Oh dear. My firm has just switched away from Booost, where you could go to any LBS for a cycle-to-work bike and gone for Halfords, which is a bit of a disaster, as the choice of bikes is pretty limited, and my local halfords is full of spotty teenagers who look at you in a funny way when you suggest you might want to consider riding a bike with drop handlebars. No Campagnolo, no Trek, no Cannondale. Alhthough I'm not intending to buy one, there is only one folder available - an Apollo, no Birdy, Dahon or Brompton. I will be having words with our HR department, but unless I can salvage a decent purchase I won't be able to take advantage of the bike scheme this year.
As a possible salvage route, I seemed to think that Halfords will order any bike - has anyone tried this, and did you have to pay a significant premium?
It appears from the blurb that only Halfords will do ("Q Can I exchange the voucher at any retailer? A. No, only branches of Halfords are participating in this scheme"😉 and there's no mention of being able to source any bike. I'll give the number a go, but clearly HAlfords has been chosen for corporate expediency (our firm is pretty large) rather than the best employee benefit. Shame really - I've spoken to two other members of staff today, both of whom had considered started cycling to work becuse of the scheme but refuse to go to Halfords.
