Halfords

[Mayniac]

I collected a Boardman Comp-SC from them last Saturday. Very friendly and helpful staff who seemed to know their stuff but it's the St Paul's branch which I think may technically still be classed as a Bikehut. They have been helpful in the past and most of the staff are keen cyclists, so I suppose it just depends on which branch you use...

When I ordered my Boardman Comp-SC (fixie) on the C2W, the in store cycling expert asked, 'Wossup mate, don't you like gears?'

 

[Sittingduck]

When I ordered my Boardman Comp-SC (fixie) on the C2W, the in store cycling expert asked, 'Wossup mate, don't you like gears?'

Yup - just goes to show how it differs from store to store. Spoke to a couple of the guys there for quite a while and they were pretty knowlegable and enthusiastic cyclists.

 

[summerdays]

If you were invited on to a really hip, happening bike ride that was sponsored by Halfords, would you be less inclined to go?

Wouldn't bother me who was sponsoring it if it appealed to me I'd go.

To send poorly or dangerously set up bikes out at the point of sale is just unforgiveable; no amount of "bring it back and we'll sort it out for you " will do. They MUST get it right first time. I use the fact that my bike was well set up as a foil for the countless "my forks fell off" stories.

That is the the most important thing they need to do - even if they sell horrible lumps called Apollo - they need to be safe lumps of metal and plastic.

 

[Hacienda71]

My lasting memory of Halfords was trying to buy a spacer for a 7 speed cassette on an 8 speed hub. Nothing strange about that, person serving was very knowledgeable but didn't have the part. The fact he/she was a 6'5" transsexual just made it all slightly surreal. Each to their own but it was all a bit odd. I suppose the fact they new what a spacer for 7 speed cassette is shows not all of them are inept.

 

[cyberknight]

My local reasonable sized halfords is ok, the guy working there is a MTBer in his spare time .
He does know what he is up too and even gave me some free spacers when i bought a shorter stem that was not as thick as the other one,i was passing and i thought why not chance it .
Costs are set by central office so i cant blame him for that.Waiting lists? well i guess they have to justify there jobs by how many bikes get sold and have to prioritize new sales rather than repairs.

My LBS will always get 1st shout for stuff i cant do myself as i prefer to support a small local company than a chain that will not miss my few quid when i need spares,that said halfords were the only shop to sell conti gator skins or anything remotely decent fairy resistant when i needed then in a rush .

 

[Armegatron]

Bought a Brooks saddle from Halfords online. Fitted it and its lop-sided. Went to the local store Monday and the guy was quite helpful, he is going to call up relavent people to arrange a new one to be sent to me or the store and when that one arrives I return the faulty one. He said if he doesnt have any luck then I should buy another one, then return the faulty one to him for a refund when the new one arrives.

 

[summerdays]

OK just this morning saw a kid arriving at school having problems stopping so offered to have a quick look at his brakes ... neither brake worked properly - one not at all, one just slightly touched the rims, and the levers touched the handlebars. Then he commented on how he liked his brand new bike (though it had been back several times to Halfords already despite being only 2 weeks old).

 

[upsidedown]

Needed new pedals in a hurry so went to Halfords. They had a pair of M520s in their glass cabinet priced at £42.00, got them from CRC for about £17.00

Conversely i got a good deal on some Topeak luggage, buy 2 get the 3rd free, so i suppose as has been said before, if you know what you're after and know the price then they're ok.

 

[Black Sheep]

I met a cyclist standing beside the road near Elmers End RAB (Spring 2009). The chainwheel had come off her new Carrera. She too had taken the Safety Certificate at face value.

I accept that there are probably decent individuals working in Halfords, but BikeHut is dangerous, unless you know your way around a bike and can sort out their slapdashedness yourself. Their couldn't-give-a-shoot attitude is compounded by issuing meaningless bits of paper that mislead people into thinking their bike is safe. All the more galling that this has obviously been done in response to concerns about their poor practise, but they haven't given the staff the right training or time to make it worthwhile. I await the day that they are sued.

my experience is the opposite, - time scale, last 7 years,

The bike hut have been very helpful and useful (wakefield, brighton and coventry) in fixing things, often small get me home repairs free of charge and also advice and parts at different times.

Halfords themselves have been nothing but useless, having told me that the rear differential of my hardrock is broken he was not able to order me a new one in and couldn't understand why.

I have never bought a bike off halfords - well, i bought one that had no brakes and was a warranty return I bought for parts.

 

[punkypossum]

Halfords - personal experience...well. I bought a Raleigh Tundra from them a few years back, my partner bought the same bike at the same time. I was just getting back into cycling and admittedly didn't have a clue, however, the bike went back because the gears were slipping badly. I didn't know how to adjust them, so thought they could sort it. It came back out, the gears were still slipping, but not as bad so I ignored it till the 6 week service...The bike came out with the worse than before. At this point, I had pinpointed it to the rear derailleur, which I did point out to them, the front was fine. The mechanic was adamant it was the front, his way of determining this was to just keep running the chain at high speed over all the back cogs and wait for it to jump off (this was actually witnessed by someone from the old C+ forum, as I found out afterwards). He then attacked the front derailleur with a pair of pliers and bent it outwards as far as it would go and said this would fix the problem, the rubbing brakes were adjusted by hitting the pivots on one side with a hammer. I was getting seriously concerned at this point and decided to just take the bike away before it got subjected to more torture. The gears now slipped at the front as well, but worse than that, the bike started to make a very loud groaning noise from the front end that vibrated all the way through the frame...after trying to lube everything I could think of, I realised the front reflector had gone missing, and where it had been, the seal round the headset (this was a quill stem, so not quite sure what exactly it was, but some round rubber bit round there) had disappeared as well. I took it back to Halfrauds, pointed out the problem and was advised it "must have blown away in the wind". He then took a screwdriver to a nearby appolo bike, used it to poke out said bit of rubber and stuck it on my bike...it was about 2mm wider in diameter, so just flapped loosely round the stem, not fulfiling any function whatsoever...At this point, I thought I'd just take it to the lbs as clearly I wasn't getting very far. They happily advised said piece of rubber was an integral part of the headset and couldn't be replaced unless I bought a completely new one, also the front derailler was shot after the pliers treatment and various other bits I can't remember were wrong with the bike -to put it right would have basically been almost the cost of a new one (we are talking a cheap bike here). So back to Halfords, and after a lot of arguing, requesting the manager, threatening with trading standard, etc. they actually offered an exchange. So that was me sorted - new bike went straight to lbs to be checked over, and apart from them not having lubed anything on it and forgotten to tighten a few bolts, it was fine.

After all the problems I'd had, my partner decided to skip the free service and get hers done at the lbs, it was groaning badly at this point as well - closer inspection by lbs revealed it had been built with most of the bearings missing. Admittedly, a manufacturing fault, but one that halfords should have picked up on. She decided she couldn't face the shop again and just footed the bill at the lbs.

Other people's experiences - they all seem to run along the same lines, although it appears to depend very much on location. Friend bought a carrera subway there last year and they didn't have the women's 16 in, which is what she needed. However, the guy told her it was a proper girls bike with a step through frame, which she really didn't want (and which is blatantly untrue), and convinced her that the men's 18, which they did have in would be fine. She bought it - the setup is odd to put it mildly, the bike is big enough for me to ride comfortably and it gives her backache, but hey... They sold another friend a 700cc tube for a 26inch bike and said it would sort of fold up inside the tyre and be fine...

As for the racing team, I know they are quite good (or were last year, no idea what they are up to now), but to be quite honest, I find it hard to develop any enthusiasm for them - the sight of the Halfords logo is enough to put me off. Having said that, they are good if you need a tube or something on a Sunday afternoon when everything else is shut....

Sorry about the lengthy moan - having said that, I would consider buying a bike from them again, as long as it's a boardman, gt, carrera, etc and as long as they aren't the ones building it!

 

[mark barker]

I have some sympathy for Halfords, as most of the comments made here (and also on car related forums) are negative, but given their market share there must be far more satisfied customers than disatisfied!

Personally I feel that Halfords shot themselves in the foot with "Bikehut" & "Ripspeed" as they created "specialists" that weren't! (I should add at this point I was employed by Halfords 10 years ago to train audio specialists). Most of the specialists were employed as they had a genuine interest in the field, but the people interviewing them (branch managers) had no idea what they were talking about, so a BMX enthusiat could well be the specialist and be expected to know all about road bikes!

So, having said all that, would I buy a bike from them? I guess it depends what kind of bike I was looking for. If it was a simple, basic spec, budget bike then yes, I'd consider them, but if I was looking for something a little better then I'd be off to the LBS everytime.

 

[GazK]

My lasting memory of Halfords was trying to buy a spacer for a 7 speed cassette on an 8 speed hub. Nothing strange about that, person serving was very knowledgeable but didn't have the part. The fact he/she was a 6'5" transsexual just made it all slightly surreal. Each to their own but it was all a bit odd. I suppose the fact they new what a spacer for 7 speed cassette is shows not all of them are inept.

what, all transsexuals or all Halfords staff? sorry, couldn't resist

 

[dellzeqq]

Sorry about the lengthy moan - having said that, I would consider buying a bike from them again, as long as it's a boardman, gt, carrera, etc and as long as they aren't the ones building it!

on the contrary - thankyou for taking the time.

 

[meenaghman]

Halfords need to think about their unique selling point.. I gather that is they put the cheap bike together for you.. as distinct from you buying similar from Argos/Tesco/Asda. So in light of the comments here (and my own experience years ago .. I bought one of the barbie doll bikes.. thing is the stabilisers were adjusted in such a way that the back wheel was off the ground) I'd say they're not doing a great job.
Their online site isn't much better. I live in Northern Ireland. It wasn't clear at the time that delivery was 15quid. I wanted a tribag but one with a cover and where I live now there's no Halfords near me. Halfords was the only place had them in stock, so i ordered online. The delivery charge was omitted when I placed the order and I thought fine.. they have places in Belfast so I presume no extra charges for NI. Was rung up about 2 days later, and it was explained to me that the item (13.00) would incur a 15.00 delivery charge and asked if I wanted to go ahead with the purchase. I said no, and the guy said he'd cancel the order. About 5 days later the bag arrived and my a/c was debited 28 pounds.

 

[orienteer]

As a cycle instructor mainly in local schools, I have been appalled at the state of some brand new bikes from Halfords that kids have turned up on. Brakes not adjusted or even working, for example, and over or under sized for the rider.

Hence I would never recommend them to anyone for anything to do with bikes, and certainly wouldn't risk their car parts fitting service!