My Halfords saga...
Here's my complaint to Halfords and their response:
Dear Sir,
I am employed by Network Rail, and recently arranged to buy a bike through the Cycle to Work scheme, which Network Rail operate in co-operation with your company. Throughout this process I have been given the impression that some of your staff are completely incompetent, and are responsible for some appalling customer service.
The Cycle to Work scheme section of the company website says that if you do not stock a particular brand of bike you may be able to source it. I was looking for a folding bike, as I travel by train a lot, and I found that
the Dahon Jack bike would be ideal for my needs. I contacted my local
Halfords to see if they could get it, and was told no, they could not, and
that I had to phone the Cycle to Work scheme helpline, and that they would order it. I called the helpline, and was told that they did not order it, and that the local store must do this. They did give me a price of £440,
and confirmed that, yes, Halfords could supply this bike. I was told to
order sufficient vouchers, and take them to the store and place my order.
I then ordered Cycle to Work vouchers to the value of £450. On 8th August 2009 I took these to my local store and I was told again that I must order through the helpline. I insisted otherwise, and after checking, the staff found that they were wrong, and I was correct. I then placed the order and was told that the bike would be delivered in seven to ten days. In the above, and most of the following I dealt with a chap called EMPLOYEE X, who I found to be utterly incompetent and unreliable.
About a week later I dropped in to the shop to see how the order was
progressing. I was told by EMPLOYEE X that there was nothing showing as arrived in the system, and that he would call Dahon and confirm a delivery date, and call me later that day to keep me informed. At the same time I ordered a new rear mech for my sons bike, and he took the order for this as well.
Over the course of the next few weeks the following pattern was repeated. I would call the shop, and would be given various stories about the delay, initially that he had been unable to contact the supplier, this then changed to a story that the bike was being shipped from the far east and may take up to six weeks. Of my spare part there was no sign, and EMPLOYEE X failed to return any calls.
Eventually after five weeks I had had enough and spoke to EMPLOYEE Y, the assistant manager in the store, who has been very helpful. After apparently himself being given the runaround by EMPLOYEE X, he looked in to the situation and found that my order had never been placed with the supplier. He contacted Fisher, the importer, who said that they were no longer importing that model of bike and that they could no longer supply the bike. They had one in stock, a small frame, which was unsuitable. As I was using the cycle to work scheme I could not top up the vouchers with cash, and was therefore limited to a budget of £450. EMPLOYEE Y found a replacement bike, which is currently on order. I have taken it only because I am stuck with £450 which I cannot return, nor take to another retailer.
EMPLOYEE X never returned any calls about my replacement part, and eventually I went to a local sports shop who had the right part on the shelf and purchased it from them. I was unable to fit the part, due to a damaged thread on the frame, and took it to Bikehut where I was told it would be seen to next day. On phoning back a few days later it was my misfortune to again have to deal with EMPLOYEE X, who again regaled me with a story of why a repair hadn't been carried out, which bore no relation to why I had put the bike in in the first place. He told me that the disc brakes on the bike were defective, and would need replaced (as they were beyond repair), at a total cost of £70. As this was a boys bike I decided against ordering these parts, as I could buy a new bike for a little more. On collecting the bike I had a look at the brakes, and repaired them myself in around twenty minutes.
I am absolutely furious that I was told that these parts were defective, when they were clearly not, and I could have wasted £70, or more on a new bike, for no reason other than your staff being unable to do what appears to be a basic job.
Similarly, a damaged wheel which I took in for repair on Friday 11th
September and was promised would be repaired that night, or at the latest Monday, was still unrepaired on Wednesday of the following week. I was given a free replacement wheel, although your staff were unable to manage to fit a quick release mechanism to it, which the original one had.
On 25th September I called Fisher, the Dahon importer, and asked if it was
correct that they were no longer importing Dahon bikes. I was told that
this is the case, and that their last Dahon Jack in a medium frame was sold ten days previously. He confirmed to me that had my order been placed on 8th August that they DID have stock of the bike I ordered and it would have been dispatched with 24 HOURS, not SIX WEEKS! As you can now guess, I am bloody angry about this whole farce. I have been mucked about from day one as far as I can see. I have now had to accept a lower specification bike to what I ordered, I was left with a pile of gift vouchers I did not need as balance, and I am supposed to just accept this! It was two months to the day (8th October) that I took delivery of my bike, which is simply unnaceptable.
I am alerting you to the above, and await your response with great
anticipation.
Yours Sincerely,
Mr Grendel
Halfords reply:
Dear Mr Grendel,
Thank you for your email.
Please accept my apologies for the delay in our response.
I am sorry to read of the poor service you received from our XXXXXX store.
It is always disheartening to hear of situations where our customers
experience additional inconvenience and feel let down. I wish to assure you that Halfords endeavours to maintain a good relationship and will always seek to use customer responses as a way of improving our customer service.
All concerns relating to our stores are logged onto a central database and
the information regarding your experience is made available for the Area
Managers to read. As our Store Managers are 100% responsible for the
service in their stores, we also make the information available for them to
view on our stores intranet system. This method is proven to be very
successful in highlighting any shortfalls to the line managers responsible.
They are then able to take any action they feel necessary with the
individuals concerned.
I would like to assure you that it is never our intention to cause distress
or inconvenience to any of our customers and although mistakes do happen, we recognise that it is how they are dealt with which is important. Your complaint has been logged against the store concerned and I am confident that your local Store Manager can resolve any outstanding issues.
We do ask that if you wish to discuss your concern or specific requirements in detail that you contact your local store manager directly in the first instance. Unfortunately our stores do not have e-mail facility but can be contacted on xxxx xxxxxx.
I appreciate you taking the time to highlight this problem and I hope it
hasn't deterred you from shopping with us again. It is only through
feedback from our customers that we are able to identify areas where we are falling short of our customers’ expectations and can redress them.
Please accept my sincere apologies once again.
Kind Regards,
XXXXX XXXXXXXXX
Customer Service Advisor
13/10/2009 09:13 <
customer.services@halfords.co.uk>
cc
Subject
Complaint- Bikehut-
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