i thought halfords were getting better!
richardabulmer
Posts: 89
behold the days when people would laugh at the very mention of bikes & halfords in the same sentence. But ever since the last Olympics, their image has gradually improved now that they have bikehut & boardman behind them.
Alas though, out of the many stores in Newcastle upon Tyne, twas said by many that the Kingston park store was the best.
Not so in this case. I walked my bike up to the store (5 miles) on sunday (it was booked in for monday) upon my arrival the guy in charge of the bike department told me the mechanic who was meant to be in was off sick and was meant to be back thursday.
So i explained to this other chap, that i had had a slight off, and that the front wheel was badly buckled & was probably beyond fixing. My rear derailleur was bent into the wheel & lastly the left brake lever had popped out of its place & wouldn't go back in.
He wrote all this down for his records, and on my 3 year plans maintenance logbook
Rings halfords today to see if my bike was ready (yes) and how much it was (£7)
maybe i miss heard her & though she meant £70.
when i get to the store, mechanic tells me that he replaced the silver hanger for the derailleur as that was fine, and there was a washer that needed replacing for the brake lever.
I look over at my front wheel, and can see the same white rimmed wheel as the rear. I think to myself that the mechanic must have been able to straighten it after all, saving me a few quid.
So i ask him if he straightened my wheel.
Imagine my surprise when he picked up the front end to spin the wheel around to see how bad the buckle was.
We wont be able to fix that he said. I could feel the blood boiling now, I had already told the other bloke that it probably needed a new wheel.
So the mechanic said that if i wanted a white wheel to match the back one, it would take another week. I almost swore at this point (but there was a nice piece of crumpet about) I told him to give me the bog standard 6 bolt disk wheel they had in stock, and i would replace the wheel when i got home.
bloody amateurs
I am glad i have the 3 year plan with them, because if it had have been a fixed £35 labour charge for that effort i would have force fed him my wheel
Alas though, out of the many stores in Newcastle upon Tyne, twas said by many that the Kingston park store was the best.
Not so in this case. I walked my bike up to the store (5 miles) on sunday (it was booked in for monday) upon my arrival the guy in charge of the bike department told me the mechanic who was meant to be in was off sick and was meant to be back thursday.
So i explained to this other chap, that i had had a slight off, and that the front wheel was badly buckled & was probably beyond fixing. My rear derailleur was bent into the wheel & lastly the left brake lever had popped out of its place & wouldn't go back in.
He wrote all this down for his records, and on my 3 year plans maintenance logbook
Rings halfords today to see if my bike was ready (yes) and how much it was (£7)
maybe i miss heard her & though she meant £70.
when i get to the store, mechanic tells me that he replaced the silver hanger for the derailleur as that was fine, and there was a washer that needed replacing for the brake lever.
I look over at my front wheel, and can see the same white rimmed wheel as the rear. I think to myself that the mechanic must have been able to straighten it after all, saving me a few quid.
So i ask him if he straightened my wheel.
Imagine my surprise when he picked up the front end to spin the wheel around to see how bad the buckle was.
We wont be able to fix that he said. I could feel the blood boiling now, I had already told the other bloke that it probably needed a new wheel.
So the mechanic said that if i wanted a white wheel to match the back one, it would take another week. I almost swore at this point (but there was a nice piece of crumpet about) I told him to give me the bog standard 6 bolt disk wheel they had in stock, and i would replace the wheel when i got home.
bloody amateurs
I am glad i have the 3 year plan with them, because if it had have been a fixed £35 labour charge for that effort i would have force fed him my wheel
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Comments
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I would rather hand my bike over to the monkeys in London Zoo than the monkeys in Halfords.0
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I worked for Halfords as a mechanic for a short period and they teach you nout. I went in there with only my own learnt knowledge, which while adequate for repairing bikes, wasn't really up to safety specs. They'd leave bikes on Friday for me to fix on Sunday with no note saying what needed doing, so I'd spend my time trying to work out the problems. The clincher was when the security guard taught me how to tap a thread...http://www.youtube.com/user/Eurobunneh - My Youtube channel.0
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the 3 year plan is a one off payment of £36 and i can get my bike serviced any time i like. i only pay for the parts replaced
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_2288540 -
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I wish i had the confidence to do the work myself, i have 3 books on the subject. But the cost of buying tools vs getting the so-called experts to do it.
I can only hope that the mechanics in halfords around leicester are better trained than here, as im moving there in may0 -
Take it to a proper LBS and see what they say, the wheel might be fix-able by someone who knows what they are doing and shouldn't be too expensive. I took my wheel into my LBS after getting buckled and they replaced a load of spokes and trued the wheel and it only cost £12. Whats even better is that I took it in Monday afternoon and had a phone call Tuesday morning to say it's ready!
If you get a bigger bill you could always try sending it to halfords head office along with a letter saying something like their incompetence left you with a bike that was dangeroulsy unrideable....blah blah blah think of the children.....that sort of letter. They might just say sorry, they might offer to pay it. Worth a try0 -
Ah, i actually did that, I have a shop called Cycle-Logical not far from me, the mechanic is polish, and the woman behind the till is a Czech. At least he knows what he is doing with bikes..
I took my bike along there a couple weeks ago. he was in the middle of looking at someone elses bike. But he wipped off my wheel, put it on a truing machine. he was the one that told me there was no way it could be trued.
I also exited the shop like a cartoon character when he told me he would order me in a shimano wheel costing £100 (as he could only order in quality stuff out of his catalog)0 -
Would you have to pay by cheque to get your bike polished :?:0
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I'd pay cash to have my helmet polished
http://www.youtube.com/user/Eurobunneh - My Youtube channel.0 -
