PLEASE DO NOT USE HALFORDS IF YOU HAVE A 'NON STANDARD' CAR.....by this I mean a car that is not Vauxhall, Ford, Toyota...mainstream cars.
Last week we took my wife's 1998 Chrysler Neon 20.i LE to Halfords at Maidstone in Kent to have a car audio and speakers fitted to the car, we had to drive 20 miles to this branch as the fitter at our local branch was off sick.
When we arrived at the branch, three guys looked at the car, one was a detupy manager, and neither of them seemed to have much of an idea about how to remove the door panels to replace the speakers. Luckily we have a mechanci who had already advised me on how to remove the panels, and I passed this information to the 'trained' guys.
They began to remove the panels and then asked my sife and I if we could not stand over them whilst working and to go inside the store and await them to finish. We did this, but we were not happy.
When they had finished with the head unit and speakers they returned the keys to us and we checked th work of the installation. At first all seemed fine, since then we discovered that the passenger door trim as not refitted correctly, indeed, they had bent over of the door clips as they 'forced the trim back on', this was the opinion of our Chrysler trained mechanic. Then we found that the trim on the drivers door had not been refitted correctly, this has led to the window fouling on a component inside the trim and has actually scratched the window. Lastly, they managed to blow a lamp in the gear shift consule also.
We are currently in discussions with the branch and the manager there to obtain a new fitted window and remedy for the damage and upset caused.
We would say that unless you have a bulk standard car, take it to a main dealer for them to fit a unit and speakers. It may be more expensive, but it will save the heartache and stress of guys trying to fit components in a car they are unfamiliar with.
All it would have taken it a bit of honesty to say 'sorry we are not familiar with the car and we would rather not fit it for you' that to go ahaead and then damage the car..
Think twice when you are offered 'free fitting' on a car audio at Halfords and consider if it is really worth it!
Personally we will NEVER have another item fitted by Halford and will endeavour to by our car items at another outlet not Halfords.
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Thanks for the comment, been a long and frustrating day, sorry for the typos!!!
BlueMidget 07.10.2006 21:25
Useful review - though you might want to consider running it through a spell checker, (not a criticism, just a friendly observation). Other than that and concise and well written review.
Oct 7th, 2006
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