Vanmoof bike vendors and/or similar bike vendors

necronius

Hi Folks,

Anyone hear of the Vanmoof bike manufacturer? There latest bike is the S3. They've a shop on Drury street and I'm impressed with the security measures they have (100 euro per year subscription). The bikes themselves are 2 grand but seem solid. Considering the price for a typical electric bike this seems reasonable.

Unfortunately my employer uses travelhub.ie for the cycle to work scheme and they don't deal with Vanmoof. Does anyone know of electric bikes with comparable security options and/or vendors who sell Vanmoof aside from Vanmoof themselves?

Thanks.

Clare_Culchie

Great bike - I road-tested it yesterday myself. I've been following Vanmoof for a while, the S3 certainly fits the bill for me. The boost button is amazing! The bike feels a bit chunky, but it's solid and a pleasure to cycle. I look forward to buzzing all the way up Chesterfield Avenue through Phoenix Park while barely turning the pedals.
However, they don't participate in the Irish cycle-to-work scheme. When I mailed them initially about it in April the response was to tell me that I can buy through their London store as they do sell through the UK cycle-to-work scheme. I got the impression from the correspondence that they assumed that we were the same.
:mad:
Their FAQs state that they operate the UK cycle-to-work scheme through 3rd-party voucher sellers such as Cyclescheme and Bike2Work, both of which have Irish branches operating in the Irish market. I contacted both and unfortunately neither deal with Vanmoof for Irish cycle-to-work-scheme buyers.
Until they sort this out I can't justify spending €2000 on a bike that should cost me only €1,400.

loyatemu

the restriction isn't in the Irish scheme - you can buy off any seller (I got my bike from Wiggle) but some employers have their own restrictions presumably to simplify invoicing by only dealing with a single supplier.

necronius

Clare_Culchie wrote: »

Great bike - I road-tested it yesterday myself. I've been following Vanmoof for a while, the S3 certainly fits the bill for me. The boost button is amazing! The bike feels a bit chunky, but it's solid and a pleasure to cycle. I look forward to buzzing all the way up Chesterfield Avenue through Phoenix Park while barely turning the pedals.
However, they don't participate in the Irish cycle-to-work scheme. When I mailed them initially about it in April the response was to tell me that I can buy through their London store as they do sell through the UK cycle-to-work scheme. I got the impression from the correspondence that they assumed that we were the same.
:mad:
Their FAQs state that they operate the UK cycle-to-work scheme through 3rd-party voucher sellers such as Cyclescheme and Bike2Work, both of which have Irish branches operating in the Irish market. I contacted both and unfortunately neither deal with Vanmoof for Irish cycle-to-work-scheme buyers.
Until they sort this out I can't justify spending €2000 on a bike that should cost me only €1,400.

Thanks for the update. I've raised a ticket with Vanmoof regarding the cycle to work scheme. Hopefully things have changed since you asked them in April. Getting that sweet, sweet cycle to work scheme discount is crucial imo.

necronius

loyatemu wrote: »

the restriction isn't in the Irish scheme - you can buy off any seller (I got my bike from Wiggle) but some employers have their own restrictions presumably to simplify invoicing by only dealing with a single supplier.

Did you get a vanmoof bike off of Wiggle? I'll see if a friend's employer might be more flexible in dealing with Vanmoof for the cycle to work scheme.

Clare_Culchie

necronius wrote: »

Did you get a vanmoof bike off of Wiggle? I'll see if a friend's employer might be more flexible in dealing with Vanmoof for the cycle to work scheme.

Vanmoof will only sell direct online, not through resellers, unfortunately. I called a bikeshop in Blanch village to see whether he'd buy the bike for me and put on a margin so I could get the CTW - he wasn't interested. I called a shop in Sandymount and they'll take a look.

VM will take vouchers from Bike2Work UK & Cyclescheme UK but not their Irish branches, and apparently they're not interested.

They've got no motivation to bother with administration of a C2W scheme in a small market like Ireland. Their bikes are in huge demand, they can't keep up supply. There's plenty who will happily pay €2k online, no invoices, no fuss.

Revenue insist that vendors must be on the Office of Government Procurement Suppliers List.... https://www.revenue.ie/en/jobs-and-pensions/taxation-of-employer-benefits/cycle-to-work-scheme.aspx. Wriggle I'd there, Vanmoof ain't. I've asked them to apply (a one page document asking for contact details and VAT number) and they wouldn't. I even filled it out yesterday and sent it to them asking that they email it on... They won't.

It's crazy that any company would be so blasé about losing so many potential buyers. I can't imagine that any PAYE worker would pay €2k for a bike they could have bought for €1400 if the vendor just bothered to fill out a feckin' form.

BTW, the revised CTW limits come in in September, so don't be buying any electric bike until then.

necronius

Clare_Culchie wrote: »

Vanmoof will only sell direct online, not through resellers, unfortunately. I called a bikeshop in Blanch village to see whether he'd buy the bike for me and put on a margin so I could get the CTW - he wasn't interested. I called a shop in Sandymount and they'll take a look.

VM will take vouchers from Bike2Work UK & Cyclescheme UK but not their Irish branches, and apparently they're not interested.

They've got no motivation to bother with administration of a C2W scheme in a small market like Ireland. Their bikes are in huge demand, they can't keep up supply. There's plenty who will happily pay €2k online, no invoices, no fuss.

Revenue insist that vendors must be on the Office of Government Procurement Suppliers List.... https://www.revenue.ie/en/jobs-and-pensions/taxation-of-employer-benefits/cycle-to-work-scheme.aspx. Wriggle I'd there, Vanmoof ain't. I've asked them to apply (a one page document asking for contact details and VAT number) and they wouldn't. I even filled it out yesterday and sent it to them asking that they email it on... They won't.

It's crazy that any company would be so blasé about losing so many potential buyers. I can't imagine that any PAYE worker would pay €2k for a bike they could have bought for €1400 if the vendor just bothered to fill out a feckin' form.

BTW, the revised CTW limits come in in September, so don't be buying any electric bike until then.

Jaysus, your some (wo)man for one (wo)man. Hopefully that crowd in Sandymount help you out. I can't get over Vanmoof's lack of interest. Such little work to make so much dough.

Thanks for the heads up, fingers crossed Vanmoof might change their mind by September.

shatners bassoon

Clare_Culchie wrote: »

Vanmoof will only sell direct online, not through resellers, unfortunately. I called a bikeshop in Blanch village to see whether he'd buy the bike for me and put on a margin so I could get the CTW - he wasn't interested. I called a shop in Sandymount and they'll take a look.

VM will take vouchers from Bike2Work UK & Cyclescheme UK but not their Irish branches, and apparently they're not interested.

They've got no motivation to bother with administration of a C2W scheme in a small market like Ireland. Their bikes are in huge demand, they can't keep up supply. There's plenty who will happily pay €2k online, no invoices, no fuss.

Revenue insist that vendors must be on the Office of Government Procurement Suppliers List.... https://www.revenue.ie/en/jobs-and-pensions/taxation-of-employer-benefits/cycle-to-work-scheme.aspx. Wriggle I'd there, Vanmoof ain't. I've asked them to apply (a one page document asking for contact details and VAT number) and they wouldn't. I even filled it out yesterday and sent it to them asking that they email it on... They won't.

It's crazy that any company would be so blasé about losing so many potential buyers. I can't imagine that any PAYE worker would pay €2k for a bike they could have bought for €1400 if the vendor just bothered to fill out a feckin' form.

BTW, the revised CTW limits come in in September, so don't be buying any electric bike until then.

Am I missing something? That suppliers list is only for civil servants.

AFAIK there's no issue with buying directly from Vanmoof. I won't profess to be au fait with how tax is dealt with though...

loyatemu

TheRevenue wrote:

The purchase can be made in any cycle shop. If you are a civil or public servant, the cycle shop must be on the suppliers list.

like I said, it depends on your employer. The civil service have a list, other employers deal with a single middleman, others will let you buy anywhere. It's not a Revenue restriction. You can't buy a VanMoof from Wiggle, I was just giving it as an example of a UK vendor that I was able to buy from.

shatners bassoon

They have a pop up store opening up in Drury St. You can book a test-ride now.

MJohnston

It's been open since last week, the original post literally mentions it

shatners bassoon

Oops!

jymian

Just in case anyone's still looking, VanMoof are on the Revenue approved list now (page 14), so public servants can buy direct and use the CTW scheme. And September's only a month away.

necronius

jymian wrote: »

Just in case anyone's still looking, VanMoof are on the Revenue approved list now (page 14), so public servants can buy direct and use the CTW scheme. And September's only a month away.

Happy days, how did you hear about that? I've messaged vannmoof on facebook to see if they will be registered with private workers for the CTW scheme. I'll keep ye posted.

thenightman

jymian wrote: »

Just in case anyone's still looking, VanMoof are on the Revenue approved list now (page 14), so public servants can buy direct and use the CTW scheme. And September's only a month away.

This is excellent news. I've never used the CTW scheme but I think will be doing so for an S3! How exactly does the scheme work in practice? I get onto my HR or peoplepoint and they issue me a voucher then I give voucher to Vanmoof?

Carawaystick

thenightman wrote: »

This is excellent news. I've never used the CTW scheme but I think will be doing so for an S3! How exactly does the scheme work in practice? I get onto my HR or peoplepoint and they issue me a voucher then I give voucher to Vanmoof?

Dunno who your employer is.
The scheme works by you sacrificing your salary/wages and your employer using that amount to buy a bike for you from an EU Supplier instead. Like all jobs, some employers are sound, and some are less than sound.

Clare_Culchie

Hi,
So, a few things to note:
I've just checked the site and there does not appear to be any test-ride slots available in the Dublin pop-up shop on Drury Street after Sunday 16th, so if you haven't had a go on one of these magical machines, I'd suggest you book a slot asap.
Secondly, for any of the 300k civil and public sector workers, I've been in touch with PeoplePoint who have confirmed that, now that Vanmoof is on the OGP Suppliers' List, they are now able to pay €1,000 (or €1,500 from September) directly to the vendor (Vanmoof) but the buyer (me) will have to pay the balance directly to the vendor. I've read previously among the Support pages that Vanmoof will only take a single payment (voucher) for each bike operating the UK's Cycle to Work Scheme. I have emailed them at dublin@vanmoof.com asking for clarification as to their acceptable payment methods. I've suggested that they could receive the PO from my employer and send me a "discount code" for that value that I could then pay the balance on the payments page using the discount code along with my own credit-card details.

art

Hi, just a quick one - how’d you get in touch with peoplepoint out of interest? Phones aren’t being answered and only “urgent” emails replied to, which evidently mine aren’t ��

Clare_Culchie

art wrote: »

Hi, just a quick one - how’d you get in touch with peoplepoint out of interest? Phones aren’t being answered and only “urgent” emails replied to, which evidently mine aren’t ��

Logged a new case in the portal. They replied after a few days.

mistergreen

FYI
According to Revenue website - the extended scheme is effective August 01

Contacted cyclescheme.ie - one of the operators of the scheme and they are currently updating their website and procedures.

VanMoof told me that they are looking to participate in the scheme (that was an enquiry on their European website)?

Neat solution from Clare_Culchie to the payment issue if they go for it i.e. " I've suggested that they could receive the PO from my employer and send me a "discount code" for that value that I could then pay the balance on the payments page using the discount code along with my own credit-card details."

Thelonious Monk

Does anyone know how long the VanMoof shop is staying open for on Drury St?

Peregrine

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Does anyone know how long the VanMoof shop is staying open for on Drury St?

Not long but they're moving to Wicklow Street (near Siopaella) soon.

Pigeon Reaper

Interesting reading about them on trustpilot. I like the design but they look to have quality problems according to the site.

MJohnston

Pigeon Reaper wrote: »

Interesting reading about them on trustpilot. I like the design but they look to have quality problems according to the site.

IMO a bike, a complex piece of machinery, that's bought online, is always going to have frequent reliability problems. Make it a fully integrated e-bike and you're multiplying the number of things that can go wrong. I think that's understandable and actually probably fine.

The key is whether or not the customer service is great—whether they'll sort out the problems for you and you'll get a perfect product in the end. That seems to be a mixed bag going by reviews (although I never know whether to trust reviews of customer service because people can be exceptionally grumpy).

Thelonious Monk

Yeah one would wonder how hard it is to get these things fixed if something goes wrong. It sounds like it would be like trying to fix Knight Rider.
So they're moving to Wicklow street permanently? I still think I might get one if I can get it on cycle to work. Decathlon have some good ones too at the moment, but they're not doing cycle to work right now.

MJohnston

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Yeah one would wonder how hard it is to get these things fixed if something goes wrong. It sounds like it would be like trying to fix Knight Rider.
So they're moving to Wicklow street permanently? I still think I might get one if I can get it on cycle to work. Decathlon have some good ones too at the moment, but they're not doing cycle to work right now.

Decathlon are (or were recently) doing the Cycle To Work scheme, but they were not allowing purchases via the Bike2Work/TravelHub company.

Thelonious Monk

MJohnston wrote: »

Decathlon are (or were recently) doing the Cycle To Work scheme, but they were not allowing purchases via the Bike2Work/TravelHub company.

I don't know what that means but I messaged them on facebook recently and they said they were not doing it, they may have said no longer doing it, so maybe they stopped.

MJohnston

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

I don't know what that means but I messaged them on facebook recently and they said they were not doing it, they may have said no longer doing it, so maybe they stopped.

They definitely used to through their website anyway:
https://www.boards.ie/mobile/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057801036

ColtM

Looking at getting an S3 through my company but they only pay vendors by EFT.

On the Vanmoof website, it says they only accept credit card or PayPal.

Has anyone had any luck in getting a bike though their company or getting bank details from Vanmoof to make payment?

menuisier

ColtM wrote: »

Looking at getting an S3 through my company but they only pay vendors by EFT.

On the Vanmoof website, it says they only accept credit card or PayPal.

Has anyone had any luck in getting a bike though their company or getting bank details from Vanmoof to make payment?

I am here looking for an answer to the same question my company want bank account details to make the payment, BIC and IBAN

Clare_Culchie

ColtM wrote: »

Looking at getting an S3 through my company but they only pay vendors by EFT.

On the Vanmoof website, it says they only accept credit card or PayPal.

Has anyone had any luck in getting a bike though their company or getting bank details from Vanmoof to make payment?

No, I've been begging Vanmoof for this since the S3 launch. My employer will only pay by EFT, and only to €1,500, they won't accept payment of the shortfall (€548 incl. delivery).

There's no way that I can see that I can buy this bike through the Cycle To Work Scheme.

To be honest, I can't imagine anybody in Ireland would be willing to buy this bike if they can't buy it through the C2W scheme. Why would you pay €2,000 for a bike that you know you could have bought for €1,400 if the seller was just willing to accept split-payments?

If Vanmoof Dublin sell one bike I'd be surprised.

menuisier

Clare_Culchie wrote: »

No, I've been begging Vanmoof for this since the S3 launch. My employer will only pay by EFT, and only to €1,500, they won't accept payment of the shortfall (€548 incl. delivery).

There's no way that I can see that I can buy this bike through the Cycle To Work Scheme.

To be honest, I can't imagine anybody in Ireland would be willing to buy this bike if they can't buy it through the C2W scheme. Why would you pay €2,000 for a bike that you know you could have bought for €1,400 if the seller was just willing to accept split-payments?

If Vanmoof Dublin sell one bike I'd be surprised.

Whoever is interested in purchasing can i suggest sending a direct message to vanmoof tweeter account whichI just did https://twitter.com/vanmoof so they understand there is a market here and a scheme to help buyers out.

If anyone else has contact information for their parent company in Amsterdam please post it so we can all contact them.

mistergreen

I contacted them through their contact details on their Dutch website and exchanged emails with someone. They confirmed to me that they are looking into participating in the Irish bike to work scheme. Not much point in opening a shop here if they don’t?

mailforkev

I just noticed that Vanmoof has been added to the shops list on the Biketowork/Travelhub site.

I emailed them just over a week ago and was told they only dealt with local independent shops and VanMoof wouldn’t be added, so great customer service there.

As for the actual logistics of buying a Vanmoof through them, who knows, but they are now on the list. If I’d bought last week based on their “advice” I’d be raging.

menuisier

Good news everybody! I hope... i tweeted them a few days ago and got this reply. I've just sent them an mail to their sales team.

Hi, first of all our apologies for the delay on our reply.
It has been busier than usual and we are working as fast as we can to reply to all the messages we have received.
Thank you for your interest in VanMoof. And good news about the Cycle to work Sheme. Since two days we are part of it.
To request a voucher or quote, simply send us an email at sales@vanmoof.com.
You can also ask them any further questions you have.
We will answer your request as soon as we can.
Have a great Weekend. Cheers, Sophie

Thelonious Monk

menuisier wrote: »

Good news everybody! I hope... i tweeted them a few days ago and got this reply. I've just sent them an mail to their sales team.

Hi, first of all our apologies for the delay on our reply.
It has been busier than usual and we are working as fast as we can to reply to all the messages we have received.
Thank you for your interest in VanMoof. And good news about the Cycle to work Sheme. Since two days we are part of it.
To request a voucher or quote, simply send us an email at sales@vanmoof.com.
You can also ask them any further questions you have.
We will answer your request as soon as we can.
Have a great Weekend. Cheers, Sophie

Thanks for this. I've emailed them. I think the next steps would be they'd send me an invoice which I'd send to my employer, or something?

mailforkev

They’re putting a quote together for me at the moment. It will be one quote for €1,500 for my employer/BiketoWork and another with the balance for me to pay personally.
I’ve mailed BiketoWork to confirm this works for them.
Went for another test ride at the weekend and decided to just go for it.
I’d probably have spent the 2k TBH, so being able to knock the tax bit off it made it a no-brainer.

Edit: I’ve got speedy and helpful replies from contacting dublin@vanmoof.com rather than a central address.

menuisier

mailforkev wrote: »

They’re putting a quote together for me at the moment. It will be one quote for €1,500 for my employer/BiketoWork and another with the balance for me to pay personally.
I’ve mailed BiketoWork to confirm this works for them.
Went for another test ride at the weekend and decided to just go for it.
I’d probably have spent the 2k TBH, so being able to knock the tax bit off it made it a no-brainer.

Edit: I’ve got speedy and helpful replies from contacting dublin@vanmoof.com rather than a central address.

Thanks for the heads up with messaging dublin@vanmoof.com i never got a reply from the sales email address i was provided in the their tweet. Do you know yet how much you will end up playing in total yourself?

mailforkev

The bike should work out at roughly EUR 1,230 in total based on my back of a napkin maths (if you’re a higher rate taxpayer).

bilasy

mailforkev wrote: »

They’re putting a quote together for me at the moment. It will be one quote for €1,500 for my employer/BiketoWork and another with the balance for me to pay personally.
I’ve mailed BiketoWork to confirm this works for them.
Went for another test ride at the weekend and decided to just go for it.
I’d probably have spent the 2k TBH, so being able to knock the tax bit off it made it a no-brainer.

Edit: I’ve got speedy and helpful replies from contacting dublin@vanmoof.com rather than a central address.

Lara the store manager said she will also prepare a quote, but mentioned she will send a link for payment to the HSE ( my employer) for€1500 and another quote for me with balance , so do they accept vouchers from bike to work can you confirm this pls?
Thanks

mailforkev

bilasy wrote: »

Lara the store manager said she will also prepare a quote, but mentioned she will send a link for payment to the HSE ( my employer) for€1500 and another quote for me with balance , so do they accept vouchers from bike to work can you confirm this pls?
Thanks

You’re a public service employee so you might have a different process to follow than me.
I’ve submitted my quote to the company (Bike to Work Ltd) that manages the scheme for my employer and asked them to place the order. I’m not yet sure how that will be dealt with. I can update here when there’s some movement.
I got a second invoice in my name for the balance with a link to a payment site. I’ll do that payment once my employer has approved the order.

bilasy

mailforkev wrote: »

You’re a public service employee so you might have a different process to follow than me.
I’ve submitted my quote to the company (Bike to Work Ltd) that manages the scheme for my employer and asked them to place the order. I’m not yet sure how that will be dealt with. I can update here when there’s some movement.
I got a second invoice in my name for the balance with a link to a payment site. I’ll do that payment once my employer has approved the order.

How long it took them to email u the quote? Do you also have to repay the €1500 within this tax year?my understanding that the price includes 3 yrs warranty and the theft protection, because she mentioned in her email if I want any extras (warranty , carrier bag) so just checking

mailforkev

bilasy wrote: »

How long it took them to email u the quote? Do you also have to repay the €1500 within this tax year?my understanding that the price includes 3 yrs warranty and the theft protection, because she mentioned in her email if I want any extras (warranty , carrier bag) so just checking

Quote took under 24 hours, came from Amsterdam office.

The only option with my employer is to pay over twelve months, doesn’t have to be all in one tax year.

Bike has a three year warranty included.

You can add a three year theft “peace of mind” pack for 290€, I did. It’s not included in the price of the bike.

There’s another peace of mind pack covering servicing but it’s not available here because we don’t have a proper store yet. This is actually my main concern, what happens if you have a problem, but I’ll take a chance.

I might end up buying a back carrier and panniers at some point. Going to see how the bike is first then I’ll decide.

menuisier

mailforkev wrote: »

Quote took under 24 hours, came from Amsterdam office.

The only option with my employer is to pay over twelve months, doesn’t have to be all in one tax year.

Bike has a three year warranty included.

You can add a three year theft “peace of mind” pack for 290€, I did. It’s not included in the price of the bike.

There’s another peace of mind pack covering servicing but it’s not available here because we don’t have a proper store yet. This is actually my main concern, what happens if you have a problem, but I’ll take a chance.

I might end up buying a back carrier and panniers at some point. Going to see how the bike is first then I’ll decide.

can you tell me when you sent the email requesting the quote? I'm still waiting on my quote

bilasy

mailforkev wrote: »

Quote took under 24 hours, came from Amsterdam office.

The only option with my employer is to pay over twelve months, doesn’t have to be all in one tax year.

Bike has a three year warranty included.

You can add a three year theft “peace of mind” pack for 290€, I did. It’s not included in the price of the bike.

There’s another peace of mind pack covering servicing but it’s not available here because we don’t have a proper store yet. This is actually my main concern, what happens if you have a problem, but I’ll take a chance.

I might end up buying a back carrier and panniers at some point. Going to see how the bike is first then I’ll decide.

Just read article in Independent that the store will close end of October just wondering what happens if some one wants to get a quote for the scheme and the store is permanently closed, I asked the girls in the store yesterday, if something goes wrong you shop the bike back to the NL ,so don’t get rid of the box , she also claimed that they pay the shipping fee!

mailforkev

menuisier wrote: »

can you tell me when you sent the email requesting the quote? I'm still waiting on my quote

I emailed the Dublin popup asking to request the quote for me on Sun afternoon. So took under a day.

Thelonious Monk

Yeah Dublin got back to me today and I'll have a quote sent to myself and my job in the next 48 hours. Yikes, it's happening.
I hope they're not a mare to get serviced etc.

mailforkev

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Yeah Dublin got back to me today and I'll have a quote sent to myself and my job in the next 48 hours. Yikes, it's happening.
I hope they're not a mare to get serviced etc.

Yeah, fingers crossed it turns up without any QC issues and just works out of the box. Exciting times.

First test spin pretty much sold it to me. Had to scrap a couple of holidays this year so a new toy will go towards making up for that.

Thelonious Monk

mailforkev wrote: »

Yeah, fingers crossed it turns up without any QC issues and just works out of the box. Exciting times.

First test spin pretty much sold it to me. Had to scrap a couple of holidays this year so a new toy will go towards making up for that.

I'll race ya!
Apparently there's a 2 month lead time on getting one at the moment though, so I wont have one any time soon.

shatners bassoon

I'm seeing loads of these around town in the last few weeks.

Thargor

shatners bassoon wrote: »

I'm seeing loads of these around town in the last few weeks.

There's 2 of them cable locked to a fence in front of a house near Donnybrook on a busy street for the last few months, amazed they've never been taken.