Halfords and the reverse fork

[madguern]

Nope! Halfords are a car parts and accessories shop who also sell cycling equipment and camping gear.

True, but the guy at work thought otherwise and many others like him trusted them as a legit bike shop, he could have bought better and cheaper at the LBS that I advised him to go to. We don't even have a Halfords on the island so he travelled specifically to UK to buy bike because it was on special deal.

Never mind

 

[Night Train]

Isn't this Halfords advert back to front?

[media]
]View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM_AyGlGUrY[/media]

 

[Glover Fan]

More concerning is that Tesco want to sell more bikes than halfords by 2015!

 

[JNR]

I recently went into Halfords to look at their Carbon range of Boardman bikes to see if the 'Elite' range were in...the normal road bikes were badly set up, no attempt to set brakes at all from what I saw and more. It makes me wonder, surely anyone buying a high end bike from them would just take it from the box and ask a LBS to sort it?

Which begs the question...why buy from them at all? Surely the savvy cyclist would avoid Chris Boardman's high end bikes and buy something set up correctly first from a LBS ensuring (mostly...) top notch customer service, set-up, sizing, fitting etc? If the mags are anything to go buy people will be paying over £3000 for one of those new top range machines!

 

[madguern]

True after seeing what they did to my workmates cheap bike would not trust them with a high end Boardman bike. I would however hopefully spot a reverse fork :-)

 

[festival]

Regards the halfrauds tv advert.

Its a shame they don't spend as much time, money and effort on providing a good service as they do on trying to create an image that clearly doesn't match the reality.

I made the decision some time ago to avoid spending a penny with them even, though there are times when its inconvenient to go elsewhere.
I wonder how many people on here agree with how bad they are but continue to shop there, even if its to buy an air freshener.

Clearly, there is more important issues in this world, but if more of us boycotted them the sooner the shareholders would kick some arse and things may improve.

 

[Cubist]

Regards the halfrauds tv advert.

Its a shame they don't spend as much time, money and effort on providing a good service as they do on trying to create an image that clearly doesn't match the reality.

I made the decision some time ago to avoid spending a penny with them even, though there are times when its inconvenient to go elsewhere.
I wonder how many people on here agree with how bad they are but continue to shop there, even if its to buy an air freshener.

Clearly, there is more important issues in this world, but if more of us boycotted them the sooner the shareholders would kick some arse and things may improve.

Why boycott? I went in there yesterday for an air freshener and a pair of wiper blades, plus a can of Gunk Green degreaser. Refusing to shop there even if it's inconvenient to go elsewhere is cutting your nose of to spite your face. . I buy my GT85 there as it's cheaper than the LBS, (and try pricking my conscience over 3 for 4.99 or one for £5.00!,) and if they have the old 3 for 2 I'll treat myself to a handful of inner tubes. They sell gear cables on a sunday if mine need changing etc etc etc. My Boardman bike was well put together and well set up, although I have never taken it back there, trusting myself to do the servicing.

At the end of the day it's a shop FFS, so frothing at the mouth and calling for nationwide boycotts for fear of not pandering to the elitist "I wouldn't be seen dead in Halfords" brigade is just ridiculous.


Shop there, buy bikes and accessories there, hold your head up high. Don't recommend them as a source of advice to novice cyclists, but how are you going to stop the "it was only 100 quid and had full suspension and everything" brigade going in there in the first place?

 

[Angelfishsolo]

+1

Why boycott? I went in there yesterday for an air freshener and a pair of wiper blades, plus a can of Gunk Green degreaser. Refusing to shop there even if it's inconvenient to go elsewhere is cutting your nose of to spite your face. . I buy my GT85 there as it's cheaper than the LBS, (and try pricking my conscience over 3 for 4.99 or one for £5.00!,) and if they have the old 3 for 2 I'll treat myself to a handful of inner tubes. They sell gear cables on a sunday if mine need changing etc etc etc. My Boardman bike was well put together and well set up, although I have never taken it back there, trusting myself to do the servicing.

At the end of the day it's a shop FFS, so frothing at the mouth and calling for nationwide boycotts for fear of not pandering to the elitist "I wouldn't be seen dead in Halfords" brigade is just ridiculous.


Shop there, buy bikes and accessories there, hold your head up high. Don't recommend them as a source of advice to novice cyclists, but how are you going to stop the "it was only 100 quid and had full suspension and everything" brigade going in there in the first place?

 

[madguern]

+1 just hope the novice listens next time :-)

Why boycott? I went in there yesterday for an air freshener and a pair of wiper blades, plus a can of Gunk Green degreaser. Refusing to shop there even if it's inconvenient to go elsewhere is cutting your nose of to spite your face. . I buy my GT85 there as it's cheaper than the LBS, (and try pricking my conscience over 3 for 4.99 or one for £5.00!,) and if they have the old 3 for 2 I'll treat myself to a handful of inner tubes. They sell gear cables on a sunday if mine need changing etc etc etc. My Boardman bike was well put together and well set up, although I have never taken it back there, trusting myself to do the servicing.

At the end of the day it's a shop FFS, so frothing at the mouth and calling for nationwide boycotts for fear of not pandering to the elitist "I wouldn't be seen dead in Halfords" brigade is just ridiculous.


Shop there, buy bikes and accessories there, hold your head up high. Don't recommend them as a source of advice to novice cyclists, but how are you going to stop the "it was only 100 quid and had full suspension and everything" brigade going in there in the first place?

 

[festival]

At the end of the day it's a shop FFS, so frothing at the mouth and calling for nationwide boycotts for fear of not pandering to the elitist "I wouldn't be seen dead in Halfords" brigade is just ridiculous.


Shop there, buy bikes and accessories there, hold your head up high. Don't recommend them as a source of advice to novice cyclists, but how are you going to stop the "it was only 100 quid and had full suspension and everything" brigade going in there in the first place?
[/quote]


Well, it was just an opinion, seems like your the one getting excited.

 

[tradesecrets]

Hi

A newbie at work purchase a cheap bike from Halfords, he dutifully took it out on sunday for first ride. He noticed that his foot kept hitting the front wheel. Then he noticed and thought it strange that the disc brakes were on different sides of the bike. Then it dawned on him, forks were reversed.

All very funny and we all had a laff back in the office. Then it struck me , how many other bikes are out there and why is there little to no quality control from a big store such as Halfords. I can understand supermarkets and DIY stores but halfords are supposed to be a bike shop !

How many bikes are out there with reversed forks ?

Firstly Halfords has never been a out and out bike shop !!!! Halfords main core of business is car market

 

[tradesecrets]

Regards the halfrauds tv advert.

Its a shame they don't spend as much time, money and effort on providing a good service as they do on trying to create an image that clearly doesn't match the reality.

I made the decision some time ago to avoid spending a penny with them even, though there are times when its inconvenient to go elsewhere.
I wonder how many people on here agree with how bad they are but continue to shop there, even if its to buy an air freshener.

Clearly, there is more important issues in this world, but if more of us boycotted them the sooner the shareholders would kick some arse and things may improve.

I've no idea what line of work your in but am sure like me you have have been taught in house training and customer training ..etc product knowledge

It's all fine well slating an outlet or a brand name but as you may haven't worked for that company like myself we really have no idea what happens to new staff , in terns of staff training and courses etc .. it may well be the fault lies in the management and training in all areas of business right down to front of house .

Does the company actually send in mystery shoppers to do spot checks on how staff actually conduct themselves and how good there knowledge and what questions to ask , etc ...

People that deal with customers that give bad service or bad advice etc doesn't happen at halfords alone ..

 

[madguern]

Firstly Halfords has never been a out and out bike shop !!!! Halfords main core of business is car market

It still sells bikes though !!! They advertise the fact that they have in-store experts ! They puts forks on a bike backwards. Yes it was probably an individual but according to others they have an issue with training in-store. Likewise B & Q and Tesco's have both been shown with reverse forks but both do not state they are experts in bikes. In fact if not wrong most supermarket bike are build your own from memory.

I have no beef with halfords, we don't have one locally, I just think they need to have a system of quality checks to ensure bikes that leave their premises are safe. Likewise if they wired in my car stereo I would expect music to come out and not smoke from under the dashboard.

Toodles

 

[Philjack]

I am new to cycling and bought a Boardman MX sport from halfords, who put the bike together. Have been riding for six weeks and something was not right, foot hitting tyre, etc. I noticed wheel direction marker was going backwards. Upon inspection of Internet pics and assembled boardman bikes halfords had put the forks on back to front. Unbelievable.

I am taking this further with halfords and Boardman. I feel such an idiot but trusted halfords to build the bike

Is it likely to have caused and structural damage to bike? Done 150 miles on mixed terrain mainly canal paths and cycle paths.

 

[Pale Rider]

I reckon damage is unlikely, assuming none is apparent.

A few days ago I saw a new mountain bike in Halfords with the stem pointing downwards.

Fine if that's what the customer wants, but the bike was built for showroom display.

I say 'built', it was clearly thrown together by someone who knows nothing about bikes.

We all have to learn, but at the very least the work should have been checked.

Crass assembly errors continue to dog Halfords, although some branches appear to know what they are doing.