I placed an order with them on the 8th of December for a pair of Race Face Agent Winter shorts.

I was very hesitant to buy from them as I’d read a lot of negative reviews of them both on review sites and on the bike forums. Nonetheless, I gave them an opportunity to get it right.

On Tuesday the 12th they then sent me an email saying that there might be a slight delay in the item getting to me because of the adverse weather. That was fine. I needed them by the end of this week, but still thought there was plenty time left for them to arrive with me.

Then, on Wednesday the 13th, they sent me an email stating that the order was now cancelled because they’d ran out of stock. It’s also worth stating that there were two additional pairs left when I placed my order, as I was originally going to pick up two pairs.

I could have used the Price Match facility on several other sites and was going to do this because of what I’d read about them, especially their tendency to cancel orders for no reason. I now am in the position where I will need to pay £100 for the shorts elsewhere and I may not even get them now for Friday, which is when I need them.

I will be post any responses they provide to this.

Never had any problem with CRC ..in fact the complete opposite…their customer service has been first class .

I’ve used them for almost 20 years and honestly never had an issue ..

Think with wiggle merger they’ve had some glitches

I will be post any responses they provide to this.

Ha ha ha good luck with that.

Just move on buy elsewhere in some faint hope you’ll get them soon.

Not bought from CRC for years now.

+1 err, plus one

They were the best for years. I avoid using them now.

I know there have been complaints recently about CRC but I am another who has never had a problem, including my most recent order that arrived very timely at the start of Dec.

Back in the day your stuff would arrive next day in a random bit of packaging. They’ve got bigger and slowed up but have still been reliable for me.

I have found that they have gone downhill recently, shame as they used to be shit hot.

Merlin have been my favourite for a while now.

I avoid CRC but Wiggle have had a few items go from In Stock to Delayed to Back Ordered to no longer available without any email warnings. Lifeline brand so can’t get anywhere else either.

When you cancel they do refund immediately though.

Bought mostly from ze Germans recently.

They’re a bit slow these days and have adopted Wiggle’s tardy dispatch time unless you cough up theee quid for priority dispatch. They vet always been good when you speak to someone – I was trying to get an upgraded air cap for my Mattoc’s and by the time they’d tracked one down my bikes had been stolen. I said no worries now because of this and the chap I was dealing with arranged for an extra 10% off any orders I’d be putting in when replacing stolen stuff.

I bought some new brakes, shoes and mudguards on the 9th, dispatched on the 10th.

It’s only now royal mail have got them that it’s gone to shit. They’re not delivering because it’s too cold for shorts I think. No card, tracking says I asked for it to be held at the DO, which is odd, because 1. I didn’t and 2. I can’t get there, because it’s only open during working hours.

Bastards.

especially their tendency to cancel orders for no reason.

If they were out of stock, it’s not cancelling it for no reason is it? Why would they cancel an order they could fulfil? They do WANT your money, obviously.

The website SAID they were in stock, but the stock control system was probably incorrect. This happens often. That’s why companies do stock-taking.

Back to normal here

Ordered Tuesday night, delivered Friday am

IN THE SNOW!

Go RM

Perhaps it would have been better had I said that they have a seeming tendency to cancel orders for no good reason. Read the countless reviews online that state that this happens regularly.

Obviously, it is their stock control system that is at fault, but it is still ridiculous that it takes them so long to actually get from the point of order to finally realising that they’re out of stock. It is especially ridiculous when they’re system showed that they had several in stock when I ordered. Had it been the last pair, I might have been more sympathetic, but it wasn’t.

I won’t be ordering from them again, but I’ve had this happen previously and it irks, and all the companies do is send mild apology email and then wash their hands of it all.

At least posting this here might shed more light on this problem for others using their site.

and all the companies do is send mild apology email and then wash their hands of it all.

What would you like them to do?

Where one party to a contract does not live up to their contractual obligations, and the other suffers loss on the back of that, then they should compensate them accordingly. It’s not quite as simple as that in the present instance as there will be clauses in their Terms and Conditions that absolve them from liability in the even of their making a mistake. That said, I still think that the principle holds true, and that they should attempt to put me back in the situation I would have otherwise have been in. To make my situation right, I’ll need to order a pair of the shorts from another company and pay for Next Day delivery. Therefore, they should pay me whatever the difference is. They won’t do that, I know.

Ordered some of those shorts on the 6th. Arrived the 12th, during a blizzard, in Sweden.

I totally agree that it sucks they took so long to tell you, though, but poop happens.

(fwiw, the shorts seem good. I’d probably not buy them at full price, but that’s more an expression of my tightness than the quality of the shorts)

edit:

Therefore, they should pay me whatever the difference is

Yeah, sorry, you lost me there.

Thank you for the replies this far, by the way, and I’d glad to see that some of you have had positive experiences of this company

You do realise that they are in the midst of merging two (?) huge warehouses?
Stuff gets lost.

Read the countless reviews online that state that this happens regularly.

I bet you can count them. Even if you need to use your toes. 😉

I’d not be surprised if they are taking a couple of million orders a year.
Hardly worth throwing your toys out of your pram over.

As I said in a previous thread.

If they are currently moving stock from one warehouse to another (Belfast to Wolverhampton) then a lot of their stock is going to be in transit for a good number of hours. If you order something that is in one of the lorries that it transferring it, then there is all likelihood that your order is not going to be dispatched as fast as either other items in your order or someone elses order which is in stock and is yet to be moved or has already been moved. It’s not like they are going to be moving a transit vans worth of stock at a time or be able to go, right lets move some of the medium, black racefae shorts, but leave 5 pairs in case someone orders them while we move these ones.

I am guessing that this is why orders have not been being dispatched as quickly as normal.

There is also a chance that when they do move sotck, they are realising on doing a stock take that they don’t have as many as they think they did, or have more etc.

I also believe that what websites say are stock levels and what are actual warehouse stock levels are not 100% accurate at a specific moment in time. The website stock levels get updated on a schedule e.g. every 10 mins or every 30 mins or every hour etc. Given the number of customers a company like CRC has, it is really not unfeasible that multiple people could order the same item in the timeframe between website stock updates resulting in orders being unfulfilled due to a lack of stock, especially when they only have a small number left.

Also, CRS is a lot bigger and has a lot more customers now than it did back when they were awesome 10 years ago or whatever. Yes, they would have improved their systems, but it is not surprising that as they have grown, more issues have begun to happen be mentioned. How many hundreds of thousands of orders do they have a week that have no issues and therefore, nobody moans about?

PS. I have no actual knowledge of how a place like CRC works, but I do have an idea of how they could work 🙂

PPS. It’s still only a bike shop at the end of the day and thye are still far better than the good old days of trying to get your local shop to order something in and actually let you know that it has arrived!

and I’d glad to see that some the vast majority of you have had positive experiences of this company

FWIW i stopped ordering from CRC and Wiggle 3 or 4 years ago, as i can get cheaper and faster from Germany these days. Gone from sticking probably £7 or 8000 a year through the pair of them (not all mine!) to about £200-300………

I’ve not had any problems with CRC but I rarely need things the next day so if something takes three or four days to get to me, so what?

With a different company (much, much smaller than CRC) I’ve ordered an item only to find that someone had pressed the purchase button during the time I was filling out the delivery details. They got back to me and explained what had happened and sent me the next model up in the range at the same price.

The transaction process probably locks the details at the point at which I hit the purchase button but only updates the stock level once the payment is made. If the transaction updated the stock level before that point then I could have walked away from my computer and effectively blocked the retailer from selling it. Multiply that possibility by several thousand and the retailer would grind to a halt.

How many transactions a day do you think CRC/Wiggle have? It’s unrealistic to expect every single one to be perfect. We “demand” low prices and rapid delivery. The downside to that is cutting customer service because that involves humans who are expensive.

You also chose to buy short from that retailer.
You chose to be buy them when you need them within a certain amount of time. Why did you not buy them earlier?
What would have happened if you had bought them and they did not fit or you did not like them? Were you going to ask for compensation from yourself for buying the wrong shorts?
Surely you have another pair of shorts you could use?

Use your local bike shop instead.

They won’t do that, I know.

I wouldn’t exepect them to.

If you want super premium service, which that would be, then don’t shop at the cheapest online place. Maybe there’s an online Rapha store that can deliver your premium online experience.

If CRC employed people to do stuff like you are asking, and dished out compensation for your trauma, then they wouldn’t be as cheap and we’d all lose out. I haven’t got a lot of sympathy I’m afraid. It’s annoying, but then so are many things.

STW was down the other day, I’m not going to demand a 4p refund from my sub.

I bet you can count them. Even if you need to use your toes.

Oh! Oh! Can I do that?! Please!

Where one party to a contract does not live up to their contractual obligations

You lost me at that point – oh and all good experiences with CRC here, plus ordering on line at this time of year pretty much anything can happen

Not had any problems myself and have bought a fair bit from them this year.

So you ordered on a Friday, and the Wednesday you got told about an issue? So 4 days (as there was a weekend in between) Not super efficient, but hardly the end of the world.
You can’t expect them all to be at it 24/7.
And as said, are midway through a huge merger. So this is likely to have an effect on things.

If you need it immediately, go to a local shop.

beefheart –
Use your local bike shop instead.

Or the STW Classifieds. Oh, sorry, he already does…

Never had a problem with CRC. Not automatic-next-day like they used to be, but always received what I ordered within 4/5 days.
Free postage, massive stock (especially of things you can’t get from LBS, if you have one). Plenty of competition out there now if you don’t like CRC.

Used them since the mid 90’s price list add in mbuk days…
Must have spent 10k+ over the years on parts in hundreds of orders.
Only issue Ive ever had was being sent a pair of £15 socks instead of a £2 part. Got to keep the socks and was resent the part.

For every crc 1 story like this there are 1000’s of happy customers, unfortunately the op was one of the unlucky ones.

Personally i’ve been using CRC for years now and never had a problem with them. The delivery has slowed down a bit but its still only ever a few days and theres sea in between them and me.

Returns have always been sorted with out issue and refunds quick.

Recently has been a bit hit and miss due to the merger/take over with Wiggle (who i’ve also never had a problem with) but that seems to have been sorted now….

Jesus H Christ, its a pair of shorts – compensation, seriously?

If you need something by a certain date stop being tight and go to shop and pay the extra for the convenience.

20 odd years using CRC without issue.

Ordered a hub from them. They sent me the wrong one (6 bolt not centrelock as advertised). I though send the hub back for a refund, and order another one. Somebody must have picked up the wrong hub off the shelf I thought.

When the second one arrived it was 6 bolt again. Queried with CRC online chat, and they said would do a stock check, and come back to me after a few days – they never did.

Gave up and bought a hub elsewhere. The advertised hub has now been taken off their website, so I assume they did their stock check and found it never existed.

One think I was not impressed with. The original order was for a rim and hub, which came in a big box. The hub was an unpackaged lump of metal (with a few scrapes, and loose in the box. So presumably the rim got a good battering during its travels. Luckily there was some lightweight foam packing around the rim.

Many years ago I bought a 2.3 tyre, and a 2.1 came. Sent it back, got another one (in a few days), that was also a 2.1. Checked the box, and it said 2.3 on it. So I called, and the guy went to check whilst I was on the phone and all their stock was 2.1s in 2.3 boxes…

The couple of times there’s been a problem with an order they’ve been exemplary in sorting it out. Never had an issue with their customer service.

Expecting them to give you money because they couldn’t sell you something is a little bit mental.

for me the postage takes a few days longer than usual and pf late i found they don’t seem to have anything in Stock

the other suffers loss on the back of that, then they should compensate them accordingly.

Where is your loss?

I’ll try to answer some of the defenses of them.

There was plenty of time for the shorts to arrive, even allowing for the bad weather. Had they alerted me to them not having stock sooner, I’d be much less irritated.

In terms of my loss. Well, I could have got several other retailers to price match them. Now I’ll need to pay full price for them. Leaving price matching aside, another place had them for £70, but they’ve sold their stock in the interim.

Further, I try to use my LBS as much as possible, but saw these at a good price and bought them. I do buy bike stuff online occasionally and don’t have a problem with doing so.

Maybe I have unrealistically high expectations of service. I don’t think I do, but who knows. Anyway, the response from them said precisely what I thought it would, namely that it was a stock glitch and it’s not their problem. They suggested several alternative shorts that they have in stock, but I would have to pay full price for them.