40 replies to this topic

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

 

Not everybody in the alcohol section at your local ASDA is a wine connoisseur. It's a retail store selling not only specialist parts but stuff like camping gear and bikes. Most of the kids are only part time and are doing it to get them through college and uni anyway, give them a break

And if someone who maybe didn't fully understand what he was doing took this kid's advice and managed to bodge a bottle of flammable gas onto his welder, and killed himself, the kid would be blameless? No. They need to know when they don't know enough to answer the question.

 

 

It's the equivalent of buying flowers from a forecourt.

 

It's up to the OP to use what he purchases safely, there are age restrictions on dangerous items that stop this sort of thing, a little bit of common sense isn't a lot to ask... who goes into a Halfords and expects a pro welder ready and waiting on demand?  

Edited by Mini-Mad-Craig, 15 March 2014 - 09:27 PM.

[Dan]

Craig that's nonsense.

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

When I've worked in retail I've always had the sense to know that if I dont know something fully, getting somebody else to help the customer is simply the best thing, but some people don't know that, some of the kids that work in shops like Halfords are shy and from my experience not very good with people at all. When we were working on the Mini in the summer we'd often make daily trips to Halfords for simple consumables, and upon asking for a certain thing, if the person at the checkout had no idea what it was, they'd simply say 'I dont know what that is' and make no attempt to find out. 

 

If you're totally reliant on a probable part time Halfords employee to supply you with information on such things, in my opinion you shouldn't be anywhere near a welder. 

 

It's just tiring seeing how many people will slate Halfords for it's bad products and staff that don't know much, it's a high street retailer, why does everybody expect so much more from Halfords than Argos? 

Edited by Mini-Mad-Craig, 15 March 2014 - 09:42 PM.

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

Although I can see your point, I think a certain amount of self responsibility is presumed. When I worked in a frozen food store I wasn't trained on the risks of salmonella and other bacteria, instead I was told to make sure I put the Ice cream away first because that would defrost quickest. 

 

I just have to side with these people sometimes because I've worked in enough retail jobs to know exactly how it feels to have had insufficient training and being chucked in the deep end, for most companies like Halfords a mediocre knowledge of all product lines and a big smile is enough to land you the job. 

[Merryck]

I'm fully aware that they can't be expected to know everything, but it was the potential for such a catastrophic consequences that made me laugh!

 

As it happens I was only there because it was about 7:30 in the evening, and my local motor factors closed down last year. The guy who owns the place is developing it into housing. Such a shame, it was an amazing place, the guys were so knowledgable.

 

Plus they gave me a trade discount!

[Simont]

when i worked in halfrauds, there was guys there who didnt know one end of the car to the other, and still they got paid to fit things to customer cars........ without any training,
my fitter training consisted of following a guy around for 2 days, and then I had to go it alone, it was a terrible experience to be honest

[Gerbil367]

Its all a matter of expectation really - I usually ask them 1st if they know anything about what Im after.  Always been helpful to me or found someone else who actually knew.  Had to laugh on Friday when I had to buy a new battery for the Mini - lady on the counter said - 'I know what the answer will be, but Ive got to ask, do you want us to fit it?' - its all just part of the retail game! 

 

But I agree that advice shouldnt be given if they dont actually know themselves.

[Vicky1000]

I must admit i work in halfords currently and we are told we should try to serve a customer before asking for help. Ive worked there over a year now and everything i know ive learnt by doing it myself or watching fellow collegues

[GrahamHill]

On the job 'training' ;) There is a certain amount of learning that everyone has to do while at work but Halfords enters the world of DIY which is of course close to many trades. This is the blurred line where people expect expert advice and assistance (motor factors, welding distributors, etc) compared to 'what aisle is the X' sort of help of Tescos. 

Because of that people tend to come to expect more. 

[AVV IT]

So I went into Halfords to take my six year old to look at the bikes. (Unlike most of Halfords products, I've found that their kids bikes are actually fairly good value)

So we find a half decent alloy framed kids mountain bike, which the lad sits on to try out for size, only to find that it's just fractionally too big for him. So the guy behind the bike servicing desk (who appears to be servicing a customers bike at the time) wanders over to help. He tells us that the bike is too big for my lad as the seat post is at it's lowest setting. I explain that whilst the seat post is at its lowest height setting, the saddle itself was tipped a bit too far back and the angle of the saddle could probably be adjusted slightly to allow for AVV IT jnr's feet to be able to reach the ground. At which point I'm told that I'm wrong and that the seat angle is not adjustable! So I explain that I think he'll find that the bikes got an ATB style alloy seat post with a standard alan key adjuster, and therefore both the angle is adjustable as is the fore-aft position of the saddle itself. Again I'm told that I'm wrong.

So I proceed to walk past this idiot, up to his workstation, select the correctly sized alan key from his selection of tools, undo the adjuster on the seat post and demonstrate to him how his product actually works. The guy stares at me as if I'm performing some kind of miracle "voo doo" act and then acknowledges that he "didn't know that it did that". He then slopes off looking a little embarrased without the hint of an appology for his lack of knowledge, or repeatedly telling the customer that they're wrong.

Now anyone can make a mistake, but I really don't think that it's unreasonable for someone who sells bikes for a living to at least know how to size/adjust them for the comfort and safety of the customer. But for someone who professionally repairs/services bikes not to know how to this is really quite concerning and that's without getting into the appalling customer service of being repeatedly told that you're wrong and then getting absolutely no appology when you prove otherwise.

Sadly this is just typical of Halfords customer service in my experience, not that it's all that diffrent to most large chain store retailers these days. Now Argos sell bikes too, but they don't specialise in them, they dont repair/sevice them and they don't offer to adjust/size them for the individual customer either, so I really wouldn't expect a member of Argos staff to know how to finely adjust a bike saddle in this way. I really don't think it's too much to expect from a so called specialist retailer like Halfords though, even if they are a big chain store retailer.

Consequently we went and bought the boy a new bike from the guy who runs the small independent bike shop down the road instead.

[M J W J]

Back to the OP's original post. Buy a proper pub sized bottle of CO2 and a regulator. It will cost you the same as about 5 of those disposable bottles but will hold an awful lot more gas.

[Merryck]

Yeah, that's the path I'm going down I think.

[silve1999]

independents are great to use, southern carburetors  stayed open an extra 30 mins for me to get a whopping £2 worth of HS4 and HIF gaskets on a friday afternoon ;) Speedy's in portslade is always good for parts for minis and greases, flapper discs etc.

[sam-wkd]

So I went into Halfords to take my six year old to look at the bikes. (Unlike most of Halfords products, I've found that their kids bikes are actually fairly good value)

So we find a half decent alloy framed kids mountain bike, which the lad sits on to try out for size, only to find that it's just fractionally too big for him. So the guy behind the bike servicing desk (who appears to be servicing a customers bike at the time) wanders over to help. He tells us that the bike is too big for my lad as the seat post is at it's lowest setting. I explain that whilst the seat post is at its lowest height setting, the saddle itself was tipped a bit too far back and the angle of the saddle could probably be adjusted slightly to allow for AVV IT jnr's feet to be able to reach the ground. At which point I'm told that I'm wrong and that the seat angle is not adjustable! So I explain that I think he'll find that the bikes got an ATB style alloy seat post with a standard alan key adjuster, and therefore both the angle is adjustable as is the fore-aft position of the saddle itself. Again I'm told that I'm wrong.

So I proceed to walk past this idiot, up to his workstation, select the correctly sized alan key from his selection of tools, undo the adjuster on the seat post and demonstrate to him how his product actually works. The guy stares at me as if I'm performing some kind of miracle "voo doo" act and then acknowledges that he "didn't know that it did that". He then slopes off looking a little embarrased without the hint of an appology for his lack of knowledge, or repeatedly telling the customer that they're wrong.

Now anyone can make a mistake, but I really don't think that it's unreasonable for someone who sells bikes for a living to at least know how to size/adjust them for the comfort and safety of the customer. But for someone who professionally repairs/services bikes not to know how to this is really quite concerning and that's without getting into the appalling customer service of being repeatedly told that you're wrong and then getting absolutely no appology when you prove otherwise.

Sadly this is just typical of Halfords customer service in my experience, not that it's all that diffrent to most large chain store retailers these days. Now Argos sell bikes too, but they don't specialise in them, they dont repair/sevice them and they don't offer to adjust/size them for the individual customer either, so I really wouldn't expect a member of Argos staff to know how to finely adjust a bike saddle in this way. I really don't think it's too much to expect from a so called specialist retailer like Halfords though, even if they are a big chain store retailer.

Consequently we went and bought the boy a new bike from the guy who runs the small independent bike shop down the road instead.

 

We had a bike built for our son a year or so ago at Hafrauds. It had been assembled with the handlebars on upside down 

Edited by sam-wkd, 21 March 2014 - 11:52 AM.

[domdee]

just got my self a trade card there... get at the very least 20% off.