CRC exchange rate rip off

Cee-Jay-Cee

I need tyres for my winter bike and decided on Michelin Endurance 28mm. Added them to my cart and went to check out and they came to £54stg. I changed the location to Ireland and it converted to €90!!! The exchange rate on XE is €60 and €3.50 for postage through the Postal Store. CRC would need to update their exchange rates, it’s a blatant rip off at present!!

sbs2010

Irish vat gets applied. But that's only i think 4% higher than UK vat.

So seems must be fx rate gouging. Is there not option to pay in Stg, and let your bank do the fx conversion?

Kaisr Sose

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

I need tyres for my winter bike and decided on Michelin Endurance 28mm. Added them to my cart and went to check out and they came to £54stg. I changed the location to Ireland and it converted to €90!!! The exchange rate on XE is €60 and €3.50 for postage through the Postal Store. CRC would need to update their exchange rates, it’s a blatant rip off at present!!

Its a total rip off and flagged before direcfly to them. Beasty may come along and add to this. They call it country specific promotional pricing, and say its perfectly legal, even in the EU common market.

However, now GB have left the EU, the discriminate pricing across borders is something we cannot do much about anymore. Not that the EC did anything about when they were EU members.

Ultimately, the best thing to do is buy elsewhere.

Fann Linn

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

I need tyres for my winter bike and decided on Michelin Endurance 28mm. Added them to my cart and went to check out and they came to £54stg. I changed the location to Ireland and it converted to €90!!! The exchange rate on XE is €60 and €3.50 for postage through the Postal Store. CRC would need to update their exchange rates, it’s a blatant rip off at present!!

Could you buy with Revolut?

MojoMaker

Just use parcel motel and stick in the Belfast address, problem solved.

rubadub

sbs2010 wrote: »

Irish vat gets applied. But that's only i think 4% higher than UK vat.

End price should be 2.5% more. VAT is 20% there and 23% here, so 123/120=1.025 = 2.5%

I put those in my basket to check, interesting to click around other countries. Germany is even cheaper than UK. this does have free delivery. Different RRPs are applied so I wonder if the manufacturers possibly have some agreement.

Germany

Total:£51.98
You Save:51% (£54.00)

Parcelmotel was mentioned but that is €4 and really the difference in exchange rate should be less. It could cost more if it goes to a big locker. I got tyres before sent to work and reception thought a full bike had arrived in a box.

MojoMaker

It's not an exchange rate issue though guys, it's an explicit differential pricing decision made by Wiggle management. We've seen it for several years now on the Wiggle network and now CRC infected by association to the group. There is at least one long running thread here exposing Wiggle for this practice, but with no happy conclusion (yet).

Do you want to hand them €60 or €90? The sooner the company realises that customers are not going to pay the €90, the sooner the differential practices will abate or cease.

loyatemu

Fann Linn wrote: »

Could you buy with Revolut?

I assume they apply Irish pricing if it's being delivered to Ireland so it's not just a question of which currency you're paying.

Encountered similar recently with a Kitchen supplies company - Euro pricing was up to 100% higher than £ prices and you couldn't order in £ from Ireland. Then discovered the company is based in and ships from Dublin which really p|ssed me off!

Kaisr Sose

MojoMaker wrote: »

It's not an exchange rate issue though guys, it's an explicit differential pricing decision made by Wiggle management. We've seen it for several years now on the Wiggle network and now CRC infected by association to the group. There is at least one long running thread here exposing Wiggle for this practice, but with no happy conclusion (yet).

Do you want to hand them €60 or €90? The sooner the company realises that customers are not going to pay the €90, the sooner the differential practices will abate or cease.

CRC have been at this for years. I questioned them on it, as did Beasty (a site Mod) and they said they were doing nothing wrong. It got better for a while, but now they are out of the EU, i would say its a cosious decision to have geographic pricing. A reason Germany wod be cheaper is basically CRC have more competitors there (bikediscount, bike-components, mantel, 4thebike etc.) In Ireland, its the oposite, so they adopt a pricing strategy more akin to monopoly than full competition. My view of course.

Harrybelafonte

Haven't bought of Wiggle in years because of this and have stopped buying from CRC too. I also won't buy from Bike24 as they're owned by Wiggle. We really shouldn't be financially supporting **** like this.

ted1

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

Haven't bought of Wiggle in years because of this and have stopped buying from CRC too. I also won't buy from Bike24 as they're owned by Wiggle. We really shouldn't be financially supporting **** like this.

I stopped buying off CRC When they got rid of next day delivery.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Just to update this. The same tyres were €60 on Wiggle delivered to Ireland. I also got a €10 discount because I’m a first time customer so they cost me €50 and I discovered I had €45 in my PayPal account that I wasn’t aware of so they cost me a fiver. Couldn’t beat it.

It still doesn’t explain the discrepancy between Wiggle and CRC which are the same company....

Eamonnator

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

Haven't bought of Wiggle in years because of this and have stopped buying from CRC too. I also won't buy from Bike24 as they're owned by Wiggle. We really shouldn't be financially supporting **** like this.

As far as I know, Bike24 is no longer associated with Wiggle.


Edit:
I found the link
https://cyclingindustry.news/wigglecrc-sells-bike24-back-to-the-riverside-company/

Kaisr Sose

Eamonnator wrote: »

As far as I know, Bike24 is no longer associated with Wiggle.

I was not aware of that. Bike24 are still selling Prime wheels and equipment , which are CRC own brand. I thought Bike24 was the Brexit hedge of CRC for EU sales.

Edit: yes, you are correct. It resold back to former management.

Eamonnator

Kaisr Sose wrote: »

I was not aware of that. Bike24 are still selling Prime wheels and equipment , which are CRC own brand. I thought Bike24 was the Brexit jedge of CRC re VAT free EU sales.

See edit of my previous post.

Kaisr Sose

Eamonnator wrote: »

See edit of my previous post.

We are crossing over. Well found. I think it was in Cycling Weekly or Road.cc too.

Harrybelafonte

Eamonnator wrote: »

As far as I know, Bike24 is no longer associated with Wiggle.


Edit:
I found the link
https://cyclingindustry.news/wigglecrc-sells-bike24-back-to-the-riverside-company/

Thanks. Bit of a relief tbh.