Halfords...

[Pikey]

Couldnt tighten the lock nut and cone properly on my rear wheel cos my crappy cone spanners wouldnt reach after stripping the bike to get 800 miles worth of fetid crap out of the bearings. And was a bit worried about the highly evolved ecosystem that fell out of the headset.

LBS was shut...

Feeling impatient...

Took it to halfords...

Its probably a leftfield thing to say, and seems to be going against the grain of internet posts on the subject, but the whole experience was outstanding.

They looked over and serviced the parts mentioned, then the whole bike, and replaced the worn chain that I had been planning to fix next month. Cleaned the bike, put some sort of shiny wax or gt85 on it (or maybe i need to scrape the crap off her more often), indexed the shifters i put on it last night(without me asking them too!) were really helpful and polite, even complemented me on the bike.

All for twenty quid, and i can take it back in any time this year for a free labour service.

I know I should be supporting independant lbs's and it will anger the anti Halfords brigade but the Trowbridge branch needs a mention for this.
Short of making me a brew and picking the bike up from my house, it was all excellent.

 

[jonathanw]

I think with Halfords, it's more to do with the individual who works on your bike. Get a guy who knows what he's doing and this is generally the experience. Not every branch has one of these guys.

 

[growingvegetables]

Not every branch has one of these guys.

And, sadly, not every branch has a manager who respects these guys and the little team of excellence they've built up.

 

[biggs682]

went to local halfords and wanted to borrow a set of calipers to check some dimensions , after a glazed over expression i got told cant find them , so out came the engineers ruler , which helped a bit , but surely they should have some calipers

 

[Mozzy]

Have to say similar for the Bridgwater branch. The lad (well he's probably 40) is brilliant. Cycles himself hundreds of miles a week with his lad so yes (to a dummy like me ... when it comes to bicycles) he certainly knows his stuff and attention to detail with my own is second to none. I just don't like big businesses much; none of em really. Bring back the days of the local corner shop run by Mr Arkwright I say. Ooops, sorry, I wandered off piste there

 

[screenman]

Watched a Halfords fitter banging a 27.2 into a 27 with a large hammer once. Also watched one fit a headlamp bulb in a car whilst holding the bulb in his fingers, saw one lose the radio code whilst fitting a battery on a car. Must say most Halfrauds guys make entertaining if not annoying watching.

But then again do not get me started on the pricing, things like spoke key £5 inner tube £5, and then they say price match.

 

[Cubist]

They're still good for a set of loose bearings, a gear cable and a pack of cable ends on a Sunday though........... and after spending hours scouring t' internet for a cheap set of rotor bolts, ordered some online and paid about 4 quid, saw them in little packets at Halfords for half of that. And they've always got GT85 at £2.99.

Inner tubes are expensive until you realise they are a only a quid more than the LBS charges, you can get them at 7pm and for 90 percent of the year they are on sale at 3 for the price of two.

Mind you, there are always horror stories. My Aunt Phylis bobbed into Halford for a spark plug wrench last Sunday, and by Wednesday evening she had to spend two hours digging her ferret out of a warren behind the house.

 

[Titan yer tummy]

......Took it to halfords...

Its probably a leftfield thing to say, and seems to be going against the grain of internet posts on the subject, but the whole experience was outstanding.

They looked over and serviced the parts mentioned, then the whole bike, and replaced the worn chain that I had been planning to fix next month. Cleaned the bike, put some sort of shiny wax or gt85 on it (or maybe i need to scrape the crap off her more often), indexed the shifters i put on it last night(without me asking them too!) were really helpful and polite, even complemented me on the bike.

All for twenty quid, and i can take it back in any time this year for a free labour service.

I know I should be supporting independant lbs's and it will anger the anti Halfords brigade but the Trowbridge branch needs a mention for this.
Short of making me a brew and picking the bike up from my house, it was all excellent.

I believe u have to say it as you find it.

You have had good experience, and that's great and credit to them.

I have had a bad deal from them in the past which I have moaned about all over the Internet. As has been rightly pointed out; it's individuals which make or break a company's reputation.

TyT