Cycling Express - New online shop to compete with UK....

[Aushiker]

If anybody has any other suggestions on how to resolve these issues I would be happy to take advice.

There is the option of the ACCC, otherwise do as you have done, share your experiences and move on and give them a miss in future. They win short-term but loose out long term.

Personally I have seen enough in this thread to not place any orders with them. Just not worth the possible hassle.

Andrew

[ozzymac]

There has been a lot of discussion on this in many forums and it's about time we started it hear.

I use one when training and will use it when racing (not to far away for me now). I find that it is eaier to "zone" work on my trainer with the monitor than trying to do "percieved effort".

So really the question is do you use a monitor or perceivec effort?

I was offered a refund due to them sending the wrong item, never did receive the refund. Wasn't much money, so its there loss not mine.
Customers are meant to be important but CE don't seem to care when they loose them.

Cheers

Sent from my rk30sdk using Tapatalk 2

[AUbicycles]

Generally, the ACCC is an option to exercise after a serious attempt at resolving an issue with a business directly.

Another note, in defense of Cycling Express is that when a product is faulty, it is an annoyance and needs to be resolved by the retailer though not directly the retailers fault for a manufacturing issue. General warranty terms for most Aussies online shops are that postage costs incurred are usually refunded when the warranty claim (etc) is approved.

[bostonceltics]

My apologies for not being active on the forums this year guys, I just haven't had the time.

Hi Ozzymac, I was not aware that any refunds were outstanding, my apologies. Please call us (03) 9738 1633 or email myself at my personal email address sam@azzurribikes.com and I'll get it fixed ASAP.

In regards to a comment about stock availability, products on the website are listed with either 'order now 5-7 day dispatch' (usually if we don't have in stock but it is available or if it is stored in our other warehouse), OR 'in stock, buy now.' What this means is that we do list stock on every product - we have counted a few things wrong occasionally but generally it's people not reading or noticing at the time they place an order.

With any issues people have experienced my sincere apologies, (I have probably already said sorry to some of you personally if your order was not shipped within the specified time frame or we had to refund you for an item) we are aiming to get better every week and we have improved a lot recently with the installation of a new warehouse management system which has been a big positive change. If anyone has any issues in future please don't hesitate to call us, we answer the phone personally every day from Monday to Saturday and both Ellie and Pete are both really nice (as for the hold times with Telstra, Vodafone, my insurer... still ripping my hair out!).

We do answer all emails but a couple here or there may not have been answered so I apologise again if one of yours has been missed. (Occasionally I have received over 20 emails from the same person & when you miss one of them they can be pretty quick to chew me up but that's another story).

Humans by nature rarely report on positive experiences but are quick to do so when they aren't happy. I notice myself doing this sometimes and wonder if I'm part of a vicious circle ...
Over the past month 90% of orders have been shipped the same day and this will improve and increase in future to our ultimate goal of all orders shipping within 24HRS.

I hope everyone had a great year on the bike and has a happy and safe Christmas season.

Cheers
Sam (AT) Cycling Express

[bellarinebiker]

Had a look today for an FSA seat post. Didn't have the range and the price of models they had in stock were much more compared to c r c and Wiggle.

[nickdos]

Over the past month 90% of orders have been shipped the same day and this will improve and increase in future to our ultimate goal of all orders shipping within 24HRS.

Well, it looks like the stats for Dec may be a bit lower, as my order from last week is still listed as "paid".

Stumbled upon their FAQ page just now:

When was Cycling Express founded?
Cycling Express was founded with the vision of providing great products backed up with excellent customer service.

Sounds like they asked a politician as it didn't actually answer the question

[gabrielle260]

Bought some socks from CE at least 10 days ago. Ordered stuff from PBK and T7 on the same night. PBK got here first and T7 arrived 2 days ago. Still waiting for the socks.....

[twizzle]

Bought some socks from CE at least 10 days ago. Ordered stuff from PBK and T7 on the same night. PBK got here first and T7 arrived 2 days ago. Still waiting for the socks.....

A few years ago, I had a small parcel (CD in a small box) sent from Bris to Canberra take two weeks with Aus Post.


Sent from my iThingy...

[AUbicycles]

When ordering online, this type of process helps:


Email Order Confirmation
Email status 1 if the order doesn't ship on time - with a reason
Email status 2 If the order shipping is well overdue - and an alert for the business "We have notice it hasn't been shipped and are now alerted and will follow this up"
Packing confirmation optional - could be annoying - but could be interesting
Shipping Confirmation + tracking number
Delivery Confirmation "we have noticed that the gear was delivered" - a safetynet to ensure the recipient knows and has actually received as advised
Followup For marketing and customer satisfaction - "was everything ok, would you like to rate or review"


Australia post is the unknown factor, they can be fast, they can be slow. By keeping the customer in the know at each stage it is peace-of-mind to know that something is happening and that when it is in transit that the customer is at the mercy of the shippers. Less information paves the way for uncertainty.

WIthin the process above there is room for variation, for example projections when an item will ship if it is not in stock.

[nickdos]

I can't believe it takes more than 1-2 working days to dispatch an order (of "in stock" items). I placed an order on Friday morning and its still not dispatched yet (Thur arvo). My previous order with them last year took over 6 working days between placing it online and them dispatching it. This was the main reason I've not placed an order with them until now. Reading bostonceltics reply above I thought I'd give them a second chance... Well they stuffed up again and there will be no third chance. T7, Cellbikes, Pushys, PBK, Wiggle, etc., all send stuff out to me the same/next day, so why would I put up with a week's wait from these guys? Their prices are no better and their site is the worse of the lot as well (no sizing information for many clothing, no descriptions for many products, no wishlist function, etc.).

[Magnum9]

Yeah, don't pay the Wiggle priority despatch fee, it makes no difference.

[jasonc]

When ordering online, this type of process helps:


Email Order Confirmation
Email status 1 if the order doesn't ship on time - with a reason
Email status 2 If the order shipping is well overdue - and an alert for the business "We have notice it hasn't been shipped and are now alerted and will follow this up"
Packing confirmation optional - could be annoying - but could be interesting
Shipping Confirmation + tracking number
Delivery Confirmation "we have noticed that the gear was delivered" - a safetynet to ensure the recipient knows and has actually received as advised
Followup For marketing and customer satisfaction - "was everything ok, would you like to rate or review"


Australia post is the unknown factor, they can be fast, they can be slow. By keeping the customer in the know at each stage it is peace-of-mind to know that something is happening and that when it is in transit that the customer is at the mercy of the shippers. Less information paves the way for uncertainty.

WIthin the process above there is room for variation, for example projections when an item will ship if it is not in stock.

+1
should make this a sticky somewhere.

[Sydguy]

I have ordered from CE at least a dozen times including a bicycle with no problems to report. Delivery times ranged between 2 and 4 days.

One of my few Wiggle orders they sent me a random incorrect item, which they made good on. I would say I get the same number of issues with online and bricks'n'mortar stores.

JM

[AUbicycles]

For what it is worth I have ordered from Cycling Express and everything has been fine. Private purchases so no special treatment. The norm is that things go well and hope that it is fair to say that with any establish retailer sometimes things can go wrong. My point, when we see complaints, this shouldn't be seen as a percentage. Smooth sales are accepted and generally go unreported.

[boss]

I saw that CE had a custom jersey product going, with jerseys costing $60 or so. Got my mind thinking, a week later I had a design in mind.

Drafted it up in Illustrator and got the design bang on - nothing overly complex but I just wanted to make sure it could be done to my specs... I'm picky with that sort of thing. Anyway, sent off an e-mail to the CE design team 26/11, the email address taken from the PDF template file they use - custom@cyclingexpress.com.

That was 9 days ago now!

Needless to say, I got itchy after waiting 24 hours and started looking elsewhere, so no real loss to me. I'll get my sweet custom jersey. Actually, I spent a lot more than $60 on the kit (I ended up getting a matching bib too). And I'll be hesitant to deal with CE in the future unless they have some cracker of a deal going.

It's not hard to check a design, eyeball it and send an email back saying yay or nay. Not hard at all.

[tubby74]

order 21/11, got mail shortly after to say order was processed. friday 9 days later I mail for followup to cancel, took 3 days to get a response to that. for regular small stuff cell wll have it on my door before I get up the next day if I order by lunchtime, 10 days to do nothing isn't going to cut it

[AUbicycles]

Some posts have been removed - they dealt with speculation and unfair accusations so in response to this...

PLEASE CONSIDER THIS BEFORE POSTING

I accept when there is fair criticism in this thread, particularly when it can help Cycling Express improve however consider whether you are only prepared to criticise but not prepared to praise.

Cycling Express advertises on BNA and in turn helps cover the growing costs of running this site. Cycling Express has provided prizes for the BNA community. Cycling Express is one of the few companies that participate in the forum without spamming and genuinely try to help forum members with issues. Cycling Express provides review bikes to BNA which help readers in deciding if it suits their needs. They do a lot which supports BNA and the community.

You don't need to suck up to BNA advertisers and you can also fairly discuss issues though consider... what happens when there are too many unfair accusations?

I like BNA and funded it out of my own pocket for over a decade - it is bigger now and advertisers keep this site alive. For members this a free website and it benefits a massive audience of almost 120,000 unique visitors (240,000 total visits) each month. Cycling Express has been good to this community as have many other companies so I kindly ask you to be polite and fair if you wish to highlight or discuss a problem.


Christopher (Admin)

[Pushy]

Most people don't post positive experiences and only get vocal when encountering an "issue". I'm happy with CE have used them a few times. When they got an order wrong, two right side shifters instead of a left and right, they were quick to correct the situation and also threw in a sweetener. Overall I'm happy.

[reefer]

Most people don't post positive experiences

Because thats what your PAYING for, its business and expected.

If I don’t get good service, I’ll happily post / share my experience so others can form a view on said business.

I have yet to buy anything form CE and am really interested in the Azzurri Di2 bike, I’ll be watching this and other threads to see how things are handled.

[kev007]

I accept when there is fair criticism in this thread, particularly when it can help Cycling Express improve however consider whether you are only prepared to criticise but not prepared to praise.

To summarise so far:
Warranty claim for light received by Cycling Express 14.09.12
Numerous phone calls/e-mails/messages left requesting update on warranty claim over following six weeks - never a return phone call or return e-mail during this time.
During that period of time advised verbally that warranty claim approved and a replacement light had been sent out, did not receive a replacement light.
Followed up after a couple of weeks following non receipt of replacement light, no response to phone calls/e-mails, finally told that light was still under assessment by manufacturer.
Post made on this website, received a response the next day (31.10.12) from Cycling Express indicating warranty claim had been approved and replacement light would be sent out. Indicated at the time that postage would be refunded. I received the replacement light approximately 2 weeks later (it was initially out of stock and had to be posted so no issue with this short delay).
Requested an update on refund of postage 18.11.12, received a reply 24.11.12 (after posting here) indicating I should see the refund in my account within 24-48 hrs.
E-mailed Cycling Express 21.11.12 indicating the replacement light had a fault (the light switch which turns the light on and off doesn't work when you press it which I accept is outside of their control).
No refund received so e-mailed Sam@Cycling Express 04.12.12 who responded almost instantaneously. I provided a copy of the postage receipt by e-mail 06.12.12 and Sam has indicated a refund should be received within 48 hrs.

I have ordered many times from Cycling Express and as previously said I had been happy up until this current experience, which is why I have continued ordering from them.
All I really wanted initially was to obtain accurate information about the warranty claim which I perceive I did not receive for some six weeks after the initial warranty claim.
I've chased the refund of postage out of principle to see if it would happen in accordance with what was indicated - it is now five weeks after it was indicated the refund would occur and two weeks after being informed it would be in my account within 24-48 hrs.
I am impressed by the personal communication over the past week and based on this I am feeling positive that the refund will appear in my account early next week.
I will then send back the faulty replacement light under another warranty claim.
I am hopeful that systems have improved over the last few months and will feed back accordingly RE: the experience.

I don't mind having a fault with a product and working through the process of resolution, but do get a bit frustrated when I keep ringing and trying and am promised things and it doesn't happen. Most people are reasonable and I would like to think that I am reasonable.

Businesses need to receive feedback in order to improve. In the long term if a business responds to constructive feedback it will retain more customers than it might otherwise lose due to negative experiences.

I do hope that the refund arrives and that when I return the light for the warranty claim it goes more smoothly than previously. In fairness, I had not previously had contact with Sam to resolve the above detailed issues. Of course I will feed back any positive outcome as it is only fair that I do so.

[Marty Moose]

I've emailed Sam a few times found him to respond really quick. Maybe its best to use his email. Id use them again no probs.

Sent from my MB526 using Tapatalk 2

[ozzymac]

Some posts have been removed - they dealt with speculation and unfair accusations so in response to this...

PLEASE CONSIDER THIS BEFORE POSTING

I accept when there is fair criticism in this thread, particularly when it can help Cycling Express improve however consider whether you are only prepared to criticise but not prepared to praise.

Cycling Express advertises on BNA and in turn helps cover the growing costs of running this site. Cycling Express has provided prizes for the BNA community. Cycling Express is one of the few companies that participate in the forum without spamming and genuinely try to help forum members with issues. Cycling Express provides review bikes to BNA which help readers in deciding if it suits their needs. They do a lot which supports BNA and the community.

You don't need to suck up to BNA advertisers and you can also fairly discuss issues though consider... what happens when there are too many unfair accusations?

I like BNA and funded it out of my own pocket for over a decade - it is bigger now and advertisers keep this site alive. For members this a free website and it benefits a massive audience of almost 120,000 unique visitors (240,000 total visits) each month. Cycling Express has been good to this community as have many other companies so I kindly ask you to be polite and fair if you wish to highlight or discuss a problem.


Christopher (Admin)

Hi Christopher,
I haven't noticed any posts that are saying anything bad about CE, they seem to be stating experiences.

You state there are many other companies that are good to BNA, yet we don't see numerous posts stating bad experiences concerning them, yet you come out saying we should be nice to CE.

When CE first started everybody said give them a chance, etc etc, people were and still are giving them a chance but when a company continually gets things wrong, it deserves to be posted about.

We don't praise any other businesses we buy from, BUT we don't complain about them either. MAYBE they are doing things right and CE should take a page out of there book.

Cheers

Sent from my rk30sdk using Tapatalk 2

[boss]

Some posts have been removed - they dealt with speculation and unfair accusations so in response to this...

PLEASE CONSIDER THIS BEFORE POSTING

I accept when there is fair criticism in this thread, particularly when it can help Cycling Express improve however consider whether you are only prepared to criticise but not prepared to praise.

Cycling Express advertises on BNA and in turn helps cover the growing costs of running this site. Cycling Express has provided prizes for the BNA community. Cycling Express is one of the few companies that participate in the forum without spamming and genuinely try to help forum members with issues. Cycling Express provides review bikes to BNA which help readers in deciding if it suits their needs. They do a lot which supports BNA and the community.

You don't need to suck up to BNA advertisers and you can also fairly discuss issues though consider... what happens when there are too many unfair accusations?

I like BNA and funded it out of my own pocket for over a decade - it is bigger now and advertisers keep this site alive. For members this a free website and it benefits a massive audience of almost 120,000 unique visitors (240,000 total visits) each month. Cycling Express has been good to this community as have many other companies so I kindly ask you to be polite and fair if you wish to highlight or discuss a problem.


Christopher (Admin)

Hi Christopher,
I haven't noticed any posts that are saying anything bad about CE, they seem to be stating experiences.

You state there are many other companies that are good to BNA, yet we don't see numerous posts stating bad experiences concerning them, yet you come out saying we should be nice to CE.

When CE first started everybody said give them a chance, etc etc, people were and still are giving them a chance but when a company continually gets things wrong, it deserves to be posted about.

We don't praise any other businesses we buy from, BUT we don't complain about them either. MAYBE they are doing things right and CE should take a page out of there book.

Cheers

Sent from my rk30sdk using Tapatalk 2

I posted a couple of things regarding CE - guess you could call them accusations, I'd probably call it highlighting a potential issue for public benefit - not your standard whinge about bad service.

I would argue that the public interest outweighs the fact that CE advertise here but Chris has a different opinion, and it's his forum, so it is what it is really.

I have no grudge against CE and am quite impressed with what they've done in getting Azzuri prices right down - certainly a pretty innovative business model. I assume their business model has pretty tight staffing, which is why some orders seem to go to never never land.

[AUbicycles]

When CE first started everybody said give them a chance, etc etc, people were and still are giving them a chance but when a company continually gets things wrong, it deserves to be posted about.

Yes I am happy to encourage people to post their experiences when it is done fairly.

We don't praise any other businesses we buy from, BUT we don't complain about them either. MAYBE they are doing things right and CE should take a page out of there book.

I would actually like to see more praise (any businesses) and created the Great Shopping Experiences thread with this in mind.

I posted a couple of things regarding CE

It has come up a few times, an issue regarding Euride and Cycling Express over De Rosa bikes. This was posted a few times and I have removed comments a few time. I am afraid I am not allowing discussion on this until there is public comment about this by either company.

The background is I have talked with both Cycling Express and Euride a while back and it is an issue for them to resolve. However, I also understand the public interest so suggest contacting (both) Euride and Cycling Expressdirectly if you have a personal interest.

Thanks for your understanding.

[Ross]

I've only bought a few things from CE and haven't had any problems. Sent a couple of emails and they were answered within a couple of hours.