The patch is the site of the first puncture, on the other tobe if u look closely you can just about make out where I have marked the tube with a black pen in readiness for the next repair.
I have posted the mail exchange below:
My email:
Dear Madam/Sir,
On Friday 12th March 2010 I had a puncture in my bicycle rear wheel outside Halfords Catford London SE6. Rather than do the repair myself I went in to your store and asked them to do it for which I paid £12.98. The repairman said he could not find any foreign object in the tyre. I retained the old tube which I then brought home and repaired.
On Monday 15th March 2010 after about 25 miles of further cycling I had another puncture. On this occasion I was nowhere near your store so had to get the old repair kit out and do it myself. And lo and behold the puncture is on almost exactly the same spot as Friday's one. On Inspection of the tyre I found and removed the offending foreign body which appears to me to be a piece of brown glass.
I have attached a word document with pictures of the two tubes, the foreign body and my receipt for the repair.
This has caused me considerable inconvenience. Your comments and suggestions of recompense would be appreciated.
Yours sincerely.
Halfords Response:
REF: 313988
Dear Mr Wood,
Thank you for your email. I would like to take this opportunity to apologise in the delay of our response.
It is always disheartening to hear of situations where our customers experience additional inconvenience and feel let down. I wish to assure you that Halfords endeavours to maintain a good relationship and will always seek to use customer responses as a way of improving our customer service.
All concerns relating to our stores are logged onto a central database and the information regarding your experience is made available for the Area Managers to read. As our Store Managers are 100% responsible for the service in their stores, we also make the information available for them to view on our stores intranet system. This method is proven to be very successful in highlighting any shortfalls to the line managers responsible. They are then able to take any action they feel necessary with the individuals concerned. I have also requested that more training is given to those members of staff in order to avoid these incidents in the future. As a gesture of goodwill for the inconvenience, I will be happy to send you the £13 back in gift vouchers. If you could possibly email me your address, I will be more than happy to send this in the post.
I appreciate you taking the time to highlight this problem as it is only through feedback from our customers that we are able to identify areas where we are falling short of our customers’ expectations and can redress them.
Please accept our apologies once again.
Kind Regards,
Luke Ebanks
Customer Service Advisor
My Reply:
Dear Mr Ebanks,
This is a disappointing response. This repair took me over an hour to sort out in the dark in the back streets of Peckham, South London. A hostile zone in broad daylight. My cycle jacket and the inside of my gloves are covered in dirty oil and will have to be replaced and I have yet to take my bike into a reputable repair shop to get the gears re-set; another cost I am going to incur through the laziness of your staff.
I will not be fobbed off with a handful of gift vouchers. I suggest you have a further think and if you can't do any better I'll post the story round the cycling blogs and send it to trading standards. I have nothing to lose.
Yours etc.
Halfords reply:
REF: 313988
Dear Mr Wood,
Thank you for contacting Halfords Customer Services. Please accept my apologies for the delay in our response.
However, after corresponding with my colleagues regarding this issue, we feel that the £13.00 Halfords Gift Vouchers is an adequate amount to send to you considering that this was the amount you had paid to have the innertube repaired. If you are still having problems with the bike then I would recommend that you return to the store and speak to the store manager
regarding the issues as I am confident they can resolve any issues you might have.
Please accept my apologies once again for the inconvenience caused.
Kind Regards,
Luke Ebanks
Customer Service Advisor
