Quick email to Halfrauds!

[Bailes1992]

Dear Sir/Maddam,

I write this email as over the past 12 months I have been getting incresingly worried about the employees you have working for you.

Back last summer I bought my 2008 Mondeo. It had a slight issue with the coolant tempreture sensor, a £5 part that was easy to dianose with a basic OBDII reader and/or a bit of wire.
Under the dealers warrenty I was summoned to a Halfords Autocentre just off Samlet Road in Swansea. I already knew the fault but the dealer wanted it diagnosed first.
On the 12th June 2012 I took it down for it's first round of diagnosis. They had the car for 3 hours and were unable to find the reason my tempreture gauge wouldn't work. (Bare in mind that as an amateur mechanic I managed to diagnose it within 10 minuites using a bit of wire to short out the plug for the tempreture sensor).
They insisted I booked it in for a full diagnosis on the following Friday (15/06/12).
I arrived to find the two mechanics who were 'playing' with my car when I last took it there, sat on the floor, outsite at 8:30am in the pissing down rain barking at a stray dog. Why the hell would I want this pair working on my car?
By 11:30am I had a phonecall saying that the above pair were unable to find the issue with my non functioning tempreture gauge. I picked the car up to find that they had also used over 1/4 of a tank of diesel too! Wouldn't suprise me in the least if they had drunk it to be honest. Fact of the matter is 12 months of owning my car I have never managed to use 1/4 of a tank in 3 hours!

Then today I dropped into Halfords in Bridgend to get a set of numberplates made up. Armed with my V5C and driving licence I popped in thinking it wouldn't take too long!
The first set of numberplates was a total disaster. I had to inturupt the guy making my numberplates because he had got my numberplate totally wrong!
Then came the next set where the numberplate was totally off centre.
And the final set before I left. There was lines on the plate where the toner in the printer was running out.
One guy told me this was acceptable and I wouldn't notice once they were on the car.
Another told me they were not legal but "Stick them on the car for a few days and pop in when we have more toner". Really? Did he just suggest I fit illegal plates to my car?
I got a refund and asked to see the two sets of plates that were messed up destroyed. The guy serving laughed in my face!
As a previous victim of numberplate cloning you can see why I was concerned!

Can you tell me weather this is kind of behaviour is considered acceptable? As far as I can tell this is considered the norm.
I'm an apprentice electrician, if my workmanship was as dire as the workmanship I've experienced by Halfords employees then I would have had the sack many years ago!

From now on I will be avoiding Halfords and telling anyone else I meet to do so too as it is blatentley obvious that half your employees are not fit to serve customers!

Sam Bailey.

Lets see what I get back

[lozz]

Most of the staff I've met at halfords are total clowns,
I just tell them straight, there's one lad who works there who says call me a ginger mong if you want Im used to it

I have some good banter with the halfords crew,

[FarmerPug]

I seen a parrot handsfree kit installed by halfords into a friends audi a4, the wiring was very badly done, in some places wires just wrapped around eachother and tape put over, hence it wasn't working when i was looking at it.

[Captain Jack]

I would never let any big chains work on my car, be it the main dealers or the shops. I always prefer a local, back street, family owned garage. They WORK for their money and rely on customers coming back to them.

[Sonia406]

I have had no real dealings with Halfords but I can't help but laugh at a story my brother told me a week or so ago.
His battery had started to fail on his Audi and he went into Halfords for a battery. He decided to pay the £6 to have it installed for him. The skinny lad who came to do it was a young lad, barely looked like he had left school. No meat on him what so ever...
On his Audi the battery is towards the back. The chap struggled setting the battery free and when he did he physically didn't have the strength in him to lift the battery so at that point my brother said 'let me help' I just wonder - what if the next person is an OAP or disabled, what would he do then?

Anyway, no experience with these Halfords people but that's despicable they laughed in your face......... A lot of people can't stand Halfords (like I can't stand Kwik Fit) I suggest not going back..............

[gumby6371]

I bought some Halfords ratchetting axle stands last weekend, when I got them home the locking tooth on the ratchet didn't look right to me and didn't match the picture. I took them back and pointed out my concerns to 2 of the monkeys behing the counter. I was assured that once the weight of the car was on them they would be fine.
I was unconvinced and pointed out that the slightest knock on the release handle and there was a very real chance of them dropping a car on the user, again they disagreed with me and said they were fine. At this point one of them decided to prove the point by putting his body weight on the stands and tapping the release lever, he tried it 4 times and each time the thing collapsed under him.
Needless to say I swapped them for the traditional pin type stands but still couldn't get them to agree they were either faulty or badly designed.

[Sonia406]

I bought some Halfords ratchetting axle stands last weekend, when I got them home the locking tooth on the ratchet didn't look right to me and didn't match the picture. I took them back and pointed out my concerns to 2 of the monkeys behing the counter. I was assured that once the weight of the car was on them they would be fine.
I was unconvinced and pointed out that the slightest knock on the release handle and there was a very real chance of them dropping a car on the user, again they disagreed with me and said they were fine. At this point one of them decided to prove the point by putting his body weight on the stands and tapping the release lever, he tried it 4 times and each time the thing collapsed under him.
Needless to say I swapped them for the traditional pin type stands but still couldn't get them to agree they were either faulty or badly designed.

Have you reported this to someone higher up? There are probably a lot of people out there with them and that are at risk. One would hope that the set you bought were the ONLY faulty pair, but - probably not and that means a very real danger posed to everyone who bought them... Trading standards should be called I recon.

[Welly]

I think these high street chains should decide what it is they want to offer - are they a shop or a garage? Halfords seem to have gone from oiling bicycle chains, to fitting wiper blades, to fully servicing your car. I think we're bound to be a little cautious, it's a bit like going to an Indian Restaurant and asking for Spaghetti maybe also Halfords don't (or can't) attract quality Mechanics so you end up with one team leader and a load of basic-level operatives?

[FarmerPug]

About the axle stands i have some ratcheting type ones, i tried to stand on it and then release it and yip it came down with me standing on it, also a bloody sore nip to the finger.
But with the weight of the car on them its not possible to pull the handle up.

[gumby6371]

Can I check with Farmerpug, when your stands are in the lock position where is the release handle?
The reason I took mine back was because the handle was up, my argument with the Halfrords monkeys was that the handle should be down under load locked against the body of the stand. A firm blow on the handle if you slipped with a breaker bar could easily release the mechanism.
The picture on the website shows the handles down as well but none of the stands in the shop would sit in that position.

[FarmerPug]

Gumby ill check later on about that

[FarmerPug]

I put the forester onto one of the axle stands about 3 teeth up, lowered the car down and the handle stays down. The handle doesn't lift

[benczuk]

No reply to your email?

[Bailes1992]

Dear Mr Bailey

Thank you for taking the time to communicate to us why our service did not meet your expectations. Please accept our sincerest apology for any disappointment or inconvenience we have caused you. We have every desire to address your needs and provide the best solution available to resolve your issue as soon as possible.

It is our highest priority to provide our customers with exceptional service and in this instance we certainly failed to do this. What you experienced is totally unacceptable and we have already taken steps to ensure that this does not happen again.

Regarding your Halfords Autocentre comments, I have forwarded your feedback to the Autocentre Customer Service team who will investigate and be in contact with you shortly.

Regarding the number plate issue, I have spoken to ******* our Bridgend Store Manager who sends his abject apologies. Paul was aware of the faulty toner cartridge issue and would be happy to discuss the service encountered in store. **** can be reached on 01656****** or otherwise would be happy to call you directly if you would advise the best telephone contact number for you.

Your feedback is vital in helping improve the service we provide. All customer issues are logged as a concern against the store, and are regularly reviewed at the highest level within Halfords.

Once again, we very much appreciate your comments, as they will assist us in becoming better at what we do. As with any business like ours, the greatest advertising we can have is word of mouth from a satisfied customer. It is our goal to retain you as such and we hope to serve you again in the future.

Kind regards

*********
Customer Service Advisor

Not the money off vouchers I was hoping for

[Captain Jack]

Basically, blah blah blah blah blah blah. Thank you for you comments. Your call is important to us.