I've been meaning to visit Timpson for a few days now, and finally was able to visit today - My first problem was with the store's opening hours as I find it closes far too early, 5 pm on weekends which is often the busiest time of the week for the Manchester Arndale is slightly disappointing, so I was pleased to call in at the start of the week. During the week it is open until 6 pm which I feel is a much nicer time and it would be good if it opened at least on a Saturday at this time too, with of course the UK government restricting Sunday Trading for all stores.
This branch of Timpson is one of the main and larger stores out of the four stores they have in Manchester, in comparison to the "box store" on Deansgate, this store has more facilities including a working printer to take photo ID for passports etc as well as other tools. The store is located near one of the entrances to Manchester Arndale, between Subway and cool American candy and beverage retailer, Over The Rainbow.
I called in here to get some keys cuts with an ongoing promotion where if you get one key cut for £6 you can add another one-half price, meaning it would be 2 for £9, an average of £4.50 isn't bad at all especially for a convenient city centre location, even though other retailers such as Homebase do offer the service slightly cheaper at £3.95 each or 3 for just under £10.
The key I was given worked first time (they offer a very high guarantee which as I recall is 99%), it was a nice looking Timpson branded key too, and despite the store being quite busy, it was done quickly while I waited, so quick infact I wasn't able to get my Timpson vouchers out of my bag quick enough, which were kindly sent by head office after a bad experience at their Deansgate store (Once again i can confirm this wasn't in relation to writing a review of any sort)
The staff around the store seemed really friendly and told me this was the main branch in Manchester if I needed anything, which is useful to know.
It would have been nicer to see a better selection of keyrings than just coloured fobs to put them on, although the fobs were priced really cheap at three for a pound.
Overall, a quick and good key cutting service at a competitive price, of course, they do other things as well with great service so a three-star rating is definitely warranted, with the main flaws of this store being
- Poor selection of key-rings
- Opening Hours
- There isn't a huge amount of pricing on show and you often have to ask, which I don't really like. read more