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Child Item

Halfords poor customer service

Digger010

Had purchased a Mountain bike for my young son's birthday towards end of June.He
came home last week with the front wheel warped .I looked at the wheel and could see no damage on the rim or any damage to the spokes.So I decided to bring this into the Halford store where I purchased this , I was told that the wheel was damaged and was suggested it was damaged by a number of different ways by their in house bike technician ranging from his friends standing on the wheels, to him doing "wheelies", at worst this bike was driven of street kurbs. I specifically purchased what I thought to be a durable mountain bike with front suspension. I was told by there staff instore that it would be roughly 40 euro's to fix.
To add insult to injury I was given the bike back by their technician with the brake assembly totally disconnected ,I only noticed this after leaving the store,so I returned and was left standing there,so I brought this issue to notice of a staff member ,and they didn't seem anyway concerned and left me standing there, so I walked out with my son's damaged unusable bike. I went on their customer chat and was told a store manager in Blanchardstown would call me back by midday today. Expectedly nobody has bother to contact me, says a lot about customer care or lack of it.

Where next should I turn,this bike was genuinely looked after, the odd few scraps on side of pedal and brake lever that is it!

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L1011

A wheel bending probably is from misuse, a kid won't admit that and no store will entertain that on a kids bike either. It can only bend from impact, it can't bend itself.

The brake cable disconnection is the real issue here, you'll need to chase them or use social media there

seagull

Could the bike be ridden with the wheel bent? If not, then leaving the brake assembly disconnected is just saving whoever repairs it the job of removing it.

coylemj

seagull wrote: »

Could the bike be ridden with the wheel bent?

Yes, if Duffys Circus bought it for their clowns.

Digger010

The wheel is warped ,they weren't doing me any favours with the disconnected brakes,
careless in my opinion... still no call from store manager....I will never shop there again , lesson learn't

Car expert

Are their mechanics qualified to work on bikes?

L1011

Car expert wrote: »

Are their mechanics qualified to work on bikes?

They don't have mechanics in Ireland. They have radio fitters and that's about it.

vectorvictor

This all sounds a bit like putting metal into a microwave and blaming the seller of the microwave.

It's a kids bike it's going to get wrecked it just depends on level of use and supervision

Poor form blaming Halfords on this tbh (and I am NOT a fan of them after they made a balls of an installation for me a few years back) but your issue here isn't with the seller/manufacturer

Don't believe you about the brakes given your way of presenting the "issue" but their sm team might and you may get some Goodwill

Car expert

L1011 wrote: »

They don't have mechanics in Ireland. They have radio fitters and that's about it.

Have these radio fitters qualifications?

colm_mcm

Car expert wrote: »

Have these radio fitters qualifications?

Yes, most of them have PhDs in swapping wiper blades and screwing number plates on.

Car expert

Funny man has arrived.

Car expert

Is this AH?

wingnut

Digger010 wrote: »

To add insult to injury I was given the bike back by their technician with the brake assembly totally disconnected

When you say the assembly was totally disconnected does this just mean the V-Brakes were popped open to take off the wheel, or was it something more involved like a disc brake? The V brakes take like two seconds to clip back together.

If the wheel is not too badly warped you can straighten it yourself with a spoke key, have a look on youtube.

OEM equipment on cheaper halfords Bikes are ok for general use but if you want a mountain bike than can be used on trails etc, you would be looking at a branded bike for around the €1000 mark.

coylemj

Their customer service is pretty abysmal and paradoxically, part of the blame lies with their 'no quibble' refund policy which gives the staff the easy option of refunding people their money as an alternative to actually dealing with the problem that brings them back to the store. I bought a pair of wiper blades in Carrrickmines once, having carefully checked the shelf catalog. The blades didn't fit when I went home so I drove back to the store and parked right outside.

Walked in, explained the problem to the girl on the checkout and she referred me to a guy who was halfway up a stepladder nearby. Went over, told him the story, invited him to see if he could get the blades to fit or sort me out with the correct blades but he just didn't want to know. Said I should go back to the lady at the checkout and get a refund and all but told me to p1ss off.

ED E

Halfords, a car shop that sell bikes on the side.

You probably wouldnt buy a new computer from your hair dresser, don't buy bikes from Halfords. They're useless.

Whats not clear is did the rim buckle or just go out of true? All bikes should be serviced after 6 weeks to see if anything has shaken loose/shifted after a bit of use. If spokes were a tad loose and he continued to ride it then that could push it further out.

colm_mcm

Car expert wrote: »

Funny man has arrived.

Don’t ask a stupid question and expect a serious answer. Do you really expect that they have qualified mechanics or auto electricians working for minimum wage to plug in a radio using a loom adaptor. Do you think they should?

Do you think everybody working in a main dealer workshop is qualified?

Car expert

Wasn’t a stupid question, serious issues with untrained people assembling bikes. As for unqualified people working in main dealers sure yourself is one of those.

colm_mcm

Car expert wrote: »

Wasn’t a stupid question, serious issues with untrained people assembling bikes. As for unqualified people working in main dealers sure yourself is one of those.

But I don’t work for a main dealers

(Or Halfords, before I’m accused of that too

)