Gemma Maddocks spoke of her nine-year-old son’s devastation after waking up on Christmas Day to find the BMX bike he had asked Santa for had not arrived.
Speaking with the Warrington Guardian, mum Gemma explained how she had initially ordered the bike from Halfords and booked for it to be built on November 22, way in advance of Christmas.
She was then provided a time slot to collect the gift at the store on Riverside Retail Park in Warrington town centre on Christmas Eve.
“Halfords allowed me to book a time slot of 6pm on Christmas Eve to pick up,” she explained.
“I booked this time slot as I did not have anywhere to store the bike, and we had plans Christmas Eve to go see Santa at the Hayloft.
“I got confirmation to confirm that the bike had been built and to pick up at 6pm on Christmas Eve – I received this confirmation on Sunday, December 22.”
The mum-of-two said there was no mention of changes to store opening times in the lead up to Christmas Eve, or of changes to the click and collect service the store offers.
She continued: “So on Christmas Eve we went for our Santa experience. At 5.30pm my husband went to collect my son’s bike, his main present from Santa, only to find the store in darkness and the doors locked.
“He was in tears in the car, he called me I was in floods of tears like ‘what are we going to do’.
“I was bathing the boys at the time and was so stressed out. I was trying to call customer services, no answer as they were closed.”
To Gemma’s surprise when she looked at the Halfords Facebook page, she was shocked to find that her husband was not the only one to have experienced this issue, with others highlighting the same incident at different stores.
“One woman managed to get hold of a store manager who went and opened the store for her,” she added.
In a bid to rectify the situation, Gemma, along with the help of friends and family, came up with the idea to write a note from Santa to her son to say he had “left the bike at a store as it was too big for his sleigh”.
“This is what we did for Christmas. The store opened on the Friday.
Gemma Maddocks was given a time slot to collect the bike from Halfords store on Riverside Retail Park in Warrington on Christmas Eve (Image: Google Maps) “I had to arrange childcare so my mother and my disabled dad came over to look after my two boys as I didn’t want to take them with me so I could speak to the store properly.
“We picked up the bike on Friday afternoon. When we picked the bike up the handlebars were not straight, the tires had not been pumped up, the breaks were not working, we had to tell the guy to fix it and that added stress.
“The store manager offered £50 compensation; we paid £190 for the bike.”
Another resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, reached out to the Warrington Guardian on behalf of her friend who had faced a similar issue with a Halfords store in Warrington on Christmas Eve.
“My friends attended the store at her allocated time slot to find the place in darkness. The next day she had a very upset child,” she told.
Meanwhile on the company’s Facebook page, similar instances were highlighted by unhappy customers on a thread following a post by Halfords which stated ‘Current situation: Trying to disguise a bike-shaped present under the tree. Anyone else?’.
This post was met with anger, with one parent saying: “I’d love to be trying to disguise a bike under the tree if your time slots were correct instead of now my child has no bike on Christmas day! Well done, Halfords, how to ruin a child’s Christmas.”
While another commenter added: “Would have been nice if you were open when we came to collect our son’s new bike this evening? Was given a time of 5.30 and you closed at 5?
“Going to have a very upset little boy in the morning. Absolute shambles. Bike was ordered and paid up in October, you even charged us extra for a Christmas Eve time slot. Not even a courtesy call to say you were closing early! Disgusting.”
Addressing the complaint made by Gemma, who was unable to collect her son’s bike from Halfords Riverside store in Warrington on Christmas Eve, the company said this was due to a “system malfunction”.
A Halfords spokesperson said: “The original collection time given to Ms Maddocks was incorrect and was the result of a system malfunction, which we are currently investigating.
“Our records show Ms Maddocks’ bike was the only one at the store not collected as planned ahead of Christmas.
“We have apologised to Ms Maddocks for the error and have offered a partial refund of £50, which she has accepted.
“At Halfords, we pride ourselves on going the extra mile, especially during the festive season when we prepare around 140,000 bikes for Christmas.”