Delivery times esp bike24 rant

moby2101

Hi
I know from reading this forumn that quite a lot of you use BIKE24 in Germany. Have you noticed that they have stopped using Air Freight and are now using Road Freight?
The delivery times on my last 2 orders are appalling(2 weeks_)
Wiggle are completely unpredictable, I paid for express delivery a while back abd it took 12 days to arrive another item on free delivery ordered afterwards arrived before it!
Chain Reaction & PBK the same..

Rant Over!

smacl

I tend to use Bike24, as I've found them a bit cheaper than Wiggle or CRC for the last few bits I've bought. Delivery times tend to be in around a week, although the last order was a bit slower ~10 days. If you opt for express delivery on CRC they're usually 3-5 working days in my experience.

My only concern about Bike24 is they don't take PayPal which is a minor concern after the CRC debacle. They also don't do Hi5 gear which I get elsewhere, or throw in the odd sampler which you often get with CRC. Outside of that I've found them very good, put I still always compare prices. Not that I'm tight or anything, but it gives me a chance to mooch around bike sites .

seamus

Bike24 are still using DHL, so even though it's via road, it should still get from Germany to Dublin in about 4 days. Most of my bike24 stuff arrives about a week after I order it. As smacl says, their pricing is better, but the €10 delivery charge means that I usually wait until I have a batch of stuff I need to order.

Wiggle are completely unpredictable and their pricing has become a lot less competitive. Delivery is still pretty quick, but dispatch is all over the place. Sometimes it's dispatched the next day, sometimes it sits there for 3 days before being looked at. I reckon if you don't pay for priority dispatch, they operate a lottery system as to whether your order will be picked today
Just be aware that Wiggle don't have an express delivery option. It's an express dispatch meaning that your order will probably be picked today, otherwise you go into the lottery. But the delivery method is still the same.

CRC are still the best for dispatch and delivery in my experience. 99% of the time, the orders are picked and boxed within 24 hours of ordering them and 90% of the time I have the box in my hands 2 days after I've ordered it. A number of times the box has actually arrived with me the day after I ordered it. Which is awesome.
I've noticed that at least half the time they use parcelforce 24hour for delivery even when I haven't paid for it.

moby2101

Bike24 are defo cheaper on certain items even when you factor in 10 yoyos for delivery..

My main issue with them is that they have switched from air to road freight

I've been trading emails with wiggle also over delayed items..

Now I know this time of year pre Santy is mad ..these incidents have all occured since September..
Wiggle really should provide tracking nos also if your paying extra for delivery.

In my experience the best two online shops to deal with if you need something fast are all4cycling.com and Rapha.cc

07Lapierre

If you want something CHEAP, buy on-line.
If you want something urgently, buy from your Local Bike Shop (LBS).
Your LBS is not always more expensive anyway.

moby2101

Ill always buy from LBS if they have what I want unless they're having a lend of me on the price ...let's be honest LBS can be 30 - 50 % more expensive on non exotic purchases eg tyres etc..

ednwireland

bike lights arrived this morning, ordered start of october postmark 4th nov.

(didnt expect anything less from dealextreme though - lived up to all my expectations)

moby2101

Just received an email from BIKE24

"We thank you for your request at Bike24.
We don't have influence on kind of shipment. We give the parcel to DHL and
they decide, how to send the parcel."

That was in response to my when did you stop using air freight?

I find that hilarious tbh..So a huge online retailer like bike24 pays a flat transport fee to DHL and DHL will decide on their behalf whether to send it by air or road fright!!

07Lapierre

moby2101 wrote: »

Ill always buy from LBS if they have what I want unless they're having a lend of me on the price ...let's be honest LBS can be 30 - 50 % more expensive on non exotic purchases eg tyres etc..

Maybe, but delivery was instant!

moby2101

True !

AstraMonti

moby2101 wrote: »

.
Wiggle really should provide tracking nos also if your paying extra for delivery.

You are not paying extra for delivery in Wiggle. You are paying extra to be put in front of the queue in order to process your order faster. Either way the shipping is exactly the same.

moby2101

Thanks Astra, I didn't realise that..

Where are you gonna buy those wheels from and would delivery etc influence your overall choice..

Price and warranty are key but generally all purchases for bike stuff with me is on" I need it ASAP"

My last purchase for the forseeable future is gonna be a turbo and bike24 are the cheapest out there as far as I can see... LBS is 60!!!! Euros dearer. I think ill contact DHL first and ask them if they roll the dice and see whether I can get Air or road!

nerraw1111

Found Bike24 to be great. Ordered a turbo earlier this month and it arrived 6 days later.

sy

Ordered wheels from BIKE-PALAST.com on Sunday and they arrived thursday, delivered by GLS with full tracking online. Very pleased

penexpers

I'm not sure if Bike24 have used air freight in the recent past. I first ordered off them a couple of years ago and it definitely came by road.

moby2101

I started buying off them over a year ago and every order was sent by DHL air freight until beginning of October..
Since then I've had two deliveries .both road freight and both took over 2 weeks. Hence the rant

Zorba

moby2101 wrote: »

I started buying off them over a year ago and every order was sent by DHL air freight until beginning of October..
Since then I've had two deliveries .both road freight and both took over 2 weeks. Hence the rant

Maybe they were waiting for stock to come in before they could complete your order.

I ordered lights off them a few wks ago on a sunday and had them by the following friday which i was quite happy with, even with the 10 quid delivery charge they were over 20 yos yos cheaper than wiggle and crc.

smacl

Ordered my TACX VR trainer from Bike24 on Saturday, arrived today, and all at a fraction of the price of Wiggle or CRC. (CRC €626, Wiggle €565, Bike24 €369) To date, I'm very impressed with this outfit. I'll still shop around and compare prices, but I'm guessing Bike24 will be getting the bulk of my business or the this basis.

Out of interest, what other on-line shops are people seeing good value from at the moment, as I usually end up doing my price comparisons between these three? Makes me wonder am I missing out on other vendors that are even better value. I'm rather surprised that a German outfit offers so much more value than their UK counterparts.

AstraMonti

Shinybikes.co.uk are great. They sometimes do price match as well if you email them. Twice (on big orders) they gave me free shipping when i asked for a better price. They are exceptionally good in prices for campagnolo stuff.

manwithaplan

smacl wrote: »

Out of interest, what other on-line shops are people seeing good value from at the moment, as I usually end up doing my price comparisons between these three? Makes me wonder am I missing out on other vendors that are even better value. I'm rather surprised that a German outfit offers so much more value than their UK counterparts.

Bikepalast.com, another German outfit, was mentioned earlier in this thread. I bought wheels from them and they delivered quickly. They have the best price on some carbon bars I am eyeing up at the moment but I am still wrestling with my conscience. Jedi-sports.de are cheap too but I have never ordered from them.

CheGuedara

Nothing to do with delivery times (which I hope won't be bad but suspect will be) but I've had really f*cking awful service from Bike24.com since trying to order some kit for Xmas presents. So I'm going to give CheGuedara's rating and recommendation -

Rating: *

Despite some apparently good prices, evidently p!ss poor inventory keeping means you may be asked to pay for more expensive versions of what you ordered or other items after the fact. Coupled with delayed and bad customer service, this helps make bike24.com a one purchase only site.

Recommendation: Avoid!! If you're even thinking of using Bike24 STOP - use the google-fu and shop elsewhere if possible to source what you're after even if slightly more expensive to do so.

Honestly, Carsten and Marten who are the 'public' face of the shop via their email contact should really get some customer relations training and learn to see the bigger picture: treat one customer badly and you risk losing future business from them and others.

smacl

I'm not convinced that the customer service of any of the on-line providers will be a whole heap better. I'd say if you're willing to pay a few bob more, and are looking for customer service, go to the local bike shop.

CheGuedara

Always do when I can, but when push price comes to shove local bricks and mortar shops can't match or usually even come close to matching value or range offered (though sometimes falsely so) online.

Unfortunately my current position means that by and large the rather limited contents of the wallet is the primary deciding factor on what is purchased and from where.

moby2101

My main problem was shipping... Ive never had any issues with the actual merchandise.

Ive ordered A LOT of stuff off them over the year..
All of the deliveries up until the end of September were airmail and delivered in 3-5 days from purchase time...

Then it went tits up...all roadfreight deliveries ..8 days 10 days 2 weeks... 3 weeks was the worst.

When I emailed complaining I got the most ridiculous made up excuse that Ive ever heard..

"We thank you for your request at Bike24.
We don't have influence on kind of shipment. We give the parcel to DHL and
they decide, how to send the parcel."

Now I'm going to bite the bullet next week or the week after to order a turbo from them as they simply are the cheapest out there for TACX.

Mycroft H

Sorry to bump the thread.

I just ordered stuff of CRC and there delivering by parcelforce next day. Problem is that the tracking number is completely invalid on either GLS Ireland's site or parcelforces themselves.

However its guaranteed next day delivery, so hopefully I'll have it tomorrow

Murph100

Never had a problem with Bike24, sometimes the shipping was s day or 2 late, but Bike24 ALWAYs shipped my orders on time, every time. I've never had a problem with stock or inventory, as I've only ordered what was shown to be in stock. I've never been asked to pay extra for any item.

I give them FIVE STARS

as I do www.bike-palast.com

Just my 2 C


Just a quick note on DHL road freight. I get a lot of stuff from all over Europe to do with my work, and DHL has the greatest discrepancy of delivery times I've ever seen. A lot depends on the location of the shipper. I had an order sent from Venice in Nov that took 5 days to get out of Italy, once across the Italian border it was here in less than 24 hours. Same thing happened with an order from northern Germany, took almost a week to reach Frankfurt, and then BANG ... arrived here 36 hours later. Other German & Dutch suppliers orders are always here in 3 working days by DHL road freight, so to be fair, I don't think Bike 24 can be held responsible for DHLs widely varying efficiency. UPS is the best but not cheap.

moby2101

I've been in touch with Bike24 on email over the last few days outlining my dissatisfaction with the service the last 4 times I bought off them, the last delivery took 3 weeks..
I told the guy I was on email to that I was going to be buying a Tacx turbo but that I was having 2nd thoughts ..He promised me that it would be delivered quickly!

Soooo

I ordered it yesterday before lunch and it arrived by DHL about an hour ago!!
Happy days...

seamus

BX 19 wrote: »

Sorry to bump the thread.

I just ordered stuff of CRC and there delivering by parcelforce next day. Problem is that the tracking number is completely invalid on either GLS Ireland's site or parcelforces themselves.

However its guaranteed next day delivery, so hopefully I'll have it tomorrow

If this hasn't already arrived, I've found the parcelforce tracking numbers from CRC usually only start working the next day. CRC and most other big online shops have their own interface for their shipping agents which lets them book parcels directly and get a shipping number before the package has been shipped.
So the number CRC give you comes from Parcelforce alright, but won't actually appear on Parcelforce's website until they've picked it up from CRC and brought it back to the depot.

moby2101 wrote: »

I've been in touch with Bike24 on email over the last few days outlining my dissatisfaction with the service the last 4 times I bought off them, the last delivery took 3 weeks..
I told the guy I was on email to that I was going to be buying a Tacx turbo but that I was having 2nd thoughts ..He promised me that it would be delivered quickly!

Soooo

I ordered it yesterday before lunch and it arrived by DHL about an hour ago!!
Happy days...

Jaysus, that's pretty quick!

moby2101

seamus wrote: »

If this hasn't already arrived, I've found the parcelforce tracking numbers from CRC usually only start working the next day. CRC and most other big online shops have their own interface for their shipping agents which lets them book parcels directly and get a shipping number before the package has been shipped.
So the number CRC give you comes from Parcelforce alright, but won't actually appear on Parcelforce's website until they've picked it up from CRC and brought it back to the depot.

Jaysus, that's pretty quick!

The power of positivity! (and numerous emails!)

Mycroft H

seamus wrote: »

If this hasn't already arrived, I've found the parcelforce tracking numbers from CRC usually only start working the next day. CRC and most other big online shops have their own interface for their shipping agents which lets them book parcels directly and get a shipping number before the package has been shipped.

The lazy sods in GLS claimed they rang the two numbers on package and no one answered so they couldn't deliver. Its now stuck in their Dublin depot until tuesday.

Bahh I need my chain to cycle, mince pudding belly isn't going to vanish on its own

nomdeboardie

I ordered my first ever item from CRC on 5 Dec, was notified that it had been dispatched (regular mail) next day...and it arrived today (30 Dec). I knew the madness of Santatime was approaching, but 6 Dec...:rolleyes: