biketowork.ie and Planet X

positron

Another day, another question...!

Looking thru the list of bike shops in 'biketowork.ie' (I am restricted to this list as my employer have signed up with them), I see there is a Planet X dealer in there.

Planet X Tyberry Ltd
Unit 17 Block B, Blyry Industrial Estate, Athlone, Co. Westmeath
1800 332 322
www.resolutions.ie
Planet X

The website doesn't mention anything about bikes, and the phone is ringing out. Has anyone dealt with them before? Thinking about a Planet X SL Pro, which seems to be well liked and recommended here in boards.

Thanks a mil!

Lumen

The contact us page has the e-mail address of someone called Morgan Fox.

According to RobFowl, Morgan Fox rode for Tonnisteiner Colnago in 1996.

Same person?

alfalad

Got a number of flyers before at events like the Sean Kelly that advertise that company saying they sell the Planet X. Notice they have a bit of mark up on the bikes but not bad. Could be a good option but not sure how the warrant would work.

positron

Tried again, and got thru on phone and spoke to Morgon, nice and helpful person, and yes they do deal sell Planet X bikes, and will go with biketowork.ie as well, just in case anyone else is in similar situation.

Will post more details soon!

petethedrummer

Probably these folks: http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/gentsbicycles/1534934

mike12

positron wrote: »

Tried again, and got thru on phone and spoke to Morgon, nice and helpful person, and yes they do deal sell Planet X bikes, and will go with biketowork.ie as well, just in case anyone else is in similar situation.

Will post more details soon!

Hi,
Did u get any prices are they much different from the Planet X web site.
~Mike

positron

They are charging the same price as on the Planet-X website. In fact its €1350 for Planet-X SL Pro SRAM Red, where as it's €1358 on Planet-X website, so its slightly cheaper.

If you are buying it under cycle to work scheme and employer directly deals with them, the price remains the same. However, if you are going thru the biketowork.ie voucher system, they will add a 10% for the first €1000, which adds another €100 to the total cost.

BTH

Did anyone use these in the end??

Recommend???

positron

I emailed them for a quote some 10 days ago as discussed, and yet to get a reply back!! But I haven't tried follow it up as I am busy with a couple of other projects, so I can't really complain. They were very helpful on phone!

Toblerone1978

I recently made an enquiry about a chap who distributes Planet Xs in Ireland. He told me that he was at the Ironman in Barcelona and then visiting the Planet X factory on the way home. He said that there would be a delay in responding but should get back to me this week.

I can't remember his details but it could be the same person. Vague I know, it's the best I can do!

BTH

Cheers guys. Can you give us an update if you hear anything? Might be going down this route myself.

2 Wheels Good

Did anyone use these guys in the end?

positron

Never got a quote from them, despite emailing them as instructed. Not sure why.

littleredspot

I did. I went for the SL Pro Carbon SRAM Red. I found the guys friendly and helpfull but there was a long delay on ordering the bike. I put a deposit down in October and got the bike the week before Christmas. Part of this delay I was told of when I ordered it, as it was a pre-order deal , but then the snow etc delayed it. Other than that the service was good.
As mentioned above, if your company is signed up to one of the bike to work "schemes" they'll charge you the 10% commission that they are being charged.
Oh, and it's an amazing bit of kit for the money.

vertigo1976

I got an SL Pro from these guys two weeks ago using CTW scheme, as did two of my mates over the past month. I just rang them and visited their showroom in Athlone.
They had plenty of stock and enough finishing kit to allow me spec the bike the way I wanted. Prices worked out the same as online. They had about 8 bikes built up ready for collection as well.
The big advantage for me was being able to see the kit in the flesh rather than trying to spec a bike from online pics. Sound lads to deal with too.
(I have no connection to the company, just a happy customer!)

fat bloke

Brother in law went down to them last week and came away with a bike. He was happy out.

You generally have to pre-order, they just happened to have what he wanted in stock and in his size, but I was under the impression that would be an unusual enough occurrence.

positron

I wonder if there's anyone else like this, selling online only bikes under biketowork.ie - like Wiggle's Focus or Verenti or Canyon Roadlite etc. You can't even by a cboardman with this silly biketowork crowd as Halfords won't deal with them...!

BostonB

positron wrote: »

...this silly biketowork crowd as Halfords won't deal with them...!

What biketowork crowd?

Ryath

BostonB wrote: »

What biketowork crowd?

biketowork.ie Basically at a cost of €100 to the employee they supply a voucher and the paper work for the bike to work scheme. Really don't understand why companys use it. Is it really that much bother to write a check and photocopy a few pages.

funkyjebus

you can get focus in eurocycles.he means biketowork.ie

Ryath

funkyjebus wrote: »

you can get focus in eurocycles.he means biketowork.ie

Eurocycles don't deal with bike to work and when I looked there the bikes were no where near as cheap as wiggle.

positron wrote: »

I wonder if there's anyone else like this, selling online only bikes under biketowork.ie - like Wiggle's Focus or Verenti or Canyon Roadlite etc. You can't even by a cboardman with this silly biketowork crowd as Halfords won't deal with them...!

Planet X Athlone aren't just buying bikes online and reselling them they are the Irish distributers they bring in the frames and parts and build to spec.

I'd just expain the situation to your HR department and see if they would administer the scheme themselves it really is not that much work. You can get a bike where ever you like and have an extra €100 to spend.

Don't know if its possible but if you were on good terms with your LBS could they order the bike online from wiggle or canyon for you if you have to use biketowork.ie

positron

Ryath wrote: »

I'd just expain the situation to your HR department and see if they would administer the scheme themselves it really is not that much work. You can get a bike where ever you like and have an extra €100 to spend.

Don't know if its possible but if you were on good terms with your LBS could they order the bike online from wiggle or canyon for you if you have to use biketowork.ie

Tried both with my best puppy dog eyes, but no luck! HR said they can't as they are contractually bound to go exclusively with biketowork.ie (!!), and LBS said "too much hassle" - business must be good for them if they are so happy to dismiss my offer of paying the 10% commision + some % for their efforts + build and tuning + accessories.

PS: If there's a BS person reading this and want to help me - please PM!

vertigo1976

@positron: I feel for you, your company only dealing with biketowork.ie sounds like a total shakedown.

Maybe you could strike a deal with the Athlone PX guys on accessories to help offest the extra e100? You also save the delivery cost of the bike buying from them vs online (c.£30 stg). My bike had a 2010 logo SL Pro frame that saved me a few quid over the 2011 one. (same frame)

Even if I had to pay an extra e.100 for my PX SL pro, it's still pretty good value.

just my 2c.

Ryath

vertigo1976 wrote: »

@positron: I feel for you, your company only dealing with biketowork.ie sounds like a total shakedown.

Maybe you could strike a deal with the Athlone PX guys on accessories to help offest the extra e100? You also save the delivery cost of the bike buying from them vs online (c.£30 stg). My bike had a 2010 logo SL Pro frame that saved me a few quid over the 2011 one. (same frame)

Even if I had to pay an extra e.100 for my PX SL pro, it's still pretty good value.

just my 2c.

+1

I got mine PX SL pro for €1250 in october from them, even if had to pay €1350 there is nothing else that come close in a carbon frame except for the boardman. Same as vertigo I also got an old model blue frame. Red one I don't like, white was too much cleaning (even though I am now obsessive about cleaning in a way I never was with by old bikes:D) and the black frames were not available for another month or two.
PX do seem to have limited suppy of frames but talking to the guys in Athlone they were working on getting the frames direct from the manufacture instead of PX in the UK.

CHIPPY1979

I too, got a bike thruough the bike to work scheme. You won't find a better deal in the whole country for a full carbon bke and believe me I did my research. Lads in Athlone are a pleasure to deal with and would highly recommend them and of course the bike:D

BTH

I also got a bike (Exocet TT) through the lads in Athlone and they're a nice bunch of guys. Very helpful. But as far as I can tell they're not great on the whole e-mail side of things!! Give em a bell and they're very helpful.

chakattack

You've got to hand it to the biketowork.ie guys. These must be creaming it on the laziness of some HR/Finance departments.

It's very unfortunate that the person buying the bike gets stumped with a 100 squid handling fee.

The contractually bound excuse positron got sounds like a major crock of sh*t.

positron

Yeah, my work seems to have fallen for biketowork's marketing cr*p, unfortunately - my work is a smallish place, with probably a dozen people availing bikes thru this scheme, so they probably didn't want to look into doing it themselves.

Iaino

Folks there should be no charge to the customers for using Bike To Work. The bike shop should be paying a commission to them. I got my bike no problem with no extra charge. From what I know the shop shouldn't be passing on the charge.

durrus

Iaino wrote: »

Folks there should be no charge to the customers for using Bike To Work. The bike shop should be paying a commission to them. I got my bike no problem with no extra charge. From what I know the shop shouldn't be passing on the charge.

Actually, the shop can pass on the commission charge if they want to - it's up to the customer to decide whether they want to deal with a shop that does pass it on. The difficulty I suppose is where a company has 'tied' themselves to biketowork Ltd to administer the scheme - a totally needless option since the scheme is so easy to run.

It doubtless comes as huge surprise to most people on here but the margin on bikes is very tight - particularly as that margin has to support a trained mechanic to assemble the product prior to sale. At our own store we have held off from charging the commission fee onwards to the customer - sometimes though, it's with little thanks, as people want to pay via a biketowork voucher AND haggle or have stuff given for free with the bike. This just isn't possible if the business is to be sustained.

It may be that we will in the end have no choice but to pass on some type of fee for using these voucher schemes. Biketowork is just one. Raleigh2Work, CycleScheme (previously known as Bikes4Work) are all the same - charging the bike shop a commission for the pleasure of accepting their vouchers and then taking weeks (at best) to actually pay the shop.

Apologies if any of this sounds like whingeing - there isn't a bike shop in the country that isn't grateful for the Cycle To Work scheme - it's just that many companies are ending up using a voucher company in the misguided belief that they 'have' to. It can be sometimes just a matter of someone in HR typing 'Bike To Work' into Google, ending up on biketowork.ie and thinking that it is the official website. The correct website for objective information on the scheme is www.bikescheme.ie

Thanks

Eamon
Altitude
Waterford

Khannie

Seriously considering one of these. I've a question though (slightly off topic, sorry): The bike to work scheme covers the first 1K and the SL Pro are well beyond that. What happens with the extra 300 or so? Do you just negotiate that with your employer? Any kind of messiness is likely to render this a no-go for my employer.

edit: Have they gone up 300 quid since this post?