skinnylew
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 5,617
Club RR Member Number: 11
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Nov 14, 2010 20:54:20 GMT
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There's very little money left for a big retailer in car parts and spares. With modern cars so home mechanic unfriendly, less and less people are purchasing filters, plugs, leads etc. Also the sheer amount of drivers who are completely clueless when it comes to their cars is shocking. Fitting wiper blades is not exactly rocket science. Yes some cars are slightly awkward but this is now one of Halfords best growth area, fitting. When i got out 5-6 years back they were still on the old computer system and where just building Ripspeed and Bike Hut stores. Staffing levels were good and knowledgeable. When i go in now i have to wait an age to get served and thats just to pay. I daren't ask them anything technical!! Quicker to use the reference charts than to ask! I've noticed recentley staff changes and less of them and less well trained as well. Glad i got out when i did!!
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Nov 14, 2010 20:56:46 GMT
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I had a similar thing with my mk2 golf but not halfords it was another one of the local small indipendant motor factors. I needed a new fuel pump for my 1990 1.3 mk2 golf so gave the reg number and they came back with a price of £200 odd quid before vat like erm "you are sure this if for a mk2 gold" i asked and they said yes they confirmed. "I told them that I am able to purchase a mechanical fuel filder for £25 for an american V8 engine in this country and that they want to charge me 200 sobs for this apparent mechanical pump!
needless to say went else where to another place had one on the shelf and cost me £15 now thats more like it don't you just love computer systems.
also had issues with camberly motorfactors in the past who at the itme listed they have 3000 parts in stcok just never the part you need and never know when they are going to get what you need etc
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skinnylew
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 5,617
Club RR Member Number: 11
Member is Online
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Nov 14, 2010 23:49:54 GMT
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I did once look up a set of brake pads for a Honda NSX on the Halfords computer, quite possibly the most expensive set in the world i think they were heading upwards of £400 or something ridiculous like that!!
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rob0r
East of England
Posts: 2,743
Club RR Member Number: 104
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^^ I think the tools used to be decent - I have an old halfords proffesional 3/8 socket set, and its great, but I went in the other week for thier special offer on the set that include just about everything, thought it was a steal for £75 quid instead of something like £180. Got home, most of the sockets don't fit, and one of the ratchet's release mech doesnt work. Then, I went to pick it up, and the cheap clamp things that hold it shut fell off, and in turn all of the tools went all over the garage floor . I bought the same set, it was a fantastic buy! I think I had one tight fitting socket but thats it. I used to be a bike mechanic at Halfords whilst an A Level student and inbetween university terms. That's all!
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E30 320i 3.5 - E23 730 - E3 3.0si - E21 316 M42 - E32 750i ETC
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I work for Halfords. About a year ago Halfords changed its company structure. The initiative was called enable. It basically shafted all the good staff that knew What they were on about and made them redundant. In their place they hired retards as cheap as possible. The whole company structure and attitude has gone to poop. I work with someone who after 2 months of working there can't use the till on his own. I'm currently looking for other work but keep in mind, there are a few of us left that will hunt through boxes to find the right fuel filter or hunt through boxes to match up a set of leads for a mk1 escort with a Burton tune lump in it etc. Were not all bad! I had to train the new Bikehut staff for a new store that was opening on Dissolve, and the two lads were good but this one girl, not interested in learning how to work the system or how to build a bike. After a few days of banging my head against a wall (i.e. trying to train her) and her being totally blank and spending half the day texting, I confiscated her mobile, and told her new manager she wasn't fit for the job. "So?" Meanwhile she loosely screwed together a bike and handed it to a customer with no paperwork or checks. Lucky I caught it or the child would have been badly hurt. We're talking wheels not tight and brakes not touched - properly bad. Anyway that's just an insight into how much the management care about staff quality at the minute (well 18 months ago anyway lol)
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IMO, yes, they have useful stuff - air, oil and fuel filters, drive belts, hose and clips - all easily available, even on a Sunday. The ability to browse the boxes of filters gave me a starting point when choosing an alternative air filter to use on my Imp, and if you know what to look for cetain things are quite easy to get.
Whether they actually sell any of it, I don't know - they don't seem to be making a big effort to supply the likes of us. I realise that 'we' - as old or modified car enthusiasts - are in a minority, but we probably make up the majority of people that actually work on their cars and need to buy spares.
However, looking at the floor space of the branch that I went into on Saturday, spares are a very small percentage of their sales - most seems to be bicycles, stereos ICE, Ripspeed Alloys, and bulbs / oil / wiper blades for people that would pay for the fitting service.
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Been a few years since I visited a Halfords, the one in Weston S Mare was one of the first to succumb to the Ripspeed-isms in the area. All good and well, do what you have to do to keep in business but you'll never keep everyone happy.
Being a larger store they did tend to keep a fair few odds and ends in, usually in dog-eared packaging, covered in a thick layer of dust. Like people said though, better go in knowing someone who'll let you wander down the back aisle behind the paint mixing machine to find what you need.
Shame really as over here we have several outlet-style places, one or two more commercial than the others, Napa being the most motorfactor-ish, and AutoZone being most like Halfords, selling the most chrome trinkets. The staff at AZ tend to be fairly useless, but I went into O'Reilly asking for an idle air control motor for my GTA. It was looked up in the computer system, that failed, a large tome was pulled up from under the desk and leafed through, a Chrysler cross-reference was found, sought from the shelf and produced, there and then.
That's how I remember Halfords being.
Somehow down here the home enthusiast has still managed to overcome commercialisms- there's a lot of poeple who love to modify their vehicles here, and still quite a lot of people who fix their own cars. That being said, their bulb/wiper fitting service gets quite a lot of attention too...
--Phil
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andyf
South West
Posts: 415
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I think people are making the mistake in assuming Halfords are a motor factors as they were a decade or so ago. They are not, they have moved their position in the market to car (and bike) accessory shop.
Probably because it is cheaper to stock universal(ish) ripspeed stuff than a large number of parts for a large number of vehicles -I bet it saves them a fortune in stock holding, and it also means most staff do not have to be trained to the same levels (cheaper wages). As skinnylew already said, home mechanics are dying out anyway with modern cars being so complicated, so you can understand why they have changed.
Yes they still have their place, but don`t expect them to be a motor factors.
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1980 Triumph TR7.
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Nov 15, 2010 10:49:53 GMT
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I used (probably still have !) a trade account with a motoring warehouse at Trafford Park, Manchester. It used to be called Regor but was taken over by Macess. Previously they were at Old Trafford behind the football ground. When I first started going there you could get virtually everything you needed to repair and maintain a car. Over the years I saw this change to just tacky accessories and found local motor factors worked out better for brakes, clutches etc. I think it's just the way the motor accessory trade has changed and Halfords are just "following the trend".
Paul H
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RobinJI
Posted a lot
"Driven by the irony that only being shackled to the road could ever I be free"
Posts: 2,995
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Nov 15, 2010 12:36:56 GMT
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I've worked on bike-hut in the Taunton store for about 3 years now.
When I first started the staff for bike-hut would have consisted of 2 full timers, and around 4 or 5 part timers. The full timers would be in 4 weekdays, and every other weekend. The part timers would do 2 or 3 evenings a week, as well as a full sat/sunday. This meant that most of the staff knew what was happening with customers orders, and they all spent enough time there to get pretty familiar with the current offers/floor layout, as well as the products. I think I was on one of the shorter contracts doing about 17 hours a week. With the exception of one full timer, who was very good at managing/paperwork, we were also all keen cyclists, and most of us part timers were either 2nd year engineering or automotive students. Most local cyclists actually defended us and we were fairly well thought of.
Now the staff is one full timer, who also has to manage downstairs a lot of the time, and spends about 70% of his time covering parts/ripspeed/touring, and has no interest in bikes, and 1 out of 4 weekends he wont be in, (and there wont be any cover to make up for it). 1 part timer doing about 25 hours worth of silly short scattered shifts, and 7 part timers, each doing 7 or 8 hour contracts. As a result no-one knows whats happening with orders, as the staffs not even the same from the morning to the evening, no one's sure what's happening with promotions or offers, and most of the part time staff are 16 year olds strait out of school, who might if you're lucky have a slight interest in bikes. As a result most of the local cyclists wont touch us with a curse word stick.
I now work out the back as a mechanic doing 2 full days a week, so I'm not too involved in it all any more, but even then I regularly get dragged out to cover someone's lunch, or a holiday that hasn't been covered at all, meaning that my time-tabled workload ends up behind, and while I'm on the shop floor, unless I get asked about a repair I'm doing, I don't have a clue what's happening with offers/orders/new products, which makes me serving customers take about twice as long while I chase down someone who will know.
It's a similar story with other departments. So I think it's plain to see where the issue is: Short sighted, immediate-profit obsessed management who don't care about their staffs skill level or loyalty. (Would you be loyal to a company if you're only being given 7 hours a week at £4.30 an hour?)
Obviously this is only my opinion, and I don't think Halfords are a bad shop at all, I still use them, as they're open useful hours, and stock stuff that needs ordering in from a lot of other motor-factors, and if you're lucky enough to get to speak to a decent member of staff (We do exist) then you could be pleasantly surprised. We've even got one guy working for us on parts who's been rallying since the 60's, and could re-build a car in his sleep, as well as a guy on ripspeed who hill-climbs a 170bhp naturally aspirated, 16 valve a-series mini.
The main thing's just to be nice to the staff, even the best staff member in the worlds not going to help you out if you go in there barking orders at him/her and making comments about their lack of knowledge. Just remember that whatever it is, it's probably not their fault, they're just a shop floor worker in a chain store, we don't get to make decisions. If you're nice to us, even if we can't answer your question or supply what you're after, we can probably point you in the right direction of someone/somewhere who can.
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Nov 15, 2010 12:44:30 GMT
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Which end of Essex are you at? The one at Gallows Corner in Romford's not been too bad although i don't use it that much, i did have to rescue an attempt to fit a stereo in my ex's mk1 Escort a while back though, just lucky i was passing and spotted her far in there with the bonnet up or the lad would have stayed well confused.
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Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
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Nov 15, 2010 13:46:36 GMT
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For the most part, I think you guys are right. I once ran the parts dept in a Halfords, and most of the staff I had working for me, although very nice were often no help at all. One of the main problems was that they mostly had zero knowledge of cars, and/or interest in them, and the job description in their eyes was for strictly retail enviroment staff. They just weren't offered the proper training, and as a result knew only what 'computer says'. I was promoted from being a bikehut lackey to head of the parts dept purely for my interest in cars, not for any written mechanical or managerial qualifications. I didn't even have a driving license then! Often their stock database computers were massively flawed, partly because of shoplifters stealing stock, and mostly for the generic information it was programmed with. Classic cars of a certain vintage would not be programmed into the system purely because of their exclusivity. I rarely used them when dealing with a customer, opting to just open boxes, visually match or order a part on the phone (which we'd recieve usually next day).
Having been a customer in several branches since I left, I've found that there have been different attitudes of parts dept staff when I have been served. The guy who has a good automotive knowledge, the guy who thinks he has a good automotive knowledge (ie better than you) and the guy who neither knows, nor cares but will still try to help as it is his job. The till tarts are another level though!
I left partly because of the lack of support I got from management, partly having to constantly babysit my team to make sure they got it right, but also because I got offered a better job closer to home for more money. With no loyalties to a place which did me no favours, I simply sold out for something better.
But!- Its a matter of trying your luck, there is still people who work there who can help you out thoroughly, and although they may sell a lot of money generating mass market curse word, there is some good deals to be found. And sometimes a Halfords part number is of use, as they can just tell you whether the item is in stock. If there's more than one listed, there's a good chance it will be in there!
Of course, it was several years ago that I left, but it sounds like little has changed! I still buy things there every now and then, but I choose not to enlist the help of staff and just find it myself, that way, i've only myself to blame for getting it wrong.
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Nov 15, 2010 14:43:01 GMT
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halfords are REALLY GOOD ... if you already know they stock the thing you want ... lol they are really handy for me bacuase its a 5 min walk away they are open till 8 and they are open on sundays ...
getting parts there is largely pointless because it takes them about a week to get in anything they don't have in stock but for tools its brilliant especially with a trade card ... i also love the lifetime garuntee
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RobinJI
Posted a lot
"Driven by the irony that only being shackled to the road could ever I be free"
Posts: 2,995
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Nov 15, 2010 19:39:48 GMT
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halfords are REALLY GOOD ... if you already know they stock the thing you want ... lol they are really handy for me bacuase its a 5 min walk away they are open till 8 and they are open on sundays ... getting parts there is largely pointless because it takes them about a week to get in anything they don't have in stock but for tools its brilliant especially with a trade card ... I also love the lifetime garuntee In our store most parts are ordered from Mill Auto, so they should get there next day/same day if ordered early. If they're taking a week, either they're ordering from the wrong supplier or they need to pull their fingers out.
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Nov 15, 2010 19:43:40 GMT
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andyf, I appreciate that the way in which Halfords does business has changed, as has the way that the motor trade (especially motor factors and accessory shops etc. have changed as well) but the point I'd pick up is that they don't have much “universal” stuff. Their shelves are stuffed with model specific parts and that’s the bother. See back in the day one part fitted a lot of different cars. Lucas 5712 sealed beam headlight was probably the most common one out there, fitting Vauxhalls, Triumphs, Saabs, Rovers, and goodness knows what else. Halfords had a pile of them. Now they are a specialist item only. Same with tail light bulbs, indicator bulbs, etc. Now every make and model has a different headlight, a different bulb set for it, even the days of “its a standard H4 bulb” seem to be passing us by. Even the “proper” parts & accessory shops can't keep that level of complex stock in. Its why you don't find so much off the shelf, special order or “main dealer only” parts. Halfords has changed a lot. Back only a couple of years ago I'd go there and the car park would be about half empty, there would be some lads with modified hatchbacks or scooters hanging about, and there would be a fair number of mainly blokes in the store. Now I go and the car park is full (Tesco@home has opened on the same retail park), there's no yoofs hanging about, the store is fairly empty and those people who are in there seem to be families and couples (choosing stickers together, no really) so their market has changed, they are changing with it and they have to go where the money is. But they are open on a Sunday.
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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Nov 15, 2010 19:49:46 GMT
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I think we've just about covered all the Halfords stuff now.
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