Warning: Halfords - dangerous advice

[map]

Putting here rather than workshop as more general warning than specific bike/workshop issue.

Looking at car brakes. Needed a clean. Popped into Halfords (Leeds, Melbourne Park, York Road, near Seacroft hospital).

Asked middle aged guy behind counter if they had any red rubber brake grease. Got a blank look. He piped up that'd got copper grease, that'd do. I corrected him by saying copper grease would attack the rubber and did he have any qualifications. Guy got a little defensive (i.e. hostile) so I left.

Now I've long suspected Halfords is staffed by under educated schoolkids. Thought someone older would have more life experience and as working in Halfords, some mechanical aptitude. I was wrong on so many levels.

Pretty bad if this is their best advice. Mind you if someone is tackling brakes you'd like to think they'd have a little more knowledge. Bet there are people out there who think advice from Halfords is like getting it from a mechanic though.

Any other examples of bad/poor/dangerous advice?
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[lihp]

Girl at work, Halfords had suggested that she clean off her discs and pads with WD40
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[Bendy]

I had a new battery 'fitted' to my car at Halford (I was killing time between meetings, remembered it needed doing and didn't have any tools with me).

They didn't do up any of the connections tightly enough, on the battery or the retaining strap. So when I went over a humpback bridge and caught a little bit of air, the battery moved and the positive came off. Which gave a wide selection of warning lights, as you can imagine.

Not dangerous per se but managing to cock up a task that simple?

[Skudd]

People at Halfords stack shelves and then sell it. No more, no less, well sometimes less.
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[stinkwheel]

Coppaslip is marketed for preventing brake squeal by applying it to the back of the pads so I can see how he got the idea brake grease = coppaslip.
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[yen_powell]

[Musketeer]

[beardface]

Bought a mountain bike from halfrauds years ago, they made it up in the shop and on the way home going down hill the handlebars came off in my hand - was hilarious for about 00000.2 seconds.
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[Nb]

Your local halfords are staffed by minimum wage teenagers, even the manager is probably still a teenager but given `manager` job title which makes up for still being on minimum wage. They are fucking useless, end of.
The halfords autocentres may be entirely different, I think binge worked at one? So there they will be qualified, but in the normal stores the staff generally havent got a clue.
Bulb fitment for 3.99, but we can't do it because its too complicated bla bla bla. Fit that battery to your bmw f10? Can't do it because its too complicated.
Halfords=
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Colin1 wrote 'Im grateful for what i can get, which isnt all that much.'
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[Seigi]

I always remember going into Halfords and seeing that all the front forks were the wrong way round on bicycles. I know they're only on minimum wage and equivalent to supermarkets etc, but they should have some sort of quality control because, someone giving advice about what to put on brakes could cause an accident and potentially kill someone.
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[Pol Anorl]

dad had a new wiring harness for his cd player put in his audi by halfords as it was a ballache..

about an hour later the guy gave up and said come back.. next day went back.. 45 minutes in.. its done!

the "new" harness he had just bought now looked about 50 years old, all random ends cut off and joined and allsorts of shit!

the cd player would stop working if pushed in too far...
not to mention the really anoying buzz that we could hear. went back a sound guy spent about half hour bodging it more and made the buzz a bit quieter..

in the end dad ripped the "new" harness out and took it back told em to shove it up their arse.

halfords are pretty shit.
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[mudcow007]

[Islander]

[Islander]

[beardface]

[bezzabsa]

Sorry but if you want 'tits' go into PC world and ask a mildly technical question..... the stunned silence is fantastic

[lihp]

[JP7]

I never go into Halfrauds expecting any level of technical advice. In fact, I rarely go in there at all because they are very expensive. We have a mechanic who services our fleet cars, and he needed a particular stop/tail bulb that he'd run out of. Because it was Sunday he could only go to Halfrauds and was charged £20.00 for it. The next day he ordered a box of 20 for £18.00 through the trade.

As commented above, I never go to PC World expecting any level of computer advice. Last time I tried that, the child who served me couldn't advise me on anything that wasn't printed on the price ticket.

[chris-red]

[Whosthedaddy]

They serviced my old Subaru including cam belt change, a few months later the cam pulley came loose and fucked the cranckshaft up! Obviously I couldn't prove too much as months later but they were the last and only people to touch it!

Sometimes you get what you pay for in staff and service.
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[ninja_butler]

[-Matt-]

[finniee]

Went with my mum to get the battery replaced in the Focus at halfrauds.
Not too complicated, a 10 year old could do it.

1) 3 of them come out armed with what I would call - all the tools of a mechanic on a tool belt

2) Searched inside the car for the bonnet release, suggested to them you need to lift the front badge up and put the key in, turn it left then hold it to the right to lift the bonnet. NOPE what a major fuck-up that was. Burst the grill, trying to get into the bonnet.

Boy said and I quote "aye that's fine, wee bit of super glue and it'll be brand new". Yes but the big fuck off scratch you have put in the bumper wont mend with super glue.

Eventually after 40 mins of them struggling to get the bastarding bonnet open, eventually done.

Never again will I use Halfords own fitting "crew".

[mudcow007]

[clancy]

Why did you pay their horrendous prices to have something as simple as a battery fitted if you knew how to do it anyway ? Lol

Don't they charge £5 to change each headlight bulb ? There prices are comical
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