Just thought I'd share this with the masses.....

This time last year I had to replace the battery on the vRS, then a couple of weeks ago the replacement started playing up. I originally got it from Alpha-products-man an eBay seller and as I remembered they offered a 4 year warranty. I back tracked my purchase history and found the original auction and dropped them an email, at best I expected to have to remove and return the dud battery at my cost for them to inspect leaving me without a car for at least a few days - but probably more. Well to my delight they replied almost immediately leaving a contact number (to explain the warranty procedure) which I called, it turned out all I needed to do was get a battery test (free from Halfrauds) and email the report to them.

So, got the report yesterday morning - the battery is fooked - which I scanned and emailed to them, and today.....................new battery on the door step.

Not a massive thing but I just wanted to endorse this company as that level of customer service is not heard of very often.

That's decent, and refreshing customer service

What brand of battery was it, out of interest?

That's decent, and refreshing customer service

What brand of battery was it, out of interest?

The brand is Alpha batteries, the original was only 55 quid so not expensive anyway.

Pretty decent though, given the length of warranty offered.

Thinking of replacing mine before the winter sets in actually. This thread has been useful on several counts, as I now might goto Halfords to get mine inspected.

Many thanks for a useful thread (not that all your threads aren't useful of course)

It's nice to see a forum post about good customer service. Unfortunately it's a rare thing these days for a company to go out of it's way to help

As said, in this dubious day and age, it is soul restoring to hear of a company building a good relationship by it looking after its customers.

That's the main reason for posting, I always find that people can only be bothered to complete reviews etc when they want to complain.....

This thread has been useful on several counts, as I now might goto Halfords to get mine inspected.

Only personal experience I have of Halfords ( commonly called Half frauds -wonder why :no: ) ,was some work done on a few cars ago where the battery was disconnected ( someting I've done many times on my list of cars over 30+ years ,at this point with no comeback )only to find a few weeks later that one terminal was not tightened correctly .Son did a work placement at local one - he could right a book on what he saw & heard .Son in law had car MOT once at same branch ,only for the bonnet to refuse to open a week later .Coincidence ? -I wonder .

These days with sealed batteries ,there's not a lot of maintenance you can do .Years ago ,you could keep tabs on the battery - all cells were available to check for level ,SG and voltage .

If you were really keen you could use a meter on each cell whilst turning engine over .

These days only real test is to check battery voltage on start up , to see if cells are going HR.

Heard loud and clear - there are Halfords and there are Halfords. Unfortunate that there's not a level playing field with a national chain.

I know there's some decent blokes working at the local one, or I'll get it checked as part of a service at my local independent as it'll be due shortly.

That's good to know.

Not a bad warranty to say that the normal expected life of a battery is up to about 5 years.

Think mine will need replacing at some point in the near future. Probably before winter.

After it's been stood for a day or two it sounds a big flat when turning over.

Phil

The cells are usually hidden under a sticker on the 'maintenance free' and can usually be checked, topped up and the battery charged if needed.

Obviously the usual disclaimers about taking all suitable safety precautions around a car battery and battery acid etc apply.

Got mine from euro car parts today, when Simbo scanned it , it looked like it is on its way out , anyway Bosch S4 for £54, that is with the 25% Briskoda discount

Excellent; ignore my question in the other thread