Halfords - Next chain to go under?

advent1122

I went in my local Halfords for a bulb for my car.
Could I find someone to help - could I 'eck. The Mary Celeste sprang to mind.
When I did manage to find someone, who appeared out of a cupboard from Narnia, you would have thought I was asking him the whereabouts of Lord Lucan.
He went to the little computer and asked for my car details - so far all going good. He asked for year of manufacture. I said 07. He said - I kid you not - Is that 2007?
Anyhoo. Got my bulb, when we established the car was not built in 1907, and off I trotted to the till.
4 customers in front of me and no till operator.
I did the British thing and tuttted a bit, I may even have thrown in an hurrumph for good measure.
The till operator arrived and apologised. She said she was helping a customer and they have no staff.
Not her fault - She looked like she had won the Stressed Employee Of The Year Award.
It is no wonder stores are going to the wall when Head Offices answer to everything is to cut staff levels = Disgruntled customers = Less Customers = More Staff Cuts = Even Lessererer Customers = Closing Down Sale.

logie28

I bought a bike for my six year old a few weeks back, i knew what i was looking for and the model i wanted .

Quite lucky really as no one gave a dam when i asked for any kind of service. I said ill take that one, the reply was "its boxed you know, is that a problem"

It wasnt to me, i assembled bike at home , sat down to read the paper, halfords advert saying all bikes assembled by "experts" with first service free.

None of this was offered at point of sale. I e-mailed a complaint. The reply i got put me off halford for life.
Basically said they had contacted branch manager who had "forgot" about the promotion , but would implement it in the future!!

No good to me!

I remember halfords when i was a kid, a brand i had respected and trusted, who had sales advisers who had experience and who would help in any way.

You would think these companies would stop living off past reputation and wake up.

Woolworths should have kicked a few national companies up the a$$£, apparantly not!

Funkygibbon

Think your right, only one person helping about 10 people in the shop and two 12 year olds actually serving. When I saw them I thought they were messing about till I saw their halford shirts, and I'm being generous when saying 12 year olds!!

kiddy_guy

But you all went to Halfords to get your items -who else is there?

They have as much chance of going under as I have winning the lottery. Their current sales are good, and the whole recession has improved bike sales, which has been a big winner for them.

DCFC79

Thats the thing with companies, they think that a way to cut costs is to cut staff hours and or get rid of staff but then it has a negative effect as the staff have to work harder, do 2 or 3 things at once, it then infuriates customers as they have to wait to be served or wait for help in finding an item and the customers get to a point where they just leave the store and take theyre business somewhere else

Pound

I read somewhere that shops like Halfords are making money out of the recession because people are choosing to fix their own cars, buy satnavs, etc. instead of buying brand new cars.

Mags_cat

I went into Halfords a month ago for a new headlight bulb.

After all of ten seconds looking foolish round the racks of stuff a member of staff came up , asked me what I needed, found it, fitted it and smiled as I drove off.

Ok, it cost me £5 for him to fit it, but it was well worth it

Jaffa.

logie28 wrote: »

You would think these companies would stop living off past reputation and wake up.

Aye, If I was the manager I would have given you a part re-fund I think ""forgot" about the promotion , but would implement it in the future" just ads insult to injury. It's not-on is it really, esp in a recession.

advent1122

Mags_cat wrote: »

Ok, it cost me £5 for him to fit it, but it was well worth it

Damn, I knew I had forgotten something when I bought my bulb, I should have asked them to fit it for a fiver.
Let me get this straight, you think he was doing you a favour by charging you £5 to fit a bulb?

It took me ooooh 5 minutes to fit my bulb - and that included the 3 minutes looking for a screwdriver.

bottomsup

I went into Halfords (Epsom) on Wednesday to get my son a bike.
Waited 5 minutes in the bike section, no-one appeared.

Went to the car parts desk and was told the chap was having a wee and would be out in a minute - another 5 minutes went past. Approached another chap who said the bike man was doing something and knew I was waiting.

Finally he appeared, was not much help really, so we are going to an independant bike shop to purchase one!

brightonman123

i thought halfords ahd gone years ago! with very few staff, they leave themselves open to thieving, big time..