Halfords - where do I stand

We bought a bicycle for our 5yr old son at the end of August. The bicycle was bought off display at 7.35pm in the evening (late night shopping). The bicycle had a few scratches on it and we were allowed a slight discount for that. The sales person took money, husband's name and address. The salesman was left with the bicycle for a half an hour and husband went back to collect it. 7 wks later the bicycle crank is broken. Halfords took a look at the bicycle and said it had been dropped from a height and generally from looking at the paint work that it had been treated badly. Our son has trouble lifting the bicycle off the ground never mind lifting it up to drop from a height. When I went in to see one of the Deputy Managers last night I was told that company policy is that a bicycle would not be sold off display, normal policy is that a new one is put together and given their mot before leaving the shop. A display model might not have been put together to the standard they require for a bicycle to leave their shop. The salesman never said any of this to my husband. We had an independent repair man look at the bicycle and he said that it happened because the bicycle was not put together properly/manufacturing fault, a child could not have caused the damage. Our repair man used to work in Halfords and knows their company policy. We feel that the bicycle should be repaired free of charge with no charge for the faulty part. Where do we stand, are they entitled to charge for the part even if they don't charge for labour? Do we still have rights since we bought the bicycle off display?

You are entitled to repair , replacement or money back.

Demand that the shop give you one of these.

They will repair it but we have to pay for the part, my husband disagrees because he feels it is either their fault for not putting it together properly or because it was a faulty part. Should we pay or not?

You are entitled to a free repair.

Halfords

What about a free part which they have to order in from the UK - the repair (i.e. labour) will be free.

Stand your ground I'd say..
S.

ninkynonk1 said:

What about a free part which they have to order in from the UK - the repair (i.e. labour) will be free.

Click to expand...

Free repair, parts & labour, even if the parts have to come from the moon.

The Sale of Goods & Supply of Services Act 1980, further information [broken link removed]

Halfords will pretend that they don't know what the Sale of Goods & Supply of Services Act 1980 is. At least that's what they did when I made a complaint to them a few months back. Of course they are legally bound to comply with their obligations under this Act.

I agree, the OP should stand their ground.

Go to the small claims court. don't waste your time with halfords. get a report from the independent repair man.

had a consumer issue myself and after couple of attempts at trying to get problem sorted (phonecalls, emails) I set a deadline with which to apply to small claims court (i never contacted them again for 10 days) and on morning of deadline, company agreed to sort my issues.

Id write to them (sample letter on consumerconnect.ie ) and wait for them to reply. I was told by consumerconnect you have to have made every effort to give the company time to sort out your problem before you go the smaill caims procedure route (plus it will cost you €15)

To cut a long story short, my husband got speaking to the Assistant Manager who understood exactly where my husband was coming from, got on to Head Office and the bike was fixed free of charge and a full service given. Just shows you perseverance pays.