Cycle to work through Halfords - a cautionary tale

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Cycle to work through Halfords - a cautionary tale

42 posts & 23 voices | Started 1 year ago by BoardinBob | Latest reply from birky

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sniff - Member

I'm with you BB.

I took a Giant into Dales before (they are a Giant dealer as well). They were all happy to help out with a brake issue I had until they found out I never bought it from them. They then give me some high horse bull about oh you bought it online watch yourself - I never even wanted it fixed under warranty I just wanted to have them fix it and was happy to pay.

I've not been back when buying other bikes.

I wonder if they advise folk buying bikes from their website about any future warranty work. It certainly not mentioned in their terms and conditions.

Posted 1 year ago #
Sanny - Member

So you bought your bike from another shop then get upset when your LBS gives you a 25% discount on a part? Fair play to Dales for offering you a discount and getting you the part. Is it that unreasonable for an LBS to give a better deal to customers who bought their bikes from them? Reading this thread would actually encourage me to shop there more often, not less.

Posted 1 year ago #
BoardinBob - Member

So you bought your bike from another shop then get upset when your LBS gives you a 25% discount on a part? Fair play to Dales for offering you a discount and getting you the part. Is it that unreasonable for an LBS to give a better deal to customers who bought their bikes from them? Reading this thread would actually encourage me to shop there more often, not less.

Sigh.

That's not my gripe.

My gripe is being told it was free, with no caveats around any requirements for it being free, then as soon as "halfords" was mentioned they did an about turn.

And as for

Is it that unreasonable for an LBS to give a better deal to customers who bought their bikes from them?

Will Dales only honour Specialized warranties for bikes that were sold by them? Oh and you missed the bit where I said I had bought my two previous bikes from Dales.

Posted 1 year ago #
bikebouy - Member

"Cycle to work through Halfords - a cautionary tale"

Do they open the front and rear doors for you each time??

hahaha

Sorry, had to be done..

Posted 1 year ago #
Sanny - Member

To be fair to Dales, I suspect that if you had said at the start that you hadn't bought the bike from them, they would have sought to charge you. It's not unreasonable for them to have assumed (albeit wrongly) that you had bought the bike from them.

As for only honouring warranties for bikes bought from them, that's not just cycle shops but retail in general. If you bought a camera online and it developed a fault, would you go back to the online supplier or your local branch of Jessops who you didn't buy it from? There's no difference. I fail to see how having bought something from a shop previously creates a moral imperative for them to process a warranty claim on a part for a bike that you bought elsewhere.

Sorry BB but I reckon Dales have played pretty fair with you on this. I'm fairly certain that if you had a problem with the bikes you did buy from them, they'd go the extra mile for you.

Posted 1 year ago #
antigee - Member

That's utter crap, of course a wholesaler can decide who they do and don't supply

under anti-competition law i don't believe that is the case - a company has to have an acceptable reason to refuse to supply goods - in practise this is easier than it sounds because don't think there has been that much activity on the topic excepting the supermarkets and some branded goods - in the case of the bike industry the standard position seems to be that certain suppliers will only supply though outlets that meet their service criteria and offer an extensive range of complimentary products all dressed up to some extent in safesty and warranty support etc Think it is pretty obvious which brands play this hardline with retailers as the products are only available thru a designated network and prices are always list or minor reductions only at sale times/last years models - interesting to see the offers that retailers make to maintain list price on some brands - free this free that but nothing off list - now that to me is a pretty clear sign of market abuse - retailers across the board for a particular brand offering any alternative they can to appear competitive without reducing the actual price
Is it in the interest of consumers? I'm don't think so - what it means is that someone at the distributors picks and chooses what LBS (or usually larger LBS) to support and in effect forces the consumer to use them if they want their product - does it maintain quality service - No in my experience - does it maintain pricing Yes

Posted 1 year ago #
birky - Member

I do wonder if it would have been a different response if I'd bought the bike from a Specialized dealer rather than Halfords. Here's a genuine question, what would happen if you bought a bike from a Specialized store in the south of England then moved to Glasgow and needed some warranty work done by the local dealer? Would you honestly be expected to return the bike to the original dealer? According to the warranty yes, but in reality that's a daft expectation.

I had this when the chainstay cracked on my Trek Fuel (bought online as they were doing 0% finance). Was told by Trek I could return it to the original shop and get it sorted, parts and labour FOC or take it to local Trek dealer and get the parts free but pay for the labour. Chose LBS as it seemed less hassle and labour was only £40.

Posted 1 year ago #

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