Went to Halfords in farnborough today to buy my young son his first bike. I went and had a look at the toddler bikes, with one in mind and waited for a member of staff to come and see me. There was only one young lad working on the shop floor, he was dealing with another customer, which was fine. But there was only one other member of staff around, in a huge department. This later appeared to be the manager. He seemed busy at the cycle repairs area, but didn't approach me until much after I had already been seen. I waited around 20 minutes just to speak to someone and order the bike. The guy who served me was fairly miserable and to be honest I was reluctant to part with the £65 it was costing for the bike and helmet, but as I had promised my son I had little choice in the matter.
I opted for it to be built in store and was told it would be 45 minutes to an hour, this was after first telling me it would be less and having a small chat about the situation with his colleague. I left and returned in an hour. bike still sat there in its box. I was told it would be another 15 minutes because they had been busy. One word. Unbelievable. I walked out and waited outside, my son getting extremely inpatient, small children don't understand the concept of just 15 minutes!! I spoke to the manager who asked if there was anything he could do, fair enough, he got the bike sorted and whacked a bell on it for free. There was another woman at the door, pregnant with a small child, walked out because she had been ignored 3 times!
Do not bother!! I will not be returning. Customer service at its absolute worst. I'm a manager in retail and wouldn't dream of being so insolent towards a customer, general bad attitudes, the manager needs to up his game and ditch the poor staff, he seemed like a sound bloke but maybe a bit too laid back! read more