Just an observation,but there seem's to be a witch hunt against Halfords by some elements on here.'lets all slate Halfords and laugh at how crap their staff are and shoddy their bikes are'Maybe as one of the biggest bike chains,means they get more complaints than other stores/chains.maybe there are some boneheads employed,but there again nobody seems to praise the store or the staff when they sort something out.
I bought my bike there.1st serious MTB I've owned.The guys set it up perfectly.Explained the front fork set up perfectly,and when I've gone back for various bits and bobs or even to question something technical,they have been great.Never once made me feel small or stupid.
~discuss ~

PS you wouldn't Catch me dead driving a Kia what ever the hell car it was !

Snobbery. Mixed with a few bad experiences and large market coverage. It's much harder to be snobbish over something equally poor at times but more niche or smaller scale.

Also sounds like you have a good shop! Which, may we ask?

Sadly same as any where in the service industry!

If you get shoddy service you tell everyone!

If you get service (neither brill nor rubbish) you don't tell anyone!

If you get EXCELLENT service you may tell your mates!

Although that said I have never once received good advice or service in Halfords… Haven't felt the need to tell everyone though…. till now!

I've had a couple of dodgy customer service experience.

I phoned my local store up and asked if they could face a frame. They said yes and to bring it down. So off I toddled, stood in a cue for twenty minutes while they faffed with another customer. When I got to the counter I was greeted with the words "you'll have to come back Tuesday cos were busy". I could have swung for the spotty little sh!t. Really annoying. Not good practice at all.

The other time was with there car parts counter. Can't recall the details but it involved waited for a while to be fobbed off.

To JonT: Its the Swansea store in Llansamlet enterprise park.

Used to have a really good one near me, years ago when i brought my Raleigh Max, everything worked on it out the store, even had a free first service and still was good, then some sod stole my bike!!

Recently Halfords not so good, although i did get a load of free cable outer a while ago and praised them up a little, haven't been back since.

I think it's fair to say that, in general, Halfords employs people trained to a low level who are there to sell bikes rather than understand them. I'm happy to be corrected but I think that the well informed employess got their knowledge from outside of halfords "system". The people implying a higher level than that are, presumably, in marketing/advertising.

As such, we shouldn't expect superb service or massive knowledge – though dangerously set-up bikes may be an issue. Same probably goes for installation of stereos, baby seats etc

If you're lucky & have a halfords with someone who knows their stuff, I bet it's great

Possibly the fact that there are so many bad stories about them, and they aren't just urban myths either. We have a lot of folk who buy bikes from them through the company Bike To Work scheme, and we always advise them to get the bike checked over by a proper bike shop. One person, for example, had her forks fitted back to front by Halfords.

I'm sure there are a lot of good folk work for Halfords, but equally there are many more bad (or more likely, badly trained; not necessarily their fault).

It's not a witch hunt, it's shooting fish in a barrel.

The person who has got time to slate other people obviously needs to get out more, if you dont like halfords dont go to halfords, simple! I dont like licking bin lids, so i dont do it………..

I think you have got to understand what Halfords is aiming for, and the cycle enthusiast market doesn't figure high.

I've no complaints with Halfords. I'll buy basics from them if necessary, but I prefer to put everything through my lbs.

i visit alot of halfords stores as part of my job-i am a cytech/nvq assessor-and i meet lots of enthusiastic riders who are keen to be trained and learn about new techniques. In my opinion the stores key customers are usually families/first time buyers etc who then might progress onto a local store because as one gets more into riding it becomes un-hip to shop at halfords.
From what i have seen they do the best they can with what they've got!

Girlfriend's sister bought a bike from them for comuting. Nothing special, £80 steel job. Should have have been fine for 2 miles each way.

1) Bars would turn independantly of the front wheel with a good heave.
2) Both brake levers pulled to the bars
3) Skipping gears. She took it back, they changed the whole rear wheel, cassette, tyre, everything. Tyre is now a knobbly to compliment the semi on the front. Neither of which were fully inflated.
4) Gears still skipping as new rear wheel wasn't put in straight
5) Non-drive side pedal not screwed all the way into the crank. Wobbling a bit but luckily not damaged the thread.
6) One brake pad rubbing on tyre sidewall. As mentioned in 2, this didn't really slow the bike down very well.
7) Not set up for her at all. Only took me 10 mins to set saddle height, fore/aft, stem height (quill), stop brake levers pointing at the sky, etc.

She rode it once, then pushed it home. Took it back for the aforementioned wheel change. Still didn't work properly. I have now taken it completly apart and then put it back together. Works now. Not a bad bike for the money, I just suspect the car-stereo salesman had put it together.

They do have their genuine issues but some of the nonsense people come out with does make me laugh. Like, as soon as the Boardman range came along the inevitable "Nice parts on a rubbish frame" comments flew. Turned out, no, nice parts on an excellent frame but it was the only part people could slag off, so they did. Likewise the GTs, "The geometry will be worse than a bike from a proper bike shop" was a line from this forum, what a load of cock.

3 of my bikes are Halfords… My ancient Carrera Krakatoa (uh, 1991? Tange tube steel rigid, really very nice), my cheapy Carrera Kraken (£300 for something better than many £500 bikes, nothing special bar the price but very good value) and my Idrive started life as the £1000 Halfords special- which is pretty amazing for £1000 (though now the only stock part is the frame)

I've had some good and some bad experiences with the local shop over those 18 years but I've never had them actively try to rob me, as I've had from 2 LBSs. Never had them intentionally overcharge for labour or claim they've replaced parts they haven't, or pretend that good parts need replaced. Certainly never had anyone in Halfords try to sell me £500 worth of bike for a grand. "Toras are Rockshox top spec forks", I quote from a Glasgow LBS) Had absolutely perfect warranty service (they took parts straight off a display bike to rebuild mine, without ever even asking for paperwork)

And yeah, 2 of those bikes had obvious setup issues caused by unskilled staff, but then at the prices for those bikes literally the only competition is mail order which come with no PDI at all. So that's the competition. And their phone service is appalling, but that's OK for a bricks and mortar shop.

At the end of the day it's a supermarket, if you expect perfect 1-1 service like you can get in a small shop, best of luck. But the quality/value of thebikes speaks for itself, they're consistent and regular bike magazine test winners.

Because theres a load of stuck up d*cks on here possibly?

Some Halfords stores are great, some are terrible. There's no consistency. I used to work in a Halfords and we had a great team in the bike dept. Slowly people started leaving for other jobs, uni, etc. and they were replaced by people who had absolutely no interest in bikes. I know because I was present at their interview. I said no, uber boss said yes.

One of the reasons I left.

P.S. Kia's are great.

Guy I work with last week bought a Carrera TT bike from Halfords on the bike to work scheme (so he had no choice of supplier). It cost him £1000. Within the first 4 miles…

Headset loose
Wheels out of true and badly tensioned
gear cables pulled through (so no gears)
brake cables pulled through (so no brakes)

On returning it on sunday, the technician said that he wasnt qualified to work on TT bikes as they were completely different. He did have a go, but the bolt on front mech when he finished was so low that it didnt pass the outer chainring

Taken back on monday to be sorted. When he rang to check on its progress, he was told it wasnt being looked at because "Im sorting out customer bikes as a priority!)

On collecting it yesterday (I was with him) he was told the cables that are used on "Carbon" bikes are expected to stretch 4mm on the first ride, even if it is only 4miles, thats why he had gear problems.

Incidents like this do not help them.

Previously the same store has been very helpful with car issues.

I suspect it all just depends on who is working there at a given point

Panda

Halfords, for me, is always a last resort for anything they sell.
But to be fair they did lend me a track pump when our Phil & Ted buggy had a flat the other week. I did have to spend £5.49 on a 12" tube though. Robbing sods.
I'd NEVER NEVER let my kids ride a Halfords built bike unless I'd given it the once over first though. Its a shame for the odd decent bike tech who works for them, but most of them are not very good.
We were in the Tamworth store last summer, shopping for new car seats for the children. The girl who was dealing with us was really helpful, & I was keen to give her the business, but the total dickhead of a manager wouldn't knock £10 off the price match Mothercare next door. And this was £335's worth of car seats. This **** watched as £335's worth of business walked away because of his stubborness in knocking £10 off.

Snobbery. Mixed with a few bad experiences and large market coverage. It's much harder to be snobbish over something equally poor at times but more niche or smaller scale.

I've shopped at a total of 5 Halfords stores. If I've gone to buy an item that I know and just requires running through the till, all good. Anything else and it's pretty hit and miss. I dont think it has anything to do with snobbery or a few bad experiences, or even it's size – it's the fact that it seems to consistently employ people with no knowledge of what they sell and no interest in it either. I've never had the misfortune of meeting their bike sales staff (they're generally more expensive and less well stocked than other shops in the area so I never bothered) but their car side seems to be a joke every time I ask for advice. You know when you know something about an item but need a few extra details before buying it, you can spot someone who's winging it. They wing it, most of the time.

"Can I have an alternator belt for this car."
"yes, its £16".
"£16? What make is that?"
"Halfords own"
"How much for another named make?"
"£7".
"just to check, it is the one for the car with air-con?"
"They dont make that car with air con"
"they do, it's in the car park outside"

"can I return this ratchet spanner please, it's failed"
"no, it's the ratchet that's failed, its not warranteed"
"no-one told me when I bought it that moving parts were not covered"
"well, they're not, we won't replace it"
"thanks"

And a long list of spectacularly annoying lack of product knowledge that I won't go into, but needless to say I only go there if I know exactly what I want and it's a sunday at 4pm and no-where else is open.

No snobbery, no petty anti-boardman bikes, just plain old "can see none of my local shops have a clue".

Oh, I forgot my favourite story.
"Do you have a water pump for this car" (he asks, at the parts desk)?
"how many outlets?" the guy asks.
"errr, it has no specific outlets, it's the coolant pump"
"But does it have one outlet for the front and one for the back"
"no, it's bolted to the engine to circulate water"
"thats odd, they normally sit in a bottle under the front"
"no, not the washer pump, the engine coolant pump"
"oh, I dont know then, didn't know they had one there"

turns round, walks out.

I dont think it's too much to ask that someone working on the PARTS desk of a CAR PARTS store understands a reasonable amount about the PARTS in a CAR. 😆

Pah, you think halfords are bad.

I went to Tesco and asked one of the shelf stackers which of the range of isotonic and sports drinks they sold had the optimum mix of carbohydrates and electrolytes for 12 hour mountain bike racing.
She didn't know. 🙄

I went to JJB and asked the assistant which of the running shoes they sold were of entirely vegan construction, including the glue.
He didn't know either. 🙄

It's almost as if these shops employ people who are just looking for job, not too far from home, with no special qualifications needed, rather than people with several years experience and comprehensive knowledge of the products they sell.

Recently bought a Carrera Fury from H (obviously). Sales staff were helpful, though I didn't need any advice as my mind was made up re. the bike after some research. The bike was priced incorrectly (too low) and they honoured the displayed price with little pressure from my end. So far so good. However, build was very poor – air shock running at such high pressure the fork was essentially rigid, and a front mech so out of adjustment it would not even shift to the inner ring. The "faults" took me five minutes to fix, but if you weren't that way inclined it could have been a bigger issue. Bottom line is that there's no way I could have got a bike of that quality for the price I paid anywhere else, and the basic product quality is good. The issues with the build were disappointing but not surprising, and I'm going to try another store for the free 6 week service to give them another go…

All shops are only as good as the people in them, I have had mixed luck with them myself, I went in on a quitish day to my local Halfords to have a look at a bike for the wife through her CTW scheme, and it was a truly painful experience they just couldnt be ar5ed, but when I rang them on a monday whoever I spoke to was very helpful and located me the last bike in the size we wanted left in the country up in Lancaster, the guy there Steve Wallin, has now had the bike on hold for me for over a week until the voucher comes through and is going to send the bike down to Essex for me for a very reasonable £10.. Cant argue with that.

The bike is a Carrera Vulcan, nothing fancy, but at £260 its well over £100 cheaper than anything else out there from a big brand for a similar spec, and in my opinion still better than other cheap options like Decathlon.

All these people complaining about poor build quality – do you ever actually check the product before you leave the shop?

Complaining that an air shock is too hard when the amoutn of air required can really only be determined with the rider ont he bike is a bit rich, imo, if you didn't ask them to set it up for you whilst in the shop.

And also, let's face it – why should they spend £50 of their time settign up an £80 bike?

I accept Halfords for what it is, a convenient, relatively local supplier of reasonably priced car and bike parts. If I wanty specialist knowledge I'll go to a 'proper' motor factors, a main dealer or a high end bike shop.

It's almost as if these shops employ people who are just looking for job, not too far from home, with no special qualifications needed, rather than people with several years experience and comprehensive knowledge of the products they sell.

Ah yes, the "well you can't expect them to take any pride in their work, stop complaining" argument. Apathy, it's the way forward 😉

I accept Halfords for what it is, a convenient, relatively local supplier of reasonably priced car and bike parts. If I wanty specialist knowledge I'll go to a 'proper' motor factors, a main dealer or a high end bike shop.

Yes, that's fine, and for those of us capable of going elsewhere and knowing the bullshit from the truth that's all well and good. But they don't sell themselves as that and many people I know are totally taken in by anything Halfrauds workers tell them.

"many people I know are totally taken in by anything Halfrauds workers tell them"

I expect they give lots of money to African princes to facilitate the release of funds from a bank account on the understanding they'll get a wedge once the transaction is complete too.

guy on cycles in aber is a pro

Do many of you still have a choice of place for car bits? I have noticed that 2 of my local car shops have gone out of buisness in the last couple of years leaving Halfords, and one other to buy the bits and bobs.

Anyone actually been into any other motor factors recently? They are all shit, and for a woman I can see it would be intimidating.

I think there is a massive downturn as people just dont do any of their own servicing and maintenance any longer, I certainly take on less and less jobs on the car myself these days as the family car is almost untouchable without specialist equipment, my old banger runaround i will be servicing myself.

with all these negatives everyone still uses them….they still sell the most amount of bikes than anyone in the country…

go figure eh!

Anyone actually been into any other motor factors recently? They are all shit, and for a woman I can see it would be intimidating.

Yup, several. And none were bad (because I know the 2 to go to, not the useless ones that have always been useless), and my other half uses them regularly without being intimidated at all, very strange comments IMO.

I expect they give lots of money to African princes to facilitate the release of funds from a bank account on the understanding they'll get a wedge once the transaction is complete too.

No, but they expect that they get reasonable advice when going to a shop in the UK, which is a reasonably fair assumption. It's not that halfords are trying to rip people off, just that theyre not competent in many cases, meaning people are left with useless products or fitting things they don't need.

Not strange coffeking, just that the young man in Halfords in a uniform is probably a whole lot less intimidating than the fat bloke in some of you average motor spares shops. I understand they are not all like that but some are and Halfords is the soft option, even if the intimidating fat bloke has 30 years of experience behind him and his advice may be better.

I guess my comment on all motor spares shops being shit was sweeping, but some just are.

Cycleworlduk… nice website and nice bikes, I bought my lad one of the Felt Q24" bikes last year, its an OK bike, BUT the equivilent Carrera bike was lots lighter, similar to better spec ran cable disks and was £80 less at the time, if it wasnt for the fact the Felt was in nice colours and the Carrera gopping in lime green it would have been no contest. Thats where Halfords score high.

wwaswas – Wasn't complaining about them not setting up an air shock, just passing on my personal experience with the store in response to the question posted. The fact is I picked up the bike at 4.55 on a Sunday at a store a long way from home. No way I could wait for them to sort it on Monday so I did it myself. Not a big deal, but doesn't change the fact that the forks come with a manual and they clearly hadn't bothered to read it. For what I paid for the bike (<£500) I was OK to do the final fettling myself, but not everyone will be able to do so. If you pay money for the product to be assembled I do think you ought to be able to expect it to be done properly.

STW PMT. It flicks between moaning about halfords (although you have to spell it halfrauds) and MBR mag.

Yup, it's things like seeing bikes come out of there with their forks on back to front… The thing is, Halfords is a classic 'jack of all trades master of none' store, and as fans of one particular niche in those trades, it's not going to keep us happy, on the whole! 🙂

When I bought a halfords bike, I was expecting to have to tweak slightly to make the gears just right, maybe change the seat height / bar angles etc. But I wasn't expecting it to be completely unsafe. They'd cunningly tightened up the bars / stem just enough so that it seemed okay to ride off from the shop, but not quite enough so that they wouldn't suddenly come loose and rotate after about 3 miles of riding, leaving me 3 miles from the shop, and 4 miles from home. Obviously the rest (gears etc.) needed adjusting when I got home, but at least they weren't dangerous.

If you sell a bike as 'ready to ride', that should imply 'ready to ride without killing you on the first outing'. Even if you know they are a bunch of monkeys who work at Halfords, you can't really predict quite how bad they can be.

Joe

It's all very well crying "witch hunt" when the hunted ISN'T a witch, but halfords *are* a witch. 😉

IN all seriousness, it's probably worth me saying that I don't particularly rate ANY bike shop that highly in all areas. They all have their strenghts and weaknesses.
For instance I would consider my LBS to be JE james, but although their products, store layout, general sales knowhow/friendliness are much better than halfords, I woudn't buy anything from there unless i was confident about not requiring any after sales service, as after sales service is a particular weakness of theirs IME.
Every shop has its strengths and faults. Halfords strengths are that it's open longer than most other shops, and in more locations.

They have given myself/my family consistently bad service when it comes to cycling… and I've seen their poor handy-work come into our local bike shop to be rectified many times… thats over two seperate cities too.

It's all very well us slating Halfords and I think there is some snobishness in that but Halfords are a big brand, people trust big brands rightly or wrongly. People who know nowt about bikes will go in to get their or their kids first bike, halfords should be spot on with their builds, setup and advice. By the comments above that aint happening, wonder how much repeat business they (and our chosen hobby in general) lose out on.

And also, let's face it – why should they spend £50 of their time settign up an £80 bike?

Because they choose to sell an £80 bike. If you want to sell bike bits in a box and cut prices do so, if you're selling a bike it should be 100% safe and setup properly, you factor that into the price.

This discussion is a repeat of one in a 1950s magazines I've got 🙂

I dont knock them, TBh my branch isnt too bad, It was ace when they had an older guy in and not a load of teens. The bloke really knew his stuff, gave me loads of advice and tweaked my dropouts as i managed to bend one for free 🙂

Dont know where he went to but when i knew he was in i'd take my bike up, Shame they cant have more people like it, The york and Leeds branches local arent up to much 😕