49 replies to this topic

[MiniHarriett<3]

Yesturday I was working on ladybug to fix her heating, as I went to put her all back together, it came apparant, the autoglass windscreen man had crossthreaded the bolt, no wonder I couldn't get the bugger off it was so tight, went to use my wipers and I got some sort of floppy half hearted wiper movement wasn't sitting right on the spline, so I fashioned some insulation tape as a bit of grip to get me into town tosee what I could do about it. Earlier on in the day I 118 118'd halfrauds in Weston super mare, gave them a call and asked if they stocked 'coolant valves' the reply I got was 'do you mean thermo stats?' I said 'no collant valves, for heating' 'no sorry we don't supply those'. Harri's reply.. 'thats good cause I don't think you know what I'm
going on about' I think this was quite rude of me as I hung up, but ahh well! Soo back to oribginal story, I ended up in halfords as last resort ' do you sell wiper arms?'. Idiot who I asked 'umm no, but we do blades'. At what part did I say I wanted blades?! 'umm no, need the actual arm, where about could I get some on Sunday afternoon? 'scrap yard or main dealer, what was it you said was your problem?' so I explained.. Arm is fudged and the reply I got was ' you need all new motor and mecanism'. I said no I don't I know what's wrong with it! He actually laughed out loud in my face and said I knew nothing.. And them he walked off! Go and see kev my friend at the local motorfactors when ladybug gets trade prices and he took it off, but the correct size washer on it, hey presto, she was fixed! I wish to write and complain! Halfords is sh**!! rant over!

[davidv]

Yes i would complain with what he said and the laughing in your face your the customer hope you got his name badge I do like the store but had to moan at a few staff in the store over help and stock items the wiper motors ok then the cable nut is hard to get to

[cobblers]

I used to work at Halfords. Generally, the staff can be divided into 3 categories in order of usefulness:

1:People who are really actually interested in cars themselves, doing a degree or something and need a part time job on the side
2:People who work full time and work hard, but know little and aren't interested in cars
3:Part time media students who are morons.


Type 1 people (Me) Do the job well, are dead helpful to the customers and give good honest advice. Head office don't like us, because we see through the marketing crap they push on us and won't try and push sales on high margin tat. Pay = Minimum wage

Type 2 people are more or less what you'll expect when going into a retail place. head office love them because they try hard to push tat on people because they care about keeping the job long term. Ok if you just want to know where the paint is. Pay = Minimum wage maybe 50p PH more if they are a "specialist"

Type 3 people are completely useless, but make up half the staff. Head office are in some dream world where they think they can replace a full time member of staff with 2 part time kids coming in when it's busy. They think that part timers doing 12 hours a week can be persuaded to do a proper job. They can't. Pay = Minimum wage.

In my old store we had 3 type ones, 8 type 2s and 10 type 3s.

For the last two years H/O have decided they have to cut costs heavily, by reducing full time staff by almost half at my old store, and focusing very heavily on sales targets. This has had the effect of pushing a LOT of good staff out of the stores.

[davidv]

Thanks above the ones i have told of were young even buying push bikes and the advice on best bike ended up myself going for the C.Banshee in the box would not let them build it at least he put the big box in my car for me

[cobblers]

Thanks above the ones i have told of were young even buying push bikes and the advice on best bike ended up myself going for the C.Banshee in the box would not let them build it at least he put the big box in my car for me

The Banshee is a good bike, you'll be happy with it. That reminds me, I've got the frame off one under my bed to put on ebay!

[MiniHarriett<3]

This is exactly how I felt! Was pretty annoyed! Think it was because I was a blonde female who was sterotypically put into catogory of I know nothing about cars! I wanted to rip his head off lol!!

[nile-jackson]

I used to work at Halfords aswell and there are a few things people need to understand.

I dont know a dreadful amount about cars but i try my best. People who are trainned at Halfords are not trainned properly. They work on a computer system that gives thema reply. If you say you need a Wiper blade motor. The guy on the computer punches in your make and model engine size and all the good stuff. If he does not see a wiper blade motor on his screen then he is inclined to ask. Is it a wiper blade mounting? or something to that effect. What ever is on the Screen.

I for one having worked at Halfords see the company itself as the problem and not the staff. I was more than willing to learn but never taught. Being self taught in halfords is the only way to go as it is not offered. I also would like to say the customers are probably a good portion of the problem. I am sure you knew what you were talking about but as an average you would get 9 clueless idiots ready for a fight to the 1 fairly knowledgeable weekend mechanic who loves to service his own car.

I would say the guy you dealt with in particular was rude in laughing in your face. But would you want to give your un-divided attention to a person who was rather arrogant and put the phone down on you sometime before?

Halfords is not really a place to go for such things either. If you want your servicing gear then Halfords would be the right place. I think that your idea of what Halfords offer is very wrong and this lead to your own anger.

They would not carry such a thing for the run of the corsa B so why on earth your expecting the same thing but for a mini is beyond me.

[jameslb101]

I've got to admit I love going to halfords and looking at all the car accesories. I recently just bought a 'Halfords lifting kit' including a
2T Trolley Jack, 2T Axle Stands x2, Padded car creeper, Lug wrench adaptors, Steel wheel chocks x2 all for £40, What a bargain. I see what you mean about staff being variable though. I've discovered in shops like that you've got to not ask the person you see for help, but ask them to find you the most knowlegable person in the store, and then ask them for help, if you get what I mean. That way you don't have to waste any time with 'Type 3's' !!!

[leaky]

Yea most of the people who work in Halfords are dipsticks. I know of about one person who works in the basingstoke one who actually knows what he's on about. I would quite like a job their but its their reputation that stops me applying.

[secondopsman]

He actually laughed out loud in my face and said I knew nothing.. And them he walked off! Go and see kev my friend at the local motorfactors when ladybug gets trade prices and he took it off, but the correct size washer on it, hey presto, she was fixed! I wish to write and complain! Halfords is sh**!! rant over!
[/quote]
Why didnt you just go ther in the first place and save yourself money ,Time and stress
Pete

[alicetheauto]

Halfords always gets bad PR because *some* of the staff dont know what they are looking for. You went in on a Sunday, so may well have been a part timer. As said above, you get different types of staff at Halfords, so this is not necesarily an accurate representation of the entire company. And to be fair, there is very little call for heater valves as a product type nowadays, so the guy would have to have a good knowledge of (rarer) older cars to identify the part. Laughing at you was another matter though, so definately complain about him if you can identify or name him.

[mike.]

I agree with coblers. I work at halfords part time while im at uni and have done for around 3 years.

In that time i've watched the 3 best staff i've ever worked with and learnt alot from be made redundant and be replaced with a couple of part time staff who don't have a clue and whose advice to customers consists of reading the label on the box to them. My store is now understaffed pretty badly at weekends and customers get enraged and take it out on the staff, which in turn has ended up giving me a pretty blunt attitude towards these sort people, who then complain and just send halfords reputation down the pan.

At the same time though, people expect too much from halfords. Halfords sell general servicing parts, not repair parts. There would be no point stocking wiper arms or heater taps because they're different for every car and they'd sell a few a year if that. I had one women this weekend start kicking off because we didn't sell sunvisors for her car?! Can you imagine the size of a store if we stocked such a big range of parts? The stores would need to be bigger than the retail parks they're built on!

[johnbest981]

Yea most of the people who work in Halfords are dipsticks. I know of about one person who works in the basingstoke one who actually knows what he's on about. I would quite like a job their but its their reputation that stops me applying.

I was about to post on this thread too Jon. I think it maybe the same guy were on about..

I went in like a day after i passed my test, because my indicators had stopped. So I just assumed it was a fuse, and went to the Parts department in search of a pack that contained most in my fuse box.

But I couldn't find any, so i asked the man that is often seen around Halfords (now found out his name was Kev) and it turns out he'd been working on Minis as both a hobby for a long part of his life, and for a brief period even as a job.

Anyway he told me it was actually the flasher unit gone, and if it wasn't he'd give me my money back there and then. So i went to the car park and put it in, but i replace the wrong flasher unit. luckly he suddenly thought i might do that, so he tailed me out, and cought me just as i was heading back in.

Three minutes later i had working indicators, plus he said if i ever got stuck again just pop in and see him.

A bit of a long story, so sorry. But i was really chuffed with him. He could have easily sold me every different rating of fuse under the sun and sent me on my way. But instead he gave me some proper advise, and even climbed into my foot well to help me.

[taffy1967]

During the Summer I visited my local Halfords in the hope of getting a flexible attachment end for my grease gun (I keep rupturing them, but I've now learned to use the solid attachment for the ball-joints), well I'd bought the gun from them and many a flexible attachment end in the past.

Anyway they had the grease guns just like the one I bought over a decade ago (Wesco branded cylinder type that takes the grease tubes). But I couldn't see any flexible attachment ends.

So I asked a young teenage girl with a severe hairstyle and loads of make-up and she goes to find the assistant manager. The assistant manager comes along and he looks about 14 years of age and he doesn't even make eye contact with me. No he just shakes his head and mumbles, so the girl says sorry we've never seen anything like that.

I then point out the fact I'd bought that part from Halfords in the past (not that long ago either) and that it's also available on their website.

Now I'd have expected them to at least go off to check if the company stock the bloody item and if they could get one ordered. But no, it's shake head and sorry, so I just leave.

I then drive around the corner to a specialist motor factors 'Autoparts' and there hanging on the shelf is the very part I want and it costs less than a fiver. Sorted.

Not that long after this incident, whilst we were on holiday in West Wales I did wander into the Haverfordwest branch of Halfords and surprise, surprise they had the grease gun flexible attachment ends hanging on the shelf. I have to say the staff at this branch were also very helpful too.

Halfords are good if you see what you want, but not always so good on the customer service.

Edited by taffy1967, 07 December 2009 - 01:19 PM.

[davidv]

The Shirley big store is very good Solihull area The Shelden small store not to clever i do see the point about staff on one visit the lad left all the store keys on the floor and went out the back i gave them to him when he came back in on the sly I love women covered in oil keep working on the car