[Closed] Halfords about to rip some poor punter off!!

Rip off.

**** me I got new seals pistons and bleed for hope m4 for 23 quid at local hope service shop

How do you bleed brakes without brake fluid? Deffo a rip off.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing!!

If everything went as planned regarding the bleeding of brakes, bb removal nice n' easy then i'd probably charge him an hrs labour for all the work so thats £20, a bb would be £15 or so and i'd fit clark pads front and rear so that's another £15 and i'd charge him £5 for sundries such as brake fluid,copper antiseize, grease and for washing his cranks down in the parts washer.

So i guess i'd have charged him £55 all in, so i guess it is a bit of a rip off.

The bike looked fairly new to be honest!! Wouldn't of thought it would need a bb,bleed and pads already?

Sounds a bit top dollar.

An hour to bleed the brakes and replace the pads, test etc. £60 plus parts.

£14 for a Deore BB from CRC so presumably Halfords can get cheaper. £30 fitted maybe.

Wonder how much the brake fluid will be?

The bike looked fairly new to be honest!! Wouldn't of thought it would need a bb,bleed and pads already?

It's fair enough having a go at them for charging more than you think is the right amount for work.

But you have no idea what needed doing, as all you did was see a bike on a work stand in a shop, so making out they are quoting for work that doesn't need doing is a bit unfair.

My bike always looks brand new, as I enjoy cleaning it and it always looks spotless, it's had a new BB, three sets of pads, two new rotors, brakes bled, and new rear mech so far in a year. But it looks like a new build

Many years ago ( probably 10 ish years), a localish bike shop I was in, wanted to charge £75 inc cheapy cables on a guys bike, which was v brake and gear cables. Would have cost £25 at a push for the cables and that makes £50 to fit them. He look astounded, I looked for the door............. Genuine reasoning behind me learning to do everything myself and all of my mates bikes.

@nealglover you are right I dint know anything about the bike, the point I was trying to make was about the cost.

Would you be happy to spend £100 to have new pads and a bleed on what are perhaps less than a year old brakes plus fluid ontop?

I know I wouldn't!!

Not quite sure where I quoted about work that didnt need doing?

I pleased for you about your bike!

Meanwhile, today, in the WANTED section of this very forum I spotted someone being offered a nearly new part at around 150% of the price it's available for brand new from CRC

Don't assume Halfords are the only ones ripping people off.

It's only a rip-off if you buy it.

@nealglover you are right I dint know anything about the bike, the point I was trying to make was about the cost.
Would you be happy to spend £100 to have new pads and a bleed on what are perhaps less than a year old brakes plus fluid ontop?

No I wouldn't be happy with the price, as I said, criticising the price is fine. It does seem a bit high.

Although he fact that a bike is a year old is irrelevant.

You can go through pads in a matter of hours depending on what you are doing.

Not quite sure where I quoted about work that didnt need doing?

I quoted it in my post.
But for clarity .....

[quote=renton]The bike looked fairly new to be honest!! Wouldn't of thought it would need a bb,bleed and pads already?

Depending on year the Carrera Fury has a Giga Pipe BB; crap but not cheap so £30 sounds reasonable.

It also took me a day to get a bottom bracket out of a Fury frame, mostly due to the threads being full of paint. If I had been worried about damaging the frame, I'd have happily paid someone the standard rate for the job.

The brakes should be gotten rid of. But benefit of the doubt, maybe the mechanic had to do more work than described on the phone, but kept it simple?

What more can you do to a set of brakes remoterob?

I didnt make out they were doing unnecessary work I merely made the assumption that as it was a newish looking bike that the breakers/rest of the bike shouldn't need that much doing?

rip off, but i think it severs them right for taking it to Halfords in the 1st place!

this is why i learnt to do stuff like this myself! i have avids so tend to have to bleed them every now and again anyway 😳

The charges on the brakes seem excessive, you could buy a brand new set just about for those prices

my brother wanted his hoses swapping on his euro set-up XT brakes (and he doesnt live local to me). LBS quoted him 30 quid an end for a full bleed. Dunno if thats standard or high end for a bleed, or includes a "you bought em mail order" tax, but I'd hope an LBS mechanic would be able to swap hoses around without needing to [i]do[/i] a full bleed...

It's only a rip-off if you buy it.

The OP isn't the potential victim. I think the OP's point is that some shops can take advantage of the unwary/ignorant which offends those of us that are neither, and can ultimately serve to put a casual/novice off (picture conversation between punter and partner "our last car service cost less than that!").

Well just to even things out, last Sunday they charged me £6 to change the headlight bulb in the car 45 minutes later and with half the front of the car dismantled it was no closer to being changed 🙂

Halfords in Bangor spent three hours and several changes of gas to try to get my AC working - didn't succeed as the pump had failed, so didn't charge me anything.

That's nuffink i paid £185.99 for my bikes brake service. And that's on top of £89.99 general service.

But i don't mind as its worth it to know its done properly.

The brakes are OTT. BB, less so, as mentioned up the page it may be an accursed GXP which are shortlived and expensive

Is that a set of pushbike brakes?

Christ you can get a set of brand new xt brakes with rotors and everything for £165

They said my brakes were out of balance and needed calibrating.

They're avid 5's.

You have got to trolling now or not very clued up on your brakes!!! You cam get a new set of avid 5 for a lot less than that!!!!

But still won't be bled balanced or calibrated.
They've never worked better since having it done.
Not every one knows their way around a tool box!

Halfords have quite a rigid price plan when it comes to work done on a bike. The list is available for people to look at. It is steep in some respects and not very flexible. But if memory serves me right that's about right for Halfords pricing and not something hes made up. Mind its a bit mean charging for brake fluid.

Halfords use a rough guide as to how long a job will take and then give a set price. This then has a set code to put through the till. It gives consistent pricing if nothing else because some stuff like bb can turn into a right bitch of a job if stuck.

In comparison to Evans its about the same, an LBS might be more forgiving but that's how they gain their business.

Well just to even things out, last Sunday they charged me £6 to change the headlight bulb in the car 45 minutes later and with half the front of the car dismantled it was no closer to being changed

I bought a headlight bulb from halfords, they offered to fit it for a fiver, I sneered at them. 2 hours later and with half the front of the car dismantled I began to realise I am not the mechanical god I thought I was.

Thing was they never realised that the bulb I had given him and said 'I need two of those' came out of same car, thereby I had already had it to pieces to remove the bulb
I kept quiet that he was doing it all wrong, and should just have undone the other two bolts that allowed the headlight unit to be pulled out far enough to unscrew the bulb from the rear
Funniest £6 spent ever 😉

Killwill I'm not sure if you are a troll or someone very naive!!

Renton what's naive or trolling about paying for the peace of mind for solid brakes?

It ain't that expensive given how long it took.

Anyone that goes to halfords for work on a bike deserves everything they get.

I didn't use Halfords. It was my LBO'.

Anyone that goes to halfords for work on a bike deserves everything they get.

That's the spirit! 😐

I agree. Halfords are numptys.

Halfords have quite a rigid price plan when it comes to work done on a bike. The list is available for people to look at. It is steep in some respects and not very flexible. But if memory serves me right that's about right for Halfords pricing and not something hes made up. Mind its a bit mean charging for brake fluid.

Halfords use a rough guide as to how long a job will take and then give a set price. This then has a set code to put through the till. It gives consistent pricing if nothing else because some stuff like bb can turn into a right bitch of a job if stuck.

Had some slx brake hoses that came euro style switched at Harry hall in Manchester a couple of months back....£20 all in for both ends.

That's the spirit!

True though. 😉

Great if you want to bolt some tat to your saxo mind.

I actually work at Halfords as a bike mechanic.
I like to think I can fix anything on a bike and have my Cytech 2, plus a degree if that helps.
Admittedly, most mechanics there don't know that much about more technical jobs as they only really assemble kids bikes. However, at our store, if someone is unsure about something, they simply leave it for me.
I can't remember the exact prices, but the prices quoted in that phonecall were way-over what I put through the till; this is a single mechanic talking through his arse and yes, is ripping some poor bloke off.
We aren't all this bad!

Killwill - did the mechanic explain how he "Balanced and calibrated" your brakes for you whilst taking your money?

Seriously do you not feel as though you have been ripped off?

My LBS charged £20 an end for bleeding brakes, thats not including any seals. and pads were around £15 per end.

A brake and gear service would set you back around £80 for hydrolic brakes and about 60 for cables. Including gears. Very expensive.

But in hind sight that might be why they all went bust. and wereknow as the local bull sh*ters.

Now I have a much cheeper local bike shop but travel time and cost doesn't weight up, good thing I can do it my self, have most tools needed and the post man is my friend

The brake job sounds dear, although £15-£20 per end for brake pads is normal in actual real life shops. Just a thought, he could've been over quoting, because he didn't want to/couldn't do the job, and hoping an expensive quote would send the bloke elsewhere

Killwill paid £185.99 for his brake service and feels happy about that??

I didnt make out they were doing unnecessary work I merely made the assumption that as it was a newish looking bike that the breakers/rest of the bike shouldn't need that much doing?

And yet the mechanic said it did after diagnosing it.

So maybe you were you just commenting in general about the lack of longevity of modern mountainbike parts rather than insinuating they were quoting for unnecessary work ?

I worked at Halfords for eight years up until 2006. As said before the bike servicing labour is charged at a set rate i.e. £5 for a tube change, £10 for gear cable replacement etc. etc. Parts are charged on top. Parts are charged at full RRP. However, they can also charge an hourly rate - it's £20 per hour when I was there. If you're doing a lot of jobs on the same bike it's cheaper for the customer, to just record the time and charge accordingly.

However, there are lots of really disinterested Saturday lads at Halfords. There is no formal training, so you rely on getting someone who is a) interested enough to have taught themselves and b) decent enough to charge you what it really cost.

killwillforchips - if you're spending that much I really recommend you get the Haynes bike book and teach yourself some basic maintenance. Worst case you mess something up and have to pay the shop to fix it. Fixing bikes is fun! The only difficult job on a modern bike is truing wheels. Everything else is perfectly do-able for a home mechanic.

So maybe you were you just commenting in general about the lack of longevity of modern mountainbike parts rather than insinuating they were quoting for unnecessary work ?

Nope I was definitely saying how I thought the prices were extortionate

And as I also put in my fist post.

Is that a bit of a rip off or am I out of touch on prices?

Or did you fail to read that bit as you were looking to try and be clever .......

As my evening isn't very exciting I paid a visit to Halfords website to check the prices. To save you the time, A brake bleed is £25 per brake. A bottom bracket service is £20 and a pad change is £6 each. Doesn't include parts in this. Id say from this that he has over quoted.

Now I'm off to get a life.....

renton - Member
Killwill paid £185.99 for his brake service and feels happy about that??

As he hasn't gone into detail I'm thinking...
1 he's talking bout a motorbike specifically a trike ie actually needing brakes balanced
or
2 maybe has due to a disability has a complicated one handed brake setup.

3 Too much disposable cash!
Or
4 yes extremely naive.

killwillforchips - if you're spending that much I really recommend you bin your brakes and buy a new set every time the pads wear as it'll be much cheaper

I'm with it being a troll. I like the fact the price given is so precise, nice touch, but sadly the figure is too high to be credible. A solid 7 out of 10. Don't think he'll be in with a shout at the £1000 at the end of the week though.

Nope I was definitely saying how I thought the prices were extortionate

Which I agreed with.

However, the post I was talking about, and the one I have already quoted twice while commenting on it was this one....

The bike looked fairly new to be honest!! Wouldn't of thought it would need a bb,bleed and pads already?

The one where you decided, by looking briefly at the bike, that it wouldn't need any of the work that was being quoted for based on how old it looked.

That's the one I was talking about.

Or did you fail to read that bit as you were looking to try and be clever .......

Not sure how I'm "looking to try and be clever" by disagreeing with your opinion ?

I just don't see how the fact that a bike looks quite new, means that you can know what's not wrong with it.