Dear Halfords

[dyna-ti]

Theres a charity in Scotland called the Bike Station. They also do school fix ups and also exchange kids bikes for free.
http://www.thebikestation.org.uk/glasgow/

Without doubt one of the better recycling places.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Re: Re:

picking a part your post? i think you'll find i answered your questions, what you have done above by quoting is picking apart a post.

I meant me!

My point is this: you addressed your post/letter "Dear Halford's"; you could justifiably have entitled it "Dear Asda, Tesco, Toys'R'Us, Go Outdoors, Argos, Sports Direct, JW Sports, Amazon, Machine Mart, eBay and others selling budget bikes for the masses". Instead you picked on Halford's, unjustly in my opinion since their bikes generally aren't assembled by the work experience lad in a corner of the stockroom using only the tools supplied with the bike, offer repairs and servicing of exactly the crap bikes you're talking about and they offer a range of other bikes for every pocket.

Yeah, they have to make a profit - er, it's a business fercrissakes. Yeah, not all branches are as good as my local one - some are better. Yeah, mistakes are sometimes made - as they are by IBSs. I'm just a bit tired of hearing "Halfraud's" trotted out on here, that's all - they'e a long way from being the worst offenders.

That's it, I'm done.

 

[jonnyboy666]

Re: Re:

picking a part your post? i think you'll find i answered your questions, what you have done above by quoting is picking apart a post.

I meant me!

you did not make this clear, even if you had of made that clear you picked apart the post regardless.

i suppose i could have addressed the post differently but as i said in the first post and several more the bikes i dealt with were halfords bikes, hence the title.

i understand halfords has to make a profit, so do small independent dealers, but having to repair a poor quality bike takes longer than a reasonable quality bike due to nothing more than it's lack of quality etc, this means we should charge more for our time but realistically we can't as the customer simply wouldn't pay or couldn't afford to pay, again this is due to failing in the bike at which point we as shops have to make the decision to discount our parts or time if we want the customer, but why should we? while the customer is in our shop the bike is not supplied by us so until they agree to pay for work they are not our customer so why should they entitled to discount just because they have bought a bike somewhere else and their budget is limited? should we feel sorry for them and discount for them out of pity? we have to make a living to, but feel sorry for halfords if you want to.

you've said you're done, i'm not deliberately picking an argument with you to annoy you but talking to you via the screen is similar to talking to a customer across the counter who doesn't understand what they've bought and is in denial. however it is also obvious that you know a fair bit but my 20 years experience in this field has taught me otherwise time and time again, which is also mirrored in the responses of the other posters on this thread.

i don't tend to go as far as referring to halfords as halfrauds etc but as i said before they should strive to do better but they don't as a company, they may do as a branch here and there but not as a company and that is wrong.

 

[technodup]

I don't see the problem. Customers want cheap bikes and Halfords supplies them, same as Primark supplies cheap clothes. Nobody in their right mind expects a Primark coat to perform or last like a Crombie, likewise customers shouldn't expect a £99 bike to be any good.

If they do then it's a case of educating them. If they're not receptive to that then they're not the sort of customers I'd want anyway so it's no real loss. I'd certainly not be spending extra time on Apollos for no extra money- nobody wins out of that.

 

[makster]

Re:

Spotted in Bournemouth on Saturday.....



You couldn't make it up :roll:

 

[xxnick1975]

I think your best bet is to think of ways to deal with these customers politely and professionally, without taking it personally

There is a massive gulf in kids bikes, a 20 inch trac is £60, a 20 inch Isla bike is over £300

 

[Midlife]

That's a Great Bike

Someone mentioned Crombie, blimey! I saved up for a long time to get one of those, including a cut out red card for the pocket

Uncle buck forgot to mention Great Universal and Empire Stores catalogues in the 70's. The reason I mention them is that they sold guns, yep, I always wanted a Franchise hunter pump action shotgun . That must have really annoyed gunsmiths BITD

Shaun

 

[jonnyboy666]

If they do then it's a case of educating them. If they're not receptive to that then they're not the sort of customers I'd want anyway so it's no real loss. I'd certainly not be spending extra time on Apollos for no extra money- nobody wins out of that.

unfortunately this is the issue, a lot of the people that buy these bikes don't see the difference between what they have bought and a more expensive bike, a lot assume that because their bike has suspension and discs brakes regardless of the poor quality nature they see the same as a grands worth of bike, assuming that the person spending a grand is being ripped off and that they are a savvy consumer by getting the "50% off bargain", as you say it's a case of education but a lot don't want to hear they have been ripped off and sold a heap of crap, also it's incredibly hard to find a way of politely telling someone their property is rubbish especially when they simply don't know, and up until they get told they may well have been happy with the bike regardless of the gears /brakes etc not working, but they are so used to it being bad they don't know any different, ignorance is bliss?

i do my best to politely explain the issue, and as i have said before i tend to go for the safety point of view but when the cost of repair is added up they generally can not comprehend the price, then even if they agree to the work, say for example a new brake set i find myself having to tighten cones or straighten wheels just to make the parts i'm fitting work properly, most of the time i point this out when i'm quoting but quite often there are issues you don't find until the bike is in the stand by which time the customer is out of the shop and you know if you phone them they'll say they can't afford the extra so you end up doing some work for free just to get the bike out of the stand and back to the customer, when this happens i point out the extra i have done and say "i haven't charged you for this XYZ but if it comes in again like that i will have to" etc

it's frustrating as it's so common a problem these days, upsetting people daily is not what i want to do, it always ends up with either them pissed off or angry or upset, but at the same time none of us work for free and we can't afford to let sub standard work out the door for obvious reasons but without the customer putting their hand in their pocket to pay for a proper repair i don't see an option to keep them happy, it's pay for the work or don't get it done and continue to ride an unsafe bike, either way i have to be honest and explain as best i can why they need to replace parts or service parts, at least the ball is in their court at that point and they can make an informed choice that suits them.

 

[Muddy paw]

Yes i have to agree that people need to be educated to understand the proper meaning of value for money but while this needs to be taught in schools so kids will grow up understanding that quality is more important than quantity their will always be an uphill struggle when their parents only want to pay as little as possible and ontop of that you've got the tv ads brain washing those who are gullible enough to believe anything but it would be a step in the right direction starting this type of education in schools .

 

[legrandefromage]

We've been having this conversation on the RB site for years. Just look how old the BSO threads are. Nothing has changed in decades and is unlikely to either.