Halfords Pendleton

[kribble]

This is on offer again at £600, normal price £750.

Just be aware that Halfords are using a third party to moderate their reviews. I reviewed the bike twice now and each time my review has been rejected. Halfords would not tell me why nor give me any way to contact the third party. This means all the reviews are from happy customers.

I opted to have the bike delivered as I live on Scotland's north coast. The box had had some rough handling but the only damage I could see was a small dent on the front mudguard. Unfortunately, after using the bike for a few days and having disposed of the box, I found that the rear wheel was slightly out of true. The brake could not be adjusted effectively without rubbing on the wheel as it turned. I paid a local bike shop to true the wheel and adjust the brakes.

I am very pleased with the bike but disappointed in Halford's censorship of critical reviews. It's quite heavy despite the aluminium frame. The brakes are good. The gear shifting is very good. The battery has a range of about 25 miles in our hilly terrain, it would be much better in Norfolk.

The luggage rack is very sturdy (25kg load) and incorporates the battery.

The LED is basic but allows three levels of assist and indicates the battery voltage graphically, but with no figures. The bell gives a nice dring dring which won't annoy anyone.

The side stand is adjustable so you can get just the right lean.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

From the ASA website:

For example, if the marketer requests content from users and then places that content on their social media channel (Aston Manor Brewery Company Ltd, 13 June 2012). But, “adopting and incorporating” can also include retweeting, commenting on, or even simply “liking” a user’s post (192.com Ltd, 20 November 2013).

This does not prevent marketers from implementing a reasonable moderation policy (N5 Ltd, 4 September 2013). However, where a moderation policy has the effect of curating UGC to remove any content which is negative for the marketer, the ASA is likely to consider that the UGC has been “adopted and incorporated”. For example, if a marketer’s website allows users to submit ratings and reviews, but they only publish positive reviews, it is likely the ASA would regard this as excessive moderation and those reviews would be subject to the CAP Code.

You should report them to the ASA.
https://www.asa.org.uk/make-a-complaint.html

 

[kribble]

I know how to make complaints to ASA. But this was not an advert nor on social media. I might phone them and see whether there own, onsite reviews might be covered. what riles me is that I wrote a long review and did not keep a copy. Halfords can't tell me what offends against their guidelines and did not quote my review, so I don't have the original review to send to ASA.

I've written two other reviews pointing out that Halfords are censoring reviews, but they won't publish them!

 

[Deleted member 4366]

In that article that I posted above, it says that if a seller puts up a review section as part of their sales information, they're not allowed to moderate out any negative reviews or comments because it gives an unfair picture of their product. That's exactly what Halfords have done, according to you.

 

[kribble]

Thanks for both responses. I'm sorry I did not make it more clear. They did not alter or delete anything, they just said they would not publish it. I'm quite cross because the review was positive apart from recommending others not to have it delivered. I also said you could getter a spare battery more cheaply on eBay. I'll probably phone ASA for advice.

 

[cyclebuddy]

Halfords Carrera Crossfire-e had lots of problems, mostly relating to ongoing power cut-out issues... and there’s been no shortage of cutting reviews published on Halfords own web-site damning that particular bike (although far less recently it seems). Here’re some current 1-3 star Crossfire-e review headings:

Great when it works - but fundamental electrical problem seems to be intrinsic to the deisgn
Terrible bike
do not buy
Wouldn't recommend
don't bother
Not the best bike
Fantastic e-bike when it works but too unreliable

So Halfords don’t seem averse to negative reviews or an honest critique if the comment is fair. From my own experience as a past "paid" reviewer, I can say one thing usually sure to get your review bumped is reference to third party seller products. Maybe try dropping your reference to replacement ebay batteries and try submitting your review again?

PS: Norfolk ain’t that flat... it’s a myth.

 

[Marc Draco]

Halfords don't censor reviews - but BOY have I had problems with Tesco who likely use the same "Third Party" site. The problem is that these companies use a centralised database for your review so it can (and often does) appear on a platform completely separate to the one you think you're discussing.

It's in the T&C if you look hard enough - I had to trawl three documents of legal mumbo-jumbo to find it when my review of a computer got rejected. I was incensed - particularly as this is something I have a fair degree of expertise in. All you have to do is name the company "Tesco" or "Halfords" and that's enough for their moderation team to nix it!

The ASA and the UK government should look at this practise (these companies are invariably American) and stop it!

 

[soundwave]

why the hell would you but a computer from tesco in the first place? its fkn even worse than buying one from pc world/currys lol.


https://www.scan.co.uk/

 

[Marc Draco]

Price, convenience, desperation. Whole bunch of reasons none of which have anything to do with the thread.

 

[soundwave]

its called cheap crap

 

[Marc Draco]

Which is precisely what I wrote on the (banned) review but at the time I needed something quick-smart.

If it helps I have >30 years in the PC and electronics industry. I run three Debian/ARM servers (not RPis) at home, my daily driver is an i3 to save power and my video/rendering workstation is a Z620 with 32gb of RAM and dual E5 Xeons giving it 16 cores plus a 1060GTX with 6gb for CUDA rendering. I also run FreeBSD and various *nix boxes.

That's not including the Macs and PCs I have lying around. So can we please try and stay on topic, I'm all too aware what I got was cheap (in fact it's a copy of the MS Surface).

The OP was complaining, rightly in my view, that sites like Reevoo aren't all they're cracked up to be.

 

[soundwave]

i got 8 more cores than you lol got ram on order but you got me on the gfx i refuse to pay the prices atm.

 

[sjpt]

Maybe not relevant, but I just had bad reviews of a kettle rejected from Robert Dyas website. They were rejected immediately I submitted. This irritated me so I tried again (and again). Finally, I changed my email address by putting and extra '.' in it and the review went through.

gmail accounts ignore the '.', so that fredbloggs@gmail.com is equivalent to fred.bloggs@gmail.com or to f.r.edblo.g.gs@gmail.com