The Bicycle Store

[Queenslandchris]

Hi, has anyone had dealings with The Bicycle Store? I ordered a Bell Super 3R helmet from them on the 27th January, After not hearing anything I emailed them on the 3rd Feb and got this reply.
Hi Chris,
I am terribly sorry it appears your order has not left our warehouse as yet.
Whilst we attempt to hold every item on our website in stock, due to high volume turnover and human error we occasionally run out of stock in some lines.
Re-stocking normally only takes 1-2 working days and you will receive a shipment confirmation email with all your shipping details once it has left our warehouse.
Your order should have easily left the warehouse by now so let me chase this one up for you with the picking/packing department to see what the hold up is.

Emailed them 2 days later asking for an update and got this reply
Hi Chris,
We are still waiting fro the new stock from this supplier which was due last week.
It should be arriving Monday hopefully.
Thank you so much fr your patience on this.

I've just emailed them again asking if the stock turned up yesterday and for an update.

I see they still have the helmet advertised

My concern is they havent updated their Face Book page in 6 years nor their Twitter account.
Wondering if ive been scammed

Has anyone else dealt with them?

[P!N20]

It’s not a scam site, they’re just a bit slack sometimes.

I’ve purchased a few things off them and never had a problem, some have though.

I believe they also trade as Velogear.

[Andy01]

I have no experience with them, but in the current times having to wait a couple of weeks for stock and/or delivery doesn't seem to be uncommon. Some things are SLOW.

I have been waiting for a watchstrap to come from Rotterdam, Netherlands since 02/01/22 and it has been "sitting" (apparently - according to tracking) with DHL in Frankfurt since 06/01/22. Personally I think it is lost but they will not acknowledge that. I have been told to wait until 17/02/22 (6 weeks) before they will treat it as missing, and the seller can send me another one - frustrating.

It is frustrating when sellers advertise items that they clearly do not have in stock. I have been caught a few times over the years and at times waited for a few weeks for the seller to get stock. It happened to me with Bike Bug last year with a Park Tool chain breaker.

[Mr Purple]

I've found Bikebug and Pushys to be pretty reliable on stock levels - in particular knowing if they actually have an item in stock.

I have a suspicion some of the cheaper/less mainstream online retailers are actually drop shipping - they keep very little in stock and are ordering it from overseas only after you order it.

[MichaelB]

...since 02/01/22 and it has been "sitting" (apparently - according to tracking) with DHL in Frankfurt since 06/01/22. Personally I think it is lost but they will not acknowledge that. I have been told to wait until 17/02/22 (6 weeks) before they will treat it as missing, and the seller can send me another one - frustrating.
.....

Had EXACTLY the same issue with a Bike24 order. On the 6th day of the 5th week, it finally moved again.

It's been the 1st time it's happened, but I was getting a bit narky I must admit, as it was a shade over $450 value, and one key part wasn't in stock anywhere else.

[Andy01]

...since 02/01/22 and it has been "sitting" (apparently - according to tracking) with DHL in Frankfurt since 06/01/22. Personally I think it is lost but they will not acknowledge that. I have been told to wait until 17/02/22 (6 weeks) before they will treat it as missing, and the seller can send me another one - frustrating.
.....

Had EXACTLY the same issue with a Bike24 order. On the 6th day of the 5th week, it finally moved again.

It's been the 1st time it's happened, but I was getting a bit narky I must admit, as it was a shade over $450 value, and one key part wasn't in stock anywhere else.

So maybe there is hope yet "Only" 37 days / 5 weeks 2 days so far

[Queenslandchris]

I have no experience with them, but in the current times having to wait a couple of weeks for stock and/or delivery doesn't seem to be uncommon. Some things are SLOW.

I have been waiting for a watchstrap to come from Rotterdam, Netherlands since 02/01/22 and it has been "sitting" (apparently - according to tracking) with DHL in Frankfurt since 06/01/22. Personally I think it is lost but they will not acknowledge that. I have been told to wait until 17/02/22 (6 weeks) before they will treat it as missing, and the seller can send me another one - frustrating.

It is frustrating when sellers advertise items that they clearly do not have in stock. I have been caught a few times over the years and at times waited for a few weeks for the seller to get stock. It happened to me with Bike Bug last year with a Park Tool chain breaker.

DHL are normally really good, I send 5 cartons every few months from Northern NSW to Germany and they have the goods in 4-6 days. But freight can be hit and miss, I had a water cylinder sent with StarTrack from Melbourne to Guyra that took 19 days. Yet the truck does that route every night. Somehow they lost it along the route. And we've seen a pallet going from Melbourne to Hobart go to Sydney, Brisbane, Darwin, Perth Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart according to the tracking.

[antigee]

believe DHL have a fleet of close to 200 cargo dedicated planes...I suspect the issue is covid hit staffing at parcel sorting facilities means stuff is just getting left piling up and there is no one to look at queries...we have supply chain problems in Aus' with a fraction of the daily case numbers

edit and back to the OP

P!N20 » Tue Feb 08, 2022 5:53 am

It’s not a scam site, they’re just a bit slack sometimes.

I’ve purchased a few things off them and never had a problem, some have though.

I believe they also trade as Velogear.

that would be my experience bit slower than many

[skyblot]

There are basically 2 DHL companies, within Germany DHL is equivalent to our Aust Post. DHL Express/DHL Freight etc are all different.
I had a parcel sent from Germany November last year, delivered here in 4 or 5 weeks from memory, DHL tracking still shows it in transit. Apparently Aust Post doesn't talk to DHL...

[Duck!]

"Standard" DHL/Deutsche Post is fairly ordinary in normal times. Reduced flights over the past couple of years have resulted in a lot of stuff being held for extended periods in big freight hubs such as Frankfurt until they can be despatched, often for quite a few weeks.

[10speedsemiracer]

This business pops up from time to time, usually with a query in the same vein of (have I been ripped off, is it a scam site?) etc etc, which is an unfortunate consequence of how they choose to operate the business.

There have been a few threads on "The Bicycle Store: and the associated entity "Velogear"

Here : viewtopic.php?f=9&t=15609&p=1531092&hil ... e#p1531092

and here : viewtopic.php?p=1512931#p1512931.

So yes they are a legit business (or businesses) but no, they don't appear to be a model of efficiency.

The online reviews are fairly brutal.

Personally, I wouldn't order a spoke nipple from them however there are others here who have had satisfactory outcomes.

I'd stick to BikeBug, Pushys and such ..

[baabaa]

Cycle Station is (from my experience - only 3 x of boxes of mixed bits like tyres, pedals, stems, cranks ) a good, small supplier and are speedy with shipment by courier and excellent in answering tech questions / supply queries
Almost like a real LBS but online - well worth supporting as they seem to get it right and maybe a good place to help find that supply of hard to find parts.

How can pushys on line vs pushys in shop (Fyshwick) be so very different shop in price and stock to the online site and not do this front desk model as well as Cycle Station is surprising, but gather the online bike part supply is simply about volumes now.
https://www.cyclestation.com.au/about_us

[MichaelB]

This business pops up from time to time, usually with a query in the same vein of (have I been ripped off, is it a scam site?) etc etc, which is an unfortunate consequence of how they choose to operate the business.

There have been a few threads on "The Bicycle Store: and the associated entity "Velogear"

Here : viewtopic.php?f=9&t=15609&p=1531092&hil ... e#p1531092

and here : viewtopic.php?p=1512931#p1512931.

So yes they are a legit business (or businesses) but no, they don't appear to be a model of efficiency.

The online reviews are fairly brutal.

Personally, I wouldn't order a spoke nipple from them however there are others here who have had satisfactory outcomes.

I'd stick to BikeBug, Pushys and such ..

+1

[Thoglette]

Well, I was looking for a particular item and they were the only .au company that had it "in stock" and I didn't check here first. So I'm the latest guinea pig.

Two weeks later and it's crickets so far. Hopefully, they're just really slow. I'll update this thread accordingly.