Halfords

[mjr]

I would miss halfords if it was gone, but i also find my local wilkinsons has a good range of essential spares, ...

Motor World, Wilco Fast Fit, TKMaxx, Bargain Buys, Poundland and Sainsburys also all stock some cycling spares and are in lots of towns. So do at least three other chains that I don't like to discuss. Half-odds is rarely your best or only choice unless it's something reasonably specialist and you can't shop until after 5.30pm.

[memnoch]

I know this thread had kind of sunk back into the depths but I thought I would return it to life and give my two pence worth having worked as a cycle mechanic there for a year while at uni.

Firstly the people who work there, generally commented to be spotty teenagers who are incompetent and know nothing about bikes. For the most part this is wrong where I worked every one in the bikehut area was a passably keen cyclist though a few of them were young as the shifts (normally 15 hours a week) suited university students well.

There are two key problems the first is the pay is minimum wage and very little respect from the management but I would have thought this is probably standard throughout the retail industry now. Which means that there is a very high turnover of staff which means there is always someone on training.

Now I'd be fairly confident in saying that most of you are pretty technical, I am too and did all my own work and know my bikes inside out. It's a very different experience doing the job professionally though with a hundred and one different types of hardware and combinations actually requires a fair amount of knowledge which can only be gained with experience and they give very little training apart from a million and one videos to watch on customer service.

eg: If your a keen road cyclist and have a lovely bike fitted out with ultegra would you know what to do if someone gives you a 20 year old rusted bike with a SA IGH?

The second biggest problem is with the customers. For the most part the customers who go there rather than a proper bike shop are after something cheap and cheerful. You then spend a while talking to the customer who knows nothing about bikes apart from what he has been told by his mates and insists he wants a full suspension mtb for commuting to work and then insists on going for the £99 special offer. The customers who are serious and know a little are far and few between. We then end up building up £99 bike which we know is a piece of crap and do the best to get it working normally a challenging job at the best of times. Bloke then returns a week later saying it's a piece of crap and doesn't work which is exactly what we tried to say when he chose it. The reputation then expands...

As to the build quality of the bikes - The bikes arrive in pretty much the same way at every single store halfords or otherwise. Partially assembled in a box. So the only assembly normally is the fitting of the bars, front wheel & brakes, pedals and accessories. Stuff like the BB are done at the factory so the only checks made to that will be the torque check of the crankset.

In short you get what you pay for!

As to the women who complained that she couldn't have her bike for her son immediately I say tough luck. Customers order bikes online, over the phone and in store each bike is then allocated the first available build slot if wanted immediately. It is the parents fault if they left it to the birthday day before ordering.

[Brucey]

.....pretty technical, I am too and did all my own work and know my bikes inside out. It's a very different experience doing the job professionally though with a hundred and one different types of hardware and combinations actually requires a fair amount of knowledge which can only be gained with experience and they give very little training apart from a million and one videos to watch on customer service.

eg: If your a keen road cyclist and have a lovely bike fitted out with ultegra would you know what to do if someone gives you a 20 year old rusted bike with a SA IGH?....

To the second question, if you are a professional cycle mechanic -and not a spotty yoof- then yes, of course you would know what to do with an older bike; it is meant to be your job to know this.

If you want to acquire the necessary skills and experience then no amount of 'training courses' will do, you have to spend years learning this stuff. I know a few guys who are skilled bike mechanics and they won't work in Halfords because their skills are not recognised or rewarded. To this extent other people's assumption, i.e. that the staff in Halfords are likely to be spotty yoofs who (no matter how enthusiastic they might be) don't know their buttock from their elbow, is likely to be correct.

If the management can't tell the difference between people who know what they are doing and those who cannot be expected to, what do you expect to happen?

cheers

[mjr]

Also if they cared about customers, why would they sell bikes that basically don't work as £99 specials? Hoping that lots of them won't ride enough to suffer the faults? Doesn't really help the country, that.

As for the rusty bike with an SA IGH... leave the hub alone, it's probably still ticking along fine

[fastpedaller]

Unfortunately I suspect they are "bullied" into getting £99 bikes because that's what the customer wants (or thinks he wants). In my work as a plumber I have some customers say to me I'll get a tap and you can fit it....... They then buy the cheapest horrible Eastern bloc manufactured tap, and expect it to work well for many years: If it fails within the first 3 years they phone and say "that tap you fitted etc..." If I advise my (new) customers I can supply them a known good quality tap which will cost them 20% more but be good I get the impression they think I'm trying to con them (although I may only make a £5 margin on the tap - my income is from fitting them!). My regular customers now tend to trust my judgement and get me to supply a good quality item. It's difficult from a standpoint of experience to sometimes convince a customer what will be the most economical solution - I do empathise with the LBS!

[mjr]

Oh sure I work as a webmaster and some people are adamant that they want cheap junk services but it never ends well so we say sorry and work for other people instead. Bitter experience of the few times that we went too close to the dividing line convinces me that one should not be an enabler for cheap junk addicts.

Sell lots of decent stuff as cheap as possible... but no cheaper.

[chris_suffolk]

Unfortunately we live (increasingly) in times when people just want it cheap, and don't really care too much about quality - seeing almost all items as consumables. Add to this, the fact that spares are almost impossible to come by, you have to buy a complete sub-unit or even a whole new item.

This can easily be seen with cars, white goods, electrical and electronic goods, clothes which change with the season, so lasting a few months is fine, the list goes on.

Hard to see what came first, consumers wanting it cheaper, or manufacturers pushing cheap goods to drive a market, but it's increasingly hard to buy high quality durable goods, even if you are prepared to pay a premium for such goods. Even manufacturers once known for quality now produce goods no better than the average (and possibly still at the premium price)

Guess Halfords are just responding to the current trends.

[blackbike]

Unfortunately we live (increasingly) in times when people just want it cheap, and don't really care too much about quality

That's not true really.

Many people who buy bikes at Halfords don't need a high quality expensive bike. They know they are not going to be riding much or far, or riding the bike hard, and a cheap bike suits their needs. I know a person who only rides his bike on tow paths to and from his fishing spot, and a couple who take their bikes by car to Tatton Park and ride there, never on the roads.

When I worked half a mile from home a few years ago, I commuted on a low quality bike my brother rescued from a skip. It did the job and apart from oiling the chain and pumping up the tyres it required no maintenance over the 2 years I worked there.

[carlislemike]

I know this thread had kind of sunk back into the depths but I thought I would return it to life and give my two pence worth having worked as a cycle mechanic there for a year while at uni.

Firstly the people who work there, generally commented to be spotty teenagers who are incompetent and know nothing about bikes. For the most part this is wrong where I worked every one in the bikehut area was a passably keen cyclist though a few of them were young as the shifts (normally 15 hours a week) suited university students well.

There are two key problems the first is the pay is minimum wage and very little respect from the management but I would have thought this is probably standard throughout the retail industry now. Which means that there is a very high turnover of staff which means there is always someone on training.
As to the build quality of the bikes - The bikes arrive in pretty much the same way at every single store halfords or otherwise. Partially assembled in a box. So the only assembly normally is the fitting of the bars, front wheel & brakes, pedals and accessories. Stuff like the BB are done at the factory so the only checks made to that will be the torque check of the crankset.

In short you get what you pay for!

As to the women who complained that she couldn't have her bike for her son immediately I say tough luck. Customers order bikes online, over the phone and in store each bike is then allocated the first available build slot if wanted immediately. It is the parents fault if they left it to the birthday day before ordering.

Memnoch make some good points re Halfords but doesn't totally cover the issue; there are some great lads and lasses working in branches of Halfords and the issue is that Halfords management does NOT recognise this. There is little training to increase skills to for example Cytech levels for those who are keen to progress. There is no skill progression through bike mechanical apprenticeships on offer, There is no professional progression for those who are dedicated cycle store mechanics to cycle store management because the store make most of their money from the automobile side of things. I spoke to one such mechanic in the local store on Thursday; I have known him a very long time. He has trained himself, he is a keen cyclist and not just road cyclist BUt he cannot get any management training, he's on a low level wage but ambitious. He showed me the list of bikes he had to get prepped for Saturday / weekend. Management expected him to get 32 bikes unboxed, set up and ready to go with only 1 other guy to help. At the same time he had to operate the till sales; keep an eye out for the tea leaves who infest this part of Lunnun and also answer politely the questions that the great British & non Brit public ask. [ and the ppublic are often clueless and down right rude] Don't blame staff, blame the senior managers who only want the store cash flow to be £xxx0000s but pay £peanuts.

Yup I like Halfords for my tubes, small tools, lubes, etc. The bikes are ok for what you pay but you aren't going to get your 'best bike' there unless you fall lucky on one of their deals with a Boardman! My daughter and my friends have bought well from Halfords but upgraded since. They beat Decathlon hands down for post purchase support and longevity.

[Tangled Metal]

They have their market and cater for it. If you are not satisfied then perhaps you are not their key market and are expecting too much. LBS service requires LBS costs and overheads. Halfords level of service is a mass market standard, pile them high sell them cheap. If you want a high level cytech bike mechanics look elsewhere. Want that perfect bike with perfect setup then LBS and pay for it.

This Halfords is rubbish type of thread is starting to annoy. It is what it is and the people there are minimum wage for most part. The management is all about the money. It is a hard world and Halfords have shareholders and commitments that TBH customers need to be milked and employees exploited at minimum wage and little training. What training is offered no doubt is of a level to get you a beginner job at a proper bike shop. If you want higher level (cytech) then they would not get it there I reckon. They're there to sell, operate the till and unpack boxes of bikes. I could do that and so could you.

You ask an assistant a question and if you have the wrong person they only wait to speak to the main bike guy. Reason is that person probably works the till or automotive parts counter. Or just stacks the shelf. They often have to cover wherever they are needed because there are simply skeleton staff at the branches. I seem to remember branches have a lot more than nowadays.

All this is simply to say expect too much and you will not like what you get. Do not expect more than Halfords are set up for. Simple really. If you do get good service please be happy not expect it again. The people in Halfords are human and slagging them off all the time just because they are what management allows them to be is not right.

Personally it is time people moved on from this Halfords slagathon (my word for how everyone slags them off for not being like their LBS). Slagging off examples of poor service is pointless on these forums because it will not change the FACTS. Halfords is set up as it is and do not expect more than that. If you get more then be happy.

[beardy]

that TBH customers need to be milked and employees exploited at minimum wage and little training. What training is offered no doubt is of a level to get you a beginner job at a proper bike shop.

Personally it is time people moved on from this Halfords slagathon (my word for how everyone slags them off for not being like their LBS).

There is something different about when I point out Halford's faults and when the rest of you do it.

Halfords have their good points, nice quick easy place to buy some quality tools and slightly less common workshop products. They also have their bad points, like staff who know less than a lot of the posters on this forum about the bikes which we like to ride.

What is the problem about pointing this out on a cycling forum?

[meic]

I bought an Apollo Gradient for my son 11 years ago, it needed a post purchase service .

Having done that it gave good service and did thousands of miles over the next six years with just low level normal servicing. I then gave it away to a friend and I doubt it has done even 40 miles over that period and it is wrecked!

The V brake noodles have pulled through the caliper arms, pedals, chain and hubs have rusted up etc etc.

So we are talking about the same cheap bike, typical of what Halfords sell. If they are kept indoors and looked after with a modicum of care then they will be a serviceable bike. If they are left outdoors and neglected they turn to junk. I reckon people who spend only £80 on a bike are more likely to do the latter than the former.

Are Halford's customers a big part of the problem?

How can he say such a thing about customers!

[Tangled Metal]

It is not the "positive" negative comments but the simple comments saying they are rubbish because they did not do this for me or get my bike ready sooner or other such comments that are really about how the complainant are expecting too much. If you go in expecting a Halfords level of service then a lot of these sorts of complaints do not come up because you realize the limitations of Halfords.

I get from your comments Beardy that you are fully aware of the service to expect as normal from Halfords As such I think that you would not complain about buying a bike one weekend and not getting it in time for the next weekend if it is an ordered in bike. I also think that someone like you with a realistic view of their service will keep to simple facts about what went wrong with the service not going into superlatives about how rubbish they are and never going there again. I am a bit like you in that I buy from them what I know I want and do not rely on advice. I will seek it but with the knowledge I need gained elsewhere.

Like you kind of said, beardy, I would not go to halfords for advice on bikes but would seek it on here first.

[pwa]

I have a Halfords fairly close to me and I do pop in once in a while for a brake cable or a bottle of oil, but I recognise that the staff are probably not the best people to ask about anything that is not mainstream. They are, however, friendly and reasonably knowledgeable in some areas. And they are on low wages with poor contracts of employment, so I am firmly on their side.

[Manc33]

Are the staff on commission in Halford's?

This is why you never get any assistance in some places, like PC World - when you just want a ream of paper or something and can't find it. Go in with a woman and two kids by your side and they are helping you so fast their feet don't touch the floor - that's because you might be spending hundreds on a full PC system as opposed to three quid on a ream of paper.