Rarely do I complain, but in this instance I decided to………

20th May – ordered 2 x bibshorts, and 1 x pivot bolt from CRC – all items showing “in stock” as I’ve made a point of not putting stuff on backorder due to poor service issues in the past…..

27th May – get a “part shipped” notice from CRC (don’t start me on slow delivery times from CRC) – that’s a full 7 days after my order.

Think to myself “part shipped” as I only order stuff in stock…mmmm? Log into my account to find bolt out of stock and only 1 pair of shorts shipped and they’ve cancelled my order – write a long e-mail about poor service, that I think I’m a customer that spends a fair amount, and that I expect better treatment.

Same day response says “The shorts were showing in stock when you placed the order. But unfortunately on going to pick your order they were not physically in stock. Problems like this are thankfully few and far between, regrettably for you it happened in this instance”

And that they had processed the refund and sent me a £5.00 voucher.

I wrote back (same day) stating

Dear XX Thank you for a prompt response.
I have not received the e-mail as indicated, and I have searched through my spam folder, deleted items etc to see if it has been placed there also, still nothing….?

Thank you for the gesture of a £5.00 voucher, however as the decisions was already made, and the order already late and the fact that I have still not received this order and I am unlikely to do so until early next week, this gesture seems a little hollow to me.

You have answered part of my specific complaint in relation to the shorts, and whilst you may consider these problems few and far between and in this instance regrettably it happened to me, you have done nothing to reassure me that it will not happen again in the future. More specifically, the brake item I also purchased at the same time, which was showing in stock at the time of purchase, was not despatched due to being out of stock. So, in point of fact the same thing has happened twice?

You have done nothing to reassure me that my custom is valuable, that the service will improve and with this in mind I can only assume you do not require my custom?

The message from Chain Reaction seems clear to me.

27th May – seemingly unconnected get a standard e-mail about my order being out of stock and £5 voucher on the way……

Then on 30th May got this response
“Hi, I do apologise that your order has had a few problems on this occasion. We have now received an order of the Hayes Lever Pivot Kits and your back order should be processed and dispatched for you as soon as possible”

So, I’ve written twice with a fairly lengthy complaint and it’s not been dealt with as far as I am concerned (ie not acknowledged, not responsibility taken, no reassurance that it won’t happen again, no “we value your custom” – simply a here’s £5 now **** off)

Whilst it’s not a massive issue, it’s the low level of shockingly poor service from a company that seems to think it’s bigger than it’s customers. As per my mail above the message from CRC seems clear to me.

They messed up and held their hand up and gave you £5. Doesn’t sound too bad to me.

£5 is better then a kick in the baws

They messed up and held their hand up and gave you £5. Doesn’t sound too bad to me.

+1. You doth protest too much. To save someone else having to do it, might I suggest that if this is all you have to complain and worry about, then you’re doing pretty well in life. Be happy about that and move on.

Of course this is all just a troll, surely?

They messed up an order of mine last week and then cancelled it without warning after almost a week but haven’t even replied to my email pointing out a few deficiencies in the service I’d received.

I’ve lost faith in CRC they’ve been really slow with the previous couple of orders, messed the last one up completely and cloned 2 friends card. They’ll get no more business of mine especially when places like Wiggle, Merlin, On-one, Biketart, Ukbikestore plus the German sites all offer a better service and if you look around better prices too

Count yourself lucky lucien – I ordered a bunch of stuff on the 24th and its been stuck as ‘processing’ ever since – no email, no explanation, no voucher, and no goods!

CRC are obviously having serious problems at the moment, what with all that credit card fraud thing (yes I got caught in that too). However, as much as we moan about them on here, I really hope they get themselves sorted out rather than go under, as a lot of us would really miss them – remember when you had to buy whatever the LBS happened to have in stock, at exhorbitant prices! Yes I know there’s Wiggle and other options – but competition is good for us punters at the end of the day – so maybe we should stick by them thru the bad patch – eh?

Pair of wheels ordered on 22nd of May. Emailed and was told would be dispatched 26th of May. Phoned today – still not been processed. Have promised I’ll be emailed today when they’re dispatched. Quite annoyed as SO agreed to get them shipped to her work and now it’s half term ajnd I could have taken them in the first place.

Was asked today if I still wanrt the wheels – said yes but unless they’re here quickly I won’t be buying the fork from them. I get the feeling they have grown bigger than their operation can acutally cope with.

I placed 6 orders with them, they **** ed up 4 of them, so long CRC, you are a last resort in my list of places to buy shit from.

They really do seem to be really patchy at the moment. Sometimes they’re infeasibly fast, and sometimes unacceptably slow. I mostly use Merlin now, and just use CRC when I can’t avoid it.

I got a kick no £5er – same crack! annoying

OP. FFS get over yourself. 🙄

Some interesting responses, so just to clarify to ridethelakes, stilltortoise and bigyinn – having looked through my a/c history I’ve spent in excess of £2300 in last 12 months with CRC (which I consider to be quite a lot) and my expectation is for a better service. The problem is we don’t expect a high level of service and therefore get taken for mugs.

If I came round yours and charged you £2300 for some work wouldn’t you expect a high degree of service for this?

You pays your moneys and takes your choices, if you want personal service go to your lbs and pay more, if you want stack em high sell em cheap and to be just one of millions of customers, go to CRC. simples.

As I’ve said before elsewhere, bigger spenders don’t somehow qualify for a better customer service just because they think they’ve spent enough to deserve it!
What would the advantage be to them as a business?
They’ve apologised about the mistake, they’ve given you a £5 voucher (which they didn’t have to do) and you still come on here bleating. Mistakes happen to all of us, what makes you so special that you deserve something above and beyond what they’ve already done?
If you really can’t stand them, shop elsewhere.

Pair of wheels ordered on 22nd of May. Emailed and was told would be dispatched 26th of May. Phoned today – still not been processed. Have promised I’ll be emailed today when they’re dispatched. Quite annoyed as SO agreed to get them shipped to her work and now it’s half term ajnd I could have taken them in the first place.

Was asked today if I still wanrt the wheels – said yes but unless they’re here quickly I won’t be buying the fork from them. I get the feeling they have grown bigger than their operation can acutally cope with.

TODAY they tell me it is now out of stock. It wasn’t when I placed the order! What a uselss bunch or *******! I’m closing my account today.

I am now an ex crc customer for a number of reasons:
1) ridiculous packaging that won’t fit throught the letter box
2) slow delivery, road brake blocks took 2.5 weeks
3) having to argue quite hard after an order didn’t arrive at all, eventually got gift vouchers.
4) complaints people don’t seem human, do they reply using a drop down list of options?
Doesn’t sound like much but it is quite time consuming and when you look at my spend over the last 5 years…..

I have to agree with bigjim there….however, in this day there is still no excuse for poor service.

bigjim – Member
You pays your moneys and takes your choices, if you want personal service go to your lbs and pay moreask them if they’ll pricematch. Many of them will.

FTFY.

I tend to agree with bigyinn, however they do seem to be going through a fairly rubbish patch at the moment.

I too placed an order recently on the 23rd, yesterday i get an e-mail saying that two of the five items I ordered are out of stock (they where in stock when i ordered)and are now discontinued.

They have removed these from the order and refunded me for those items and have today dispatched the remainder of the order.

This could have been done slightly quicker and its annoying their stock count was out but this always has been an issue with on-line retail.

I don’t see how else they can handle this situation? What would you have them do??

The problem is we don’t expect a high level of service and therefore get taken for mugs

The problem is we DO expect a high level of service; good prices and next day delivery. If I didn’t get it and the supplier apologises AND gives me a gift voucher I’d think it quite reasonable, even though I may shop elsewhere next time. What else should they do? Come around my house and stroke my hair and tell me how hard done by I was?

I’m with the OP. There’s just no excuse for poor service these days.

He’s not asking for special treatment cos he spends alot, juts asking for them to do what they are saying – that is no unreasonable.

Merlin for me all the way – just wish they did more roadie stuff – especially handbuilt wheels!

There’s just no excuse for poor service these days

Agreed, but that’s not the point some of us are making. This thread splits opinion in that some of us didn’t think it was poor service. CRC is a website with who knows how many people shopping for the same stuff. Is it really that surprising that something in stock when you first looked was not in stock when they came to ship it? They apologised and refunded him promptly AND gave him a gift voucher. It might have been frustrating for the OP, but poor service? Nah.

Problem I have is that I’ve had to hassle them and been told it would definitly be dispatched when it wasn’t. Now if it wasn’t in stock when I asked earlier in the week why wasn’t I told THEN rather than today.

I’m off to the LBS to get some quotes for wheels.

I’m off to the LBS to get some quotes for wheels

I did that once and they were approx 40% more than online prices 😯

I’m off to the LBS to get some quotes for wheel

they’ll probably order the parts from CRC 😉

they’ll probably order the parts from CRC

My LBS didn’t even try to hide the fact they were getting their prices from CRC

I bought a goodridge hose set from my LBS. When it turned up it actually had a CRC stock label on it!

Ok, but I think we’d all prefer it if they were just honest (and timely!). It might not be what we want to here, but at least we’d know.

i wouldnt use my lbs even if they were cheaper – they are a bunch of uppity, stroppy gits and i wouldnt give them the time of day if i had a pocket full of watches.
crc have messed up orders but always been apologetic and professional when ive complained. they also just sold me a set of 180mm domains for 200 quid which arrived two working days after ordering. dream on about comparing that kind of price in an lbs
as a percentage of sales i doubt the problem orders are very high at all.

it wasn’t that long ago that CRC were putting ads in mags that showed how good and quick their deliveries were – and peoples experiences matched this. What has happened to them for people to start moving custom elsewhere?

I have no axe to grind, as they have always been good with me, but 2 years ago no one ever dared to slag CRC off. The story seems different now……

I have returned from the LBS with a pair of hope hoops for only a tenner more than I was paying for a simialr pair of wheels for CRC. See this for a measured view of my experience now the red mist has cleared.

That doesnt mean that it definately came from CRC though,Bigyin.

Hotlines who distribute Goodridge share warehousing with CRC. Hence the labels are the same.

Even the envelopes that goods are sent in are identical to CRC ones bar the logo change.

I can’t buy the stock picking issue as being normal or acceptable – everything is barcoded, they know what stock they have, what’s sold (real time) so if it shows in stock then in theory it should be.

Works for the likes of Amazon / Wiggle and many many others.

As per original post – must try harder as realistically how hard can it be (to offer a good service)?