49 replies to this topic

[paul6266]

lol sounds about right, halfrauds in yeovil are about as much use as a chocolate teapot, try explaining to one of the 'kids' behind the counter that you need a roll pin for the gear linkage, quite funny really lol

[MiniHarriett<3]

Ahh for people who know me, guess I should have mentioned ladybug is a KA.. I knew exactly where to go for a mini, I was a Sunday, and I was trying every place possible as I needed the car motorway and this morning!

[grainge231]

my expeirence with halfords seems to be never ask something in the slightest bit technical, i try and dumb things down when i speak to them. one example when i was fitting my head unit for the mini i had bare wires and no plug connectors on it, i ask the guy for the HU loom for a sony cd player he asks "what car isit for" i explained its a mini year reg blah blah blah. he checks his little computer and says well you need to buy the original block connector then another one that will fit into this head unit wire (£120 worth of wires) i said surley i can make the head unit loom part of my original wiring loom *big pause" no you cant do that... i just ended telling him thats what i was going to do anyway and he just lughed and said see you later when u need these other wires then yeah?. freeking idiot, cd player works fine

[elgarra]

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!

I was about to say you sound like a grumpy sort of lady. Then i seen your profile where you listed a Mk 1 RS Escort as a top motor....................So now i may be a little bit in love.


Anyway, yes Halford is full of newly pubeescent boys who yearn to grow a moosetach, yet refuse to believe a female knows more about cars than they do.

[davidv]

When i go there now i use the internet halfords site first so i now what i want My friend has a really good small shop on the Coventry road by the W-Sheaf lights on the way to the old airport she nows about cars and will order parts and help working the problem out her dad had the shop first many years he passed away if she gets a rude customer they are out the door there is also a good Tattoo shop near there as you all seem to like them

[james962]

Yes i would complain with what he said and the laughing in your face your the customer hope you got his name badge

I 100% agree, laughing at you is well out of order.

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.

I work for halfords as a part time job while i'm at uni studying Automotive Engineering, and have worked at numerous stores for just over 4 years now, and i must say, i agree with the above (i probably wouldn't call my collegues morons )

Halfords are great if you know who to go for if you need a part, and are particularly useful if you needs little bits&bobs/tools/servicing parts on a Sunday when the local factors are shut. Their tools are great aswell.

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!

I would say that i agree with this aswell. I had someone kicking off yesterday because I sold him a set of brake pads yet i wouldn't fit them for him - thus making his car unsafe to be on the road!

Edited by james962, 07 December 2009 - 10:28 PM.

[me madjoe 90]

have you people not heard of uni part

or euro parts

and so many others ................... halfrourds is last resort, I mean last id try poundland befor going there.......

abit off cars topic but ill say it any way and no affence to people who work there but they built my bike when i told them not to and charged me for it and then i had to take it apart set the gears up properly and reset the breaks bleed the lines twise as they got air in them (hydraulic breaks) and replace the barings as they over tightend the cones.

halfrouds standerds lack and theres loads more smaller companys that give better service and deserve more suport i always try to go to smaller parts suplyers first as they need more help geting going and tend to be alot more helpfull and freindly.

[l_jonez]

slightly off topic, but i love going into halfords (i work next door to one) and asking for things that dont exist just to see what they come up with.

recent ones- a water pump for a 1962 VW beetle, spark plugs for a 1990 escort diesel plus loads of other things.

its just great to watch the kid stare at the screen and look confused then call the manager/supervisor.

Edited by l_jonez, 07 December 2009 - 11:25 PM.

[mighty mini jack]

Harrri! Doesn't surprise me in the slightest!

slightly off topic, but i love going into halfords (i work next door to one) and asking for things that dont exist just to see what they come up with.

recent ones- a water pump for a 1962 VW beetle, spark plugs for a 1990 escort diesel plus loads of other things.

its just great to watch the kid stare at the screen and look confused then call the manager/supervisor.

Giving me ideas!

[cobblers]

have you people not heard of uni part

or euro parts

and so many others ................... halfrourds is last resort, I mean last id try poundland befor going there.......

abit off cars topic but ill say it any way and no affence to people who work there but they built my bike when i told them not to and charged me for it and then i had to take it apart set the gears up properly and reset the breaks bleed the lines twise as they got air in them (hydraulic breaks) and replace the barings as they over tightend the cones.

halfrouds standerds lack and theres loads more smaller companys that give better service and deserve more suport i always try to go to smaller parts suplyers first as they need more help geting going and tend to be alot more helpfull and freindly.

How come they charged to build your bike? It's a free build?

Halfords are *poop poop*, but eurocarparts are probably even more so! Cheaper, but useless! Ordered a couple of steering racks, both turned up completely wrong (Citroen AX and Pug 106, neither racks were for either car) and they tried to make me pay for them because they were "special order".

As a company, Halfords are stuck in an identity crisis. Some people think Halfords are like a huge motor factors, and some people at Halfords want this, but the main people at head office see the place as an everyday retail chain - that's how it's marketed to investors. They are stuck awkwardly between the two, with conflicting advice coming from H/O every day. On one hand we get some communication pushing the trade discount, parts sourcing, same day availibility etc, and then the next day they decide to recall all alternators, starter motors, brake disks and anything changed less often than brake pads. Rather than leave it all in store til it's sold, it was all taken back to head office, loaded into containers and donated to Africa (In the words of my old area manager: "It's cheaper to send it to the third world than to bugger about recycling it properly. None of it is any good to them but it looks good on the company that we're donating stuff, and they will just throw it all in a river or whatever")

I'm not surprised that customers are confused as to what they sell, because the advertising department push the place like it stocks everything. The advert on Dave where the bloke turns up and wants paint for a mini is a good example of this.
The computer with paint listings (at my store at least) didn't list the colour they used in the advert. BMC colours were more or less missed off completely - anything over about 15 years wasn't present.

The company needs to 100% decide what it wants to be. It's turning into dixons with tents. They aren't cheap, the service is far from brilliant and they are steadily working at removing the reason most people come through the door - for car parts.

Audio has become more and more full of chav tat over the last few years (I have still got 4 pairs of Focal 6x9s that I bought for £15 a pair when they went obsolete - they are £120 worth!), the tents are crap, the 45 different types of 4 way ciggy lighter adapters are useless and the 20 feet of aisle space devoted to air fresheners that all smell awful is high margin, but complete rubbish.
The only products that I can 100% get behind are Carrera Bikes, Boardman bikes and Halfords professional tools, but it's only a matter of time before someone at head office realises that they could make the tools half as good, the bikes half as good and sales wouldn't suffer in the short term. Sales targets are generally set in the short term, so the massive increase in profit margin would be seen as brilliant. When people stopped buying the stuff after they realised it was utter crap, the price would be bumped up to double the usual for a month and then dropped back down, with a massive HALF PRICE SOMETHING OR OTHER sale.

Just realised this has turned into a massive essay, but I hope my ramblings can give a bit of insight into how the company works to the average joe. The staff might seem to be completely useless, but even those who WANT to learn have no opportunity to do so. The issue is about 7 levels further up, guys earning 100k+ deciding that spending a few dozen hours at minimum wage to train staff is a waste of cash.

[sweetser]

harrii, you should have thumped him for laughing at you!!!

[mighty mini jack]

harrii, you should have thumped him for laughing at you!!!

Or cut his hair, really really badly while he wasn't looking!

[sweetser]

harrii, you should have thumped him for laughing at you!!!

Or cut his hair, really really badly while he wasn't looking!

Yeah or that

or mowed him down with ladybug

[mini_mad69]

Asked for a set of points........
Asked for a condensor ..........
Asked for a coil, he walked me over to the aftermarket suspsnions kits.
Asked for a sealed beam headlight for an austin mini, at which point he said Austin never made the mini as it wasn't in the little book.

I now know, if I can't find it on the shelf, im probably not going to get it.

Only met one helpfull employee, who told me not to buy the expensive metal polish and handed me a tube half the price and explained how he polished his inlet manifold recently. Apart from that there all completly useless. Half of them give me the dirtiest look ever if i go in oily or in my overalls. Not like im going to be working on the car in my best suit is it.

At which point I left and placed an order for minispares.


All I go into halfords now is electrical connections when other shops are closed.

[zero777]

people are jerks, huh