Highbury Hose

[Matt Seabrook]

Is it me or have other had problems? I phoned Highbury Hoses on the 5th of May to chat about a single hose I needed making up. The chap on the end of the phone said yes he could do it and would likely cost about £10-15 great I said and how long will it take to sort. I was told not more than a few days from when we get your old hose as a pattern. So dispatched the hose on Friday to arrive on Monday. Rang Highbury on Monday late afternoon just to check the hose had turned up ok, as I did not want it going missing. Chap said yes its arrived have not had a chance to look at it yet will ring you first thing on Tuesday morning to let you know how much its going to cost. Great I thought does not get much better than that. Tuesday came and went Wednesday came and went and now by Thursday lunch time I am getting a little peeved so rang Highbury again

Highbury “Yes sir we have been very busy but will ring you later today”

Me “That’s fine I will look forward to hearing from you soon then”

Its now Monday and I have still not heard anything. If I am told to expect the wait a couple of weeks for something I don’t mind and will not hassle them. The thing that’s winding me up at the moment is by now according to the first conversation I had I should have a nice silicon hose in my hand. It would seem they have not even started work on it. A little honesty would be very welcome and I am now getting concerned that I may have to cancel my first sprint as my cooling system will not be ready.

[Matt Seabrook]

Our management team has a wealth of

experience in the industry and together with their

keen young workforce produce a quality product

that exceeds your expectations on delivery times

and personal service.

Just cut and past from the web site

[cidersurfer]

Hiya mate

They were very good with me and approachable too. Is it worth another call to stress that this one is time critical?

Chris

[GWatson]

Yeah, never had any problems dealing with them. Quick turn around and that was with a non standard colour of hose.

G

[Matt Seabrook]

 Just me then

[Leon B]

Got mine despatched very quickly, mine were standard hoses though, I guess the custom stuff may take longer to produce?

[SADDLEWORTH]

I have a xe engine,so i rang highbury and spoke to kevin and told him i wanted a complete set for the engine,no problem just send some drawings even better ill send the old one`s ,great he said.Two weeks later after ringing and ringing SORRY we can only do a couple of bends,send them back i said 1 month later my old hoses have gone missing.

Thats what i think of highbury.

[Chris Elworthy]

Highbury Hose......aint that what those poofy foreign Arsenal players wear when it gets a bit chilly?

[Muttley]

Sorry to hear you're having trouble Matt.  I've used them twice in the last year for a mix a of standard pipes and specials (90 bend with 1 extra long leg and a 38-32 reducing acute 45 bend) and both times I have just requested what I want over the phone and they have arrived in the post a few days later with an invoice to pay.

Muttley.

[Matt Seabrook]

I have a xe engine,so i rang highbury and spoke to kevin and told him i wanted a complete set for the engine,no problem just send some drawings even better ill send the old one`s ,great he said.Two weeks later after ringing and ringing SORRY we can only do a couple of bends,send them back i said 1 month later my old hoses have gone missing.

Thats what i think of highbury.

Oh so its not just me then right on the phone today  

[Matt Seabrook]

Update I have just been on the phone to Highbury and they have now promised to get my hose (in two parts) to my by Wednesday fingers crossed.

[ChrisG]

I think they must be over-run with work at the moment or something, cos I ordered over £100's worth of hoses from them dealing with a chap called Phil, and the hoses came through before I'd even received the invoice to pay for them, which was either very trusting of them or a bit of an oversight as I had never dealt with them before! A couple of the straight hoses were the wrong diameter anyway so I called em up and told them the bits that were wrong and that I hadnt received an invoice. Kevin kindly said I could keep the wrong hoses and he'd send out new ones with the invoice. I received the hoses within a few days but again no invoice, although that came though the post this morning in the end, nearly a week later.

In summary Im happy with the price / service / quality and would use them again no problems, but I do feel they give the impression when initially speaking to them that they can do most complex pipes but in fact cant on a lot of occasions. There were a couple of pipes I wanted with double bends in or a bend at one end of a long straight, and after sending them some sketches I ended up having them all made with standard bends and joiners, the only custom pipes they did for me were straights with expansions in them at one end.

Chris

[Ian Podmore]

My hoses were a bit slow from them a few weeks ago as well, probably because I wanted them in Black and not bling blue.  Great kit, and no grumbles from me, they must be very busy though.

[Matt Seabrook]

Yep would not mind if they had told me it would be two weeks to sort my hose out. Just tell me and I am happy to wait. I have an event coming up on the 29th of May and need it sorted for then just need reassurance it would be sorted in time. To be told on two different occasions that I would be called and no show made me a bit nervous.

[Garry Bunn - Derby & Notts Joint AO]

Matt,

      I have known Kevin for several years now, he set the company up with his father (who was production manager at Samco) 6 or so years in Woodville, between Burton and Ashby.

From day one Kevin has been keen to help people in club motorsport and kit car builders.

It is however a small operation and things can sometimes go wrong.

To explain more about the 'one off' hose scenario this is something I posted on another thread........

Kevin at Highbury hoses will try to help whenever he can but there are limiting factors.

Any hose they make needs a mandrel that it is formed around. This is basically a solid piece of steel that the silicon tape is wound around to form the hose.

They have dozens of mandrels, all the basic straights, 90 and 135 bends in various diameters and many replacement hoses for standard tin tops.

Small mods can be made to a hose by padding the ends of the mandrel to create a larger bore, useful for 32mm to waterpump fitment.  

For more complex shapes you ask for they may have a mandrel from some other application that will do the job.

In the past we(Derby/Notts lads) have had our own mandrel machined and Kevin has made our hoses from that.

................................

I think if we took a survey I think we would find they have given excellent service to our members over the years. We are also paying a fraction of the cost of stock sized hoses from somewhere like Demon Tweeks.

Hope this helps

Garry