Halfords & Shine! Scratches & Dent Repairs

BedfordKev

Here’s a service to avoid like the plague!

It took me 8 weeks to achieve precisely nothing with Halfords & their business partners Shine! What an absolute shambles.

What happened? Well when I visited the Halfords store they under-quoted for the repairs that needed doing. This was identified when we booked for Shine to visit and was I thought rectified by a phone call to the store. However when Shine came to visit it became apparent that no record of my conversation had been made & they refused point blank to speak with Halfords to resolve the issue & in the end drove away without completing the repairs:mad:

What is even more frightening is that it appears that this is not an unusual occurrence, it was let slip in the ensuing complaint that 28% of customers are mis-quoted! Yet instead of dealing with the issues that cause these errors they seem to play pass the parcel with the ensuing mess. 8 weeks later I have finally reached agreement for Halfords to refund my money & I am going elsewhere.

So if you fancy playing Russian Roulette go ahead, try them but don’t be surprised if you end up paying more than you thought!

Hammyman

Company that sells bicycles, car stereos and satnavs and employs people with no mechanical knowledge whatsoever gets quote for bodywork repair wrong.

Who'd have thunk it?

You might as well have gone to PC World or Currys...they'd have had just as good an idea of the cost.

BedfordKev

Yep, but you live & learn! The other lesson however is the quality of the customer service at the head office. You would have to experience their complaint handling to believe it. Somehow I don't think that I should have to explain to someone that works with complaints all day that if they are not going to complete the work then it might be a good idea to consider the question of a refund.

benham3160

Hammyman wrote: »

Company that sells bicycles, car stereos and satnavs and employs people with no mechanical knowledge whatsoever gets quote for bodywork repair wrong.

Who'd have thunk it?

You might as well have gone to PC World or Currys...they'd have had just as good an idea of the cost.

Not always true, my local branch has a guy with a degree in engineering, specialising in chassis design (also builds competition engines at the weekends) on the parts desk, and a time served well known local mechanic semi-retired doing the fitting. Not to mention I worked for Halfords for a while, hot from day-in-day-out on the spanners, and several years spent working for a busy motor-factor.

However, how the Shine! stuff works is the staff are given a "bullseye" to quote from with no real training, unfortunately often damage is across two panels, which the staff do not realise is quoted as two repairs, or they underestimate a dent by not realising dents are always larger than they appear.

I personally wouldn't use the service, it's also very troublesome for the staff, the two companies don't seem to work well together, and a local franchise will often do the work for considerably less money, without such a long wait.

Regards,
Andy

BedfordKev

benham3160 wrote: »

However, how the Shine! stuff works is the staff are given a "bullseye" to quote from with no real training, unfortunately often damage is across two panels, which the staff do not realise is quoted as two repairs, or they underestimate a dent by not realising dents are always larger than they appear.

I personally wouldn't use the service, it's also very troublesome for the staff, the two companies don't seem to work well together, and a local franchise will often do the work for considerably less money, without such a long wait.

Regards,
Andy

The absolute lack of training shone through & in retrospect should have rung alarm bells from early on. Unquestionably the two companies don't work well together, Shine appears to be a small operation that don't appreciate the errors in quoting but have absolutely no interest in putting the relationship right. The customer is caught in the middle!

The local franchise is the route that I am now taking.

benham3160

BedfordKev wrote: »

The absolute lack of training shone through & in retrospect should have rung alarm bells from early on. Unquestionably the two companies don't work well together, Shine appears to be a small operation that don't appreciate the errors in quoting but have absolutely no interest in putting the relationship right. The customer is caught in the middle!

The local franchise is the route that I am now taking.

Definately the way forward, I'm not "anti-Halfords" but this is one service which is just agrovation for everybody concerned, and it represents pretty poor value for money.

Shine aren't particuarly helpful to the staff with regards to training either, or the opperatives I've dealt with haven't been.

I used to refuse to deal with it

Regards,
Andy

BedfordKev

I wasn't anti-Halfords either, on the contrary I have spent quite a lot of money with them and some of the store staff I have dealt with in the past have been excellent. However there has been a general downward trend in quality and there is no way that I will deal with any business that has been so unprofessional in their management of disputes.

benham3160

BedfordKev wrote: »

I wasn't anti-Halfords either, on the contrary I have spent quite a lot of money with them and some of the store staff I have dealt with in the past have been excellent. However there has been a general downward trend in quality and there is no way that I will deal with any business that has been so unprofessional in their management of disputes.

Halfords has become very agressive towards its staff, and how it deals with the public.

Made phenominal profits in the last year (one of few retailers making profit, let alone massive profit,) then slashed all the staffing budgets and laid off 2/3 sales assistants per store.

Hence why you probably waited ages to deal with anybody, as currently the stores are all running on a skelleton staff.

Regards,
Andy

Hammyman

benham3160 wrote: »

Not always true, my local branch has a guy with a degree in engineering, specialising in chassis design

He'll be as much use as a chocolate fireguard giving quotes for repairs.

johnnyroper

personally i would not buy so much as an air freshener from halfrauds,they are considerably more expensive than any proper motor factor.
in the store by me they have empty shelves most of the time and employ spotty little oiks fresh from school who have zero interest in anything other than pimping up their 50cc chicken chasers with stupid neons.

want a proper repair go to a proper garage/bodyshop where they employ skilled people,failing that do it yourself if you have capabilites to do so.

jd82

I experienced the staffing issues when the bottom bracket failed on my then three week old bike. I learnt the lesson and would never ever buy anything of high value from them again. I always protect at any large company running their stores with little staff. Its not fair on the customers or staff.