Boardman / Halfords

gjh0702

Today went to Halfords In Southport to look/buy a Boardman Comp Hybrid- good spec, they had my size in stock, I asked would they build it up so I could look / try before buying " not enough show room to build up in case you dont buy" !!!!!!!!!
Surprise I went to a LBS, who agreed I could use Halfords cycle to work voucher to buy a Marin.

Mr Boardman, Southport is very close to your home, staff such as I encountered 'damage' your brand / stopped me buy.
Please do 'PM' if you wish further details
Collecting Marin on wednesday

redddraggon

gjh0702 wrote:

Mr Boardman, Southport is very close to your home, staff such as I encountered 'damage' your brand / stopped me buy.
Please do 'PM' if you wish further details

Lol.

Do you reckon he's even going to read that?

gjh0702

If we never comment- nothing changes.
If one of my staff dealt with a customer the way I was I would want to know

redddraggon

gjh0702 wrote:

If we never comment- nothing changes.
If one of my staff dealt with a customer the way I was I would want to know

I reckon Halfords just don't care - they seem to sell out of the Boardmans pretty easily. Halfords generally deal with the inexperienced bike buyers who don't really know that they can get better service elsewhere.

starseven

Surely Boardman is a Halford brand, not a seperate company, without Halfords they wouldnt exist.

Justbikesandover

My understanding was that his input into the bike was to confirm the name was spelt correctly. Probably have done you a favour anyway as the boardmans we have seen have not impressed. The bits are good sure but a bike is the sum of its parts and the frames never seem to inspire us, the Marins however are renowned for great frames

bompington

Justbikesandover wrote:

My understanding was that his input into the bike was to confirm the name was spelt correctly. Probably have done you a favour anyway as the boardmans we have seen have not impressed. The bits are good sure but a bike is the sum of its parts and the frames never seem to inspire us, the Marins however are renowned for great frames

And you wouldn't be a competitor would you?

cougie

Bit of jealousy there methinks ! I've read a lot of excellent reviews and heard nothing but good things from people who have bought Boardmans.
OK so Halfords may be a bit patchy - so is my LBS - they fitted my mates brake blocks back to front - and he didn't suss this until he descended a mountain !

Yorkshiredoc

cougie wrote:

Bit of jealousy there methinks ! I've read a lot of excellent reviews and heard nothing but good things from people who have bought Boardmans.
OK so Halfords may be a bit patchy - so is my LBS - they fitted my mates brake blocks back to front - and he didn't suss this until he descended a mountain !

I am very happy with my Team Carbon and had no problems with my local Halfords.

I usually use my LBS to buy bikes and have them serviced and was wary about buying a bike from Halfords, but so far no problems - although not riding the Boardman at present due to the weather and back on the Steel Framed tourer complete with mudguards!

As I understand it Boardman is a completely separate company to Halfords but Halfords have sole distribution rights at present - I suppose a bit like O2 had with iPhone until recently. As far as I am aware Chris Boardman had a lot of input on the road bikes, but much less on the mountain bikes.

Clockworkali

I know Boardman like to think of them self's as a separate company to Halfords but i am sure the bikes are made at the same factory. Some of the tubes and welds on the pro ht frame looks the same as there carrera fury and the paint job is almost the same. Also the carrera virago tt has almost the same spec as the team carbon (same brakes f and r mech and chainset) this may just be by chance.

I had a look at the team carbon the other day and i was very impress with the finish of the frame and the general build quality. With a wheel upgrade and saddle it will be a great bike.

I have had a ht pro but had to return it due to the very poor finish and the customer experience was dreadful. Having said that i still think the boardman range is excellent and very good value.

gregster10217

My experience of the first Halfords I went to was poor, staff were not very knowledgeable about the product, apart from one guy who left for a LBS. However, I then went to a larger store, Maidstone, and all of the guys there have been great. They have been good in customer services (ordered in a bigger bike just for me to try for size), phoned me whenever they said they would, and the set up for my test ride was spot on.
In relation to the set up point made above, they did ask for about 1 hour to get it ready, longer if possible, they got 24hours from me.
I'm still waiting to get my Ltd Ed Team Carbon, but was pleased to see that Cycling Plus think it's a great bike, made better by the Ltd Ed paint/finish (although if I didn;t like a white frame I wouldn't be getting it!)
It's had rave reviews in the cycling press, and I think that the guys/girls that review these products would be able to tell if it was just a Carrera frame with a different paint job. If you read older posts on here, apparently Chris Boardman did post with his views of how things are/were going, so (if it was the real CB) he seems to take the range seriously to be VERY involved.
Just MHO, for what it's worth.