Simon Trapani

  • Posts: 1481
Halfords van battery warranty
« on: March 04, 2024, 07:26:27 pm »
Had a new stop/start starter battery in my 2016 Vivaro during covid. Halfords was the only local place open. Not the end of the world i thought. Five year warranty, can’t go wrong surely? (I use a leisure battery for pumps etc)

Today it lets me down for the second time in a week. So i take it back to Halfords for testing where I’m told it’s ampage is down but it’s warranty rejected as I do too many short journeys! I challenge them in store but to no avail. I’ve spoken to an auto electrician that i use who said what b******s. He let me use his discount & I sourced one elsewhere. Lucas, £111 as apposed to the £159 I paid Halfords 4 years ago! Came home & fitted it & managed to get some work done before the heavens opened once again.

T&C’s of their battery warranties are on their website like i was told in store. After reading it they do seem to have covered their asses.

Have emailed a complaint & will leave them a nice crappy review later.

Safe to say I won’t be using Halfords again.

Splash & dash

  • Posts: 4364
Re: Halfords van battery warranty
« Reply #1 on: March 04, 2024, 07:33:10 pm »
Totally agree with you and it’s not right but at that price that’s cheap for  a stop start battery , just put it down as expenses and experience 😰😰😰

Simon Trapani

  • Posts: 1481
Re: Halfords van battery warranty
« Reply #2 on: March 04, 2024, 07:40:24 pm »
Totally agree with you and it’s not right but at that price that’s cheap for  a stop start battery , just put it down as expenses and experience 😰😰😰
Exactly what I thought. Gotta pick your battles haven’t you.

Spruce

  • Posts: 8361
Re: Halfords van battery warranty
« Reply #3 on: March 04, 2024, 08:44:05 pm »
Battery warranties aren't worth the paper they are written on, imho. Even more so, with batteries bought on the internet.

The local motor factors sold me a Lion battery for my previous van. It was sold with a 2 year warranty. It packed up after 18 months. We need to investigate the reason for failure. Send it to this address for evaluation. It will take7 days for this to be completed and doesn't include bank holidays and weekends.

What do you do in the meantime? This is why I always say that when it comes to batteries, especially leisure batteries, we best realize we take the risk, even if the failure was down to faulty materials and/or assembly/manufacture.

According to the sales guy at the motor factors, they rejected each claim that they received. He stopped dealing with them.

The motor factors wouldn't replace the battery until the manufacturer authorized it, which I can understand.

In South Africa, the same battery was sold with either a 2, 3 or 5 year warranty. The longer the warranty you asked for, the more the battery cost as the warranty was linked to an insurance policy. If the battery failed after 18 months when you took a 2 year warranty out, then they refunded you a pro rata percentage of the price against a new replacement. You knew what the pro rata value was when you initially bought your battery. This replacement battery didn't have a warranty attached to it. It seemed to satisfy us, but then we didn't know anything else, as that was the way it was always done.

Last year I replaced my van battery as I as dubious it would survive this past winter. It was the original battery supplied with the van as it had the Fiat assembly plant's name stamped on it. The van had done 106k and was the battery was 12 years old. I did think at the time I should have replaced it with the same Varta battery, but I didn't. I didn't know all this until I took the battery out to put in new one in.
Success is 1% inspiration, 98% perspiration and 2% attention to detail!

The older I get, the better I was ;)

dazmond

  • Posts: 23571
Re: Halfords van battery warranty
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2024, 08:16:20 am »
My van battery died on me after 6 years.jump started it and drove straight to halfords and got them to fit me a new one.

Best £20(for fitting) I've spent!the battery on the newer connects are wedged under the passenger side bonnet.it took this guy an hour to change it!he had to remove the air filter,etc.what a faff!

It's a really stupid place to fit the battery.awkward too.

So while he was huffing and puffing(and swearing) I had my lunch.

In the end he had to fit a smaller stop/start battery as it was impossible to fit the original size battery due to the tight fit.
price higher/work harder!

Spruce

  • Posts: 8361
Re: Halfords van battery warranty
« Reply #5 on: March 06, 2024, 04:21:29 pm »
My van battery died on me after 6 years.jump started it and drove straight to halfords and got them to fit me a new one.

Best £20(for fitting) I've spent!the battery on the newer connects are wedged under the passenger side bonnet.it took this guy an hour to change it!he had to remove the air filter,etc.what a faff!

It's a really stupid place to fit the battery.awkward too.

So while he was huffing and puffing(and swearing) I had my lunch.

In the end he had to fit a smaller stop/start battery as it was impossible to fit the original size battery due to the tight fit.

Surely if it fitted in there to begin with, a replacement must fit back in there.

My lazy son got Halfords to replace a popped headlight bulb in his car.

All they had to do was to unplug the electrics to the abs module to make more working space. They didn't. They fitted it incorrectly even although it can only be fitted one way. They didn't aline the bulb with it's locating pin.

Failed MOT because of that bulb. On top of that, we all know you must change headlight bulbs in pairs. The other one blew a couple of days later.
Success is 1% inspiration, 98% perspiration and 2% attention to detail!

The older I get, the better I was ;)

Splash & dash

  • Posts: 4364
Re: Halfords van battery warranty
« Reply #6 on: March 06, 2024, 04:50:33 pm »
As spruce says , if it comes from the factory with a battery in there it’s possible to re fit one the same size , Halfords employees are a bit like Neanderthal man , not the sharpest tools in the box 😂😂

Spruce

  • Posts: 8361
Re: Halfords van battery warranty
« Reply #7 on: March 06, 2024, 06:42:07 pm »
As spruce says , if it comes from the factory with a battery in there it’s possible to re fit one the same size , Halfords employees are a bit like Neanderthal man , not the sharpest tools in the box 😂😂

I watched a 'kid' trying to replace wiper blades on a customer car outside the shop once. It took him ages to fit the first side. He then went through the same drama fitting the other side as he couldn't remember how he fitted the first side.

He didn't seem to understand that he must carefully watch how the old blade came off before he tried to fit the new one.
Halfords charge £5 to fit a wiper blade.
Success is 1% inspiration, 98% perspiration and 2% attention to detail!

The older I get, the better I was ;)

Splash & dash

  • Posts: 4364
Re: Halfords van battery warranty
« Reply #8 on: March 06, 2024, 06:43:20 pm »
As spruce says , if it comes from the factory with a battery in there it’s possible to re fit one the same size , Halfords employees are a bit like Neanderthal man , not the sharpest tools in the box 😂😂

I watched a 'kid' trying to replace wiper blades on a customer car outside the shop once. It took him ages to fit the first side. He then went through the same drama fitting the other side as he couldn't remember how he fitted the first side.

He didn't seem to understand that he must carefully watch how the old blade came off before he tried to fit the new one.
Halfords charge £5 to fit a wiper blade.


Sounds about right 😂😂😂

dazmond

  • Posts: 23571
Re: Halfords van battery warranty
« Reply #9 on: March 07, 2024, 07:27:59 am »
As spruce says , if it comes from the factory with a battery in there it’s possible to re fit one the same size , Halfords employees are a bit like Neanderthal man , not the sharpest tools in the box 😂😂

It was an older guy who fitted it.....former mechanic.normally I would easily change a battery myself but the negative terminal is squeezed right under the bonnet making it very difficult to tighten up.....absolute stupid  place to fit a battery!

price higher/work harder!