Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

by **MattyK** » Wed Aug 15, 2012 2:59 pm

RonK wrote:
MattyK wrote:Starting to get annoyed with mine...

Are you serious? Didn't you read the preceding posts. Shipments from Bike24 may take up to a month...

Bike24 is a great shop to deal with, but a little forward planning and some patience is required.

Yeah I read them. Doesn't make it less frustrating when you can see the progress - which appears not to be the fault of the vendor but the mail distribution services. I mean, airfreight from Germany should land here in 24 hours, and freight anywhere in the country to a major city should take about the same. So what gives?

by **BNA** » Thu Aug 16, 2012 9:23 am

by **silentbutdeadly** » Thu Aug 16, 2012 9:23 am

It can take up to a week to leave Germany even after it has cleared their customs. Then it can sit again in transit in Saudi because nothing comes to Oz in a straight line. And once it arrives here it can take up to a week to clear our customs and be handed over to AusPost. The DHL tracking system also doesn't update quickly from this end so in my case the parcel can be at my post office before the DHL tracking system says the parcel is off their hands.

Despite what you might think...the world isn't actually your oyster. It is more complicated than that.

by **antipodean** » Thu Aug 16, 2012 10:45 am

I bought a wheelset from Bike24 that took 2 months to arrive, in the meantime they assumed the shipment was lost and sent me another set.
The packaging on the first set was so badly damaged I expected the wheels to be unusable but thankfully they were unmarked and true.
I now have 2 sets of Fulcrum Red Power XL 29er wheels, looking to sell the second set if anyone is interested, still boxed up never opened.
http://www.fulcrumwheels.com/en/collect ... d-power-xl

by **AUbicycles** » Fri Aug 17, 2012 9:35 am

I get regular deliveries from Germany (not bike stuff) and can confirm that it is generally slow. You generally wont get the speed of Wiggle and co because the UK online retailers are setup to send tens of thousands of deliveries to Australia each month.

German online retailers will first serve the German market, then the European market, then America and Japan. This is also reflected in general delivery times to international destinations (eg. more traffic between the US and Germany). Australia is still exotic.

One recent change is that postage rates went right down so it is much cheaper to send packages though unless you go Fedex, UPS or an express DHL, you have to wait.

by **MattyK** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 10:00 am

Order arrived today

Just over 4 weeks... (29 days)

Coincidentally, my Chain Reaction order arrived today too - 8 days...

by **Jean** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 3:23 pm

I've got a Bike24 order in transit. The tracking number gave me updates soon after its despatch, but I've been away for a week and now that I'm back the tracking number is not giving me any results. I'm using the dhl.de tracker (provided on my email despatch notice). Anyone got any suggestions on what might be going wrong with the tracking?

by **AUbicycles** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 5:00 pm

In theory you should be able to use any dhl tracker, here is the Aussie one: http://www.dhl.com.au/en/express/tracking.html

If it isn't working you can shoot them an email though as I experience and other people experience, delivery from Germany does take time.
DHL is not like an express courier like Fedex or UPS rather is part of Deutsche Post and essentially looks after the big items. Locally in Germany it works quite well with delivery within a few days (after dispatch) though internally I would expect deliveries from 3 - 6 weeks. It is made worse by customs and though they are doing their job, more often than not deliveries from Germany undergo more checking than from the UK or US.

by **RonK** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 5:15 pm

Not Bike24, but an eBay purchase took almost 6 weeks in transit from Germany via DHL.

by **Jean** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 6:02 pm

It's not the time I'm worried about - I've ordered from Germany before. But I would like the tracking number that did work to work again so that I have at least some idea of where it is. I'll have to email DHL I suppose. Thanks.

by **Jean** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 7:33 pm

DHL tracking system is currently kaput in one way or another. So that's the problem. They're working on it.

by **RonK** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 7:38 pm

Jean wrote:It's not the time I'm worried about - I've ordered from Germany before. But I would like the tracking number that did work to work again so that I have at least some idea of where it is. I'll have to email DHL I suppose. Thanks.

I suspect your parcel is probably in Customs.

Really, message with orders from Germany is: plan your purchase and order well in advance of when you need the goods, and once the order is placed be patient - it will arrive eventually.

With my eBay purchase I had to raise a Paypal dispute, just to fit in with Paypal's 45 day time limit for raising disputes. And then I had to escalate it to a claim when the goods still had not arrived, only to cancel the claim when they arrived the next day.

by **Redbull** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 2:07 am

Arrived today from bike24

12 days total.

DHL tracking site said it was in Australia after 3 days and the rest was domestic.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

by **Jean** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 1:18 pm

RonK wrote:
Jean wrote:It's not the time I'm worried about - I've ordered from Germany before. But I would like the tracking number that did work to work again so that I have at least some idea of where it is. I'll have to email DHL I suppose. Thanks.

I suspect your parcel is probably in Customs.

Really, message with orders from Germany is: plan your purchase and order well in advance of when you need the goods, and once the order is placed be patient - it will arrive eventually.

With my eBay purchase I had to raise a Paypal dispute, just to fit in with Paypal's 45 day time limit for raising disputes. And then I had to escalate it to a claim when the goods still had not arrived, only to cancel the claim when they arrived the next day.

Yes patience is virtue when buying from Germany (my recent express delivery from bike-discount.de not withstanding). Perversly I think it's the provision of a tracking number that's made this purchase a bit frustrating. If I didn't have it I'd just be waiting for it to show, but with a number I want to see it and see it's progress. When the number does not work it's frustrating.That I'm nearing the end of my parts collection and mentally ready to get on with bike building is not helping :roll:

.

by **SeditionTrial** » Thu Oct 04, 2012 3:54 pm

Apparently my shiny new wheel set has cleared Oz customs according to dhl tracker. Not getting my hopes up because of all these reports of stalling at any stage of the process but it's possible I'll have them soon. Ordered 21 Sep so currently 2 weeks wait. Will report back.

by **SeditionTrial** » Sun Nov 18, 2012 9:50 pm

Ended up getting my wheelset in about 3 weeks. It was lightly packed, but runs true.

by **rifraf** » Sun Nov 18, 2012 10:28 pm

Redbull wrote:Arrived today from bike24

12 days total.

DHL tracking site said it was in Australia after 3 days and the rest was domestic.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That would have to be a German record. I'd celebrate by downing a few brews if you've anything left over from octoberfest. Seriously though, it wouldn't surprise me if most of the waiting occurred once the items hit Australian shores. Your 12 days I believe is exceptional and way better than my 3.5 weeks from bike24 and my 4.5 weeks (from memory) of my last starbike purchase. Its hard to hold your breath when its a large chunk of change. I just received a tracking number for my German Rohloff purchase. Now I've got to pretend it doesn't exist or I'll drive myself madder constantly checking the DHL website to see if things have moved. Last time, my item was delivered the same day the DHL site acknowledged it had arrived at customs I believe.
I was royally miffed with the updating of the tracking site :!:

by **ray** » Mon Nov 19, 2012 10:45 am

rifraf wrote:
Redbull wrote:Arrived today from bike24

12 days total.

DHL tracking site said it was in Australia after 3 days and the rest was domestic.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That would have to be a German record. I'd celebrate by downing a few brews if you've anything left over from octoberfest. Seriously though, it wouldn't surprise me if most of the waiting occurred once the items hit Australian shores. Your 12 days I believe is exceptional and way better than my 3.5 weeks from bike24 and my 4.5 weeks (from memory) of my last starbike purchase. Its hard to hold your breath when its a large chunk of change. I just received a tracking number for my German Rohloff purchase. Now I've got to pretend it doesn't exist or I'll drive myself madder constantly checking the DHL website to see if things have moved. Last time, my item was delivered the same day the DHL site acknowledged it had arrived at customs I believe.
I was royally miffed with the updating of the tracking site

That sounds like a record

My bike24 order took 18 days with 3 days in oz. On the other hand Amazon Germany took 5 days via UPS for a Thule bike rack. I better place my bike24 order soon if I want it before xmas

by **il padrone** » Mon Nov 19, 2012 10:59 am

ray wrote: I better place my bike24 order soon if I want it before xmas

Yep!

Two years ago I ordered my Rohloff hub from bike24 on about Nov 25. There followed severe snowstorms in Europe (closing most airports for several days) then the backlog hit the Christmas rush. I didn't see the Rohloff until about Jan 20