Online Purchases - good and bad experiences

[jules21]

c r c - order with multiple parts made last week, item now out of stock, so order going nowhere - again. this is almost the standard for c r c orders when i put multiple items in - they're in stock when i order, yet strangely at least one part will go out of stock the day afterwards. if i was a cynic, i'd suspect they gone to find the part for me and discovered it was out of stock.

[Crittski]

5th Jan 2011 - ordered contourHD GPS helmet camera from B+H USD$415 delivered (available locally for AUD$500-600 delivered)
- ordered a bunch of camera mounts for it from c r c on the same day (at about half the price available locally)
8th and 9th Jan - weekend
10th Jan - arrived before 12 this morning!

Feelin' pretty chuffed right about now!

[BigVin]

Order arrived today, 2 days after ordering the shoes from the UK (c r c) , they arrived in Perth. 1 day from Perth to me at work.

Excellent service!

[thomashouseman]

c r c - order with multiple parts made last week, item now out of stock, so order going nowhere - again. this is almost the standard for c r c orders when i put multiple items in - they're in stock when i order, yet strangely at least one part will go out of stock the day afterwards. if i was a cynic, i'd suspect they gone to find the part for me and discovered it was out of stock.

Happens every time I try and order this item from them in 27x1.1/4 size:

http://www.this link is broken/Mode ... elID=24548

[Aushiker]

Hi

My most recent Bike24.net experience:

Order placed November 18, 2010
Order shipped December 7, 2010 (not all their fault for the delay but they created most of it)
Delivered January 10, 2011 (about a month later).

The packing of the order left a lot to be desired as can be seen from the photos:











I have a second order with an invoice date of December 7, 2010 still out there somewhere. I will now think twice about placing another order on Bike24.net given this experience and their practice of charging an additional 19.95Euro for orders with a value of 600Euro +.

Regards
Andrew

[Baalzamon]

Hi Andrew

Interesting. I placed order 23rd or 24th december and I got it on the 7th Jan. The box was a little bit beat up but nothing as much as yours. I guess the contents of mine being more solid (Tacx Fortius Multiplayer trainer) kept my box in better shape.

[mmhbeer]

I received an order from Bike 24 in early January. It took 3 weeks from when it was ordered to when it arrived. My box looked exactly like the one in the pictures. There packaging was pretty average. They could do better.

Currently im waiting on some parts from Ribble that were posted two weeks ago. Hopefully this week.

[Mustang]

Its not even a box, just light cardboard from a roll????

[Aushiker]

Its not even a box, just light cardboard from a roll????

Hi

It was a box, just a very light walled one and everything was just thrown in. No attempt to ensure it was packed in firm and tight.

Andrew

[Comedian]

Well I ordered a pump from chain reaction. It was only $35 but looked like a quite a good pump.

http://www.this link is broken/Mode ... elID=57792

And it is quite a good pump too. However the connector supplied with it is useless. It said it was compatible with both valve types. They were right on that. If you have someone to hold it onto the car valve it can be used to inflate those tyres, but they you need a second person to man the pump. On the presta valves (the little ones) sometimes it works fine as it's just a push fit over the whole valve body. However some of my tubes have a slightly smaller diameter, and on these once you get to about 100psi the connector just blows off! So again pretty useless.

Thing is, it was $35 and I'm pretty sure to send it back to the UK would be pretty close to that in value so it's just not worth it. This shortcoming wasn't obvious on from the pictures but I probably would have worked it out quickly in the flesh. Oh well, the rest of the stuff was way cheaper so I'll probably leave it in the bike cage at work for everyone else to use - if they can.

[AUbicycles]

Andrew, is it worth your while sending them a photo - they certainly could do a lot to improve their packaging if the boxes are getting knocked around that much.

What does the Red "Delivery at Risk" sticker mean?

[Aushiker]

Andrew, is it worth your while sending them a photo - they certainly could do a lot to improve their packaging if the boxes are getting knocked around that much.

What does the Red "Delivery at Risk" sticker mean?

Hi

I assume that the sticker was placed on the package by the Perth Delivery centre given the state of the box when received there. The box was split open so risk of items failing out.

I will be letting them know but really given all the hassle over this order and the one still to come I am bit over Bike24.net.


Andrew

[rydahasj]

Hey,

regarding the experience with bike24.net: I ordered a few items from them some time last year; Fulcrum R5s and Ultegra 6600 crank and they arrived within 10 working days in a similar sized box. The items inside the box were packed fairly well as there was no damage, the box did look like it had been kicked around a bit though. I think most of the damage and delay looks like it was from Australian customs. Perhaps also compounded by a slow domestic german postal service that most likely slows down over the christmas period. Sorry to hear about your delay though but i think thats mainly concerned with when you ordered it all.

[MattB]

Had a good experience with PBK.

Ordered Wednesday night the 12th Jan (so UK's Wednesday morning/noon).
Shipping confirmation on Friday morning with tracking code.
Arrived Monday 17th Jan!

There was a weekend in the middle but was only 4-5 days to get here from the UK.

Was a fairly small package with pedals, gps and a few small things. Packing was okay, I've seen much better though.

[jules21]

noticed that my bike was making a squeaking sound, that i isolated to the wheel hubs as it continued when i stopped pedalling. i assumed it was the rear hub bearings as they are old and a bit rough, so i repacked them with grease - but the squeaking persisted. so last night i disassembled the front hub and noticed that it there wasn't a lot of grease in there. i repacked it and the squeaking instantly disappeared. success!

this was disappointing as the hub is fairly new (admittedly a cheapy Brand-X model), ordered from c r c. beware - they don't pack the bearings properly.

[mmhbeer]

I ordered parts from Ribble on 1 January. They were sent by Ribble on January 3. Finally got a ticket in the mailbox yesterday (january 21) as I missed the delivery man so will have to get the parcel on monday at the post office.

Id imagine that my parts have been sitting in Australia since January 5. Why is UK post so good and Australia Post so average? Is it just that im in Adelaide that things are slow?

On previous orders from UK online sites it can take less than 2 days to get the package into Australia and then another 2 weeks to get it to my door.

[Cinder]

Did my first order with c r c the other day, little under two weeks to get here, box was perfect, items perfect.

Thumbs up.

[gururug]

-2 orders from this link is broken, after 9 days, both still "pending fulfillment"
These guys are cheap, have a decent range and USED to have a good reputation, they really need to;
1) carry the stock they advertise
2) tell you about delays

EXCERT from Policy:

"If an item you've ordered has become out-of-stock, or unavailable, we will ship the items that are available and the item that is unavailable will be back-ordered.

We will contact you by either phone call or by email to notify you of a back-ordered item."

LOL

-2 orders from bikes.com.au - Consistent 5 day turnaround

[Flinty72]

Yep my most recent order from cell took 1 week to ship from their warehouse. So by the time I get it, it will have taken 9-10 days. Previous orders have taken less than 1 week.
Leaves me wondering if they have had a huge backlog of orders over Xmas & probably with a limited crew of staff over the holiday break?

[HAKS]

c r c = bad experience with a return

- bought set of FSA carbon handlebars in Feb 2010. In early Dec I noticed cracks around the stem mounting area. Sent photos to c r c who forwarded them to FSA, then said return them for inspection at my own cost.
- took over a month to get to the UK, not their fault though.
- notified 2 weeks ago they had arrived and had been sent to FSA. Could take up to 3 weeks to hear back from FSA but they would keep me in the loop.
- I hear nothing for 2 weeks, only to arrive home today and find a FSA box from c r c on my doorstep. Open it up and there is a set of lower spec'd FSA bars in there. Problem is they are a) not the shape I prefer b) do not have flat tops which I prefer and c) do not have internal cable routing (don't really care about this one). The whole reason I bought the FSA bars in the first place was for points a and b above. They have been the most comfortable bars over the past year and hence I am not happy with the replacement model.
- To make matters worse, there is a 25pound difference in my favour between the original bars and replacement ones, to which I have not seen a cent of yet. They even state on the invoice I am owed 25pounds yet have no bothered to contact me since dispatching the replacement bars last week nor has my paypal account been refunded.
- I also clearly stated on the returns form I wanted either the exact same model or a refund in the form of c r c vouchers so buy another brand but with similar features. They have ignored both of these options.

Anyway, waiting for their reply now but overall not a satisfactory experience from my point of view and at a minimum looks like I will be without comfy bars for another month at best.

[BigVin]

Bad luck there dude - I just sent back some Diadora shoes which were a size too big. I hope they send me back the correct item and size! lol

[alf]

Hmm... I guess it is a bit of pot luck then.

I recently placed two orders one with c r c and one with CELL.

c r c delivery was well packed, original part box inside a well padded larger container, received in 5 days.

CELL took a whole week to despatch the order with no effort to respond to queries they claim to respond to within 24 hours.

[gsmith]

Hmm... I guess it is a bit of pot luck then.

CELL took a whole week to despatch the order with no effort to respond to queries they claim to respond to within 24 hours.

Today is 12 days from my Cell order, they still haven't shipped...

and 25 days since my PBK order shipped, but has not yet arrived !

The postal gods are angry...

[mitzikatzi]

CELL took a whole week to despatch the order with no effort to respond to queries they claim to respond to within 24 hours.

15 days to ship an order for me. There site claims the order will be cancelled after 14 days of "backorder"

They really need to lift there customer service game. Back to overseas shops for me. Better service and quicker delivery.

[limetang]

Oh dear, time for me to chime in here with my first bad experience.....

Only happened today but my Ribble order arrived ( 12 after ordering which isnt too bad), when I opened it up everything was there, tried on the Jacket i ordered and it was waaaaay too tight.
I ordered an XL, the bag says XL, the tag on the zip says XL, but the neck tag stitched in says its a Medium (measurements confirm this).

So i guess its more of the suppliers fault rather than Ribble, but Im not sure weather I can expect a decent outcome from this. I have emailed Ribble and the Manufacturer of the Jacket.