Halfords

The worst place ever for mechanics. AVOID. They say you have free MOT with a membership and when you go there, they try create problems and silly things in your car and will charge you a fortune with stupid bills, so you end up paying so much more than if you didn't have a membership or went to a different mechanic, the store staff are ok, but The garage staff is really rude and without experience and they look as if they hate their own jobs for some reason. Go to any other mechanics other than Halfords
Halfords autocentre Saughall Road Chester, CH1 5EY

I haven't had such a terrible experience in years. I had an issue with online order, they made me go to the physical store, where they were useless, ruined my day. On top of it when I wanted to submit a complaint they sent me some generic message with apologies which had nothing to do with what I complained about. I am glad I never made a purchase and never gave my hard-earned money to these unprofessional useless people.

Awful service. Charged my student daughter, hundreds of pounds more for parts that literally cost £120-150. They charged her much more than that, even with the hourly rate on top, which for something that would have took them literally 1 hour.

It's a VW not a lambo! They certainly preyed on the nativity of a young woman……

She will never take it there again……..

Whilst fitting a shock absorber the Halfords garage broke my windscreen. They are offering to replace it with a generic rather than branded windscreen. Almost two weeks later and I can't get to speak with anyone senior to authorise a branded replacement, just keep getting stalled whilst the senior managers hide behind the unfortunate call centre staff.
Looks like we may be off to the County Court!

I booked and paid for an MOT test months in advance. When I turned up for the test they told me they didn't have an MOT tester at that garage and hadn't had one for weeks. Left me with 24 hours to find another garage before my MOT expired. Customer service were full of bull and couldn't have cared less. Don't use these Shylock's.

Their website, however, I have a common car and they never have the right things in stock, I've had to start taking my car to the local garage even to get stuff like windscreen wipers changed, bulbs changed etc, as Halfords website literally never have the right stuff in stock for Toyotas, my own toyota is a very common type round here and even the local branch of Halfords never have the right things in.

I bought this ebike arfter loosing my driving license du to a heart condition which the shop was aware of. It broke down multiple times I took the bike back and they just left in in the shop for 3 weeks to make it look like they was fixing it but they wasn't I rang them and they just gave me the run around in the end I had no choice but to give up du to ill health this problem was causing me the manager Wayne did not help either. Please don't waste your time and money with this company its just not worth it

I ordered the car parts from Halfords,they said I can get my items in two days,but now past 15 days,I still waiting it,I try to contact with them,but no response,that is very bad experience.the order number is *******948

Partial delivery only and missing part now overdue by 7 days despite contacting customer service who don't appear to want to resolve or can't resolve the issue.
What is the point of being a member/ customer of your motoring club.
Halfords you need to take customer service seriously and from where I stand you don't.

Do not repeat do not get a electric bike from here! The bike care is rubbish even though you pay £100 for the care you can't have because they are fully booked for 10 days! Got a vegeance e bike 2.0 battery the bike care doesn't cover it also be careful if you buy one mine was a refurbished one! Fact of the matter is if your using the bike once a month your fine everyday use it's rubbish value for money! Ben Rice

I have experienced pathetic customer service at the Cambridge Halfords store. Not ones but thrice my experience has been awful. To begin with I had to wait 4 hours to buy my kids bikes. I had taken bronze service package and when I got the bikes for servicing I needed to wait for 2 more hours despite of the team members roaming around inside the store. There is only 1 person upstairs attending customers and also repairing bikes. The other staffs on the floor just doesn't help. Will never buy another bike from there.

Halfords know I am autistic and have mental health struggles on top due to trauma, hence the reason a bicycle was so critical to my well being. However for more than one year they have left my complaints unresolved and it is still dragging on to this day. I first complained officially on 21 June 2022, it is now 25 September 2023 and still not resolved.

I purchased a bicycle from them and the moment I got it there was a weird clicking noise. I then kept having problems but their mechanical staff further messed it up with botched repairs 3 more times.

The manager of my now closed local store Dagenham Merrilands was terrible and declined to put it right, in which I asked for a refund. I was then fobbed off repeatedly by their complaints team that a regional manager would be in touch.

This went on all last year into this year. I had to scrap that bike in the end as it was unusable, I had to plod along for months upon months with that faulty bike. I have been robbed of money and use of bike and have no bike now.

To do this to a healthy customer is bad enough but to do it to an autistic person with health problems who cannot drive and relied on a bike for mental relief is truly cruel. What the hell is wrong with this company? I offered proof of everything including my disability, health problems and trauma events.

I have called customer services, tried online chat, sent numerous emails but still nothing. The customer services team pass internally to complaints but even they apparently cannot contact them direct other than internal message. The complaints team then fob off that regional manager will contact me, heard it more than a dozen times.

Disgusting company, you know who I am so do not bother with standard response to this that you are disappointed with my experience and to contact customer services as I have done this repeatedly. It is an unaccountable loop that openly robs and discriminates against disabled and vulnerable people. Maybe they think we cannot fight back that is why they try their luck? I gave them a chance for a long time to put this right before this review, should have done it last year. Crooks.

Case reference *******
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UPDATE 1: Ffion on Halfords Head Office review I left on Google claims I had contact 'last few days'. I did my upteenth call a week ago, was told I would get a call back 'within 24 hours'. Never happened. After few days I tried online chat, apparently they could do nothing. So I called customer services yet again, heard same crap I have for well over a year. Then get email, I respond, nothing since. Then we get Ffion wheeled out on reviews page to save face and appear concerned and that things are in motion. Ffion as a face of this robbing, disability discriminating company, why are you not in direct contact with the most senior people?

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UPDATE 2: I have been offered a £30 voucher for a loss of hundreds of pounds, complaining since June 2022 and for contempt and dismissal of me as a disabled person! What planet are this company on? Utter disgrace. This needs to be put right or next stage will be 24 hour a day protest outside their UK head office and broadcast across all social media platforms. This is not just about me now but how they are clearly robbing and treating disabled people. I will have to become a voice for their disabled victims. Hopefully they will not under estimate me as I defeated a major public authority for the same. Up to you Halfords…..

Good service, but very slowly delivered. A number of misunderstandings and not really good management. I hope they will improve the way they schedule their work.

Booked a mobile battery fitting for my car. Paid £120. Technician did not show. Phoned Halfords to be told no job order on their system, yet I have an email for proof of order. Then told it was a system malfunction and I need to phone the bank to challenge the payment as they could not see that on their system either. The payment is is on statement! They wasted 3 hours of my time and no refund as of yet! Will NEVER use again

While in for new tyres and wheel alignment (NTS Stirling) noticed two staff driving my car around town.and only one returned. When questioned told that it was for mandatory test drive! Later, having got no documentation re wheel alignment and no evidence of tool marks on track rods I had suspicion that wheel alignment had not been done at all. My complaint to Halfords was completely ignored and after two propts they told me case was closed - Manager had apologied for MY confusion! My only confusion was that I did NOT receive any apology or explanation from Halfords at all. Needless to say I will not be back - thankfully there is a lot of competitors out there. Appalling service

Unreliable at best. Ordered wiperblades, available in store for Click and Collect. Add a couple of odds and ends to the order, and pay. Got confirmation message, waited 45 mins. Checked order status, 3 items ready for collection, but, the wiperlades, we'll have those in 6 days time. Tried to cancel via website "unable to collect within timeframe". Can't cancel. Phoned the Customer service. They phoned the store, no answer. Cancelled the whole order. Another two hours of my life I won't get back.

They sold me a bike that was not properly assembled. When the handle bar came out only after 5 rides and I complained, they did not resolve the problem and refused to admit any liability or fault. No apology. In the end, they will not care.

Tried ordering on-line. Awful website, banners, flashing bits, trying to increase order values. Supposedly offers a PayPal to pay but no option on checkout. Demands car reg number even for wiper blades. Then simple items like two normal wiper blades and an oil filter removal tool will take a week to be available in store.

Foreign call centre. Phone number tries to field calls to chat on website.

Rubbish, frustrating and awful experience. I spent my money elsewhere

Bought a tyre repair kit in the store to find a vital part missing when I got it home. Tried to leave a negative review on their site but was rejected despite my being, factual, constructive and polite.

So I ordered a pair of safety boots online waited way over the due date, wasted hours on the phone talking to incompetent advisers who just pass you around, with no exact resolution to the issue, I called 12 times in the space of three days just to be told my order wasn't even picked, then got told I couldn't cancel the order over the phone by one advisor. Then I rang back and the other adviser let me cancel it's just a complete shambles of a company! They promise emails will be sent to you only to get no response or help at all! I'll never be using this $#*! show of a business again that's for sure!

Sold a product over the phone after spending 45 mins chatting to an advisor. Booked car in, when arrived after calling to check that I was booked in I was told they could not do the work. I was also told that I needed something else as part of the package which was not mentioned on the call, this was three times the price what I already paid.

The manager was unsympathetic, he could see I was distressed after wasting so much time and with a toddler in toe!

Called again to complain and asked that this be looked at asap, advisor seemed to listen but had no call back and it's now been 4 weeks.

Shocking business, disjointed call centre, on premise staff have a lack of customer service skills and unable to deal with complaints.

Ordered a turbo trainer online during the January sales. Waited two weeks for the trainer to arrive so I could collect it. On the day of arrival I was called and told they couldn't honour the price they had put up on the site. I can't comment about the store itself but I would not buy anything online from them again

DO NOT JOIN HALFORDS MOTORING CLUB!

IT IS UNCANCELLABLE! It auto renews and charges monthly / annually and only allow you a small window of a matter of weeks to cancel your subscription for the whole year!

When I challenged the call centre agent the first thing they said was "it was stated in the TnCs which you had to tick to say you've agreed to" various court rulings on this type of sneaky term enforcement, look up some case law: inconsistent terms and conditions - wherever TnCs are non standard (I.e giving ridiculous windows to cancel annual subscriptions) courts will rule any non standard conditions DO NOT APPLY!
INFURIATES me when companies try to manipulate customers like this. They are fully aware a huge majority will want to cancel so make it unnecessarily difficult in the hope you'll forget and they'll bill you forever.

Wasted 45 minutes of my life trying to cancel and it's still active.

Go elsewhere people, I had an eye opening experience on my most recent visit to auto centre - charging dealer prices but giving gypsy garage service.

Absolute swindlers!