Online Purchases - good and bad experiences

Peter BJ · Postby **Peter BJ** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 10:54 pm

I live in Copenhagen, which is one of the bicycle capitals of the world. Everybody has a bike, itâ€™s the only way to get around in the city. Alternatively you can take your car, but it can easily take 30 minutes to travel 3 km, and thatâ€™s just not for me.

Iâ€™ve had all kinds of bikes, from mountain bikes to BMXâ€™s and road bikes, but picking up the kids and grocery shopping is a tall order on a bike that isnâ€™t suited for the purpose, â€“ make sure you get a bike that suits your needs.

Iâ€™ve been on the look out for a good offer on a city bike for quite some time now. After digging through most of the bike stores in my surroundings, I realized that I had to scope the net for a good offer.

After checking out about 10 different shops, I stumbled upon Coop Cykler (Cykler means bicycle in Danish), who had a great offer on a city bike for only 300 $. I ordered the bike (model: Rocky 28" 21 gear) and it was delivered to me just 5 days later at my local grocery store, which was really convenient.

I actually didnâ€™t have the biggest expectations due to the low price, but I must admit, Iâ€™ve had it for 6 months now, and it still rides like a dream. Perfect.

slowK · Postby **slowK** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 10:23 am

Peter BJ wrote:I live in Copenhagen, which is one of the bicycle capitals of the world. Everybody has a bike, itâ€™s the only way to get around in the city. Alternatively you can take your car, but it can easily take 30 minutes to travel 3 km, and thatâ€™s just not for me.

Iâ€™ve had all kinds of bikes, from mountain bikes to BMXâ€™s and road bikes, but picking up the kids and grocery shopping is a tall order on a bike that isnâ€™t suited for the purpose, â€“ make sure you get a bike that suits your needs.

Iâ€™ve been on the look out for a good offer on a city bike for quite some time now. After digging through most of the bike stores in my surroundings, I realized that I had to scope the net for a good offer.

After checking out about 10 different shops, I stumbled upon Coop Cykler (Cykler means bicycle in Danish), who had a great offer on a city bike for only 300 $. I ordered the bike (model: Rocky 28" 21 gear) and it was delivered to me just 5 days later at my local grocery store, which was really convenient.

I actually didnâ€™t have the biggest expectations due to the low price, but I must admit, Iâ€™ve had it for 6 months now, and it still rides like a dream. Perfect.

Copenhagen - cool. We were there as part of a holiday in March (it really was cool- literally). It was really inspiring to see so many bike commuters everywhere - male, female, young, old, kids in trailers and bike seats. Such a cycle-friendly city.

MarkG · Postby **MarkG** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 11:23 am

landscapecadmonkey wrote:
MarkG wrote:Waited 3 weeks for a Wiggle order to finally arrive .. never again.
interested to know - did you order from items in stock ?. this seems at odds with a number or peoples experiences. only reason i ask is that i have a ribble and c r c order that ive just placed, and was about to place a wiggle order..... i thought maybe they were a blue chip o/s company. if theyre a bit sus, i will wait and place a second order with c r c....

Hi mate.

Yes, the items were in stock, just slack.

I'm still waiting (8 days now) for my c r c order to finish processing.

Tazzy · Postby **Tazzy** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 12:20 pm

I reckon most online bikeshops would be working double-time while the TDF is on.

ldrcycles · Postby **ldrcycles** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 9:12 pm

BIG +1 for Cell Bikes, i've ordered heaps of stuff from them, their knicks are the most comfortable i've tried in addition to being the cheapest by MILES.

My brother bought a Cell Swift a few months ago and it arrived here in SE Qld in 4 or 5 days, fantastic bike, especially for the money.
I'm saving up for a Cell Victor carbon road bike, the price on that is untouchable.

Chef · Postby **Chef** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 9:25 pm

My first order from Cycling Express arrived today; just over a week to arrive.
One of the items I had ordered was out of stock, so they phoned me the first working day after my order was placed and arranged an upgrade to an in-stock item.
Prices were good, excellent communication and prompt delivery

Cheers
Phil

Sh4rkbait · Postby **Sh4rkbait** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 1:27 pm

I read with interest all the bad experiences people have had with Wiggle and c r c, I lived in the UK until November 2010 and both were always very quick for instock items and I spent about Â£7500 over a few years with Wiggle and if I ever had issues with items they sorted it out very quickly hence I remained loyal.

Interestingly, for me at least, I ordered some track tubs and some bits and pieces from them last week as their price was half of what I could find in Aus and it arrived in 6 days, very impressed with them still. Could it be that the problem is with the couriers and postage system? I have noticed when posting things to family in the UK and receving stuff from them that letters and parcels take between 4 days and a month to arrive at the destination, there does not appear to be any reason for this.

Planet X in the UK had a lot of my business for wheels while I was TTing seriously, so as i had bought a track bike I was looking for a fast set of track wheels, Planet X have 82mm deep section carbon track wheels as a pair with flip flop hub for Â£499 which drops to Â£409 when the VAT is taken off as we are outside the UK. Postage was Â£30 and they arrived in 7 days from date of order, so where the Aussie Planet X stockist was asking for over $1000 for a similar set of wheels, I got them shipped from the UK for $691, give Planet X a look you may save a lot of money (no I don't work or have any connection to them apart from loving their wheels)

Any recomendations you can give me for stock and good service in Aus would be great, track and road mostly.

Thanks

Matt

lethoso · Postby **lethoso** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 5:53 pm

has anyone had trouble with PBK's payment processor? I was going to order a garmin 500 from them but it wouldn't accept my card. Ordered from Evans cycles instead, no issues

Never had any trouble in the past...

MarkG · Postby **MarkG** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 3:02 pm

Purchased some Specialized Squadra booties from Bikenow on Wed, and they turned up today.
10/10!

ajmit3 · Postby **ajmit3** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 3:12 pm

Brought some Salice 006 sunglasses from sunglassesforsport.com .... They inculded VAT in the final price which was annoying although they promised to refund the VAT onto my credit card.

More puzzlingly though, my emails have beem bouncing back from them....

Worst case scenario is i'm down $150 on a scam ...

Edit: I don't see how wait times for wiggle and ribble and evans are an big issue. You do get some waiting around, with the odd piece of gear taking a few weeks or so... I'm more interested in people buying from relatively unknown shops and doing a bit of a mini review. The old 'i've waited 10 days from wiggle ' doesn't really interest me...

uncle arthur · Postby **uncle arthur** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 3:23 pm

It's possibly already been noted here, but another thumbs up for Torpedo 7.

After last Wednesday's chilly Brfisbane morning I ordered some more warm gear - cloves, toe covers and knee warmers. They arrived in the mail today - that's basically a three (business) day turnaround, and the prices were great - all were on special. I think I spent about $80 including postage.

landscapecadmonkey · Postby **landscapecadmonkey** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 6:17 pm

recent online purchases

1. Charlie the Bikemonger (UK) paid/ordered 07/07 arrived 14/07
2. Ribble paid/ordered 11/07 arrived 18/07 (ultegra mini group, packing was pretty poor - basically each part in its plastic bag, wrapped in piece of offcut cardboard with no end support=highly squashable)
3. c r c paid/ordered 12/07. has yet to be sent from c r c, an $8 tool availability has delayed $1K order.

paladin · Postby **paladin** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 7:11 pm

Ordered from wiggle 7 July received here in Tas today 18j July. Happy

troyww · Postby **troyww** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 12:23 am

Torpedo7 have a big sale on so I ordered a few things and it still hasn't even shipped according to their site and it's been a week .........
Their site states -- For standard shipping, you should receive your order within 3-5 business days. Please allow additional time for shipments to rural addresses. I'm definately not rural .
I think I'll have to give them a call tomorrow .

Tazzy · Postby **Tazzy** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 9:47 am

Anyone had any experience with purchases from Assos.com.au with respect to delivery times, after sales etc?

Comedian · Postby **Comedian** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 12:04 pm

Tazzy wrote:Anyone had any experience with purchases from Assos.com.au with respect to delivery times, after sales etc?

They are great. You will often get a call from them after ordering to check your size. They express post stuff so it arrives over night.

When I got frozen last week I called them and had a chat about what might help me and their recommendations were good.

The website goes to the Mel store so call Melbourne and you will talk to the guy who sends your order.

scotto · Postby **scotto** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 2:36 pm

waiting on wiggle still
ordered 29th june
dispatched the next day
still nothing....

TimW · Postby **TimW** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 3:32 pm

scotto wrote:waiting on wiggle still
ordered 29th june
dispatched the next day
still nothing....

I ordered from wiggle on the 8th July and it arrived yesterday. Have you contacted them as yet?

giantguy · Postby **giantguy** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 6:32 pm

I am also still waiting for a wiggle order that was despatched on June 21. I contacted wiggle informing them that I have not received the item but a later order that I made was received in just a week from order. Wiggle replied that they won't do anything until after 20 working days have passed. I have ordered plenty of stuff from various places and never had to wait this long before.

scotto · Postby **scotto** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 10:01 pm

TimW wrote:
scotto wrote:waiting on wiggle still
ordered 29th june
dispatched the next day
still nothing....

I ordered from wiggle on the 8th July and it arrived yesterday. Have you contacted them as yet?

twice, so far their great advice is to ask my neighbours if they have the box ! if they did and kept it this long i'm sure theyd keep it !
also rang the post office to check its not sitting on a shelf there. it wasnt..

backslashio · Postby **backslashio** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:28 am

Torpedo7 and their lack of a "cancel order" option or cancel a single item for it (ala Amazon + other various websites)

I ordered a helmet along with a few other things yesterday and then about 2min later I found out why MTB helmets were bad for road users thanks to this forum. So I sent an email straight away to their sales department but then the next day I got an email saying my order was already dispatched!

I realise I made a mistake yet now I'm going to get an additional helmet along with the one I ordered from another website! Going to be a pain to send it back too since its a bulky item & I'll probably have to sell it on ebay or something *sighs*

ray · Postby **ray** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 1:06 pm

Torpedo7: A few weeks back placed an order (for body armour) on Sunday night hoping to receive by the following Saturday. Was dispatched Tuesday morning but unfortunately didn't receive until the following Monday. I find that Aust Post eParcel can be really slow at times - parcel was sent from Sydney to Brisbane.

In contrast: Cellbikes, placed order on the Wednesay and received the following day - they used Courier Please.

rudeboy · Postby **rudeboy** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 1:13 pm

ray wrote:Torpedo7: A few weeks back placed an order (for body armour) on Sunday night hoping to receive by the following Saturday. Was dispatched Tuesday morning but unfortunately didn't receive until the following Monday. I find that Aust Post eParcel can be really slow at times - parcel was sent from Sydney to Brisbane.

In contrast: Cellbikes, placed order on the Wednesay and received the following day - they used Courier Please.

I actually think they bulk ship from New Zealand to the warehouse and then devide orders into Aust post eparcels. This explains the length of time between consignment being received and item actually ariving at Aust post distribution warehouse.

Tazzy · Postby **Tazzy** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 1:51 pm

Tazzy wrote:
Tazzy wrote:My c r c order showed up today, dispatched 21st June. The Chiba Windproof Tour gloves have poorly stitched seams causing a hole in one of them. I've emailed them, awaiting reply but I doubt it would be viable to send them back. Everything else was as it should be though.
Still not a peep from c r c on the faulty gloves. I also sent pictures of the stitching to Chiba in Germany on the same day I sent them to c r c. To my surprise that night Mr Chiba, the company owner, emailed me and reckons he's gonna send me a new pair of gloves.

Nothing from Mr. Chiba in the mail as yet but c r c have come good, they offered to send another set of gloves to the same amount and then agreed to refund the amount off a more expensive, hopefully better quality, set of gloves.

jules21 · Postby **jules21** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 10:22 am

T7 - light failed and claimed under warranty. they sent a new one without question. big thumbs up!

c r c - flasher light failed (i think someone must have been testing one of those ultrasonic weapons that kills all electronics within a certain radius) - sent warranty form in MS Document Imaging format, got a reply: "didn't receive any attachment - please follow returns procedure". resent it, got no reply. rang them, discovered they received the attachment but couldn't open it (great customer service - white lie to make out that it was my fault). agreed to send it in PDF format. useless, but no more than expected.