[Closed] Halfords surpass themselves...

HAHAHA
I did the exact same thing last year as abit of a last ditch emergency attempt to buy some.

Guy behind the bike counter looked on the wall with all the packets and boxes of spares, turned round and said "no, can't see any" to which I replied, " do you know what they look like?"
"no, not really, what do they do?......"
I just laughed and said thanks alot have fun!!

They amaze me.

😆

To be fair they are good for getting little bits like that, crimps for cable ends, there little rubber bits That go on cables, brake rotor bolts... My local one has all those sort of things on the one display so you don't have to explain what you want.

The suspension forks on my halfords hardtail began to knock so took bike in to have them replaced under warrenty.

On collection I found plenty of movement in the headset , told the guy who served me ( bike hut manager. ) who repeatedly tightened the headset till no slop , but also completely locked steerer .

After repeated adjustment told me come back tomorrow we will build you a new bike.
Then went on to tell me he thought the problem might be they could not get the crown race of the old forks so fitted the new forks without one.

So I got a new bike for the sake of a crown race,
But could not believe they knowingly tried to send me home with my bike without a crown race.

I do love a good old sneering thread.

Hmmm.

I wonder how much the guys in Halfords get paid or get trained?

I'm sure getting slagged off by muppets is a great help.

Meanwhile on SingleTillWorld....

"I'm stuck in a £6.74 an hour job and this customer today expected......"

Utmost sympathy for anyone working in a shop. Just couldn't do it myself. Which is why I try at all times to be patient and polite to anyone working in a shop I deal with.

EDIT beaten too it by crickey 😮

It's not sneering at those "I'm stuck in a £6.74 an hour job and this customer today expected......", it's just expecting a little (and that's all it is) knowledge about bikes in the bike department of a shop hoping to become one of the players.

But then again, does a headset even come with a crown race these days?

I once went into an ironmongers and asked for Fork handles , guess what they came back with 4 candles... ****wits.....

What a totally pointless thread.

But then again, does a headset even come with a crown race these days?

Of course they do

Meanwhile on SingleTillWorld....

"I'm stuck in a £6.74 an hour job (fixing bikes) and this customer today expected......"

I'd not expect to walk into halfords and buy chainring bolts. But I would kinda expect the guy in the bike shop to know what they are, at least, and say "No we don't sell that"

In my local, it's usually the same guys in the bike shop, they're really good but sometimes it's a random dude from the ripspeed counter or whatever and they have no clue. But then if you took the bike guys and stuck them in the car parts counter they'd have no idea either.

simondbarnes - Member
Of course they do

[url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/probably-a-stupid-headset-question ]So they do[/url]

Utterly Pointless thread, walked into Tesco and asked someone where something was, they didn't know, bloody idiots...

Total fabricated story about Tesco but none the less, the guy could have been new, first day nerves or from another department and plainly didn't know.

Fact is, 90% of the training is passed down from member to member, unless you're actually quite into biking yourself and know quite a bit you find yourself showing other members of the store how to do things, on the job training via 2nd hand knowledge. Not the best I know but sometimes you score a shop where at least 75% of the entire store staff are passionate bikers and know their stuff, regarding pay, ofc its minimum wage.

Chainring bolts available on the website, or you'll often get a shop with some spares lying around from odd/butchered bikes that would be suitable.

Funny how not many people speak up with a good experience but are ready to slate someone on a small mishap.

Had to stop going to the York Evans due to their shocking customer service and sheer lack of enthusiasm.

I'd rather stick with my Halfords job than work in a lbs and face some of the snobbery I've encountered going in them. Its a pleasure providing kids with their first bikes and seeing people return months, years down the line upgrading their bikes and seeing them really getting into biking whether its for leisure or otherwise.

Hmmmm Northwind has it. How do you know the Shop worker wasn't either two weeks into the job or covering from the Car Wireless dept or something.? Mostly the Halford people near me at Bracknell and Winnersh couldn't be more helpfull even if they are a bit short on knowledge sometimes.

But that crown race story does sum up the challenge they have

Because all they had to do was say " sorry I don't know what they are" not spend 2 minutes looking about the display before admitting they don't know what their looking for.
Its not rocket science is it! If you dont know what it is you'll never find it.

I'm not having a go. Really.

Went into a store to get a Clarkes gear cable kit, but it didn'y have enough to do full outers front and rear, so the chap at the bike counter gave me a length of outer long enough to do the front mech. For free.

I still check Halfords website when I look for new bits on the off chance they are cheaper.

Overall I think I know one end of a bike from the other and will attempt most jobs except welding myself, rather than go to a shop (whether Halfords, chain or LBS). Same with cars. Had too many instanced of ****tards with spanners not doing the job properly.

Not putting a crown race on is unforgiveable, really.

Do the store employees get rotated throughout the store or are they dedicated to a particular counter?

[quote=jim25 ]
Its not rocket science is it! If you dont know what it is you'll never find it.
Unless of course they are in a packet marked "Chainring Bolts"

Do the store employees get rotated throughout the store or are they dedicated to a particular counter?

Don't know how Halford schedule but my guess is that there will be perm bikehut people but at certain time cover needed from else where in the branch. I'll bet their hours are pretty tight and at times the customer service cover is pretty thin

But that's not the point really. Of course they should know their products and where they are. But it's not always the case so why assume the person serving you is an idiot. And if that's what you expect from them don't shop there.

Do the store employees get rotated throughout the store or are they dedicated to a particular counter?

Nah, essentially three roles, bikehut, auto & leisure and then cashiers plus I guess management too - sometimes you get staff that are capable of floating across the store being able to do everything 🙂

At the moment throughout Halfords, staff are getting put through huge in-store training programs relating predominately to customer service and product knowledge thus making themselves better employees and being able to help customers more efficiently.

However this is done at the employees own leisure and time and not exactly forced but it does come with incentives such as pay increase and obviously making your own store a better place for customers to shop 🙂

Its all catch 22/relative etc...some people are good, others are bad, the bad ones give the good ones a bad reputation.

I've found Halfords to be really useful. It's almost impossible to pay for sp41 outer in there. Evans however:

I'm after a stem for 25.4 mm bars.
Nearest we have is 110 mm mate.

Yeah, cheers for that mate but i'll leave it.

In fact have you got any 31.8 bars?
No mate.
What, you haven't got any bars in 31.8?
No, we haven't got any bars, in any size.

I am not having a go at the member of staff who I was dealing with.
More halfords in general.

He did not refer to it as a crown race but instead pointed to the joint between the bottom of the headtube and top of forks and said the bit that goes there. Now he may have said this as not to bamboozle me with science.

But he despite this was very friendly with generally a good attitude, who wanted to help hence his unsolicited offer to build me a new bike after repeatedly failing to solve the missing crown race problem by adjusting the preload on the bearings.

He was doing a job he had not been sufficiently trained to do.
I still use that halfords and others for bike bits but after that experience I decided to do all my own repairs .

But then again, does a headset even come with a crown race these days?

Not actually a silly question - BMX forks have races machined in, so the headsets don't ship with a race.

the nearest LBS to me was bought out by Evans about 3 years ago

theres another Evans and Halfords a further 1km away from me too

of the 3 Ive found the Halfords to be better stocked and more knowledgeable and helpful staff

I've used Halford a few times when desperate.
Only good things to say really.

Speeds cycles in Droitwich wanted my bike frame for 5 days to remove a old shimano square taper bb and £15 for the privilege.

Walked up 5 shops to Halfords and asked the bike tech if he could remove it.
2 mins later it was out, Park tool did the job for a grand cost of £2.

But then again, does a headset even come with a crown race these days?

I'm so glad that thread is still going...

My old local halfords I felt bad for the main guy there, he used to be the mechanic in an LBS that the owner retired from, so this guy was taken in by halfords.... and then not allowed to actually do anything with bikes.

If a wheel required so much as a spoke it would be returned as faulty and a new one ordered.

Reason? The store manager would not allow the workshop manager to order ANY spokes as they are 'too much of a faff during stock take'

😆

Wondered how long it would take for someone to twig.

I worked in Halfords as one of my first jobs. I mainly did shelf stacking but covered here and there. It is the lowest paying job I've ever done and I've had some really crap jobs

Asking for jockey wheels always proves to be fun. Actually these days that applies to most cycle shops. Blame the internet and places like Wiggle I guess.

halfords in Guiseley and in Bradford Forster Sq have both saved me some hassle and proved cheaper than LBS for small stuff. I wouldn't go there for a Thompson seat post or a new set of wheels but for pumps, square taper bottom brackets, tools and inner tubes (and on one late eve occasion, some glasses) they've been both open and had stock

Plus the BFS lads actually knew something about bikes and were surprised that they had a customer who knew exactly what he wanted. Personally I've no problem with Halfords for what they offer.

(All this is merely my experience of my local stores, just to provide a balanced view)

I've found Halfords to be remarkably good, for what they are.

One in Sheffield diagnosed my front mech / chain set / bottom bracket problem years ago when my front mech wouldn't reach the big cog. I had no idea back then but they correctly diagnosed the issue without even looking at the bike!

One in Manchester were very helpful when I bought a garmin, throwing in all sorts of free extras into the bag too!

I like their buy and collect thing too, it's only gone wrong once out of many many cheaper than store purchases.

I doff my cap to Halfords. I quite like them, for what they are in the market place.

(I wouldn't trust them to service my bike or any parts on my bike however)

To give some further balance to the thread, I had some gift vouchers for Halfords so bought a Giro Hex yesterday. I had no problems at all with the purchasing process.

I just laughed and said thanks alot have fun!!

He probably knows that 'abit' and 'alot' aren't words.

I am not having a go at the kid who served me as it is a training issue and he was very polite and a bit out of his depth

I would however expect the store to want staff working on their bike counter to come back with some kind of bolt at the very least even if they got the actual type of bolt a bit wrong.

A chain splitter isn't even close and for a brand that is trying to push their cycling credentials and is touting for service business it is not good enough.

To use the Tesco analogy it would be like asking for some plain flour and the assistant coming back with sunflower oil.

I would however expect the store to want staff working on their bike counter to come back with some kind of bolt at the very least even if they got the actual type of bolt a bit wrong.

To use the Tesco analogy it would be like asking for some plain flour and the assistant coming back with [s]sunflower oil.[/s] wholemeal bread flour that wont do what you want it to do

I am not sure why the wrong bolt is better than no bolt tbh - what if you have bought it?

I agree it would be nice if they did have knowledge but failing that they should have the customer skills to explain they dont know etc

@JY - I meant in the case of him actually coming back with a chain splitter

Tbf to the OP I can understand the expectation that a chain splitter could be differentiated from some chainring bolts

If the assistant is any good, he/she'll ask and find out.

It wasn't until I'd decided to go single ring up front that I realised what a chainring bolt actually was and why there may be different sizes. It's not something I'd expect Halfords to stock tho (especially since you can stock check online as well)

Use the Keighley and Harrogate Halfords every now and then without issue. Staff tend to be helpful and friendly enough.

Fuzzybear speeds cycles and halfords are in bromsgrove mate!

I wanted an 8 speed chain quick link at 4pm on a Sunday just before Xmas,
Guess where I got one from?

Renton thank god u said that I work in droit which and could not think for the life of me where he was on about

Ritchic where abouts do you work in droitwich matey?

Do you live there to?

I once had a LBS mechanic try to charge me for bashing a biopace chainring round. Poor knowledge in the bike industry is not exclusive to Halfords.