Might be getting somewhere with Halfords!

[abo]

Ok, after I sent my complaint to the CEO the other day I got a call from my local store this morning telling me they'd see what they can do for me and I'd get a call back within the next 24 hours. On my complaint I said I would accept an upgrade to a different make and model of bike, or a refund of £179 for the bike plus the accessories I'd bought.

Looking at the Halfords website, I suspect that should they offer me a different bike they'd try and give me that Diamondback thing which from reading about on the web will be just as much tat as what I'm riding now.

The only two bikes I'd really accept from them are:

VooDoo Bantu
Carrera Vengence Limited

Which I suspect will push them down the refund route unless they're feeling particularly generous.

When I've totted everything up it seems that, including helmet, tyres, pump etc. etc. I've lobbed about £140 on accessories!

I realise that I may not get a £350+ refund, but I've started looking around at other bikes at my LBSs and found a couple I fancy, so was hoping for opinions please?

GT Aggressor 2.0 looks reasonable for the price but has had some mixed reviews
Giant Revel 2 (not my LBS btw)
Mongoose Tyax Sport
Norco Kokanee LBS has this currently on offer at £350

I like the look of the Kokanee, but again mixed reviews... What do you think?

 

[Angelfishsolo]

Reviews of the Norco here. Looks pretty good to me

Ok, after I sent my complaint to the CEO the other day I got a call from my local store this morning telling me they'd see what they can do for me and I'd get a call back within the next 24 hours. On my complaint I said I would accept an upgrade to a different make and model of bike, or a refund of £179 for the bike plus the accessories I'd bought.

Looking at the Halfords website, I suspect that should they offer me a different bike they'd try and give me that Diamondback thing which from reading about on the web will be just as much tat as what I'm riding now.

The only two bikes I'd really accept from them are:

VooDoo Bantu
Carrera Vengence Limited

Which I suspect will push them down the refund route unless they're feeling particularly generous.

When I've totted everything up it seems that, including helmet, tyres, pump etc. etc. I've lobbed about £140 on accessories!

I realise that I may not get a £350+ refund, but I've started looking around at other bikes at my LBSs and found a couple I fancy, so was hoping for opinions please?

GT Aggressor 2.0 looks reasonable for the price but has had some mixed reviews
Giant Revel 2 (not my LBS btw)
Mongoose Tyax Sport
Norco Kokanee LBS has this currently on offer at £350

I like the look of the Kokanee, but again mixed reviews... What do you think?

 

[abo]

Reviews of the Norco here. Looks pretty good to me

Shame its only available in 20" in while by the looks of things

Hmm Specialized Hardrock

 

[abo]

Just got off the phone with Halfords, it seems that they remembered that I didn't pay full price for the bike, and accessories were 3 for 2 lol.

So, I'm now the proud owner of a Carrera Vulcan V-spec, or I will be in about half an hour when I pick it up later.. I'm not complaining, it is certainly a better bike than the Apollo.

 

[Angelfishsolo]

Result

Just got off the phone with Halfords, it seems that they remembered that I didn't pay full price for the bike, and accessories were 3 for 2 lol.

So, I'm now the proud owner of a Carrera Vulcan V-spec, or I will be in about half an hour when I pick it up later.. I'm not complaining, it is certainly a better bike than the Apollo.

 

[abo]

And other than a 5 minute test ride I still haven't ridden it due to my bad back

 

[hotmetal]

Result with the upgrade. Might be a good idea to get it checked over by the LBS though. At least you've got a better bike now. Shame about the back. You have my sympathy there, I've spent as much on chiropractic as you did on accessories recently.

 

[abo]

Thanks for that!

Hopefully it'll have settled down enough for me to ride for half an hour tomorrow. I think I'll have a trip down to my LBS, I need a new set of tyre levers as I bent my cheap Belgian ones when I put my other tyres on yesterday! They are a tighter fit on the new rims than the old bike.

Hope yours gets better soon! I'm not known for a bad back, I'm hoping this is a one-off and not the shape of things to come...

 

[Hip Priest]

Congratulations on the upgrade. Carreras are supposed to be good.

 

[abo]

Congratulations on the upgrade. Carreras are supposed to be good.

Fingers crossed. Hopefully better put together too ;-)

 

[Night Train]

Fingers crossed. Hopefully better put together too ;-)

Maybe to prove a point you could say to Halfords that you will get a decent LBS to inspect it and then Halfords can pay for anything that needs putting right before you can ride it.
If they have done it right there would be nothing to pay.