Halfords bike problem

[BankFodder]

For your benefit and for anybody else who comes here – you have been with this form since 2012 and so you would have helped yourself a lot if you had reacted more quickly and come here immediately as soon as you found that parts were missing.
Big Fail!

The also, for the benefit of anybody else I don't understand why on a pretty well brand-new bike – almost new, you were prepared to put your hands in the pocket for £125 when it had already cost you £275.

You say that you found out that another bike – the same model had similar problems that the derailleur hanger snapped on that as well. Do you have any evidence of that? Are you able to find out who that bike belongs to? Who told you this?

Derailleur hanger is do snap but it takes a lot of force to do it. Very strange that the chain snapped as well.

I have to say that if the hangar broke three times and also the chain snapped that it certainly sounds as if a lot of force had been put on it. How old is your son and how heavy is he?

When you say that the "frame back bit" broke, what you mean? Do you have photographs?

Also I don't understand the on a relatively new bike that clearly isn't doing a lot of mileage – it is simply being useful playing with, that it needs new tyres. This is very strange. Did you hang onto the old tyres?

 

The situation is that you are dealing with Halfords who quite frankly are pretty well the cycling equivalent of Currys PC world in that they will sell you things but when they go wrong, they are very reluctant to honour your consumer rights and to give you the customer service you deserve for your money.

This means that if you start raising complaints to them, you're likely to find them very reluctant and very hard work. It's quite likely that you will have to consider litigating against them which will be relatively straightforward but the problem is proving that the bike was not of satisfactory quality rather than it had been abused by your son.

I'm reluctant to start encouraging you to begin formal claims here at the moment because I can foresee that it would be a frustrating experience and that your chances of success might not be very good.

I don't want to put you to any further expense.

Please can you tell us more about the bike, the other bike, your son, his weight et cetera.
 

[BankFodder]

Thank you.

As I said it is going to be very difficult. I'm sure that your sons were right that the tyres didn't need replacing and it's a pity that you didn't keep the old ones because we could have had a look ourselves in photographs.

This is typical of the kind of thing you get from Currys PCWorld – and Halfords – that they don't tell you about your statutory rights – simply about guarantees.
It is your statutory rights – in this case under the Consumer Rights Act which counts and your consumer rights are that you are entitled to buy an item which is of satisfactory quality and remains that way for a reasonable period of time. I would have expected a bike for a 12 year old to last a few years but of course if it has been abused then your statutory rights wouldn't apply – and any guarantee wouldn't apply either.

If there is a guarantee then the guarantee would only last for a few months or maybe a year. It's rubbish and it simply bonbons which are fed to customers to make them think that they are getting something special and also to divert their attention from the fact that they have excellent statutory consumer rights.

I'm not quite sure what to advise you here. If you had reacted immediately at the missing parts and also the first breakage then you would have stood a good chance. You would have been within the statutory time limit of 30 days and then the fall back limit of six months so that you could have rejected the bike as being unsatisfactory. Now you have lost those advantages and you have to prove your case.

You got repeated failures of the same spare part – the derailleur hangers and also the snapped chain which I'm afraid does point to some very heavy use. A snapping chain is very unusual and together with broken derailleur hangers, I think you will find yourself in a very difficult fight which you may not win and although we would be pleased to help you bring a court claim, I think it would be difficult and your chances of success might only be marginally better than 50%.
You haven't said whether you have evidence that the tyres need replacing – but I suspect that you don't have them and they were kept back by Halfords. Even if you'd had that and we could have demonstrated that the replacement tyres were unnecessary, this would have put you in a very good position because I think Halfords would have been embarrassed and wouldn't have wanted it to go to court.

I'm very sorry but it seems to me that any advantages you had have been given away by delay and failure to keep evidence.

Are Halfords using their own derailleur hangers? Or do they come from the manufacturer of the bike? If they are Halfords own ones then maybe they are not of a sufficient standard – but even that is difficult to prove.
 

[BankFodder]

You can keep on saying that it is the derailleur and I've assume that it is the hanger because that is the part which would normally break.

Are you saying that the actual rear derailleur – the "rear mech" broke on several occasions?

That would be far more unusual but once again it would point even more to abusive treatment.

We can help you push this forward if you want but I think that you are taking a risk. I don't see any kind of winning argument here. I think you're going to get locked up in the dispute which is going to be time-consuming and if you take it to the courts it will cost you a small amount of court fees with a very serious risk that you won't get it back and that you will be in a worse position then you are now.

I don't really know what to suggest. I'm sorry

[BankFodder]

I'm sorry. It's not often that I come up with such a negative view of the circumstances that I feel that if I encourage you to make a claim here then it would be putting you in harms way.

You could certainly complain in writing to Halfords – and you might get a goodwill gesture – but nothing else.

 

But you are right. There is never any harm in exploring the possibilities