Dodgy bike from Halford's

Attol

Below is an email I sent to the consumer association of Ireland looking for advice on a bike I bought. I've yet to receive a reply though so thought I'd ask here. Along with the problems that I mentioned there I get random clicky noises when I'm cycling and it happens no matter what gear I'm on. I've almost been run over when my breaks have failed me even though I tried to stop very early I still ended up in the middle of the road a couple times when I tried to stop. The front break is starting to make the squealing noise again. I do not have time to go back once a week to get it tweaked like the sales assistant suggested the last time I went back and I may be moving quite far from this shop so I won't be able to keep bringing it back(which is totally ridiculous anyway imo). What should I do?


I’ve been having some issues with a bike bought on the 30/4/08 in Halford’s, Westend Retail Park, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15.



About a month ago the front brake started making a squealing noise and the gears didn’t feel like they were changing properly. The chain kept coming off slightly and even though it would sometimes go back into place it didn’t always. Originally a manager told me it’d be 2 months before they could look at it but then another member of staff was consulted who said he had time and then I left the bike in for 2 hours to be fixed.



The squealing noise started again about a week later and has gotten progressively worse. The back breaks seemed to be getting weaker and weaker which is very problematic seeing as the way home for me is downhill and I use the bike to go to work every day.



I went back to the shop yesterday and asked was it possible to swap it for another one and the sales assistant told me that he was not going to be giving me a refund or a replacement and he’d fix it and do nothing else. I accepted this repair and asked how often I should expect to need things done to it and he said if it was in heavy use then once a week which sounded excessive to me. He said it was normal I was told I would need the break pads changed in 3 weeks which seems very soon.



On the way back home I noticed that the chain was occasionally coming off and making a loud noise when it went back and I could hear the squealing noise starting up again.



The total amount of times I’ve used the bike :



Monday to Friday for 4 weeks on an 11km rounds trip

20km cycle

About ten 5minute cycles to the shops



What should I do in this situation? Should I just continue to accept repairs or is it reasonable for me to ask for a replacement?

daheff

in fairness to who you bought the bike off, it sounds like the bike is loosening out ...this is normal for a new bike. Brake cables stretch a bit after they have been used for a while...they just need to be tightened...the same with gear cables. If you really want the bike to be in top condition then you would need to have this done once a month or so (i think every week would be excessive) for a while until the 'breaking in phase' is over. Think of it like servicing your car. the first service all that really happens is that they change the oil and tighten any loose parts (eg clutchm, brakes etct). A pedal bike is the same. the only difference is that you would notice thinks like gears slipping (from loose cables), loose brakes more on a bike than a car. Its not a big issue..you could easily do the brakes yourself and (with a little bit of trying) do the gears too.

penexpers

No bike should need to be tuned once a week.

If I was the OP, I'd write the bike off , pursue Halfords through the small claims court and spend some money getting a decent bike in a decent bike shop.

LolaDub

Statutory rights say that a first repair must be permanent. If the first repair doesn't fix the issue then a replacement or refund must be issued. All the info is at www.consumerconnect.com

littlejp

I bought a bike in Halfords before Christmas. Asked when to bring it back for a service as any time I previously bought a bike I was told to bring it in for tuning ,as mentioned above. After about 1 month of cycling I had all sorts of problems happening, gears slipping like th OP, brakes jammed shut, pedal fell off, back wheel buckled and jammed against the frame.
I had moved to Dublin and bought the bike in Naas so couldn't really get it back to them. Rang them and explained all problems. Manager said it was my fault for not bringing it in for a tune up. When I said I was told they don't do that, he basically called me a liar. Said I could bring it into another Halfords branch but I would have to pay for any repairs. I decided at this stage to cut my losses. Traded the croc in and bought a new Trek bike from McDonalds on Camden St. Best move I ever made. New bike has had some small problems but I find with smaller shops they know more about bikes and they care about Customer Service.
My advice, cut your losses and stay away from Halfords.

Slice

I had a very similar experience with a bike I got from Halfords. Also, after a few months, the gears on the bike they sold me kept changing completely unprompted which is quite dangerous as it sometimes effected my balance while riding.

To be honest at €150 for the bike I guess I can't really expect much but I made sure to avoid the place again when getting my next bike.

Neilw

It's all down to the bike not being assembled correctly by the shop.
Bikes are delivered in boxes with all the parts fitted but are not adjusted properly.
I worked in a bike shop, one of the biggest in Dublin for over 5 years and it took about an hour to assemble a bike correctly from a box, if this is not done you will get the problems mentioned above.

Cables need to be stretched on brakes and gears, pedals and crank tightened wheels trued and spokes tensioned if needed, if all this is done in the beginning you shouldn't need anything more then minor adjustment after a month or so.

gar_29

just to be fair to them...

i bought one from halfords in blanchardstown too, in january, i think it was 129 euro.

i use it 3/4 times a week, going to the gym (maybe a mile each way) occasionally into town, (couple of miles each way), plus the odd hour-long cycle, through a park, lots of hills, bit of off-road.

everything is grand with it, i did need to tighten the brakes after about 2 months, but i considered that to be normal "breaking-in". it's easy to do with a normal tool-kit. now i just tighten them every month or so, 5 minutes and you're done. you'd need to do that even if the bike cost a grand!

i think that they did tell me to bring it in after a month to do it for me, but sure it's easy.

as for gears slipping, that sounds a lot more serious, they should fix it and it should stay fixed!

to be honest, at 129 euro, what can you expect?

Attol

It cost me 220 euros, which to me is a fair bit of money. A week after bringing it to get tweaked it's all over the place again. The brakes are ****ed, the gears aren't working properly and the bike clicks and the chain slips a lot. This started to happen on the way home from the shop the day I went in the last time. It's really getting on my nerves as I don't have a car, I don't have enough money to write this bike off already and it seems like I'll have to waste a lot of my spare time going to get it sorted at this rate. On top of that I'm a little worried about the prospect of getting run over or something.

gar_29

Attol wrote: »

It cost me 220 euros, which to me is a fair bit of money. A week after bringing it to get tweaked it's all over the place again. The brakes are ****ed, the gears aren't working properly and the bike clicks and the chain slips a lot. This started to happen on the way home from the shop the day I went in the last time. It's really getting on my nerves as I don't have a car, I don't have enough money to write this bike off already and it seems like I'll have to waste a lot of my spare time going to get it sorted at this rate. On top of that I'm a little worried about the prospect of getting run over or something.

absolutely. sounds like it's knackered. i just wanted to make the point that not all their bikes are crap.

the brakes you should just fix yourself, i'd reckon it's part and parcel of owning a bike. the chain and the gears sound like they were never set up properly, so it's up to the shop to replace, repair or refund as they decide. telling you to get stuffed really isn't good enough.

seamus

Overall, bikes are quite simple machines, and the fact that they're still completely mechanical means that flaws or problems are very easy to spot and rectify. Unlike, say an iPod, if it starts doing weird things, you can track down and fix the problem yourself without invalidating any warranties.

Almost all of the time, if a bike is giving trouble it's because it hasn't been correctly set up or because a part has been damaged by a fall or something else.

In your case it simply sounds like the bike hasn't been tuned correctly. Good bike maintenance is something which comes with experience, which unfortunately a lot of halford's staff don't have.

Brakes and gears rely on cables, and as others have mentioned, these cables will stretch with use. Most bike shops recommend tweaking after 4-6 weeks, and most will offer this service. Of course, they also rely on nuts and bolts being adequately tightening, and if this isn't the case, you will notice a gradual deterioration.
If Halford's have made the mistake of replacing the cables every time you go in to complain, then the problem won't go away.

If you're using the bike daily for commuting, then I would also recommend examining the bike once a week to ensure that it's adequately oiled and adjusted so you can catch any problems early. This takes 10-15 minutes to do and can save you major headaches. There is no way that anything would need replacing once a week or that brake pads would need replacing after less than 500km. My current brake pads have been going for 5000km and I reckon I'll get at least 2000 more out of them.

By far, the course of action that will cost you least in terms of time and money is to try fix it yourself.

jimmycrackcorm

The cycling forum is probably the best place for this thread. I too had some frustration with buying a bike from halfords and finding problems with my gears from the start but it was pointed out to me that with a new bike cables will stretch and brakes loosen etc and I found that the best policy is to learn to make adjustments yourself. The couple of times I left Halfords after the bike was in, the gearing was working when I tested it outside but later the same day it was off. I spent some time adjusting it and now it is fine (touch wood). Same with brakes, the front one loosened but I was able to adjust it myself.

sickpuppy32

a lot of what wrong with halfords bikes is the way they put them together at the last moment. I bought a bike there and they said to come back ina couple of days and they'd have it put together. When i collected it they put the hard sell on me to buy a "care "package off them for servicing. A few days later the bike felt and sounded funny and i got a friend of mine to look at it. He couldn't believe the shoddy job that had been done on it. I vbrought it to a place in maynooth and they actually took pictures of it. They did a great job repairing it and now have my complete customer loyalty. i suspect the young assistents in halfords get a very basic course in how to repair and put together bikes and are then left to their obviously unsupervised devices.

Attol

Is it normal for break pads to need to be replaced after 2 months?

penexpers

Attol wrote: »

Is it normal for break pads to need to be replaced after 2 months?

Depends on the amount of usage. In your case, it's light usage so I would expect brake pads to last alot longer than two months.