got it cheap as buoght on a 15% off weekend

Camion

My first job was at Halfords albeit for 30 minutes.

I was 15, got the job just by asking at the till and filling out a form and a quick interview later I got the job.

The day lasted 30 minutes as my father who dropped me off asked if I was insured to work in the shop and was told that they didn't really know but that shouldn't be a problem.

Needless to say, the old man whisked me back home in the family 2.8 Capri and explained the intricacies of why you need to be insured to work in a warehouse/ shop.

I started a month later on the checkouts at Tesco, the birds were fitter and I got good food bargains. Didn't get to work on bikes though which was lucky as I only knew how to ride and break them.

This is just my story and may be an isolated case but judging by the oiks in my local store, I wouldn't trust them to even oil the chains on my Colnagos. I just buy engine oil there now.

leachuser

I will only speak from experience.
I paid for a £1000 bike from Halfords and after about 3 months it developed a problem - fair enough, these things happen. But trying to get Halfords to fix this has been a nightmare.

Worst part was them giving the bike back to me, pretending it been properly fixed when it hadn't been. Had to explicitly show them the problem was still there.

I could go on about the rest.... too tired to do so.

To be fair, one of the lads working there was quite polite and knowlegable when I asked him to reccommend me a bicycle helmet.

But I will never buy a bike from Halfords again.

leachuser

oliver1001 wrote:

yes i work at halfords, on the bike dept, and am proud to do so. why do we have so many bad connotations? The reason for this post is 1 customer today. He bought a new Banshee X from us, and to load it into his car we slackened the stem, twisting the handlebars. He came back several hours later, with another chap he met at Cannock Chase, demanding a refund, compensation, etc. This other chap claimed to be a 'seroius cyclist' and demanded that we gave him all this. aparently were a crap bike shop, and none of the staff know what were doing.

Well I'm a roadie, my manager is a roadie, and the chap that built the bike rides trials, so we do know what were doing. ok this is a rant but i am just fed up off all the negative halfords threads...

Oliver1001,
I cannot criticise you or your manager as I have never met either of you, and have no cause to doubt your skills as a bicycle engineer. However, just because you and your team are competent or have customer skills doesn't necessarily mean the rest of Halfords has that too. The negative reviews of Halfords just reflects peoples' personal experiences up and down the nation.

In my case, Halfords has rubbed me up the wrong way by failing to deal with a repair problem in a professional manner. I don't claim that every Halfords behaves this way, just my own personal experience. And it is from the aggreagate of these individual reviews that other people will be able to get an insight. And as you say, their does seem to be "many bad connotations" regarding Halfords.

missmarple

Got to admit you are ripping the shins and teeth off the public with those god awful pile o' sh*te Apollo bikes, thats what we don't like. And yes - that the fact a majority of your staff are kids who think they know more than you....until you utter the word bottom bracket. :roll:

welshkev

i uesd to work a t halfords when i was 18, and all the guys who worked in the bike dept then were riders and all cared about what we did. but that was 14 years ago and now.....i wouldn't trust them as far a i could kick them. it's the same shop, with the same manager so what's changed?

i'm not sure how much training they give their 'mechanics' and how much they try and ensure the people who work there are actually interested in bikes but it could be a damn lot more as far as i'm concerned.

Rant over

blakef111

Camion wrote:

My first job was at Halfords albeit for 30 minutes.

I was 15, got the job just by asking at the till and filling out a form and a quick interview later I got the job.

The day lasted 30 minutes as my father who dropped me off asked if I was insured to work in the shop and was told that they didn't really know but that shouldn't be a problem.

Needless to say, the old man whisked me back home in the family 2.8 Capri and explained the intricacies of why you need to be insured to work in a warehouse/ shop.

I started a month later on the checkouts at Tesco, the birds were fitter and I got good food bargains. Didn't get to work on bikes though which was lucky as I only knew how to ride and break them.

This is just my story and may be an isolated case but judging by the oiks in my local store, I wouldn't trust them to even oil the chains on my Colnagos. I just buy engine oil there now.

please don't tell me you put engine oil on your colnagos!

Where are my stabilisers?

No offence to the workers at Halfords but some of those Apollos really shouldn't be on the market - If you can't build a bike which works properly for the amount they sell them for, then they need to up the price and up the spec coz selling sh*t to people really isn't fair! Although, if you sell sh*t that requires constant servicing, then you get to make extra cash.... is that the deal??

I say this because today I was asked to take a look at the gears on someones apollo - the whole front mech twisted round when I changed gear and jammed against the rear wheel :shock: I tightened it and set it up again, it worked fine in the stand, but did it again when I road it! I set it up again, set the limit screws, whet through the gears, only to find that the mech had moved again - this time the cage had moved from where I'd set the limit screws all by itself!

Ok, so I'll admit I'm not the best mechanic, but what a piece of junk!

The bike was sold to her on the pretence that it was "light".... She'd be better off with a lump of steel and better components, than a light bike which can't stay tuned! If an alloy framed bike with decent enough components can't be built for 80 odd quid, then don't make them!

Seriously, if they didn't sell such sh*t, they might not get such bad press!

97th choice

I've purchased two carrera bikes from halfords (vulcan & banshee x), as actual bikes I have found them pretty good to ride and well specified for the money.

In terms of service it is pretty hit and miss, but having dealt with a decent sort who understood bikes I can understand how they get frustrated with poor service by their colleagues leading to them being tarred with the same brush. My latest bike had suspension bolts missing due to them either stolen or used to repair another bike, although I noticed this before the employee, (and to be fair would he expect them to be missing, and they are recessed ) at least he had the sense to fit the replacements promptly and use threadlock. And the rest of the bike was fine.

The rear shock was low on air but I can't see a problem in that, you need to set the shock up properly for your weight. OK one criticism is that if you don't know how to do it already there is no instructions that come with the bike to help you.

But....I don't expect halfords to know what angle I want my brakes at either. As a long time surfer I know that there are boards for sunday surfers that cost 180 and are preformed bits of crap, and there are 600 quid custom shaped sticks with the rails and tail you want to suit your style, and if you buy the latter without having a clue whose fault is that?

TBH anyone who gets a bike for the first time should check it over themselves thoroughly before and after the first ride, and hopefully have an understanding of the mechanicals.

Northwind

leachuser wrote:

I will only speak from experience.
I paid for a £1000 bike from Halfords and after about 3 months it developed a problem - fair enough, these things happen. But trying to get Halfords to fix this has been a nightmare.

Worst part was them giving the bike back to me, pretending it been properly fixed when it hadn't been. Had to explicitly show them the problem was still there.

Out of curiosity, what was the fault?

missmarple

Northwind wrote:

leachuser wrote:

I will only speak from experience.
I paid for a £1000 bike from Halfords and after about 3 months it developed a problem - fair enough, these things happen. But trying to get Halfords to fix this has been a nightmare.

Worst part was them giving the bike back to me, pretending it been properly fixed when it hadn't been. Had to explicitly show them the problem was still there.

Out of curiosity, what was the fault?

Given you've bought a £1000 bike, something some forum members could only wish they could afford. Surely you'd read up on how to fix it yourself if the fault was only minor?

ol\'gregg

The girl that lives upstairs just got a bike from halfords on her work bike scheme. Fair enough it's not the best bike in the world but what i did notice is the bike has a 21" frame she is 5'5" and pushing 20st and she was told that this was the size she needed so she has the saddle right down and looks very uncomfortable on it.
I'm not gonna slag off Halfords as I worked for them for 2 years when I was 16, granted i worked on the parts desk but our cycle guys were all good bike mechanics and had a passion for what they did but it just seems that she dealt with someone that really had no clue so sold a short girl a bike that is clearly too big for her.