Halfords - Great Bike. Poor PCI/Build

[FWDRacer]

Park up your Pdeal powered snobbery for a minute here folks... I know the very mention of the the dreaded H" word will send some of the PH lycra clad lothario's into a mouth frothing tailspin. The ulimate outcome of the thread will not doubt result in a "told you so" moment.

Mrs FWDRacer wants a bike to come on pub tootles and bit of towpath/track stuff - doesn't want to spend a fortune and after looking at touring Cubes and Pashley stuff in the 6-700 mark decides to have net search.

She has decided on what she wants and arrives at a Pendleton "Dalby" hybrid from Hafords which with a hundred quid off at the moment represents remarkable value. Had a physical look at one myself, very impressed. Bike is light and well specced. Frame is beautifully welded and finished. So one is ordered, the bike is built but arrives yesterday evening with a loose saddle, poorly aligned stem to front wheel, and loose front bar stem. So little required extra effort to be 100%.

Worth a call to the store manager or having tightened everything up, should I just let the Mrs get on with enjoying the bike?

For my sins I worked there as a youff, and never knowingly built and sent a bike out in that condition....

[mrmr96]

FWDRacer said:

loose saddle, poorly aligned stem to front wheel, and loose front bar stem. So little required extra effort to be 100%.

Worth a call to the store manager or having tightened everything up, should I just let the Mrs get on with enjoying the bike?

That would take, ooh, maybe 45-90secs to fix all 3 problems?
WTF do you want the store manager to do about it?
If we all complained about every little thing in life we'd all get no where.
Yes, it's annoying. No, they shouldn't have sent it out like that. Yes, an apology would be nice.
But in the real world, is it worth the hassle?

[IroningMan]

Worth mentioning it - otherwise how will he/she stand a chance of getting the standards up?

I've not looked closely at a Pendleton bike - the branding and marketing make me feel too queasy to get close enough to see what they're like...

[donfisher]

Apart from the alignment on the stem, wouldn’t the other two be bits that you would have to adjust to fit anyway?

[Justin S]

Better than Evans not checking the bolts on the front disc caliper on my aunts bike. Lucky I found it. Only 10 miles from new..........One bolt missing, one half out.

[Japsteeze]

Dont really know what you want from responses...

You bought a bike from halfords, some bolts werent tight, should you complain?

No.

[shouldbworking]

Speaking as the owner of 2 halfords bikes (carrera fury and boardman team fs) id say you got off lightly.

[GadgeS3C]

Should you complain - yes if you can be bothered. The next poor sod may not have the knowledge to check the bike over and could end up with wheel falling out.

Will it make a difference, probably not but who knows.

[mk1fan]

Did a 'first service / check up' came with the purchase? If so then I'd raise it when you take the bike in for that check. Firstly it might focus their minds on actually checking the bike you've dropped off. Secondly they may log it in their mind and apply it to the forth coming work.

Should you stand in the middle of the shop screaming like a six year old? No.

[rhinochopig]

IroningMan said:

Worth mentioning it - otherwise how will he/she stand a chance of getting the standards up?

I've not looked closely at a Pendleton bike - the branding and marketing make me feel too queasy to get close enough to see what they're like...

Yeah but Pendleton personally sits on every saddle. I have three of them.

[FWDRacer]

mk1fan said:

Should you stand in the middle of the shop screaming like a six year old? No.

Gotta love PH I'm not likely to get bent out of shape about it, and yes... the two items loose do get adjusted to personal taste, to the initiated. I'll mention it when the bike goes back for check up in a couple of weeks... the point is captured neatly by Ironman. If there isn't feedback (despite it being fly sh*t), then the reputation continues to get panned on forums like this. The kit available (Boardman/Pendleton etc) is really very, very good. Especially with big chunks of money off

Will give the saddle a sniff check when I get home.

[mk1fan]

It's not just PHs. I've seen plenty of people act that way over very minor things. I hate to see them react over a 'real' issue.

I was in a bike shop once and a customer walked and started screming that his brake pads had worn out. Didn't even wait for the shop worker to be free, just straight into a tantrum.

[Engineer1]

I'd let them know my first decent bike from halfords, they hadn't tightened the pedals so within 100 yards the pedal had fallen off, and the bolts clamping the seat to the seatpost where lose as well. It's annoying as a niggle early can put you off or do some real damage.

[anonymous-user]

Halfords staff were the keenest & most knowledgeable in my local store. 'LBS' handed me a bike with loose headboard & was very dangerous. Good & bad everywhere!!. Why not just mention it to the person involved so they can learn from it. Got to set out somewhere ..

[Jimbo.]

Jimboka said:

Halfords staff were the keenest & most knowledgeable in my local store. 'LBS' handed me a bike with loose headboard & was very dangerous. Good & bad everywhere!!. Why not just mention it to the person involved so they can learn from it. Got to set out somewhere ..

A bike with a headboard, or a bed with wheels and gears?

[Ponk]

shouldbworking said:

Speaking as the owner of 2 halfords bikes (carrera fury and boardman team fs) id say you got off lightly.

Yup, appears to be the norm.

The Girlfriend's hybrid came with the stem upside down and a Guy at work failed to notice that they had fitted the forks back to front on his bike!

[anonymous-user]

Ponk said:

Yup, appears to be the norm.

The Girlfriend's hybrid came with the stem upside down and a Guy at work failed to notice that they had fitted the forks back to front on his bike!

TBH Most Halfords knockers are talking out of their backsides. They are as good or better than anywhere else.. How is it possible to fit a stem upside down?, made up story!!

[2volvos]

Jimboka said:

TBH Most Halfords knockers are talking out of their backsides. They are as good or better than anywhere else.. How is it possible to fit a stem upside down?, made up story!!

Kind of agree. The only new bike I've ever had was from Halfords on the Cycle to Work thing - a GT hard tail MTB - about 2 years ago. Lovely bike and good value, but the front wheel was loose. A schoolboy mistake, but the guy at the Coventry store worked his ass off to locate one of the last GTs in the country and get it to the store before Halfords discontinued GTs and went with Voodoo.

They are probably damned by having to try and cater for the whole range of two wheeled exploits - from 2-yr old girlie pink things and Ben 10 liveried BMXs, through cheap as chips teenage gadabouts right up to a grands worth of Boardman. The serious bikie ain't going to be wanting to rub shoulders with mom and dad getting little Jimmy his first Spiderman stabiliser bike now is he? Shame.

[Sway]

The lads I saw in Guildford were bloody superb. Better than guys I worked with in a 'proper' shop in Richmond in my youth...

Only minor niggle was the brake hoses were clearly sized to fit a xl frame, when mine is a small. Factory cost cutting (which to an extent I can understand as they're ridiculously good value), and they freely admitted that they didn't want to touch them. So I bought a bleed kit and sorted them myself. Which I actually enjoyed and low they feel better than the new xt's on a mates Cube. (avid elixir 7)

However, that was the fourth shop I'd phoned, and the service/responses I got at all the others was appalling.

Made sure to give proper feedback on their websurvey, and followed that up with a call to the manager too.

[Wacky Racer]

Just to add balance my son bought a "Carerra" own brand for around £290 from Halfords last year and it was prepared perfectly, plus he was offered a free first service.