HALFRAUDS Strike again !!!!

The Northern Monkey

eh? No offroad cover on a MTB?

Anonymous

I hate Halfords!

bails87

RichardJiles wrote:

I hate Halfords!

Thanks for the useful contribution :roll:

hounslow

bigbenj_08 wrote:

eh? No offroad cover on a MTB?

it's in the handbooks. 'light offroad' is covered, iirc.

Bignige

hounslow wrote:

bigbenj_08 wrote:

eh? No offroad cover on a MTB?

it's in the handbooks. 'light offroad' is covered, iirc.

Err...Have you seen the description on the Hafords website: -

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_229915

I quote "The GT I-Drive 6 Elite Mountain Bike is a high spec Freeride Bike" :?

Raymondavalon

I think some common sense needs to kick in here
So, if I buy a "freeride" spec bike from any bike shop and I use it for it's intended purposes and it gives me issues due to defective parts or bad setup, then I'd expect the shop I buy it from to fulfill my expectations on a warranty issue.
This could be brakes, derailleur, fork seals [I have had fork MCU failure on a newish bike] and so on.
The mechanic looks at it and can see the bikes been used for its intended purposes, but not crucified. So he agrees to repair or replace the defective part/s

However, I buy a freeride bike, I am a heavyweight and perform a 6 foot drop off that results in rear rim/spoke failure.
I fly into the shop and scream blue murder about how the bike almost killed me as this happened while riding along a towpath. The mechanic can see and judge that this level of damage is not due to run of the mill component failure from the alligator tooth sized snake bite puncture that also extends to the tyre sidewalls.

So, he consults his supervisor who consults the manager who has the final say..
No business wants to replace or repair a component that they will not get a manufacturers' warranty on as it's not just the part itself, but also labour and logistics (shipping) He says no, it's my fault and I should pay for the said repair/s

So I take a slightly different approach, be honest about the circumstances of the rider induced failure and the manager tells me he'll repair it at a good cost or perhaps offer the labour free etc..

Most bikes perform trouble free for their warranted period, however things do go wrong and with attitude being contagious one must make theirs worth catching.

Bignige

I agree with you totally in principle Raymond avalon, but only warranting a supposed "Freeride" bike for light offroad use is like Landrover telling you they'll only offer you a warranty as long as you never leave the tarmac...........it's known as fit for purpose under consumer protection legislation!!

But like you say, steaming into Halfords effing and jeffing is not really condusive to getting some assistance from them!

lawman

i also work in a bike shop, not halfords, and we replace pretty anything under warrenty if the bike is less than 12 months old, simply because we aim to give the customer the best service we can and keep a good name for ourselves. imo halfords should do the same. they are, in some cases, a well respected ( ) bike shop and i would expect them to have similar levels of customer service, as would most bike shops around the country.

*AL*

Bignige wrote:

But like you say, steaming into Halfords effing and jeffing is not really condusive to getting some assistance from them!

Most true.

You can slide further on bull$hit, than you can on gravel

Northwind

Bignige wrote:

I agree with you totally in principle Raymond avalon, but only warranting a supposed "Freeride" bike for light offroad use is like Landrover telling you they'll only offer you a warranty as long as you never leave the tarmac..

Most people wouldn't care

FWIW, on the subject of Halfords warranties I wandered into the local shop with a Kraken wheel and a bust freehub- no paperwork, no bike! The feller on the counter recognised it from the stickers as a 2008 wheel and so knew it was in warranty, and immediately offered a replacement, no questions asked. Which was good as I was the second owner and so had no warranty. Since he had some bother getting the parts in a timescale he was happy with (which was only going to be days) he robbed the part directly off a display bike to fix mine.

Not bad at all when you actually have no warranty

Bignige

Northwind wrote:

Most people wouldn't care

Not until they tried to claim and got told to bog off anyway

Northwind

What I mean is, most people's warranties would be fine because most landrovers never go further offroad than their driveways... I could be wrong here, but I thought Landrover do have a limited warranty that has exclusions for failures caused by offroad use?

Bignige

Ahhh....I get your drift now, that wouldn't suprise me with Landrover, especially with their reliability record......ooooh now there's controversial!!

DTW

Be cautious of Red Kite, make sure you price up components before you buy from there. I think the service has been better since the shop has relocated but they are 90% roadies selling MTB equipment and the attitude can sometimes show.

I only go there if I really need something and I know it's the same price in most other places.

As for Halfords you just have to realise it's a large store selling run of the mill bike stuff. I never go into Halfords expecting to pick up Shimano XT shifters and Goodridge hoses at a decent price, infact I wouldn't even expect them to stock them. Halfords is a shop that is there to provide parts or whatever in a hurry.

I have run Juicy 3's for 2 years and never had a problem so by all means email head office and get that brake sorted

asdfhjkl

I love Halfords! Absolutely no complaints about their prices - I just bought a Camelbak Rogue for £25 (RRP £45). For anyone interested, reserve online using their website, pick up in-store an hour later, and only pay the online price.

cavegiant

Halfords tend to be quite usefull if you know what to ask for.

I generally get the job for free as they invariably mess it up first time.

The staff are mostly incompotent, so treat them as such and you will be fine.

clodhoppa74

i had a saracen manis from halfords. it kept breaking, in one way or another, be it crank or seat post etc. in the end i swapped up for a carrera vulcan. i'd had 6 months 'use' out of the saracen and they gave me a full refund if i bought another bike from them. can't really argue with that. they upgraded the forl on the vulcan because they couldn't get a direct replacement in time too.

like all shops, depends on the people and what day. i think red kite saw you coming tbh.

submityournentries

clodhoppa hit the nail on the head, halfords is entirely based on the staff. i worked in the norwich one part time, and i worked hard and generally took the customers side because it gets us a marginally less shite name. this was the case with all the full time staff at that store, they were all awesome, know their way around a bike and are reasonable people. however the part times staff, for the majoirty in that store werent amazing.
however the polar opposite is true of the store near me when im at uni, the whole store is run by retards, and the service provided is abismal. i get discount and i will onyl buy some bits from them, and they arent touching my bike with a barge pole.
the whole halfrauds thing is fair, cause its takes just 1 bad store to ruin a reputation, but dont put them all down some of them arent that bad u just have to try and talk to a full timer and thatll help u way more, cause they are much more accountable, so they have to get stuff right (mostly)