Not hugely surprising but after this thread my mate (with the bent frame) was informed by Halfords that they were not impressed that this had been discussed on a forum and had considered not coming up with any goodwill gesture (cost £100 to rebuild into a new frame) 😐

Sometimes you see them ear-wigging your post-ride conversations at the bar 😉

STW is not the place to get sympathy when companies make cheap tat and it goes wrong, sadly.

Although the internet should not be your first port of call when something goes wrong, even when you're in the right.

frankly if i were an insurer or doing something like replacing a frame i would go and search for the persons details on the internet.

If your not happy with the world knowing it dont post it on the **** internet.

http://www.cambridgeonline.co.uk/reviews/17090/

SpokesCycles – Member
STW is not the place to get sympathy when companies make cheap tat and it goes wrong, sadly.

There speaks the voice of experience….

What's a Halford? 😕

Someone at Halfords reads????

STW is not the place to get sympathy when companies make cheap tat and it goes wrong, sadly. "There speaks the voice of experience…. "

I can speak from experience. My Halfords bike WAS cheap, but I don't think you could call it tat. Had a fall at CYB and lost a little paint and pride but bike still solid. It's a Carrera Fury, btw. Paid less than £500 new and like it more the more I ride it.
It's easy to knock H but for those of us for whom a Santa Cruz is a little steep they do some great bikes. Maybe one day I'll get my dream Lapierre, but until then I'm having a blast on the shonky "cheap tat" bike…
😀

I like my Fury too, but, to be honest, I like my bling bike I got last year more, still ride the Fury and still some of my best/greatest rides were one it.
Doing service as a SS experiment at the moment but might be stripped of bits to go on a frame I might "borrow" from a mate.

And if someone from Halfords is reading this. Shame you closed most of the Bike Huts. They were great and the staff actually were bikers who cared and knew what they were talking about. I guess they were losing money and the part of the business that supplies chavs with plastic Nova/Corsa bling was doing better (general Halford stores).

Shame really – I used to use Bike Hut all the time. I don't go into Halfords stores as they are really depressing places – they have an air of decay about them.

not a fan of Hellfrauds, unhelpful and uninformed staff, not particularly nice kit, the company is the bottom feeder of the bike industry IMHO.

Pile it high sell it cheap and only open one register seems to be the motto! 😀

Of course someone from Halfords reads forums, they're human too (just about).

Frame broken during a fall – hardly surprising is it. Hardly a warranty issue either, if I were halfords and saw someone bitching when I'd offered a cheap replacement despite ACCIDENT damage rather than manufacturing fault, I'd also tell the person complaining to F off.

What is WRONG with people, are they completely mental?? Sharkbait are you really expecting any other result from that sort of action? Christ on a bike.

given the exigencies of mountain biking, any frame not designed to cope with regular impacts is unfit for purpose

I wouldn't apply the same requirement to road bikes.

I quite like my local halfords, never bought a single bike bit, but probably spend £100's on car parts there. No idea if anyone there has a clue what they're talking about but it doesn't take a genius to be polite and get a special order in of part WXYZ because its not been stocked since 1985.

Even managed to get some bosh bulbs becasue they were out of halfords ones, didn't save me any money and they're probably the same bulb inside the packet, but they didnt have to so the free upgrade was nice.

Contrast that with some* of the LBS's arround here where the service and stock levels are occasionlay a little patchy.

*not all, mountain trax are 50:50 in my book,
mountain high have been fine,
cycle zone wouldnt sell me a rear axel because they didnt believe me that I needed a 135mm OLD length,
action bikes seem to have a bizzare stocking policy (no 29.8/30mm seatlcamps, at all!) and the rest is often a bit pricey for what it is.
Bes one for finding that odd bit in a spares bin to finish a build has been the scooter shop in whitely wood of all places!

Some of their bikes are fine.

Most of their staff are complete idiots and ruin it for the rest of the staff who put their heart into their work.

If someone from Halfords are reading this can they please do a 30% sale on the Boardman Performance Hybrid Pro please and then i will not have an excuse not to buy one.

There's a lot of industry folk read this forum, you only have to see how quickly Andy@CRC or Colin from Trek or Mark @ 2Pure etc pop up on here when one of their products or their service is being discussed.

Asking for help off them is one thing, a general rant (especially if you haven't even contacted them first with regards to resolving a problem) doesn't usually help…

People a few doors down from me have some exotic birds in a little aviary in their garden, and those beaky bastards annoy me a lot more than the massive alsation next door that barks at everything.

Lifer:
People a few doors down from me have some exotic birds in a little aviary in their garden, and those beaky bastards annoy me a lot more than the massive alsation next door that barks at everything.

You seem to be lost 😉

and those beaky bastards annoy me a lot more than the massive alsation

as sold as "silent birds" in Halfords ?

😳

My poor brain.

Are you getting confused between woofers and tweeters. Or just confused 😉

Try breaking a Yeti, no one will even want to listen to what happened.

Sharkbait are you really expecting any other result from that sort of action? Christ on a bike.

CK:

1) It's not my frame and I simply asked whether it was thought acceptable for a frame to go on the second ride – if it had happened to me I'd be disappointed but that's about it.

2) I think that the £100 towards building up the new frame was pretty decent. They also seemingly made a good job of it.

3) My question was why should they consider not doing a goodwill replacement just because the matter had been discussed on here? Doesn't make any difference to the facts whether it's been discussed or not.

My question was why should they consider not doing a goodwill replacement just because the matter had been discussed on here? Doesn't make any difference to the facts whether it's been discussed or not.

Maybe because you called them Halfrauds in your original postings?
If it were me, I would have told the branch to tell you no goodwill as their has been no goodwill on your part. Halfords are just the gobetween, it's Boardman who will make the decision to repair the bike for free.

Maybe cos in the orignal post you spelled out how it had become knackered – ie: racing, fall.

Both invalidation clauses I'd guess

In order to try and redress the balance a bit (and no I don't work for Halfords), I've bought plenty of stuff from them over the years from lots of different branches. I've always found the staff helpful, especially with the occasional faulty product. I do get the impression that quite a few posters to the forums on STW seem to think they should be able to rag their bike on every ride and then get a replacement for free because they've broken it or just not maintained it properly.

Drop a lightweight bike and it will break or bend. I suspect the Boardman bikes are such good value because the budget has gone into the kit fitted to them and that the frames have been pared down to the minimum to save production costs in that area.

and that the frames have been pared down to the minimum to save production costs in that area.

ie making them no longer real mountain bikes ?

We were very successful in addressing issues on here, subsequently we took a step back from it all as issues seemed to die down dramatically but the issues i dealt with were done in a manner you guys seemed to appreciate. I got some great feedback from the people i helped out in the end – Singletrack is a massive place for us all, both retailer & consumer!

Drop a lightweight bike and it will break or bend. I suspect the Boardman bikes are such good value because the budget has gone into the kit fitted to them and that the frames have been pared down to the minimum to save production costs in that area.

Surely that would result in the frame being LESS pared down, more chunky, ie not using butted tubing etc etc.
And you're wrong anyway, the frames are excellent, in fact the factory that build them builds quite a few other major brands too…

given the exigencies of mountain biking, any frame not designed to cope with regular impacts is unfit for purpose

My bikes don't see regular impacts and I've been riding for god knows how many years on lightweight bikes. I've had 2 downtubes dented from rock impacts, but that's fairly normal and doesn't cause any harm. If I were racing, or a jump-meister, or a DH rider maybe. But a general MTB for general MTBing duties – you'd have to be pretty ham-fisted or unlucky to damage it by impact. And in this case they offered goodwill on it, so seems fair enough. The original post to here was (IIRC) a "it's broken, I think it's totally unfair that it failed after it being banged on a rock during a race, damn halfords" – hardly surprising they had a minor hissy.

ie making them no longer real mountain bikes ?

Not necessarily, but if you buy a £1000 bike these days it is bound to have been made by cutting costs in at least one area. Many years ago when I bought a Scott the bloke in the bike shop said that I had a choice between the Scott (which was capable and decent to ride) with a lower quality frame but good componentry and a lower rung Orange with a better frame but cheap components. For some unknown reason I bought the Scott 🙄 and depsite the cheap frame it was good.

It did dent easily but it is still being ridden around by someone local to me in its third incarnation so cheap can last, even with the odd off from time to time.

sharkbait – Member

"3) My question was why should they consider not doing a goodwill replacement just because the matter had been discussed on here? Doesn't make any difference to the facts whether it's been discussed or not. "

Because goodwill goes both ways. You've already given them bad press.

I bet your mate was well pleased with you for helping him out.

There's a lot of industry folk read this forum, you only have to see how quickly Andy@CRC or Colin from Trek or Mark @ 2Pure etc pop up on here when one of their products or their service is being discussed.

I ain't at 2pure anymore but thanks for remembering my name!

It's Ran @2pure you need now. Top chap.

If a company retracts a goodwill offer because you've slagged them off unfairly, I'd say that's pretty reasonable. If they retract a goodwill offer because they're offering a poxy service and been called on it, the answer there is, if you don't want to be slagged off on the Internet, don't suck.

I'd hope that either way, the facts would speak for themselves. If you've made unfair accusations, you're going to get caught out pretty quickly and a company's reputation shouldn't suffer.

That said, I do wonder though why a company would penalise a customer based on something the customer's mate had said. It's bugger all to do with that mate, the contract is between customer and company.

Now that I've just read through the original thread,

Seems to me that you're not really slagging them off at all, you're simply discussing the problem and soliciting advice. I'm not sure how discussing it on an Internet forum is different to discussing it in public anywhere else? Odd.

I think it was a big call by The Fopster for saying not everyone can afford to spend big money on a bike and that £500 should buy you a decent bike that should last.

I'm buying my son his first 2 wheeled bike next month and it will be from Halfords, simply because my exwife can just walk into her local store and pick it up ready to go, same bike as other stores but £10 more, it would cost me more for a flight to Ireland, buy it else where and put it together myself…………these stores have there place, just not with most STW folk.

Seems to me that you're not really slagging them off at all

You don't think calling the firm Halfrauds is slagging them off?