Why is Halfords hated so much????

togg

I can confirm Halfords are terrible, I know nothing about bikes at all and they know less than me, I've got a horror story which resulted in refund...will never ever visit there again for anything and I'll pay that bit extra and go to a specialist bike shop that cares.

I heard Halfords were bad but its not until you experience it first hand, truly shocking service all round, I can go into detail...

lankystreakofpee

Hi, i'm new here as well but been riding for a while. As other people have said it really depends on whether the staff at the individual store are passionate about bikes as to whether they know anything or not as I believe the training is pretty much non-existant.

I bought a bike from Halfords a few years ago and the muppet who built it originally built the wrong size bike and tried to tell me it was the right one (even though there is a sticker on the frame with the size on it!). Then the pedal fell off a few rides later as he had put them on the wrong sides.

The worst experience I have had from Halfords though was the "professional fitting" of a car seat for my baby. The guy who fitted it clearly didn't have a clue and routed the seatbelt completely wrong. I read the instructions and fitted it correctly before I drove off, but I can imagine some people assume the "trained fitter" knows their stuff which could be disasterous!

thescouselander

I have to say my experience of Halfords has been pretty variable. There has been instances where I have had very good service from enthusiastic and knowledgeable staff.

On the other hand, a few days ago I was in there looking at what chain lubes they had - when I asked the assistant about them they proceeded to show me around the degreaser - WTF?


Also I have owned a Carrera Virtuoso for a good few years and it has served me well - I only paid £220 for it too so it was a bit of a bargain. I have only just replaced it with something better.


I think if you are knowledgeable about bikes you are probably ok to shop in there otherwise you are taking a bit of a risk as you don't know how competent the staff are.

CustomC

Thast because halfords sell low quality bikes that are priced up highly with others.


Staff is mostly not trained. Not their fault that halfords donest provide training.

Yes iwe had 3 carreras and all turn out to be low quality pos.

Bar Shaker

I may have been lucky in that my bikes have proved to excellent (as is known of Boardmans) but also my local Halfords store in Chelmsford have been excellent at customer service and on technical matters too.

asturel131

CustomC wrote:

Thast because halfords sell low quality bikes that are priced up highly with others.


Staff is mostly not trained. Not their fault that halfords donest provide training.

Yes iwe had 3 carreras and all turn out to be low quality pos.

You say Carrera's are low quality yet you thought enough of them to buy three, sorry but I don't get the logic there.

Anyone who thinks Carrera and Boardman bikes are poor quality don't really know what they are talking about imho.

Whilst I am quite sure Halfords employ some incompetent staff, which has lead to the many horror stories when buying bikes, I think a lot of it comes down to snobbery.

Besides, why not just build the bike yourself? All that is required is to attach the saddle, handle bars, front wheel and brake... Hardly rocket science!! And that another thing which makes me think a lot of the "horror stories" are BS, halfords just make those same minor assemblies straight out the box, they dont build the bikes from scratch on site, for the most part they are already mostly assembled by the manufacturer, ie Boardman and Carrera who are both respectable companies that make excellent bikes.

Jay dubbleU

I don't hate Halfords - I just wouldn't let them near my bikes -to be fair they did get my first C2W bike without any problems.
There is nothing wrong with the bikes they sell - Boardmans are great but they seem incapable of putting them together properly

markos1963

asturel131 wrote:

CustomC wrote:

Thast because halfords sell low quality bikes that are priced up highly with others.


Staff is mostly not trained. Not their fault that halfords donest provide training.

Yes iwe had 3 carreras and all turn out to be low quality pos.

You say Carrera's are low quality yet you thought enough of them to buy three, sorry but I don't get the logic there.

Anyone who thinks Carrera and Boardman bikes are poor quality don't really know what they are talking about imho.

Whilst I am quite sure Halfords employ some incompetent staff, which has lead to the many horror stories when buying bikes, I think a lot of it comes down to snobbery.

Besides, why not just build the bike yourself? All that is required is to attach the saddle, handle bars, front wheel and brake... Hardly rocket science!! And that another thing which makes me think a lot of the "horror stories" are BS, halfords just make those same minor assemblies straight out the box, they dont build the bikes from scratch on site, for the most part they are already mostly assembled by the manufacturer, ie Boardman and Carrera who are both respectable companies that make excellent bikes.

Regardless of the name over the door why should anyone have to build their own bike when they are paying good money for the shop to do it for them!
In fact you are the snob to expect anyone who buys a bike to have the expertise to do it for themselves.

MikeWW

The biggest problem is that a lot of people buying from Halfords know nothing about bikes so the slightest issue becomes major.
There are some decent staff in number of the stores IMO
Have bought bikes from them on several occasions and no complaints

asturel131

[quote/]Regardless of the name over the door why should anyone have to build their own bike when they are paying good money for the shop to do it for them!
In fact you are the snob to expect anyone who buys a bike to have the expertise to do it for themselves.[/quote]

I disagree, any time you buy a bike by mail order you HAVE to assemble some of it yourself and thats the case for EVERY company you buy from on the internet... Tredz Evans etc etc When I bought my Cube I had to do the exact same amount of assembly as what you have to do from Halfords.

The assembly required is absolutely minimum and I was able to do it without any knowledge of bike assembly when I bought my first bike and like anything else in life, if in doubt look it up on YouTube.

Just to be clear, you dont build the bike and neither does halfords, it comes ready assembled from the manufacturer, all you (or Halfords ) have to do is attach the front wheel, the saddle and position the handle bars. A very clear distinction from actually "building" the bike itself.

Dunkindiver

wombar wrote:

It all comes down to the individual stores. I visited about 4 stores round Bournemouth, most of which were staffed by non-bike enthusiasts, who were pretty non-interested when I went in mid-week.

Then I found the Christchurch store which has a few bike mad staff members who obviously love their bikes. Bought a Boardman Pro and the setup was 100% spot on. Not a single complaint, so I would have no hesitation going back there.

On the other hand, I bought a road bike from CRC and the setup was absolutely appalling and downright dangerous. The rear derailleur was hitting the rear spokes so I'm just glad I didn't try to ride it out of the box.

You just have to remember that people will always remember and complain about a store that gives bad service, but it's not often people come here to say they received good service.

That mirrors my experience in the Bournemouth area!

markos1963

asturel131 wrote:

[quote/]Regardless of the name over the door why should anyone have to build their own bike when they are paying good money for the shop to do it for them!
In fact you are the snob to expect anyone who buys a bike to have the expertise to do it for themselves.

I disagree, any time you buy a bike by mail order you HAVE to assemble some of it yourself and thats the case for EVERY company you buy from on the internet... Tredz Evans etc etc When I bought my Cube I had to do the exact same amount of assembly as what you have to do from Halfords.

The assembly required is absolutely minimum and I was able to do it without any knowledge of bike assembly when I bought my first bike and like anything else in life, if in doubt look it up on YouTube.

Just to be clear, you dont build the bike and neither does halfords, it comes ready assembled from the manufacturer, all you (or Halfords ) have to do is attach the front wheel, the saddle and position the handle bars. A very clear distinction from actually "building" the bike itself.[/quote]

But I wasn't talking about mail order. If you go into Halfords or any LBS and they are displaying fully assembled bikes for sale and the shop is saying that the deal involves the bike being ready to ride then you have an expectation of competance.
I am not having a go at Halfords in particular btw, some LBS's are just as bad.

solosuperia

Just caught up with this and feel I must re-iterate my thoughts: For your money you get a better bike at Halfords than you would elsewhere.
Good Heavens! can't some people adjust saddle height etc. handlebars etc.etc.
I cannot believe that they expect to get a new bike and not have to adjust it to some degree, after a few miles on the road you discover the saddle etc is to far forward, back or what have you.
What happens if something goes awry while they are xx miles from home/bikeshop?
Just an observation, the quality of bike, cost and indeed the variety of choice today is unbelievably good compared to yesteryear.
I would have cheerfully raced on some of the bikes that today that are regarded as infra-dig.

fat lad in lycra

ive just been to my local halfords this morning as im really tempted to buy a new boardman, im a big bloke so wanted to try the xl out for size before i buy, anyway no xl on display but the assistant says we have some out the back, i asked could i try one, NO was the reply ??? WHY i asked ...because im not allowed to build one up if its not going on display.. ehhh but i may be buying it, sorry still cant build it up for you to try it out......6 boardman race bikes on display 3 large 3 small ????....brilliant customer service........i walked out :x

crescent

Definitely varies from branch to branch. I have found that the branches with a dedicated Bikehut tend to be more enthusiastic and knowledgeable. I have had excellent service from the Braehead branch in Glasgow where the bike department occupies an entire mezzanine floor in the shop. Other branches I have experienced in the area have a few bikes stuck in a corner behind the Magic Trees and don't really know or seem to care enough about them to provide decent service. I think a lot of people are under the impression that Boardman is a Halfords brand, they are not, they are sold through Halfords and are a brand in their own right and very good they are too as I and many on here will testify. When I bought my MTB however, they told me they were obliged to build it in the shop as Boardman insisted on it as part of the warranty. There were no problems with it and I had a good chat with the guy whilst he was doing it - seemed to know his stuff anyway. I also looked at the Carrera Fury - an excellent bike and well reputed on here. Carrera is Halford's own brand (made by Merida I believe?) and are decent bikes. Apollo and Trax are the other Halford's brands and are toys at best. I think a lot of people sometimes confuse the three brands though.

Monty Dog

There's a common misperception that bikes assembled in the far east for the big brands require minimum attention prior to being ridden. As most experienced mechanics will attest, if you're happy to ride with ungreased seatposts, BBs, headsets and the like, then go ahead but six months later when the seatpost won't bunch and a graunchy headset, you might have wished it was done properly when paying for repairs. A decent shop will attend to this stuff rather than believing it's been correctly assembled in the shop. Other things to consider that inner tubes aren't talc'ed and therefore stick to the inside of the tyres

chiark

fat lad in lycra wrote:

, i asked could i try one, NO was the reply ??? WHY i asked ...because im not allowed

And that, it a nutshell, is why I didn't buy from them.

ductions

A couple of months ago my right shifter on my Boardman Comp broke. I took it to my LBS who quoted about £200 (!) to replace the tiagra shifter . I then remembered my bike was still under warranty so I took it into Halfords. They agreed it was broken and would be replaced under warranty.

The guy I spoke with seemed very knowledgeable and was very nice.
He told me that because someone else had brought a bike that needed the left shifter replacing, they'd had to order both shifters and that I could have the right shifter. He said it would be ready in two days. I phoned back in 3 days to see if it was ready, but I was told that the part was on order. I went travelling but didn't hear from them until I phoned them after I got off my plane about a month later.

http://imgur.com/T0O5N

It may not be obvious in this photo, but they completely failed at aligning the new right shifter with the existing shifter. I'd phoned up prior to collecting it to ask whether the bike was ready to ride home, and indeed it was, apart from my right hand was all the way forward in relation to my left.

This was a repair under warranty, otherwise I'd have done it myself.

They also secured my bar tape with sellotape, and since I've had to take the bar tape off anyway, I've noticed they used sellotape to secure the cables. But I suppose that wasn't really part of the repair.

Yes the repair was free, but the warranty is part of the price of these bikes, and the reason I bought the bike new.

asturel131

Crescent wrote:

Carrera is Halford's own brand (made by Merida I believe?) and are decent bikes. Apollo and Trax are the other Halford's brands and are toys at best. I think a lot of people sometimes confuse the three brands though.

Carrera and Boardman bikes are sold by halfords but they dont manufacture them, people always slate both these brands (Carrera in particular) as halfords "own brand" but they are not. Not sure about apollo and Trax bikes though but both carrera and Boardman are independent companies and nothing to do with Halfords other than being sold by them, in Carreras case, exclusively within the UK.

I have nothing against the products they sell but I have had bad experiences of staff incompetence in the past and with mail order too.

MountainMonster

I find things like this quite funny. I'm sure most people in the world who have grown up a bit when things were done right, would realise small details are not such a problem and not worth slating places about.

Never heard anyone myself complain about having to do small adjustments on bikes themselves, after purchase. Its just a given fact. Next do you want to buy your mp3 player with your songs loaded on already, everything in life requires attention and work after purchasing. People just always feel so entitled these days.

cyberknight

fat lad in lycra wrote:

ive just been to my local halfords this morning as im really tempted to buy a new boardman, im a big bloke so wanted to try the xl out for size before i buy, anyway no xl on display but the assistant says we have some out the back, i asked could i try one, NO was the reply ??? WHY i asked ...because im not allowed to build one up if its not going on display.. ehhh but i may be buying it, sorry still cant build it up for you to try it out......6 boardman race bikes on display 3 large 3 small ????....brilliant customer service........i walked out :x

Least they had a small, i have had to order mine on spec as they do not stock smalls around here at all !! It is either emdiums or large.
Going by the specs on boardmans`s site the small is what i need and the medium felt to big.

Why a baordman you ask? because it is C2W and we can only use halfords and the boardman offers the most bang for buck and they are not goin to have a trek in etc etc for me to try .

fat lad in lycra

cyberknight wrote:

fat lad in lycra wrote:

ive just been to my local halfords this morning as im really tempted to buy a new boardman, im a big bloke so wanted to try the xl out for size before i buy, anyway no xl on display but the assistant says we have some out the back, i asked could i try one, NO was the reply ??? WHY i asked ...because im not allowed to build one up if its not going on display.. ehhh but i may be buying it, sorry still cant build it up for you to try it out......6 boardman race bikes on display 3 large 3 small ????....brilliant customer service........i walked out :x

Least they had a small, i have had to order mine on spec as they do not stock smalls around here at all !! It is either emdiums or large.
Going by the specs on boardmans`s site the small is what i need and the medium felt to big.

Why a baordman you ask? because it is C2W and we can only use halfords and the boardman offers the most bang for buck and they are not goin to have a trek in etc etc for me to try .

after all that today i asked a friend who actually works in the store (he started late today) to see the manager and ask why i couldnt see an XL bike, manager says theres not much call for XL boardmans so we dont build one up and they wont put one together in case i dont buy it and incase it gets damaged on the shop floor ????...what a great manager......chris boardman one customer lost

Cluelessbiker

Right I know this is an old thread, and when it comes to bikes I am somewhat in the dark. But after owning a a new Diamondback for all of two months, and having no luck with either reliability, or my inability to do simple tasks, I find myself wondering why I did not just go to Halfords in the first place and get one of their low tech monstrositys. You may think I am mad, thats ok, so do I, but i am beggining to think they cater for the niche of people who are zero technically minded, i.e. me! After spending a good £450 on this here Diamondback,it will soon find itself up for sale, for as wel as highligting my inability to maintian what some believe are simple mechanics, its also highligthed the fact that I would prefer an engine in my two wheels rather than just me. For what a bike essentaily is, there is no way any bike should cost more than £200, they should be as low tech as possible. Sadly I will be ditchin the high teck Diamondback for my old Marin clunker, complete with V brakes, unsafe riding position and bad design. I hate the fact that i have so disaterously been put off cycling, but that sadly is the case, now I wil have to take up walking, which is something I hate even more.

Ringo 68

I think most people realise that some of the bikes Halfords sell are pretty damn good. I don't think the service you get off them is always up to scratch but at my Halfords they have at least one lad who really knows his bikes.

I have a Boardman Comp and when I bought it last year there was noway I was going to get a bike with such a good spec for the money I paid for it.

No complaints from me regards Halfords at all.

whojanicanackerov

Flamez wrote:

I bought a Boardman Team road bike yesterday from halfords.

10% off, a great bike and well set up. Halford's staff now receive training from Boardmans' for maintainance of their bikes.

In my opinion they are as good as anywhere else...

have you visited tredz recently?

Who told you that???

shouldbeinbed

cyberknight wrote:

Why a baordman you ask? because it is C2W and we can only use halfords and the boardman offers the most bang for buck and they are not goin to have a trek in etc etc for me to try .

have you asked them? We went with a different C2W scheme right at the end but Halfords were favourite for a long time & my local branch (Oldham) - pretty good, 7/10 overall - were happy to see about bringing in other brands for my voucher - I was inquiring about a Brompton at one point and the lad I was discussing it with clearly knew his stuff. Whether they would have managed to source one into the store is a moot point but they were willing to try and knew what one was, maybe no biggy to the London set and knowledgeable bikers but in Oldham you've more chance of seeing someone riding Shergar than a Brommy.

The established LBS I had to use in the end, failed utterly to spot the faulty schwalbe marathon tyre (6 inches of bead missing) despite it violently blowing off the rim repeatedly and trying to tell me it was because the tyre was obviously slightly the wrong size as a manufacturing defect and a couple of extra later of rim tape would do the trick. They'd only got a combined 60 years experience of building bikes between the 2 of them! THAT is one shop I have never set foot into again.

thescouselander

I think Halfords is ok to be honest. Yes, there are some numpties working there but there are some very able staff too. I remember taking my old Carrera into the Bristol (Brislington) store not long after I bought it because the rear wheel had gone out of true. The guy who served me sorted it extremely quickly - in a matter of a few minutes. I thought there's no way that's going to be right but it was absolutely spot on and stayed that way until I got rid of the bike a few thousand miles later.

I've also bought a few bits and pieces from Halfords at other times. The range can be limited but the prices seem reasonable.

I've heard horror stories about various local bike stores. One of my mates went to a local store for a few things and the assistants were slagging him off for riding a Specialized bike - right in front of his face. Apparently only ***** ride Specialized bikes. Make of that what you will.

BobbyTrigger

i bought from halfords about 5 years ago (a local super store). service wasnt great, bike wasnt right (gears were all over the place) and this was after being told i had to wait to pick it up so that they could set it up (clearly they hadnt). took it to my LBS to sort for a tenner - sorted.

i got a mint bike super cheap. thats Halfords - you might get lucky with good mechanics in your local store you might not - its not a bike shop its a woolworths for cars. take it for what it is - a chain store where you'll get a bargain (or some over priced tat).

the thing i dont like is their sales policy of selling sh*t bikes for silly prices - was £400 now £200 etc. As for people with bad LBS stories, well, i must be fortunate as (of a few i've tried locally) mine are champion.

just to add, i dont use halfords for servicing or parts - but i'd buy a bike from them (and take it straight to my lbs for a once over )

NITR8s

Just want to add my experinces of Halfords,

First, after buying my bike by mail order the gears were not setup correctly. In my haste as its right next to my work I took it into Halfords(Gasp,shock,horror). The guy their was extremely helpfully, sorted out the gears within in flash and new exactly what he was doing. The best part he didnt even charge me.

Secound, I was in pain after long cycles and after the excellent first experince i had I called them up to see if I could come in and see if i needed a shorter stem etc. The advice I had was sounds like you need a new bike, come on in and we can sell you a new one. I am sure you can appreciate my response to that comment, never been back since.

cbriddon

I bought a Boardman Hybrid Comp last April on the Cycle 2 Work scheme. I knew nothing about bikes back then and the staff in the Queens Road Sheffield branch were really helpful.

Since then I have really got into cycling and have done about 3000 miles on my Boardman. I've broken spokes, broken a shifter and even cracked the frame and it was all fixed for free (apart from the price of the spokes) by the extremely helpful knowledgable staff.

This month I went back to the same store and bought a Boardman Road Team. Once again I got excellent advice and friendly service and I am sure I will get just as good a service for the new bike as I did for the Hybrid.

Yes the stores vary and Halfords should really sort out their recruitment policy but when they are good they are easily as good as any LBS. You also get the bonus of buying the excellent Boardman bikes for a price that no LBS could match on a spec/price comparison.