#1
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Buying on the net
I've been happily buying stuff on the net for years. Only once did anything
ever go wrong and that was easily rectified thanks to a responsive vendor. Until this year, that is. This year I've bought heaps of bike stuff on the net - or tried to, in some cases - and it's been one frustration after another. Well, I had one purchase go right, so credit to Rick Shapiro of Gear-To-Go Tandems(http://www.gtgtandems.com/) where credit is due, but the rest have been nightmares. What is it about bike shops that they can't do business on the net properly? I mean, in one case I had to get the local BBB involved, and I've never had to resort to them before. If they don't want to do business with people outside the US or Canada then fine. Just be up front and say so. But they should not say they take international orders and then stuff their customers around. My current nightmare is with Performance. A while back I wanted to buy some stuff from Nashbar but didn't because they don't use USPS and that's a deal killer because of the outrageous courier costs of UPS and FedEx. I read somewhere that Nashbar and Performance were owned by the same people or organisation or whatever, so I asked Performance if they used USPS for international orders and they said yes. No worries. I ordered some stuff. But the order confirmation email said ground shipping, which wasn't right according to my understanding, so I went to Performance's web site to try to track my order status before checking with them, only the system couldn't find my order. I duly fired off an email to customer service saying there was a problem with the system not finding my order and would they please check its shipping method. After much delay it turns out the *******s cancelled my order. Only they didn't have the decency to tell me. If I hadn't queried them I'd still be blissfully waiting for my package and that's just not right. It turns out they can't automatically verify my credit card billing address with my bank. They didn't alert me to this problem. They didn't offer to work with me to resolve it. No, they just cancelled the order and left me hanging. The *******s. Now they say if I want I can order again but I have to pay with an international money order drawn in US funds. That costs me more and I'm not ordering from them for the privilege of paying more. It's not the only option either. There is an alternative, one I've had to use once before, which is to fax a photocopy of my credit card to them. It's an unduly paranoid pain in the arse but it's doable. I will not use a money order. Stuff them. I have a perfectly good credit card issued by the second biggest bank in Australia and apart from anything else I'm not giving up the protection it offers me. When it comes to security it's not all about them. Why do they have to make it so hard? What is it about bike shops that they are so clueless about doing business? I'm absolutely serious, I have never had any problems like this with any vendor in any other market segment on the net. It's only bike stuff. I won't bore you with the details of how other vendors of bike stuff have stuffed me around in ways great and small but I am absolutely fed up with their stupidity. Unfortunately organisations like Performance get away with being bureaucratic and unresponsive because they're on the other side of the world from their international customers. It's a shame. -- A: Top-posters. Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet? |
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#2
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Buying on the net
The only US on-line shops I deal with these days are Vechios (Peter Chisholm), Harris (Sheldon Brown) and Business Cycles (John Darcy). These three shops are really good people, and will work hard to get the obscure stuff that my addiction calls for, but aren't discounters. For discounted mass-market stuff (Campy toys and tyres), I find the UK shops are great. My current faves are Parkers, Total Cycling (now that they use parcel force rather than DHL), and Deeside. Cheers, Suzy -- suzyj |
#3
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Buying on the net
"suzyj" wrote in message
The only US on-line shops I deal with these days are Vechios (Peter Chisholm), Harris (Sheldon Brown) and Business Cycles (John Darcy). These three shops are really good people, and will work hard to get the obscure stuff that my addiction calls for, but aren't discounters. The time I contacted Sheldon he didn't have what I wanted in stock so he tried to sell me something else. I eventually found someone who wanted to sell me what I wanted to buy. For discounted mass-market stuff (Campy toys and tyres), I find the UK shops are great. My current faves are Parkers, Total Cycling (now that they use parcel force rather than DHL), and Deeside. Don't you find postage from the UK to be a killer? -- A: Top-posters. Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet? |
#4
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Buying on the net
excuse my ignorance, what's a BBB? I assume you're not referring to the brand of bike parts. -- sinus |
#5
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Buying on the net
I had similar problems with BikeSomeWhere. They said they'd shipped m new shoes (left the other pair on the car roof and drove off) an blamed FedEx when they didn't turn up. They were a nightmare to dea with by email. I emailed them 12 times and they replied 2. I finall contacted Amazon (who I placed the order with) and they told me tha BikeSomeWhere didn't have the items in stock and they would credit m account (but not the foreign currency transaction fee or loss on th exchange rate). I HAVE to shop online 'cos I don't have a LBS within 5000km and I'v had mostly good service. I try and stick to a few trusted vendors lik Excelsports, REI, PricePoint (very helpful when they sent the wron colour jersey - let me keep it and sent me the correct one for shippin cost only). I have to say that I've only had problems this year too. And shippin is getting prohibitively expensive -- Dominic Sansom |
#6
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Buying on the net
sinus wrote:
excuse my ignorance, what's a BBB? I assume you're not referring to the brand of bike parts. Better Business Bureau? Cheers, Brad |
#7
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Buying on the net
You don't have a bike shop within 5000km?? Where do you live, Siberia? I assume that was a typo? Sasha I HAVE to shop online 'cos I don't have a LBS within 5000km and I've had mostly good service. I try and stick to a few trusted vendors like Excelsports, REI, PricePoint (very helpful when they sent the wrong colour jersey - let me keep it and sent me the correct one for shipping cost only). I have to say that I've only had problems this year too. And shipping is getting prohibitively expensive. -- Dominic Sansom |
#8
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Buying on the net
"Brad Hubbard" wrote in message
sinus wrote: excuse my ignorance, what's a BBB? I assume you're not referring to the brand of bike parts. Better Business Bureau? Yes. Unfortunately, some vendors think answering legitimate customer queries is an optional extra. Siccing the BBB onto them can be a salutary reminder that they can't treat me like **** just because I'm halfway around the world. -- A: Top-posters. Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet? |
#9
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Buying on the net
"DRS" wrote:
The time I contacted Sheldon he didn't have what I wanted in stock so he tried to sell me something else. I eventually found someone who wanted to sell me what I wanted to buy. I too wanted to sell you what you wanted to buy. Unfortunately, Avocet had been unable to fill our long-standing order for those tyres. We had been waiting for quite a few weeks for them, and had no idea when they would arrive from Korea. Avocet doesn't go through distributors, they are the only wholesale source for their products. When they are out of stock, there is no alternative source. I wanted to solve your problem, so I suggested an alternative tyre that I like a lot, and use myself. This tyre is US$5.00 _less_ expensive than the Avocet model you were asking for. I didn't do this because I'm a greedy bait-and-switch artist, but because I'm a cyclist like you and wanted to help you with your problem. Sheldon "Bald Is Good" Brown Newtonville, Massachusetts, USA +---------------------------------------------+ | If your bike has drop handlebars, but you | | rarely or never ride on the drops, it's a | | sure sign that your bike is not properly | | fitted or is not properly adjusted! | | See: http://sheldonbrown.com/handsup | +---------------------------------------------+ Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041 http://harriscyclery.com Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com |
#10
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Buying on the net
suzyj wrote:
The only US on-line shops I deal with these days are Vechios (Peter Chisholm), Harris (Sheldon Brown) and Business Cycles (John Darcy). These three shops are really good people, and will work hard to get the obscure stuff that my addiction calls for, but aren't discounters. I've had very good service from aebike.com and lumicycle.co.uk. |
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