Seem like they’re still a shower of twunts. Ordered a light last week, showed it’d be available this week. Logged in to track order, item now expected in December. No message to ask if that’s ok or want to cancel, let alone an apology. This is to replace an order which just failed to turn up and I had to use paypal to extract a refund. Don’t think I’ll be giving them a third chance!

I ordered a pair of elastomersfor a Thudbuster last Wednesday. In stock they said. Thusday I got a mail saying they would not be in stock till tomorrow. At least they have offered to send them out next day delivery.

We shall see.

I don’t buy from them on principle.  They offer good (typically the best) prices and seem to sell everything whereas in reality they seem to hold very little stock and it is a lottery whether you will get what you ordered.

I just pay a bit more and get stuff from a shop that will actually deliver the item and save me a few weeks of wasted time.  Always tempting though as they appear to have items that others don’t offer for sell (for a reason!)

They are drop shippers but don’t make that clear in their advertising.  I left them bad feedback and to be fair the MD person contacted me and tried to defend himself and his company.

Don’t think I’ll be giving them a third chance!

Your mistake was the second chance

I left them bad feedback and to be fair the MD person contacted me and tried to defend himself and his company.

How exactly did that work? We know we don’t have stuff in stock and just hope we can ship it in time before you complain?

After finding out a bag I ordered was going to be 10 days I ordered one from Silverfish and it arrived within 2 days for about £1 more.

The Cardiff tredz store is 500 yards away from my work and I pass it every day.  Seeing as they are open late and usually the cheapest place in town you would think I would use them a lot.  I never go in there as they have dicked me around too many times with “We have that item in our Swansea store, our van goes there every day so we’ll have that item for you tomorrow.”  It has never been there when they said it would be.  Worst was a pair of sealskinz socks that took 3 weeks for them to fetch, I may have been slightly unpolite when they phoned me to say it had arrives as I was at that point on the biking holiday I’d ordered them for.

Even in person at the store they are a shower of shite.

Edit: just spotted how old this thread is!  Had completely forgotten about the shorts fiasco I mentioned on the first page.  I might print this thread out and drop it through their letterbox tonight on the way home, just for stupid giggles.

If an item is shown as being in stock and I order it at 9.30am at the very least I’d expect it to be dispatched the following day, not two days later (most places would manage the same day).  He seemed to think I was being unreasonable!

He seemed to think I was being unreasonable!

Did he admit it wasn’t in stock?

Used them twice, both items delivered on time no problems.

Ive not used them since I had loads of issues after spending several hundred in one order on multiple items 2+years ago. I now disregard the ads when they pop up on Google if I’m searching for something and have unsubscribed from the email etc.

I’d advise others to do the same, worst bike shop on the Internet imo.

I’ve had some long delivery times, but they’ve been great with two items I’ve sent for warranty.  Quick responses, good comms and both items sorted in a short timescale.

I guess I’ve been lucky. ISTR ordering gloves, tyres and shorts from them all without trouble, however never massively urgently so if stuff’s turned up within a week I’m happy if it’s cheap. However I will exercise caution and I do have my own supplier shit list that isn’t hard to qualify for once I’ve been messed around.

Bought my winter road bike form them last year, in between me paying for it, and it arriving, they had reduced it down by £100.

I rang them and said I thought that was a bit tight, they agreed, and gave me a £100 refund

I can’t complain about them..

Used once and won’t touch again – got caught out with the in stock, good price but not actually available (and that was after phoning to confirm stock). Couple of days later, the light I had tried to buy was still showing as being in stock.

Did he admit it wasn’t in stock?

No.

@Rockhopper genuine LOL at the balls to admit they are just shit rather than blame not holding stock!!

Bought a frame from them that was advertised £400 cheaper than I could buy it at trade, plus they were offering 3 years interest free, it would have been rude not to…

tredz = Halfords, tells you all you need to know, see also wheelie & cycle republic & possibly Evans soon

tredz = Halfords, tells you all you need to know, see also wheelie & cycle republic & possibly Evans soon

I think Halfords tends to do quite well knowing what they have in stock

tredz = Halfords, tells you all you need to know,

Does it? I’ve bought tons of stuff from Halfords and never had a problem.

Halfords just seem like an easy target for a bit of a kicking from the bike snobs, to be honest. My first mountain bike was a £200 Apollo that I rode for thousands of miles without any problems at all. Great bike, but eventually got nicked from a bike shed at uni.

I agree,Halfords are ok in my book.

I actually trust them more than a lbs near me…

I have tried to use Tredz loads of times but have never actually had anything delivered. They obviously have a very good SEO person as they normally come up in the first few options in google searches, the prices are fair and the website easy to navigate.

Unfortunately that’s where the good stuff ends, when it comes to getting the goods it all falls down. The goods are never in stock as their site said they were, they cant get them and they cant give you a realistic date when the goods will be with you. You then have to fight for a refund.

Their payment system appears to be borked for me, won’t let me use Paypal, which is probably a good thing, judging by some of the experiences above.

Halfords just seem like an easy target for a bit of a kicking from the bike snobs, to be honest

my opinion based on working closely with the guys that help to run it and their experiences of trying to sort out the problems their own stores & other stores they own.

you can’t talk about tredz etc without talking about Halfords, they are the same company

Halfords just seem like an easy target for a bit of a kicking from the bike snobs, to be honest.

And what’s wrong with bike snobs wanting decent service? Halfords online orders are fine – servicing and bike builds leave a lot to be desired from my personal experience (as a bike snob).

As I said on the first page, I’ve use Tredz a quite a few times and they’ve been fine. My RM was £1000s under RRP, plus there was a discount voucher, plus I have to send the Reverb back under warranty, plus the frame had a suspected crack under the BB, replaced without quibble. The only issue was the replacement frame was missing the bottle cage bolts… so they posted a set to me.

Recently ordered a Minion DHR (which made DezbJr very happy) – cheap from Tredz, delivery was quick.

I’m sure people have had perfect service every time from Merlin, but a mate of mine didn’t. Yet I didn’t start an abusive thread on the internet, I just let Merlin sort the issue out (eventually).

Same as above, always come up cheap for bits and pieces, more so when using the £5 off £3o spend.

I  e always found them to be good to be honest!

Like all shops Halfords relies on the quality of the staff bu my experiences with Halfords have all been great.  My local one the guys are knowledgeable and helpful  One in Elgin saved a tour for me a few years ago by finding some brake pads for me.  Not something they stocked but had ordered for someone who had not collected it so they gave me his and reorder for him

Bought a bike off them a few weeks ago, very quick service, was well ‘built’ I’m more than happy with them.

Saying you have something in stock and not doing so, taking your money then ordering as tredz and other stores do is unethical in my book and arguably illegal.  For that reason I will not deal with companies who do this as their business model

Unethical because it allows them to undercut the folk who do hold stock because they do not have the money tid up in the stock

To all those who think Tredz is shite based on internet shopping experience: You should try going in.

I live fairly close to the Cardiff branch, and it’s even worse going in.

I suppose they are what a certain constituency of people think a good bike shop is like, due to the “high volume” atmosphere in-store.

I ordered a High Roller ll last Wednesday ..they gave me a discount code to use with my order and delivered through Royal Mail on Saturday ..I wasn’t in ( not their fault ) and have collected it this morning ..

First class service in my estimation

Unethical because it allows them to undercut the folk who do hold stock because they do not have the money tid up in the stock

Agree.  They could just make it clear that they operate in that way and at least the customer would know, i.e. big bold capitals at top of site “We don’t hold stock and completion of your order is based on our supplier having the item.  Your order may be cancelled or delayed by many weeks because of this”

Can see why they may not want to make it that clear…

my opinion based on working closely with the guys that help to run it and their experiences of trying to sort out the problems their own stores & other stores they own.

But how about your buying experience from Halfords – not the backroom stuff & the guys that help to run it which is largely irrelevant to most people.

I’ve bought tons of stuff from Halfords over the years & have only had one recent problem – that was actually an issue with Tacx not putting skewers in with their Flow Smart trainers. After realising that all their boxes of Flow Smarts were missing the skewers, the guy on the shop floor just opened a different model of Tacx trainer that did have the skewer in the box & gave me that one. No questions, no quibble; problem solved in <5 mins.

In my experience, buying stuff online from Halfords is always quick & easy & ready for collection when they say it will be, with text confirmation & I’ve even had phone calls from staff to confirm the items are there.

you can’t talk about tredz etc without talking about Halfords, they are the same company

Just because they are owned by the same people, it doesn’t mean they are ‘the same’.
As an indirect example; First Direct repeatedly do well in customer service surveys, while HSBC don’t. First Direct is owned by HSBC. Just because HSBC own First Direct, they are not the same company.