Halfords, great for lasy minute xmas shopping (Halfords)

Member Name: georgiesue

Product:	Halfords
Date:	20/12/08 (78 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy to use and offered exactly what i wanted

Disadvantages: online service means you cant see the product in person

Christmas is fast approaching and as usual I had left all my Christmas shopping until the last minute. I knew my other half wanted a new bike as his old one was on its last legs. I also knew that he is king of the fads and so had resolved that I did not want to spend too much on this bike in case it ended up gathering dust in the garage.

As I didnt have time to go out looking I decided to try online. First I thought of Argos, the old faithfull. Nothing within my price range was available and the bikes that were had to be ordered for home delivery at extra expense. I looked on and tried Tesco direct. I found a suitably priced bike but then had to go through all the hassle of entering my details , including payment details on line only then to be told that they were unable to deliver to my local store and it would have to be home delievery and would arrive on the 5th January 2009. A bit inconvenient for a Christmas present.
I then tried Toys r us but they only did home delivery and unless you paid an extortionate amount of money the window for delivery was so large you would have to stay in the whole day, which is not good so close to Christmas.

Having then surfed the net and found nothing decent for under £100 a friend of mine suggested Halfords. I logged on not expecting the best but found their website to be brilliant. Really easy to navagate and a good selection of reasonably priced bikes. Now I m no technical expert when it comes to bikes and I have to say I was governed primarily by price but the bike I found at £99 seemed really good with full suspension and lots of good points that I had not found with other cheaper bikes. Best of all it was at half price and then there was a further 20% off meaning that the final bill was in the region of £76. Before you committed lots of details the website showed you that it was available for in store collection and it also offered a free assembly service. And even better you did not have to pay online but rather you just pay when you collect the bike from the store, meaning no faffing with entering your card details etc. As soon as I placed my reservation I got a text and email confirming my reservation number and advising that the bike would be ready for collection from my local store on Christmas Eve which was exactly what I wanted.

All in all a great , easy to use website and a good value product. I was able to view a full picture of the bike and full technical details so no need to go into store before collection. I suppose if you were making a more serious purchase of a bike at a higher price you would not really want to purchase in this way but for a busy mum this was a god send. Christmas present sorted. Just hope I can get it in my car. Well done Halfords. would definately use their website again.

Summary: easy to use website and good value product