Halfords Bike Care Plans - half price

[bleesh]

Had an email drop in today saying that Halfords are doing their annual bike care plan for half price = £8.99 for adult bikes with 24inch and above wheels.

May be of interest to some - I know Halfords get a slagging off sometimes but it seems from poking around on the web that not all are bad.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/...

Steve

[majordad]

I've had the Service Plan ( 3yrs for the price of 2 from 2008). Problem is anytime I ask them to service my bike they say they are snowed under with work. They suggest I leave my bike with them for a week and they will do it if they can. I gave them my mobile number and said call me and I'll have the bike with you within an hour - that was 3 weeks ago and no call. I've complained but no good. The staff themselves are good and helpful, perhaps Halfords have let some of them go and the rest are soldiering on. But it was the same last year.

The offer price today is tempting, but you'll wait for ages. Even it it was free it's not worth this hassle.

[Raven Flyer]

A good LBS will want your bike for a week. The guys in Chelmsford Halfords are excellent. In one of the other local branches they are shocking.

[SoliD]

majordad said:

I've had the Service Plan ( 3yrs for the price of 2 from 2008). Problem is anytime I ask them to service my bike they say they are snowed under with work. They suggest I leave my bike with them for a week and they will do it if they can. I gave them my mobile number and said call me and I'll have the bike with you within an hour - that was 3 weeks ago and no call. I've complained but no good. The staff themselves are good and helpful, perhaps Halfords have let some of them go and the rest are soldiering on. But it was the same last year.

That is pretty horrific, my local has been good, usually have to book a week or so in advance but when I get it in they do the work on the day and fix any issues I have. Can't you just book it in for a specific day, they must have a diary for upcoming work.

[baldy1926]

My local branch takes no bookings and the guy only works afternoons.
Their advice is at its first come first served just get there early and you will be seen some time!!
Not much good if you have to work.

[majordad]

That's my point, they cannot deal with the volume of work they have at present and here they are offering to take on more !

The staff at my local Branch in Cork are good but cannot cope.

[waughie]

We had this problem, as an ex halfords cycle mechanic, we just didn't have time to do everything.

The job entailed:
Building new bikes
Selling Bikes to people
Warranty work
Building bikes for display
Working the tills
Putting out offers
stocking shelves etc.
train part timers, and fix their mistakes
and covering the rest of the shop.

We were always working with about a 2 or 3 week wait on repairs, but tried to turn them round in a day, i.e we got them dropped in the morning and had them done for the evening. The problem arises when you get something like a bottom bracket swap that you think will take an hour and it ends up taking 4 or 5. It can screw up the entire day.

Warranties took priority over other repairs but these could come in at any time and had to be done asap.

We did this with two full time members of staff, and two part timers. However on a weekend there was one full timer and one part timer, this meant it was impossible to get stuff done.

So its not that they don't want to take your money, its just alot of the time we never had time too!

[rhinochopig]

Not being snobby or anything, but why not do it yourself? Most bits on a bike, with the exception of hydraulic brakes and hubs, are a 10 minute job to fettle - and this is coming from someone who can't even be bothered to change the pads on his car.

[beakr]

rhinochopig said:

Not being snobby or anything, but why not do it yourself? Most bits on a bike, with the exception of hydraulic brakes and hubs, are a 10 minute job to fettle - and this is coming from someone who can't even be bothered to change the pads on his car.

I'd have to agree here. Three days ago I had no idea how to adjust my gears, so watched a couple of YouTube videos on the subject, and now both bikes are running sweet as a nut.

In some ways it's nicer than working on a car, there's no heavy lifting or mad seized bolts....

[R.P.M]

beakr said:

rhinochopig said:

Not being snobby or anything, but why not do it yourself? Most bits on a bike, with the exception of hydraulic brakes and hubs, are a 10 minute job to fettle - and this is coming from someone who can't even be bothered to change the pads on his car.

I'd have to agree here. Three days ago I had no idea how to adjust my gears, so watched a couple of YouTube videos on the subject, and now both bikes are running sweet as a nut.

In some ways it's nicer than working on a car, there's no heavy lifting or mad seized bolts....

Absolutely. The only real way to get to know about a bike is to build it/fix it yourself. The amount of people I know who claim to be 'keen' Mountain bikers and don't even know how to change a gear cable is shocking.

[snotrag]

beakr said:

there's no heavy lifting or mad seized bolts....

Not worked in a bike shop have you!?