Halfords about to rip some poor punter off!!

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.