Bloody Halfords!!!

Tilly said:

Forth cycle training session.

One child turns up with new bike and new helmet, bought at Halfords -
it was her birthday today.

The helmet had not been fitted correctly. The strap was loose, and
covered the ears, not either side of the lobes.

The bike's brakes were a disgrace. Front brake had to be squeezed to
the handlebars, and even then were less than effective, and one front
brake block was half on and half off the rim.

Appalling!!!

Seems pretty much par for the course.
Last week I had a rider whose handlebars could be turned sideways with
hardly any pressure, and had one front wheelnut just finger tight.
Again a brand new bike.

A few turns with the allen keys and spanner fixed it.

Its not just dealers like Halfords though.

On a school course I had a child turn up with a front V-brake that had
had the cable deliberately disconnected by the parent "because the brake
blocks rubbed on the wheel".

John B

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 18:50:53 +0000 someone who may be Tilly
<[email hidden]> wrote this:-

Quoted message said:

The helmet had not been fitted correctly. The strap was loose, and
covered the ears, not either side of the lobes.

The bike's brakes were a disgrace.

I hope you did not spoil her birthday, but instead fixed the faults.

--
David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
prevents me by using the RIP Act 2000.

"JohnB" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On a school course I had a child turn up with a front V-brake that had
had the cable deliberately disconnected by the parent "because the brake
blocks rubbed on the wheel".

Conclusive proof that Darwin was on to something?

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 18:50:53 +0000, Tilly <[email hidden]>

wrote in message : said:

The bike's brakes were a disgrace. Front brake had to be squeezed to
the handlebars, and even then were less than effective, and one front
brake block was half on and half off the rim.

I wonder if selling bikes with defective brakes is unethical? It's
certainly illegal.

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken

The last kids bike I bought from Halfords was in a box, not having seen
the light of day since it left the Raleigh factory in Nott... sorry
Taiwan. It was all set up very well. It may not be Halfords at fault.
They do sell a lot of boxed bikes now. The bike in question may have
been assembled by the parent.

"MartinM" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The last kids bike I bought from Halfords was in a box, not having seen
the light of day since it left the Raleigh factory in Nott... sorry
Taiwan. It was all set up very well. It may not be Halfords at fault.
They do sell a lot of boxed bikes now. The bike in question may have
been assembled by the parent.

This is true but wouldnt expect halfords to make a better job of it than a
parent who knows nothing about bikes and has none of their own tools (thus
relying on the cheap nasty and non suffient ones in the box)

In fact when I worked in a bike shop we used to get allot of business from
people who had halford's build there bikes for them from the flat pack box
that they are supplied in. Halford's never tightened anything when they
built these bikes, the crank arms almosts always came loose thus rounding
them off anyone who has had a job building bikes for sale will KNOW that you
check EVERY bolt on the thing is tight before it even reaches the shop
floor.

How could halford miss this crutual and dangerous activity for so long? in
fact to prove a point I recently met a friend of mine who got sacked from
his LBS because he was continually cutting corners even when bikes were
returned because parts fell off, Halford Hired him anyway

David Hansen said:

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 18:50:53 +0000 someone who may be Tilly
<[email hidden]> wrote this:-

Quoted message said:

The helmet had not been fitted correctly. The strap was loose, and
covered the ears, not either side of the lobes.

The bike's brakes were a disgrace.

I hope you did not spoil her birthday, but instead fixed the faults.

Of course. I also told her what a lovely bike it was and I hoped that
she's be cycling to school now the course is over.

Fish said:

How could halford miss this crutual and dangerous activity for so long? in
fact to prove a point I recently met a friend of mine who got sacked from
his LBS because he was continually cutting corners even when bikes were
returned because parts fell off, Halford Hired him anyway

I am going to write a letter to Halfords and see what they have to
say.

Halfords in my opinion on is very hit and miss. There are 4 in or around my town alone and one of them has a bunch of very enthusiastic MTB’s who really take pride in everything they do. In fact I have a very large independent near my house which I only now buy parts from as their mechanics and sales staff are on commission so they either try to sell me the most expensive part as I enter or service my bike as quick as possible. I had to bring the bike back three times afterwards.
The aforementioned Halfords branch has been fantastic but only that one.

nobody760 said:

I happened to be in my town's Halfords store when a young fella - aged
around 20 I would have thought was assembling a bike, he was about to
insert the pedal into the crank minus any grease on the pedal thread.
I mentioned that if you put a little grease on thread before
assembling it was a much easier to get the pedal off when necessary
again. He muttered something about no one told me that and then
proceeded to insert the pedal sans grease. I would guess he had had
the minimum of training and was paid as little as possible.

Yes. I was going to ask if anyone knows what Halford's staff are paid. I
know that at one very big chain of stores (nothing to do with bikes),
found all over the country, a senior sales assistant - the first rung of
management - gets less than £5.50/hr, a bit more than £11k a year. The
job is quite complicated in some respects and includes supervising the
junior sales staff. I find it hard to believe anyone is willing to do it.

--
Joe * If I cannot be free I'll be cheap

On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 13:11:39 +0000, JLB wrote in
<[email hidden]>, seen in uk.rec.cycling:

[...]

Quoted message said:

I was going to ask if anyone knows what Halford's staff are paid.

<http://www.halfordscareers.com/>

suggests that a deputy store manager gets 12-19k, a store manager
23-30k. That's a minimum of about £6.20/hour for a deputy, so we can
reasonably assume that sales assistants are going to be close to or on
the minimum wage.

Compared with what I get paid as a train driver, and given the work
involved in running a small shop, never mind a large store, I simply
wouldn't get up in the morning even for the highest paid of the store
manager's job.

--
Ross, in Lincoln
Reply-to address will bounce; replace "junk-trap" with "me" for e-mail

Ross Hamilton said:

suggests that a deputy store manager gets 12-19k, a store manager
23-30k. That's a minimum of about £6.20/hour for a deputy, so we can
reasonably assume that sales assistants are going to be close to or on
the minimum wage.

9K - 21K deputy and 15K - 38K store manager.

On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 17:12:16 +0000, Tilly wrote in
<[email hidden]>, seen in uk.rec.cycling:

Quoted message said:

Ross Hamilton said:

suggests that a deputy store manager gets 12-19k, a store manager
23-30k. That's a minimum of about £6.20/hour for a deputy, so we can
reasonably assume that sales assistants are going to be close to or on
the minimum wage.

9K - 21K deputy and 15K - 38K store manager.

That's a wider range than their vacancy list on the website gives, but
(IMO) still [censored].

Perhaps I'm spoilt..

--
Ross, in Lincoln
Reply-to address will bounce; replace "junk-trap" with "me" for e-mail

Ross Hamilton said:

On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 17:12:16 +0000, Tilly wrote in
<[email hidden]>, seen in uk.rec.cycling:

Quoted message said:

Ross Hamilton said:

suggests that a deputy store manager gets 12-19k, a store manager
23-30k. That's a minimum of about £6.20/hour for a deputy, so we can
reasonably assume that sales assistants are going to be close to or on
the minimum wage.

9K - 21K deputy and 15K - 38K store manager.

That's a wider range than their vacancy list on the website gives, but
(IMO) still [censored].

http://www.halfordscareers.com/store_manager.asp

http://www.halfordscareers.com/dep_store_manager.asp

Quoted message said:

Perhaps I'm spoilt..

I have the new teachers' pay document.

A new teacher is paid £22,059, rising to £30,750 after 6 years.

A Halfords manager could be paid more than me!

But - I get 13 weeks a year holiday... and, until the govt. change it,
a final salary pension scheme.

On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 18:27:32 +0000, Tilly wrote in
<[email hidden]>, seen in uk.rec.cycling:

Quoted message said:

Ross Hamilton said:

Quoted message said:

>suggests that a deputy store manager gets 12-19k, a store manager
>23-30k. That's a minimum of about £6.20/hour for a deputy, so we can
>reasonably assume that sales assistants are going to be close to or on
>the minimum wage.

9K - 21K deputy and 15K - 38K store manager.

That's a wider range than their vacancy list on the website gives, but
(IMO) still [censored].

http://www.halfordscareers.com/store_manager.asp
http://www.halfordscareers.com/dep_store_manager.asp

Ta for that. I'd not noticed those pages; I was looking at the pages
listing actual vacancies, which quote pay ranges for specific stores.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Perhaps I'm spoilt..

I have the new teachers' pay document.
A new teacher is paid £22,059, rising to £30,750 after 6 years.

A train driver ranges between about 23k and 40k, depending who s/he
works for. My mob pay 31,110.

Quoted message said:

But - I get 13 weeks a year holiday... and, until the govt. change it,
a final salary pension scheme.

Final salary I've got because I'm ex BR and protected under the
Railways Act 1993 (at least until someone decides to introduce
legislation to change it). I think most train companies still offer
final salary pensions schemes to the new starters as well.

Wouldn't mind your 13 weeks leave a year, as I get 6 weeks in total
(four of which are pre-allocated and 2 are "subject to the exigencies
of the service"😉, but I think overall I prefer my long weekend every 3
weeks and the significantly lower stress levels!

--
Ross, in Lincoln
Reply-to address will bounce; replace "junk-trap" with "me" for e-mail

Caher said:

Halfords in my opinion on is very hit and miss. There are 4 in or
around my town alone and one of them has a bunch of very enthusiastic
MTB’s who really take pride in everything they do. In fact I have a
very large independent near my house which I only now buy parts from
as their mechanics and sales staff are on commission so they either
try to sell me the most expensive part as I enter or service my bike
as quick as possible. I had to bring the bike back three times
afterwards.
The aforementioned Halfords branch has been fantastic but only that
one.

It all depends on the enthusiasm of the staff at the store. The pressure and
low esteem tends to burn them out after their first Christmas.

--
Andy Morris

AndyAtJinkasDotFreeserve.Co.UK

Love this:
Put an end to Outlook Express's messy quotes
http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/

JLB said:

Quoted message said:

Yes. I was going to ask if anyone knows what Halford's staff are
paid. I know that at one very big chain of stores (nothing to do with
bikes), found all over the country, a senior sales assistant - the
first rung of management - gets less than £5.50/hr, a bit more than
£11k a year. The job is quite complicated in some respects and
includes supervising the junior sales staff. I find it hard to
believe anyone is willing to do it.

14 years ago, the going rate for a good mechanic in good independant shops,
was around £5/hr

--
Andy Morris

AndyAtJinkasDotFreeserve.Co.UK

Love this:
Put an end to Outlook Express's messy quotes
http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/

Ross Hamilton said:

Wouldn't mind your 13 weeks leave a year, as I get 6 weeks in total
(four of which are pre-allocated and 2 are "subject to the exigencies
of the service"😉, but I think overall I prefer my long weekend every 3
weeks and the significantly lower stress levels!

Four weeks pre allocated is a bit harsh if your children are tied to
school holidays.

During term time I start work at 7.30am and don't go home until 6pm.

On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 06:29:07 +0000, Tilly wrote in
<[email hidden]>, seen in uk.rec.cycling:

Quoted message said:

Ross Hamilton said:

Wouldn't mind your 13 weeks leave a year, as I get 6 weeks in total
(four of which are pre-allocated and 2 are "subject to the exigencies
of the service"😉, but I think overall I prefer my long weekend every 3
weeks and the significantly lower stress levels!

Four weeks pre allocated is a bit harsh if your children are tied to
school holidays.

We get one week "spring", two weeks consecutive "summer" and one week
"winter" allocated using a system of 13 rotating blocks (which means
that you're guaranteed a given week once every 13 years), but after
that is announced a certain amount of horse-trading goes on.

So, if I get my summer leave allocated during the school summer
holidays, I'll be approached by other drivers with kids to swap with
the, It will generally suit me to have my summer leave in, say, May
rather than in August, so I'll swap.

The allocation system is a pain if your other half is also restricted
to when they can take leave and their leave falls across blocks - but
the way to deal with that is use one week of your "by application"
leave and take 3 weeks off en bloque.

Quoted message said:

During term time I start work at 7.30am and don't go home until 6pm.

Our shifts vary from 5 to 11 hours, although that will drop to 10
hours maximum shortly. The system is rather complex but the idea is
that over a 27-week period we average out to a 36 hour week - although
that is also changing; last year it was a 37 hour week and in June
this year it drops to a 35 hour week. Won't make much difference to
the hours actually worked, though.

The killer is not the hours worked but the starting times. So, for
example, on Monday you might start at 06:30 but on Tuesday at 03:30 -
it's "only" 3 hours earlier but by God it makes a difference to your
sleep and your general energy levels. (Having to keep your eyes open
with matchsticks is not something you really want to be doing when
driving a train with 500+ people aboard.)

We also have swap-over weeks whereby Mon +Tues are earlies, Wed +Thu
off then return Fri + Sat on lates - or vice versa.

Me, I swap for permanent "lates", which on my mob means shifts
starting after 09:30, as they are more consistent - generally longer
shifts, but I get to wake up naturally and feel all the better for it.

Well, I swap for lates when I'm at work. Having been off for almost 4
months now, shifts aren't something I worry about much!

--
Ross, in Lincoln
Reply-to address will bounce; replace "junk-trap" with "me" for e-mail