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Anti halfords sticky

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Anti halfords sticky

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I dont work in halfrauds but im in there pretty often picking up some part or another. ive never actually asked staff for any help on what to get as I generaly know what im going in for in the first place.

Whilst I was in the queue for the parts desk (needed to get the key for the tool cupboard :p) a woman was arguing with a member of staff behind me over by the wiper blades -

Customer (c) - Excuse me, have you got any wiper blades?
Staff member (sm) - Yes, what car is it for?
C - its a people carrier
SM - oookkk, what make is it?
C - its a hyundai
SM - and what model?
C - im not sure but its parked outside...

So off they went outside to check what model it is, 2 mins later they come back to the wipers and the staff member starts checking through the little files they have to find which wipers they need (something the customer should do themselves imo (n))...

SM - Oh im affraid we dont stock them for that car...
C (getting angry now) - BUT I NEED THEM FOR MY MOT!
SM - We dont keep them as a stock item but we should be able to order them for you.
C - BUT I NEED THEM TODAY!! :mad:
SM - Well im affraid we wont be able to get them in today but we could have them for tomorrow if they are in stock.
C - WELL THATS NO USE TO ME IS IT?? WHY DONT YOU HAVE THEM!!??? :mad:
SM - We only keep items in stock for the most popular cars but as I said, we would be able to order it for you...
C - HOW CAN MY CAR NOT BE POPULAR!!??? ITS A PEOPLE CARRIER !!!
SM - To be honest, ive never actually heard of or seen your car before...
C - FOR F*** SAKE :mad:

Customer storms off...

SM - THANK YOU FOR SHOPPING AT HALFORDS!!

:D:D:D

Just made laugh really although I felt sorry for the lady serving the customer as I get that kinda thing at work all the time. I work in photography so you get people all the time who think they know everything but really know **** all and they just cant understand that they are wrong. Legend for calling out as she stormed off out the shop :D
 
as much as i love this thread i think we're missing the second and third dimensions of halfrauds inadequacies.

everyone knows the kids who work there dont know half as much as the middle aged guys working at your local motor factors. but thats no surprise.

the other important issues are the price and product aspects.

the prices at halfrauds are alweays higher than your local motor factors. what makes things worse is halfrauds will buy thier products more cheaply than the local motorfactor because halfrauds buy in bulk and enjoy economies of scale. your local motorfactors will pay more for their products, and yet they still manage to sell them for less. you could argue that halfrauds has greater costs due to their store size, number of staff, utility bills etc. but it doesnt justify the massive difference in price.

the products at halfrauds are often of an inferior quality to the ones you'll find at your local motorfactors. this is especially true for tools. to make things worse they offer a limited range of products because a halfrauds store is not meant to be a comprehensive car parts suppilier, unlike your local motorfactors who will try to offer every part possible. if halfrauds say its a dealer only part, that usually means you can get it round the corner, if your motorfactor says its a dealer only part, it means it really is a dealer only part.

also halfrauds hold less stock, even though they tend to have larger stores with more stock holding space they only stock the parts that they sell regularly. they also have to stock a lot of non-car products so this makes sense and in reality i bet they have less stock storage space for car parts than the average motorfactors. compare that to your local motorfactor who will usually stock many more parts for many more cars, even if it sits on the shelf for years. if they havent got it they can get it same day usually (3-4 hours is the average i've had to wait).

so there's 3 very good reasons to avoid halfrauds, the people, the prices and the products.

so what are the advantages? well i enjoy a good laugh so its always fun to look at the cars in the carpark. just look at all those stickers on the doors, and those picnic table spoilers, dont forget the super cool sports seat covers. then its even more fun to go and talk to the staff, as many of you have already mentioned. but apart from the laugh there really is no good reason to go anywhere near halfrauds. its like going to pc world to buy a computer, utter madness!
 
OXCiD3 said:
Weird though, you never get people saying how good halfords, are, or for that matter anything... people never, (as a rule, obviously there are exceptions) give feedback when someone has had a really good expieriance, but people are the first to complain is something isn't right.

i get so pissed off with people complaing about how everyone who works at halfords are "dumbasses",

And when it comes to the paint code thing! Jesus!
As said there are thousands of different codes,
I dont know what part of computing you specialise in but if you can add binary, you know what hex is.

It's the eqivilant of someone saying to you "i want to you design me a website with a blue background"...
Now with out the exact hex code you ARE going to get it wrong...


Mog, i have never heard of charging more for changing an inner tube wether it's on the bike or not, maybe it was a money making sceme that a local store decided to try, i can only think that they do this to put people off bringing their bikes in, we only have limited storage space, and when it's full, we cant take on more expencive repairs, but one wheel takes up considerable less space than a whole bike.

Jai, indeed, This is what halfords prides it's self on, an generally if it's not on the shelf and you come in, in the morning we can have it to you by the afternoon.


Ozzie, Well Said, i'm having this exact problem in my store, my manager (26, currently dating a 16 year old till girl.... )has this habbit of hiring good looking girls, so, yes we get lots of customers coming in store to oggle and possible buying stuff on their way round... and i suppose if it wasn't for that i wouldn't have met my girlfriend... but it means we have a largely uninformed, unttrained and generally nonintrested (is that a word) workforce, and this shows... (no offence to women, it's probibly not a general thing) it just seems none of the girls in our store know anything... when asked to change a headlight bulb in a civic... one of them popped the boot of a customers car, took the sidelight bulb out and couldn't work out why it wouldn't fit... and before you start about "that like asking someone to add in binary etc..." she's been working here for 3 months... and you would have thought she'd learned something screwing the manager....

Owen:(
Click to expand...


Obviously you don't read the whole thread BECAUSE I DID SHOW HIM THE PAINT CODE. AND THE PAINT. he just wouldn't accept it was real.

Just to prove my point i found this: (and look at paint code 329/A) http://www.ppg.com/MaxMeyer/CarColourRange/files/dataccr/Fiat/1996.PDF
See that took about 30 seconds to find and it proves that Verde Champion exists and its colour code is correct AND that fiat put it on Mk1 Punto's.
He ain't much of an employee if he can't find that. I don't care that it wasn't in stock because my gripe is with the attitude of the people who work there, not the shop itself. It just got me vexed that he was so insistant that it didn't exist.:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

And as for webpages, if someone gave me the exact hex code and a sample of the colour then yes i could match it perfectly, in seconds, but thats exactly the same as what the hell-frauds guy got. Code and actual paint.

OXCiD3 said:
SHHHHHHHHH i meant rear bulb... it's late i'm tired... and now i've totally undermined my point...:eek:
Click to expand...
OXCiD3 said:
i'm always tired at work, i'll probibly end up trying to fit an oil filter in there instead...:p
Click to expand...

So your a hell-frauds employee and your all demi gods right?
But you can't tell the difference between a side and rear bulb, and your always tired at work? Yup Hell-frauds HR dept. choose the best.
 
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ok theres plenty of things wrong with your post, but i'll just cover the easy ones,

Firstly

the products at halfrauds are often of an inferior quality to the ones you'll find at your local motorfactors. this is especially true for tools.
Click to expand...
Have you ever heard of halfords proffesional,they have a lifetime guarentee, which basically means, if you take these tools home, use them constantly for 3 years, then a ratchet spanner snaps, if you take it back to the store (you dont even need a reciept) we'll simply replace it with another one, somehow i dont think halfords would have this guarentee if they knew that their tools were infirior.
in my experiance the only tools i have found to be infirior from halfords, are ones made by rolson... which consiquently are stocked in my local uni part...


compare that to your local motorfactor who will usually stock many more parts for many more cars, even if it sits on the shelf for years. if they havent got it they can get it same day usually (3-4 hours is the average i've had to wait).
Click to expand...
UNLIKE you local car parts dealer, we have access to about 12 suppliers that can generally get parts in store with in 3 hours. where as they will oly have one or two (probibly unit part and lucas) who will give halfords priority anyway


Price

And Halfords arn't as a rule more expensive, when it comes to specialist parts most of the time they are actually cheaper... lets be honest, halfords spend thousands of pounds on advertising, purly for the fact that people see them and realise that if they need something for the car, they should go to halfords. and bare in mind how many people are employed with halfords, with thousands of stores nationwide, plus head offices, suppliers, manurfacturers, everyone needs paying, compared to you local family parts dealer with dad and son who just take their own share.
 
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OXCiD3 said:
Have you ever heard of halfords proffesional,they have a lifetime guarentee, which basically means, if you take these tools home, use them constantly for 3 years, then a ratchet spanner snaps, if you take it back to the store (you dont even need a reciept) we'll simply replace it with another one, somehow i dont think halfords would have this guarentee if they knew that their tools were infirior.
in my experiance the only tools i have found to be infirior from halfords, are ones made by rolson... which consiquently are stocked in my local uni part...
Click to expand...

when one of my brother's "halfords professional" ratchet spanners broke they refused to replace it because they said it had obviously been misused or used for something it shouldn't have?! all i did was try to take the top nut off one fo my front struts. maybe that was wrong, are they desinged for something else? i told him not to buy them, but he did anyway. he has since bought some draper ones for less money and they are definately better (although they were bought online). maybe that was just an unlucky isolated incident, but i doubt it.

OXCiD3 said:
UNLIKE you local car parts dealer, we have access to about 12 suppliers that can generally get parts in store with in 3 hours. where as they will oly have one or two (probibly unit part and lucas) who will give halfords priority anyway
Click to expand...

during my time as a self employed machanic i would often tell people to buy their own parts for me to fit so they didnt think i was charging extra for the parts and so they could choose the quality (i dont want to force everyone to use castol). you wouldnt believe how many times i got a call from a customer who had gone to halfords (they all do:rolleyes: ) and could not get the parts i required until the next day. every time this happened i would ring my local motorfactors and they would have the parts only hours later, and at a cheaper price than halfords every time. i doubt i can be the only person on earth who has experienced this?

OXCiD3 said:
And Halfords arn't as a rule more expensive, when it comes to specialist parts most of the time they are actually cheaper... lets be honest, halfords spend thousands of pounds on advertising, purly for the fact that people see them and realise that if they need something for the car, they should go to halfords. and bare in mind how many people are employed with halfords, with thousands of stores nationwide, plus head offices, suppliers, manurfacturers, everyone needs paying, compared to you local family parts dealer with dad and son who just take their own share
Click to expand...

exactly, its makes perfect sense that halfords should cost more, but i dont care i still want the cheapest prices, its not my fault they spend so much money on adverts and wages.

i know you want to take halford's side because you work there, but lets be honest, it is expensive.

i work for myson radiators and my advice would be never buy a myson radiator, it costs twice as much as the competiton but they're no better. especially the towel warmers, they're less than half our prices at B&Q, and even B&Q is expensive.

if you were to attack myson radiators i dont care, i would agree with you they suck. so dont take an attack on halfords as a comment about yourself.

its just the usual situation that the biggest chains always offer the worst service and only succeed because they are so well marketed and they're everywhere, just like quickfit, pc world, dixons, etc etc etc.
 
WOW such long replies.


Must be a lot of mental anquish associated with halfrauds.


personally I hate them, but not for the choice, or the often useless assistants (who can sell you a sub, but are stumped when you ask for an impact driver), BUT THE ETHICS OF THE BUSINESS.

e.g. grow as big and fast as we can and shove all the little private motorfactors out who are actually providing a personal service to regular customers etc.

Yes I know they will always be in demand from garages who use the real motorfactors, but there was always that good one in each town that has been forced to close, thru in some part to halfrauds
 
after careful thought, you make sense... i dont really understand why i'm getting so uptight about this... i guess it was the "people who work @ halfords are dumbasses" comments that i wasn't very happy with... plus when you work for a company for reletivly long time, it somehow feels like a mini family...:confused: weird

So i've just come back with a nice coffee, and and extention on my college work, so am now suitable chilled. :)
 
faster4_tec said:
e.g. grow as big and fast as we can and shove all the little private motorfactors out who are actually providing a personal service to regular customers etc.
Click to expand...

good point the personal service point is very valid. you can build up a relationship with your local motorfactor staff meaning you get trade price discounts and reliable information for free.

faster4_tec said:
Yes I know they will always be in demand from garages who use the real motorfactors, but there was always that good one in each town that has been forced to close, thru in some part to halfrauds
Click to expand...

another good point, if halfords are so great why arent they used by garages? garages need the cheapest prices and the quickest delivery. obviously halfords either cant or wont provide that, either way if they arent supplying the trade they aint supplying me.
 
jug said:
the products at halfrauds are often of an inferior quality to the ones you'll find at your local motorfactors. this is especially true for tools. to make things worse they offer a limited range of products because a halfrauds store is not meant to be a comprehensive car parts suppilier, unlike your local motorfactors who will try to offer every part possible. if halfrauds say its a dealer only part, that usually means you can get it round the corner, if your motorfactor says its a dealer only part, it means it really is a dealer only part.
Click to expand...

So..........you've never used Halfords Pro stuff? Take it from someone who uses their Pro tools on a regular basis, they're good. The big advantage of the lifetime guarantee is that there is usually a Halfords nearby if you need a replacement, whereas if your Snap-On tool breaks, you got to track down the dealer to get a replacement, which can take some doing.

Some parts are cheaper elsewhere, but you can't realistically expect one shop to be consistently cheaper for all parts than another shop. Halfords do have some parts that are cheaper than the local competition.

And the dealer only thing - all the parts that Halfords have told me are dealer only turned out to be dealer only :)
 
I got £290 compensation or something like that from Halfrauds after I bought a Multi-Voltage AC/DC cigarette lighter socket plug for my MP3 player while BLEW UP as soon as it was plugged into the Multi-Voltage AC/DC Cigarette lighter plug.

To me that was good customer service. I read the instructions on the box, made sure it was set to the correct current type and voltage and it blew it up anyway.

Last Night I was in Trocadero playing a racing game with a mate when the Arcade went screwy, We had spent about £20 between us on this one machine before it went crazy.

I happened to speak to the manager and was going to knock him the fcuk out as he was being ignorant. He didn't want to give us ONE free credit each so that we could have the race that we paid for.

Lucky one of his members of staff did.

Halfords also aren't always more expensive. I usually use Midnight Motors AKA Lloyds Motor Spares for parts as they are open until 2200, 364 days a year. Depending on what I purchase will vary in who's item costs more. Sometimes its Halfords, Sometimes in Midnight.

As for going to the lil motor shops.... I own a Fiat Tipo they have nothing for me :p

chaos said:
And the dealer only thing - all the parts that Halfords have told me are dealer only turned out to be dealer only :)
Click to expand...
I'm sure Halfords Told me a Wishbone was dealer only, when we all know its not.
 
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chaos said:
Take it from someone who uses their Pro tools on a regular basis, they're good
Click to expand...
the ratchet spanners aren't, i easily broke one and they wouldnt give a replacement due to "misuse". also the ratchet spanners have fewer clicks per rotation than the draper equivalent, and they cost more. haven't tried anything else but would you blame me?

chaos said:
whereas if your Snap-On tool breaks,
Click to expand...
obviously you've never used snap-on :p
 
jug said:
the ratchet spanners aren't, i easily broke one and they wouldnt give a replacement due to "misuse". also the ratchet spanners have fewer clicks per rotation than the draper equivalent, and they cost more. haven't tried anything else but would you blame me?
Click to expand...

Haven't used their ratchet spanners, so can't comment on them.

jug said:
obviously you've never used snap-on :p
Click to expand...

I have actually. Broken a socket. Haven't broken any of my Halfords Pro stuff yet.
 
if i be honest i've broken a snap-on socket too :eek:

although it did take my weight bouncing on a bar before it snapped.

(as usual it didnt belong to me :D )

if i did want halfords professional tools i still wouldn't go to halfords, i'd buy them on ebay to save cash. if the lifetime warranty is real you could even buy second hand ones on ebay and get a replacement under warranty if they broke (as long as some spotty kid doesn't decide they've been misused :rolleyes: )
 
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