Pushys buys Bikebug

[blizzard]

https://cyclingtips.com/2022/02/austral ... s-bikebug/

Seems like bad news for consumers. I have had good experiences with both shops but generally find Bikebug to be cheaper and includes shipping. Hopefully they don't increase prices

[ningnangnong]

I've never had a bad experience with either, but I've always found Bikebug to be superior in terms of price, shipping, stock, etc.

Their website is better too.

Fingers crossed not much changes.

[Warnesy]

Damn I’m the same. Always prefer bikebug over pushys

[m@]

Definitely a negative. Nothing against Pushys, I've found them very accommodating at times, but Bikebug have pretty much always beaten them on price ime (at the cost of sometimes glacially-slow shipping).

[P!N20]

Hope it doesn’t become like the Wiggle/c r c merger, where they pretty much have the same stock and prices.

[MichaelB]

Interesting !

[Andy01]

This could be a bugger for me. The BB "Click & Collect" point in Brisbane is a courier office a few kms from my house, so free "shipping" was always possible with BB and their prices were generally 10-20% better than Pushys, plus Pushys usually charges for shipping. Pushys used to allow collection (free C&C) from their warehouse on Brisbane southside (about 9kms from my house) but that all stopped when Covid arrived.

I must say that the Pushys customer service has always been pretty good though.

[g-boaf]

Damn I’m the same. Always prefer bikebug over pushys

I've never used Pushys, but I really liked Bikebug and always found the staff there great for customer service. Also remember Rocky very well from North Sydney before that closed.

Also liked being able to go to Tempe with the warehouse next door and not have to deal with shipping and postage problems.

[blizzard]

This could be a bugger for me. The BB "Click & Collect" point in Brisbane is a courier office a few kms from my house, so free "shipping" was always possible with BB and their prices were generally 10-20% better than Pushys, plus Pushys usually charges for shipping. Pushys used to allow collection (free C&C) from their warehouse on Brisbane southside (about 9kms from my house) but that all stopped when Covid arrived.

I must say that the Pushys customer service has always been pretty good though.

The Pushy's warehouse is the a 10 minute drive. Normally means next day normal delivery and on occasion same day normal delivery which is nice. Bikebug, I've always waited 4 days to a week for delivery.

[Mr Purple]

Regardless of your preference, less competition is always bad.

I've found the Pushys website to be a bit tricky to navigate and their couriers have lost a couple of orders of mine (not their fault admittedly).

[antigee]

Regardless of your preference, less competition is always bad.

I've found the Pushys website to be a bit tricky to navigate and their couriers have lost a couple of orders of mine (not their fault admittedly).

...was a bit grumpy a while back with BikeBug very slow to process a faulty goods return but one of the few Aus' based companies that seems to stock a (very) full range of (road) components...add in easy to use website and good shipping or store pick up I like dealing with them and have been my go to

less competition and since Shimano and others won't allow product shipping from outside Aus' it could mean much more limited component availability and that can be frustrating

[trailgumby]

less competition and since Shimano and others won't allow product shipping from outside Aus' it could mean much more limited component availability and that can be frustrating

'
To their credit, I think the likes of BikeBug have almost entirely closed the price gap that used to exist on pricing to offshore retailers, and Shimano has (mostly) addressed the stock availability issue. These days I only go offshore if something I want can't be obtained locally. Where there is a premium, it seems to be low enough to be able to justify the purchase on the basis of getting local warranty support. Mostly.

[AndrewCowley]

Easy to appear to have closed the gap when the competition is erased via geoblocking. I like BikeBug but the whole geoblocking episode leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Realise it’s down to Shimano and not BikeBug but the outcome was convenient for BikeBug.

One problem with comparing today’s prices with the un-geoblocked prices of yesterday is Covid. It’s not exactly a fair comparison but it seems naive to think that the geoblocking isn’t making prices higher.

[LateStarter]

I too used Bikebug a bit but only because of the geo-locking. I also used Bike24 in Germany a lot and they were ALWAYS significantly cheaper (AND they too included Australian GST) AND have a significantly bigger range of everything. They do charge about AUD30 shipping (on the whole order) but savings on only a few items will extinguish this (eg GP5000 are $10 less each). Shimano, if they were not blocked are $10 a chain and $20++ a 9/10 sp cassette cheaper. Tightly geo-locked things like Brooks saddles and ortlieb bags can be twice the price locally and over a restricted range.

I used to run a business for 30 years that competed directly with much bigger overseas suppliers and none of my customers ever said "OK lets pay him more because at least the money might stay in Oz" so I don't much like the restrictive trade practices that force me to spend my scarce dollars in propping up corrupted distribution chains that hugely inflate their margins (and ship most of the inflated profit OS)

When I first started cycling (not all that long ago) even Wiggle as generally half or a third the price of local but now everything is magically within a dollar of local (BikeBug) like prices with a greatly restricted available in Australia range!

Restricting competition ONLY results in higher prices and less range of choice.

End of rant.

[find_bruce]

Can you think of a case where a company buying a competitor has resulted in better price, service etc for the consumer? I'm sure there must be one, but I can't think of any.

[queequeg]

I have used BikeBug and Pushys more during he lockdowns, but I haven't really needed to get any Shimano components as I had stocked up pre-lockdown with all the consumables I needed.

A recent issue with a brake lever on my gravel bike saw me facing zero stock in Australia for parts, and no available stockists who had any and were willing to send to Australia, so I ended up buying some broken levers off someone on Facebook Marketplace and swapping the working components from my lever to their lever to get a single functional lever.

Now, as luck would have it, I have found a overseas retailer with stock of what I need and they will happily ignore the Shimano geoblocking. The prices were slightly cheaper than Australia, and they do not appear to be registered for GST. I have ordered some things from them before without issue, and everything comes through ok. So, I should have my GRX 810 levers next week, and I can get the swap on my gravel bike from Road Ultegra to GRX done. (GRX had not been released when I bought my bike, so I had to set it up as a road compact. I am not going to do Thunderbolt's Adventure on that again!)

[Retrobyte]

Bizarrely, I ordered from both Pushys and Bikebug today because each of them only had stock of a different one of the two things I needed.

[Mr Purple]

I take back anything I've said about Pushys.

Ordered three things on Sunday afternoon and received an e-mail from them yesterday saying they might be a little late as a bunch of staff were flooded in and couriers underwater.

It arrived this morning. That's honestly just impressive.

[Ross]

I only just read this post. Interesting.
I recently ordered a few things from BB including a tyre.
Tyre was out of stock apparently and they held the order for nearly a fortnight without communicating to me what was going on.
They were waiting for it to come back in stock and had told me that they tried to get one from their other stores with no success.
At the same time I noticed Pushys were having a 15% of storewide sale, with stock of the tyre that I wanted.
As tie was dragging on and I was nearly out of chain lube one of the other things I had on order I emailed BB asking when I was likely to receive my order.
It was only then that they decided it would be good idea to tell me that they coulsn't get the tyre and they would ship the rest of my order.
If Pushys now own BB then why didn't they source a tyre from there?
Or offer me an aternate brand/size?

[AndrewCowley]

If Pushys now own BB then why didn't they source a tyre from there?

Probably too soon for any of their systems and procedures to be integrated.

[Mr Purple]

To save everyone else the trouble - it looks like Bikebug's Brisbane store is permanently closed.

No closure notice anywhere, their answering machine is still on but permanently deleted from the locations on the Bikebug website.

Glad I worked that out before I drove over there.

[ace70]

Sign of things to come?

[Andy01]

To save everyone else the trouble - it looks like Bikebug's Brisbane store is permanently closed.

No closure notice anywhere, their answering machine is still on but permanently deleted from the locations on the Bikebug website.

Glad I worked that out before I drove over there.

I wonder if they (BB) will still do free C&C to the courier's offices in Larapinta (which is about 2km from my house as the crow flies).

[mikgit]

Yeah I was in the Melb store the other day, looks like they are just selling off anything they have left (not much, mostly just some helmets and shoes), so I expect they will be closing pretty soon.

[trailgumby]

To save everyone else the trouble - it looks like Bikebug's Brisbane store is permanently closed.

No closure notice anywhere, their answering machine is still on but permanently deleted from the locations on the Bikebug website.

Glad I worked that out before I drove over there.

'
Same thing happened at their North Sydney store.