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Halfords Cheapness again y'all


Parky

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My oldest lad bought himself a mountain bike for £99.00 was £259.99

 

Not wanting to piss on your (or his) chips, but any "mega discount" bike  from Halfords is just a £60 bike made to look like a £500 bike.

They send a couple of them out to the shops for a month in advance of the sales (but don't usually actually put them on display), and price them at £300+ to satisfy the bare requirements for claiming they are doing them at a discount.

Then come christmas they are sent to all the stores,  "reduced" to £99 so people think they are getting a bargain, after all, the bike looks like a really expensive one, has "suspension" and "disk brakes" etc etc.

 

They really are by far the poorest quality bikes in the shop, by quite a long margin. If it's not too late, see if he can return it and swap it for an Apollo or something similar.

 

I'd guess he's bought an Indi Asriel? I saw one in a shop the other week. The V brakes are lousy stamped steel ones that are not sufficiently rigid to fit to a bike for a ten year old girl.

The rear mech and crankset are literally the absolute cheapest stuff you can buy and the front forks will last about 15 miles before they have an inch of slop in them causing them to bend whenever he puts the front brake on, which will squeal and rattle and not do a lot of actual stopping. They are undamped and just have a spring in there, but since there is so little travel the spring has to be so stiff that it will make no difference to the ride comfort of the bike.

 

I was a bike mechanic at Halfords for 5 years and the shit they made me sell was unreal. It broke my heart when I couldn't talk people out of buying the crap.

I complained to head office all the time about how some of these bikes were dangerous (the brakes on the old Shockwave XT9** range were a liability) but I got nowhere. They know they are shit but don't care because they are making a ton of cash.

 

Carrera stuff is generally great. Apollo stuff is OK for steady stuff like weekend riding up and down the towpath or whatever but the Promotional brands are worthless.

 

As a rough idea of the quality of these bikes, there used to be a dodge on the system where I could find actual cost to the company for products (by writing one off individually and looking how it affected the overall stockfile value) and these "was £300 now £99" bikes actually cost the company £17-£20, whereas the markup on any other normal line bike would be around 25%.

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Cobblers- do you remember dealing with these?

 

15967584201_ee174a463e_b.jpg

 

We were given it a few weeks ago and I was wondering how old it was- I'm guessing early 90s. It's pretty much as good as new apart from the comical triple chainwheel conversion.

15347309504_f8232639c2_c.jpg

 

Note the piece of leather on the mech to give it enough throw to reach the granny ring.

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I used to prefer getting belts from Halfords if it was for some non-standard application, as you could wander in with your piece of string and match up the best sized belt from the ones on display. Rather than giving it to some bloke in the factors and waiting while the queue behind you gets longer and longer...

 

Yes, I used to do that too! Plus ignition components, points (ask your dad if you're under 35), r/arms, HT leads etc could all be 'Sized-up' if you were stuck for the real thing.

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Are these any good Matt? Thinking about getting one.

 

Excellent for the price I'd say, but I probably wouldn't spend £150 on it. It's obviously not top-notch quality, but better than the bottom of the range stuff I've seen. Only the top lid is lockable though, if that bothers you.

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I remember when stuff used to be stocked, oh the excitement when I was growing up when my dad took me with him to get service parts for his pinto sierra from halfords, it was always my job to find the part numbers in the little books they put at the end of the displays, I'll always remember the part number of the double copper champion plugs he insisted on having, it was RF7YCC

 

When I was bored working there (it was a Sunday and back then we were the only store open in the whole of the city) I'd open up the Haynes manuals and have a good read. There were tonnes of manuals -hundreds (not like now) Highlight manuals were the Mk2 Escort, the Allegro, the 340/360, Fiesta mk1/2, Volvo 480. Read cover to cover. Used to remember the price code for Castrol GTX.

 

I cannot believe they now have a bulb fitting service such is the difficulty of changing a bulb in a modern car.

 

There was a bike section too. Occasionally people would just come in and walk out with a bicycle bold as brass. No payment.

 

Great shop back then for people who actually did stuff on their cars and in fairness a good employer too.

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Great shop back then for people who actually did stuff on their cars

 

I reckon I must be one of Halford's best long-term customers. I started buying stuff from Halfords back in 1969, when I first got interested in working on cars. At that time their shops were intended to serve the cyclists and motorists who did their own servicing and repairs. Their prices were genuinely good value and could compete with motor factors, often beating them. They seemed to understand that their customers were usually working to tight budgets and needed good quality with keen prices. This continued through the 70's and into the early 80's. Back then Halfords was owned by Burmah Castrol . However at some time in the 80's it changed hands and ended-up owned by Boots and it began moving out of its small high-street shops and into huge shed-like super-stores. That's when it all changed for me. The new management ethos seemed to be moving away from discounting and towards maximising profits. Once I believed that Halfords was 'on the side of' guys like me but I now felt that they were trying to rip me off with some of their products (though not all). The staff attitudes seemed to change too. At one time the guys who worked there had an in-depth understanding of motor vehicles and knew exactly what you were talking about, but this changed to being just retail assistants who were only trained to sell products, as in every other type of shop. In recent years I have regularly been appalled about their lack of knowledge.

Having said all this, I am still a good, regular customer of Halfords, despite having a trade line with a local motor factor, which I also use. Halfords still do some great offers (witness the fully synthetic 5/30 oil for £12 which I bought the other day), and I am a big fan of their professional tool range. They've got a lot of stores and they are open long hours 7 days a week. I've also bought a lot of their bikes over the years - mainly Carerras. I buy all my radios and sat-navs from them too. Their own-brand stuff is genuinely high quality and their special offers, especially their on-line discounts are excellent, like the money I got off a battery for my Jeep last week.

Come to think of it, I actually spend quite a lot of money at Halfords, but it's not the place it used to be. Maybe its just that they have had to move with the times to survive, and you can't blame them for that.

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Agree with the above although wasn't around in '69. They've just helped me out big time with my lads polo. Christmas eve driving home he hits a brick dropped from the lorry in front. Bounced under bumper missed the rad and smashed the reverse light switch off causing almost complete loss of oil.

All factors shut so went to Halfords on the Saturday after Christmas. 2 switch options, it's ok sir we will order both and return what you don't need. Receives call in the following Monday to say arrived, sussed which switch I needed and returned the other. With trade card £3 for switch plus some gear oil. Once home Bish bash bosh, 10 minutes later one fixed car ready for him to start his shift at work and saved a bus run. Top service, thanks Halfords.

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Went in yesterday to buy some EP80 gear oil for the GS. I don't think they sell much of this stuff in the Cumbernauld branch as all bottles on the shelf had an inch thick layer of dust on them.

 

.... wrong shop M8.....Cumbernauld Decorflair no dust on the Meths & Paint Stripper. However, if only they sold EP80......  :-P

 

 

TS

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  • 2 weeks later...

Anyone starting out with a few quid this is a bargain.

 

Industrial range tool trolley, chest and professional 170 piece toolkit for £399 Full price £860. Ok I know the tool sets are normally half price but the trolley and chest never get any cheaper.

 

http://www.halfords.com/motoring/garage-equipment/tool-chests-tool-boxes/halfords-industrial-6-drawer-ball-bearing-tool-cabinet

 

See right hand side half way down the page the the bundle offer.

 

Or without tool kit for £299.

 

http://www.halfords.com/motoring/garage-equipment/tool-chests-tool-boxes/halfords-industrial-6-drawer-ball-bearing-tool-cabinet--orange

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