Online Purchases - good and bad experiences

[casual_cyclist]

Bad experience: ordered a helmet from a melbourne-based web business goeasyonline.com.au

They sent the wrong model which included $15 postage to Sydney.

I informed them what they'd done and they told me to return it at my cost. They agreed to refund the cost of the helmet but would not refund me the original postage OR my additional postage to return it...even though I told them I'd be writing my experience up here.

So it cost me $30 NOT to have a new helmet

Avoid goeasyonline.com.au

I misread that as greasyonline!

Me too. Twice! Once after I realised it was goeasy

[BigVin]

Hey guys, this may be a little OT, but it's still within the realm of the topic, so I will ask anyways.

On one of the UK websites, there are some shoes I wish to purchase, however they don't show up on their website for purchase when have my location prefs set to Australia.
If however I set my location to UK, it lets me add the items in question to my basket, and even pay for them via Paypal.

Question is, if they see my delivery address (on PayPal) is an Australian address, do you think (or know of) they will post them to me, or do you think I will get an email from the shop in question saying 'nice try buddy'.

Just asking as I am sure someone has done it before

[}SkOrPn--7]

Hey guys, this may be a little OT, but it's still within the realm of the topic, so I will ask anyways.

On one of the UK websites, there are some shoes I wish to purchase, however they don't show up on their website for purchase when have my location prefs set to Australia.
If however I set my location to UK, it lets me add the items in question to my basket, and even pay for them via Paypal.

Question is, if they see my delivery address (on PayPal) is an Australian address, do you think (or know of) they will post them to me, or do you think I will get an email from the shop in question saying 'nice try buddy'.

Just asking as I am sure someone has done it before

Generally this means that the product will not ship to Australia as it's banned to do so hence when you select your currency and location the item is removed. To get around this if you know someone in the UK then purchase the item and have it sent to your mate etc in the UK and have him/her forward it to Australia hope that answers your questions or concerns.

[BigVin]

Cheers mate, I figured as much.

[casual_cyclist]

Cheers mate, I figured as much.

From memory some people have done the ol' switcheroo at the last minute. They set their location to UK but then entered an Australian shipping address. As far as I know the items were received. Not a recommendation that you try it of course!

[BigVin]

Yeah, I was going to try it this week, cos the worst they could do is say 'good try' and the best they could do is post em

[ironhanglider]

I had a good experience with Brian at direct_chain_sales on ebay, also known as http://www.yaban.webs.com

I needed a synch chain for my tandem that is 127 links long (odd number so at least 1 half link required). I also needed the chain to be narrower than the 1/8 chain that I was using at the time because I had interference issues. I started by asking about the width of the 3/32 half link chain listed on ebay (to make sure that this would solve the problem). Brian responded by email quickly with a measurement, as well as asking why I had such an unusual request and he also gave me a phone number. I rang him and explained my rather odd circumstances and he offered to do a deal for a half link chain, a further length of 25 links, a couple of joining pins & postage.

Prior to this I was expecting to have to buy at least two chains and trying to find a 3/32 half link which are exceedingly rare. I'm not quite sure why 3/32 half links are so rare, I'd have thought that they would be useful for a cheap fixie/ss conversion if you had a frame with short or vertical dropouts and you wanted the option use your existing chain. I expect that he now has 77 of these available for sale.

Brian was very easy to talk to, worked out a suitable deal for me and sent a photo of the package as evidence of dispatch. He even allows pick-up if you happen to live in Brisbane, which isn't common for ebay stores.

All in all, very positive. :-]

Cheers,
Cameron

[othy]

www.biggride.com

Just received a few Far & Near products from them.

Ordered on Tuesday 16th with free shipping. Email confirming items shipped on Tuesday 16th. Received this morning - Thursday 18th.

I really like their website shopping cart system - one of the best I've used - clean and simple. Nice selection of boutique components at competitive prices - and Australian based too. Will be keeping an eye on what they stock.

[Aushiker]

Hi

Chain Reaction Cycles - Kinesis Frame

Ordered Saturday November 13
Shipped Monday November 15
Received Monday November 22 in Perth.

Can't complain about that.

Andrew

[black4tress]

Mrs recently purchased a HRM watch from Tiptopshop, after over 2 weeks later no delivery to her work so she followed it up with an email (they don't supply a phone number), anyhow after some too and froing she finds out from them that the courier tried to deliver it to the address but didnt know what company it was to be delivered to (fact: she put this in the Company field but somehow we were suppose to bring it to their attention. huh wft, she did answer the question on the form)
Cut a long story short, the retailer now wants us to pay an additional $9 delivery to resend it or get our money back less the $9 because they attempted delivery. Basically take it or leave it attitude because they work on low margins blah blah etc.

Anyhow, its the principal of the matter and she did specify the company it was for so not our fault at all.

Retailer has always had an open communication but we are not too happy with the overall situation they have put us in. Bad online experience for the Mrs

[CommuRider]

Finally received my Amazon package after languishing nearly a month somewhere between Mascot and my local post office

Amazon uses i-parcel and their tracking device was useful to some extent but not as good as DHL or Fedex. Their customer service leaves a lot to be desired. Same with AusPost whom I rang querying after the massive delay with the package. Yes, it was with them after all but nasty AusPost woman wouldn't give me the direct number to my local PO (!!). Really, treating people like they're stupid non-technologically minded when I have the tracking history in front of me - does not help. But my local PO are such nice folks I won't bother submitting a complaint. I'll just go to them directly next time.

Anyhoo, I finally have Zinn's guide to road bike maintenance and woah baby I didn't realise it was a thick A4 420pp textbook! It looked like a mini-guidebook on Amazon. So can't complain. I paid USD17 (so say $20 converted) and this book is one heavy tome. Too bad it's too heavy to carry it around in my panniers but this will definitely be part of my bedside reading material.

[BigVin]

Zinn's is a great book - I got it last year from my sister's boyfriend for xmas - well recommended!

[HAKS]

c r c order with free postage:

Ordered Tues 23rd evening AEST
Order dispatched Tues 23rd UK Time
Order Received Mon 29th AM AEST

One happy customer . If only their free postage $$ was lower I would shop their way more!

[Iced Halo]

Couple of good experiences lately:

Jenson USA= ordered Wednesday arrived Monday 5 days later (3 business days).

Ribble= ordered Wednesday arrived SUNDAY (!!) 4 days later (2 business days). Absolutely amazing. Would be hard pressed to order from a local shop and get it delivered as quickly via AusPost.

Wiggle averages around 5-10 business days.

[lyno]

c r c order with free postage:

Ordered Tues 23rd evening AEST
Order dispatched Tues 23rd UK Time
Order Received Mon 29th AM AEST

c r c order

Ordered Tue 16th evening
Order dispatched Wed 17th UK Time
Order not yet received

Have just sent them an email. Have made numerous orders with Wiggle and all have taken only week or just over to deliver.

[bomber]

Wiggle order

Ordered 12th November
Dispatched 12th November
No sign of the package yet... Emailed them and they said its probably sitting at the post office who havent notified me.

[the grid]

The service from Ground Effect in NZ is always faultless in my experience. Cool threads too.
Just got my autumn/winter 2010 order

+1
Ordered twice now...cheap postage, quick delivery and good returns policy.
The last order I had two items which they split the delivery because one was not available for a few days!!

[CommuRider]

Not so slow postage from Primal Wear. Yet again. Posted 2 December (3 December left Fedex), arrived 6 December The delay really is in the Sydney. Arrived in Mascot on the 4th.

So +1 (unlike two other overseas shopping retailers - one which has not provided tracking advice, ugh; and the other which still has not moved so to speak).

[Matt72]

Wiggle order.
Ordered shoes and pedals on the 29th Nov
Received pedals 7th Dec
Shoes still not shipped.

I must say that I can't believe how quick the pedals arrived. That is phenomenal service.
However to not give me the opportunity to change my order prior to the pedals being sent due to the shoes not being in stock kinda sucks balls. I'm just glad that I got pedals that clip in one side and are standard the other otherwise I would be really pissed.

[x8pg2qr]

Ordered a Lazer Urbanize N'Light among other things from c r c. A Lazer Urbanize arrived—i.e. no integrated lights.

[gsmith]

1 recent Wiggle order and 2 recent Ribble orders, the last of which arrived today. Each took about 10 days from despatch. Good price savings and speedy response to a query re shipping. Very satisfied.

[HAKS]

Wiggle:

Ordered Mon Dec 6th 22:00 AU time
Order Dispatched sometime Tue 7th UK time
Order arrived in Aus Fri 10th
Delivered Canberra Mon 13th AM

[bella26]

Wiggle:

Ordered 2 x garmin edge 500 Thursday 9th Dec (evening Aus time)
Arrived in canberra Weds 15th (morning aus time)

Can't complain!

[jaseyjase]

Wiggle - ordered 12th dec, reced today 17th dec. Did pay the extra $6-$7 though

[Ares81]

It took nearly 3 weeks to get an order from wiggle with standard mail, a bit on the slow side but I'm in the middle of nowhere in Victoria, far from any major city or town.
I'm pretty happy with it, afterall I spent around 90$ instead of 230$ from lbs, the wait was well worth it xD