Unbelievable phonecall

pokerface_me

I bought and paid for a bike a couple of weeks ago in Halfords, i took the option of them putting the bike together to save me the hassle at Christmas, its a present for my daughter. 5 minutes ago my phone rings and get a girl on the phone as rude as hell. She informs me the bike must be collected by the close of buisness today or it will be gone, i inform her i'm in work and won't be finished till midnight, she then tells me it must be collected on the store opening tomorrow or it will be gone. I ask politely where gone is ( another store maybe or something ) she replies it will just be gone and that''s it in here worst Dublin accent. I said i might not be able to make it in the morning (i have a hospital appointment).........Well it won't be here it will be gone was her answer again.

Now when i paid for the bike i was told the soonest it would be ready was the 19th due to a backlog, and i asked had it to be collected that day or what, the chap said collect anytime after this time it would be ready. I'm sitting here in work stunned by the absolute arrogance of your woman, i've never in all my life had a phone call like it from a retail outlet. Shocked.

super_furry

Phone back and ask to speak to a manager.

pokerface_me

Just tried that guys and the same girl answered the phone and said the manager is not there and hung up.

Davy

The lesson is not to deal with Halfords full stop.

Never works out, they cant even manage the simplest of things. Their reserve service is a joke!

Sleipnir

I'd be taking a little trip into that Halford's to cause a very public stink.

Kristopherus

Get your other half to ring tomorrow morning from a mobile and ask for the boss.

breadmonkey

OP, please destroy that b1tch and update the thread!

corktina

youve paid for it...its yours...talk to their Head Office.

Davy

corktina wrote: »

youve paid for it...its yours...talk to their Head Office.

Think i would prefer a refund that give them the business after that

neil_purdy

Hate halfords... Forced to use them when im stuck but avoid at all costs usually..

Personally i found their staff are not very well trained..

My sister went to have a headlight bulb changed, i would normally do it but i was away, took them nearly an hour... I tried it later myself.. i and out in minutes...

pokerface_me

Yeah i'm thinking i might go down and get a refund and give my Euro's to an Irish Store who appreciates the custom.

jmbkay

Hit them where it hurts, OP, and demand your money back while you have time to buy one elsewhere. Then write a letter to their MD here and in England complaining about this disgrace. Keep us updated.

pokerface_me

jmbkay wrote: »

Hit them where it hurts, OP, and demand your money back while you have time to buy one elsewhere. Then write a letter to their MD here and in England complaining about this disgrace. Keep us updated.

Just tried to ring their headoffice in the U.K to no avail. It says the line is open till 10pm but its just a voicemail with a load of options for which none are customer services but wait for it, its the customer services number. Doesn't seem to be any numbers for here other than store numbers, will defo be writing to them.

Just rang the other half and i needen tell you she is like a bull to a red rag.

slimjimmc

jmbkay wrote: »

Hit them where it hurts, OP, and demand your money back while you have time to buy one elsewhere. Then write a letter to their MD here and in England complaining about this disgrace. Keep us updated.

Worth a try if you want to go that route but any refund would at their discretion. They're not legally obliged to return any money as they've fulfilled their end of the sale.. the bike is assembled and ready for collection.

In the currrent economic climate perhaps the girl heard something on the grape-vine and is doing you a favour urging you to get your bike out quick.

Rev. Kitchen

Take your money back, make a point to the manager about the girl that rang you (and when she hung up on you). If they told you to collect it on the 19th then thats when you should be collecting it.

Take your money go to a local bike shop it might be a tad more expensive but they will be glad of the business and you will get a much better service.

jor el

Did you get the girl's name? It will be a lot better for you if you did, as you'll be able to tell the manager who it was that rang you. Otherwise, you'll have nothing other than "some Dublin girl" to go on.

ejmaztec

Contact them on here:

http://www.halfords.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_11101_catalogId_15554_productId_722617_langId_-1_categoryId_211015

I only used the reserve procedure once, and within a minute or so of clicking on the website, I had a phonecall from Tralee telling me that the item was available for collection.

I then received an email request to leave feedback about the transaction, and couldn't do it because the facility was "unavailable" on the site.

I don't see why one little bitch would be representative of an entire business. Her manager will probably hang her out to dry when he finds out.

jor el

jor el wrote: »

Did you get the girl's name? It will be a lot better for you if you did, as you'll be able to tell the manager who it was that rang you. Otherwise, you'll have nothing other than "some Dublin girl" to go on.

I'm sure they'd be able to wittle it down. I imagine they'd have certain people rostered in for certain areas at specific times (ie; Adam could be working Customer services from 9am to 3pm, and then Eve from 3pm til 9pm or whatever).


I'd definitely be reporting it anyway, and I'd create a fuss over it too. Ask for a discount, free services for the bike, free accessories or something. Get something out of them for it. (Though in my experience with Halfords, buying there was a mistake in the first place )

LordSutch

Davy wrote: »

The lesson is not to deal with Halfords full stop.
Never works out, they cant even manage the simplest of things. Their reserve service is a joke!

This is about the third 'Anti-Halfords thread' in as many months > are they really that bad? or ........

Lollipops23

Holy crap, that's seriously amazing service there:rolleyes:


I'd certainly be making a stink,apart from the outright rudeness, the fact that she gave you,what, like 12 hours to collect it (overnight!)? That's not normal practice, especially since you paid for it!

Please update,I'm interested to see how this one pans out.

dh0661

I'd doubt the girl took this initiative herself, IMO there had to be an under pressure upstart type of junior manager pushing this, but I cannot imagine the pressure in Halfords being that stressful.

Davy

Camelot wrote: »

This is about the third 'Anti-Halfords thread' in as many months > are they really that bad? or ........

I have seen one or two threads alright, but i still gave them the benefit of the doubt and bought stuff their which i regretted. I have used the 'reserve' service, and basically got to the store to be told its not there, nothing i can do. Nothing like can we find it in another store for you, or will i check if we have something similar in stock. I get impression they don't really care about their jobs or the service they give. Thats the impression i got from the stores i have been in anyway.

eth0_

It's weird, I used two different Halfords stores when I was living in Scotland and in both cases the service was fantastic and the staff were knowledgable.

I can't understand why their Irish branches are so poor. I've personally only ever been to the Blanchardstown branch but it seemed to be run by a bunch of boy racer chavs...

mcaul

pokerface_me wrote: »

Yeah i'm thinking i might go down and get a refund and give my Euro's to an Irish Store who appreciates the custom.

Please do that - you'll get a FAR better service and a far better price.

Example.

Bosch 21" wiper blade @ halfords €15.49
Bosch 21" wiper blades in Consort independent motor factors drumcondra €8.50

Also don't ever believe their half price "offers" - they are as true as Right price tiles 70% off offers and carpet sh1tes 5,000,000% off and extra zillion % off offers. - Or in other words, they're not "real" offers!

nogoodnamesleft

Davy wrote: »

The lesson is not to deal with Halfords full stop.

Never works out, they cant even manage the simplest of things. Their reserve service is a joke!

+1

Had a run in with them before and ended up speaking to a "manager" absolute joke, didnt have a clue regards customer service. I took my hard earned else where and made a complaint to their head office in the Uk.

MAB83

How did you get on in the end OP? I never go near Halfords anymore. I'd go out of my way to avoid them.

ejmaztec

mcaul wrote: »

Please do that - you'll get a FAR better service and a far better price.

Example.

Bosch 21" wiper blade @ halfords €15.49
Bosch 21" wiper blades in Consort independent motor factors drumcondra €8.50

Also don't ever believe their half price "offers" - they are as true as Right price tiles 70% off offers and carpet sh1tes 5,000,000% off and extra zillion % off offers. - Or in other words, they're not "real" offers!

You're lucky to get a proper price from an independent motor factor, because down in Kerry, prices seem to vary from one customer to another. And you also seem to get quoted in round Euros when you ask what the price of something is.

Another habit that pisses me off is that, if they haven't got something in stock, you have to pay the postage for them to get it.

I use Ebay 99% of the time.

Magenta

pokerface_me wrote: »

Yeah i'm thinking i might go down and get a refund and give my Euro's to an Irish Store who appreciates the custom.

What does the fact that Halfords are English have to do with your problem with this girl? Just curious.
Also wondering why you took the time to mention that she had a strong Dublin accent. That has nothing to do with the issue at hand, it's her awful customer service skills that make her bad at her job.

I do hope you get your bike, and I do agree that Halfords customer service is bad at best. Any time I go there there is no one at the till, they are all stood down the back talking about their night out. They blatantly see me standing there with stuff in my hand but take their time in coming over. I usually just put the stuff down and walk out when this happens, stuff like air fresheners and anti freeze is easy to come by so I take my business to somewhere else.

busman

ejmaztec wrote: »

You're lucky to get a proper price from an independent motor factor, because down in Kerry, prices seem to vary from one customer to another. And you also seem to get quoted in round Euros when you ask what the price of something is.

Another habit that pisses me off is that, if they haven't got something in stock, you have to pay the postage for them to get it.

Ah, must be Kerry then ;-)

Have to say that that the independents that I have dealt with in Mallow and Bandon have been great. Usually get a few bob off if I ask if they can do a little bit better. Also if items are not in stock usually can get them the next day, no extra charge.

stevoman

OP,

Ring the regional office and or the head offices. explain to them what was said. tell them if they dont sort it out ASAP you are going to ring that girl back, record the conversation and then play that conversation back on The consumer issues section of today FM's Ray darcy show over the air live so the whole countery can hear how they treat their customers.

HarryD

Call the same girl again asking questions & record the call (can be done on many mobiles) and when you are cancelling/getting a refund, cite the phone call as the reason.

ejmaztec

busman wrote: »

Ah, must be Kerry then ;-)

Have to say that that the independents that I have dealt with in Mallow and Bandon have been great. Usually get a few bob off if I ask if they can do a little bit better. Also if items are not in stock usually can get them the next day, no extra charge.

I always wonder whether things that happen here happen all over the country.:eek: They obviously don't. At least in Halfords you know exactly how much you're going to get robbed for, so you only have a slightly bitter taste in your mouth when you walk out with nothing.

neil_purdy

In an earlier post here i said i always avoid halfords... so i was there on sunday getting some batteries..:rolleyes: Local shopping centre you have to pay for parking and it looked jammers...so fe*k that!!

Anyway was waiting to pay for my stuff and the girl at the register was on the phone.. some customer looking for a member of staff for a query.. anyway staff member came down and asked who it was.. Girl informed him it was a customer query.. Guy blatantly told the girl infront of the que.. "Tell them all staff are busy or something, call back in a bit", and just walked off back down the store...

Left my batteries and went..:eek:

pokerface_me

Magenta wrote: »

What does the fact that Halfords are English have to do with your problem with this girl? Just curious.
Also wondering why you took the time to mention that she had a strong Dublin accent. That has nothing to do with the issue at hand, it's her awful customer service skills that make her bad at her job.
.

Hi sorry i haven't updated the thread since been tied up with work. I went down the next afternoon and after an hour of arguing with some staff members the eldest of which was no older than 20, i got a full refund.

Before i got my refund though they actually brought the bike out to me and brought it outside the store and asked which car was mine. I told him politely i didn't want the bike i wanted a refund due to very poor customer service and explained the way i was treated. I was basically told this is company policy and its what they are told to say, that if you don't come and collect within 24 hours the item is gone, end of. I said i didn't understand where the bike would be gone to, and just got blank expressions and 1 of them said it would be sold to the next customer. So while i was talking to another member of staff, as the first guy i spoke to said he would have to make a fone call to get authorisation for a refund, another chap comes out with the bike walks outside the shop with it and shouts back which car is yours pal. I said i'm not taking the bike, he said ohh yes you are i'm leaving it out here, i said leave it where you want i don't want it, he just stood there. First guy comes back and eventually after another 2 fonecalls i get my money back. Never ever again. As i left the shop one of the cheeky little ****es says to me your barred don't come back, as i turned he said ahh bud i'm only messing with ya.

Anyway brought my dollars down to The Cycle Inn in Tallaght and got a great little bike for my daughter and lads were a great help, roughly the same price too and got some accersories thrown in too.

Back to the comment above was when i said strong dublin accent, when i answered the fone i got howya this is halfords....get what i'm saying.

And the Irish comment was, i think in these hard times we should support the Local shops and Irish buisnesses the big multi nationals couldn't give a monkeys as proven in my case, and the local guy around the corner does care as also proven in my case.

Thanks for all the help and advice, and i feel i made the correct decision. Any questions please ask away.

P.S i have no connection to the bike shop in Tallaght i mentioned, i actually thought it had closed down years ago when the Esso garage got knocked down and the Greenhills road was diverted onto a new section of road, but its still there in a little cottage in a small cul de sac

eth0_

pokerface_me wrote: »

As i left the shop one of the cheeky little ****es says to me your barred don't come back, as i turned he said ahh bud i'm only messing with ya.

PLEASE write to Halfords head office and let them know what happened. You couldn't make that stuff up, it's incredible!

MunsterCycling

Issue a Data protection notice to them that you want the cctv footage as proof of their actions.

MC

kiwipower

Just wondering based on the use of Bitch, B1tch and *****ers and the agesim displayed in this thread if the attitude of consumers to staff could be impacting on service received??? I dont have any conection to Halfords or condon poor service but do think comunication is a two way thing.

dudara

kiwipower wrote: »

Just wondering based on the use of Bitch, B1tch and *****ers and the agesim displayed in this thread if the attitude of consumers to staff could be impacting on service received??? I dont have any conection to Halfords or condon poor service but do think comunication is a two way thing.

It is completely possible. It is apparent from some people's posts in Consumer Issues that their attitude contributes directly to the experience they have.

This isn't always the case though.

Run_to_da_hills

neil_purdy wrote: »

Hate halfords... Forced to use them when I'm stuck but avoid at all costs usually..

Personally i found their staff are not very well trained..

My sister went to have a headlight bulb changed, i would normally do it but i was away, took them nearly an hour... I tried it later myself.. i and out in minutes...

Most of their staff are on minimum wage so I doubt if anyone qualified would be working there.

Nialloo24

It's because its only a job to pay yer way thru college! Complaints to managers r head offices r mostly in one ear out the other as far as i am concerned anyways! This happens in all retail outlets everyday so thats prob why they dont give a toss really! Shame all the same!

Run_to_da_hills

Nialloo24 wrote: »

It's because its only a job to pay yer way thru college! Complaints to managers r head offices r mostly in one ear out the other as far as i am concerned anyways! This happens in all retail outlets everyday so thats prob why they dont give a toss really! Shame all the same!

Another reason why I would prefere to go to a factors for bits and bobs.

super_furry

pokerface_me wrote: »

P.S i have no connection to the bike shop in Tallaght i mentioned, i actually thought it had closed down years ago when the Esso garage got knocked down and the Greenhills road was diverted onto a new section of road, but its still there in a little cottage in a small cul de sac

I've been going to that shop since I was a kid and they've always been brilliant. The service and after-sales there is unreal.

Mr. Presentable

super_furry wrote: »

I've been going to that shop since I was a kid and they've always been brilliant. The service and after-sales there is unreal.

Because Cycle Inn is owned and staffed by CYCLISTS! So they have enthusiasm and empathy

smelltheglove

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Most of their staff are on minimum wage so I doubt if anyone qualified would be working there.

Thats a lovely assumption to make isnt it, yes the op has had a bad experience but you cant paint all the staff the same as they are on minimum wage, do you consider anyone on minimum wage to be dumb or uncaring??? God help you if you ever have to resort to looking for a minimum wage job.

stepbar

I'd say if you'd have went 5 miles down the road to Carrickmines your experience would have been a world of difference.

That's why I buy very little stuff in Dublin (even before the North came cheap). There's too many retail shops full of gurriers and "howya's" who don't really give a flying fcuk. But then again, I'm a culchie where people say please and thanks in shops. It's not alot to expect.

Notice now all the same businesses are out on the street pawning their wares looking for business? It's no suprise really. Ignore customer service at your peril.

Toots

Have to agree that the Carrickmines one is very good alright. Have found both the Tallaght and Liffey Valley Halfords to be appalling, the staff I dealt with were clueless, and so so rude. The staff in the Carrickmines one have always been very helpful to me anyway when I go in with my stupid car questions (if any of you have seen some of my posts in the motors forum, you'll see what I mean) and always felt they couldn't do enough for you. Only problem I have with Carrickmines is that there's a Smyths right next door, so you can pretty much forget getting anywhere near it this side of Christmas!

OP, fair play to you for keeping the head with that lot, I'd have had a total meltdown and I reckon had my OH been with me someone would have been hospitalised :rolleyes:. I'd definitely second what eth0_ said, write to their head office and complain!!! (and if they send you some vouchers as recompense, for gods sake use them at a different halfords! )

Run_to_da_hills

eth0_ wrote: »

PLEASE write to Halfords head office and let them know what happened. You couldn't make that stuff up, it's incredible!

Better still send them a printed copy of this thread.

smelltheglove wrote: »

Thats a lovely assumption to make isnt it, yes the op has had a bad experience but you cant paint all the staff the same as they are on minimum wage, do you consider anyone on minimum wage to be dumb or uncaring??? God help you if you ever have to resort to looking for a minimum wage job.

The difference here is that halfords wouldn't pay the cost of a decent manager with the necessary customer service skills to run the place. If they did this incident wouldn't have happened at all.

matt70iu

eth0_ wrote: »

It's weird, I used two different Halfords stores when I was living in Scotland and in both cases the service was fantastic and the staff were knowledgable.

I can't understand why their Irish branches are so poor. I've personally only ever been to the Blanchardstown branch but it seemed to be run by a bunch of boy racer chavs...

A lot of the time you will find that the smaller Irish divisions of these multi national chains are simply not as well run or organized and do not do the company name justice. Don't want to over generalize here, but I have found this to be the case more than once:)