I’ve been experiencing the worst service I’ve ever had, from any company EVER….

Here’s the breakdown:

Weds 5th Dec: Ordered wheel and chainstay protector, paid for Next Day delivery
Thurs 6th Dec: No wheel, phone CRC, told mistake in shipping will be sent that day for Friday delivery (guaranteed)
Fri 7th Dec: No wheel arrived. (thought it may be because we finish early on Fridays, maybe a card through the door Sat am?)
Sat 8th Dec: No ‘attempted delivery card’
Mon 10th Dec: Phone CRC to see what’s going on. “Not been shipped yet, will definitely go today NEXT DAY” Ok, I said, I’ll phone later to confirm this. Phoned later..”Good news, both items shipped. Bad news, wheel sent 48 hour”
Tues 11th Dec: Chainstay protector arrived, no tracking available on wheel (can take up to 36 hours to show)
Weds 12th Dec: Still no tracking available on wheel. Phone CRC – It didn’t get sent til Tuesday due to a mix up in shipping/ParcelFarce.
Thurs 13th Dec: Wheel finally arrives at 3.45pm. Woo-hoo I thought..Open box – right wheel (Pro3 AM4 4 bolt), wrong rotor (Pro3 XC3 3 bolt)
This is all going on and I’ve got an uplift day booked on Monday 17th..
Phone CRC to say what has happened:
“Not a lot we can do really as we don’t stock the rotors on their own”. I say “Can you not take a rotor out of another wheel/rotor set and sent it ASAP as I need it with me by SATURDAY at the latest”.
“I’ll see what I can do” came the response.
Fri 14th Dec: Phone CRC several times during the day to see what’s happening…”A shipping guy was supposed to get one out and put it on my desk last night for me to make sure it is sent today but it hasn’t turned up yet”….same thing all day. At the end of Friday told that it was not there and was not going to be sent Friday.
“I’ve got an uplift booked, what am I supposed to do now?” I said. “Can’t you borrow a wheel off someone else?”
“So I’m supposed to borrow a wheel off someone and hope I don’t have a crash and ruin the wheel then have to pay for a replacement just because you can’t get something posted?”
“That’s the best I can suggest” came the reply.
Luckily I managed to borrow an old (redundant) wheel off a mate and survived the uplift without any problems.
Now Tuesday and still no sign of the rotor.
Needless to say they will be getting a phone call today and I may wish to speak to someone a little higher up…..

Venting over…

Doesn’t sound ideal i admit.

On the other hand, i’ve ordered 4 things from them recently and all 4 have been correct.

It must be just you they dont like.

Ive had brilliant service and good value.

You paid extra for next-day delivery – there’s your problem right there 😉

(Every time I’ve done that, it’s taken a week or more to turn up)

I’d ordered a few other bits that were not important, no next day delivery, and they arrived within 2 days.
It’s absolutely shocking that you pay for a ‘preferential’ service and it seems to get chucked to the bottom of the heap.
No Next Day shipping IF I order again from them..

No sticking up for CRC here; this is a shared experience from someone who has had extremely bad service from them. Fact. Nothing more, nothing less.

Firstly, yes it’s a shame this has gone wrong, but as Julian Richer says, sometimes when you employ human beings, stuff will go wrong. By definition, with the huge volumes of orders, a certain percentage will fail for one reason or another. It’s a statistical certainty.

Without wanting to appear blunt, this is very much a first world problem, and certainly not deserving of a “need to vent”. There are bigger and more important things in life to worry about than a cheap priced bike part arriving late.

still annoying though. I would need to vent too

though it does kind of reinforce why I have always avoided wheels with non-standard rotors……..

sometimes when you employ human beings, stuff will go wrong

What, repeatedly like the OP? Totally agree that mistakes can be made, but one failure after another? After the first mistake the OP should have been made right ASAP, not swept under the carpet.

Without wanting to appear blunt, this is very much a first world problem, and certainly not deserving of a “need to vent”. There are bigger and more important things in life to worry about than a cheap priced bike part arriving late.

Were I ‘venting’ on a news channel I would agree but this is a bike forum where members buy/sell/talk bikes and their experiences. If you were the one who had been dealing with a problem that could potentially ruin a day out on your bike, doing whatever it is you do, would you not be annoyed/tell others of your experience? Had I not sorted myself out I would have lost £25 paid for an uplift day because a £200 (not cheap) bike part was not delivered correctly (currently) 13 days AFTER it was ordered when it should have been here the very next day?
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to sort this problem and I keep getting fobbed off as if it’s ‘just one of those things’.
Yes, things do get delayed BUT I can’t fathom how it is so hard for them to actually do what they say they are going to do…

It happens unfortunately. People do make mistakes and it sounds like you have had a series of problems. I have to say that CRC have always been my preferred online seller (along with Merlin) due to their first class service in my experience. Last week I ordered some spares for my Alfine hub and after 5 days I hadn’t received them – despite them being shown as dispatched.

I emailed them an un-received order form and the replacement item arrived the next morning with a note apologising for the lost goods and asking me to return them f.o.c if they should ever show up.

Shame to hear of a “box shifter” mentality at CRC, guess it’s not too surprising given the volume of stuff they ship and the time of year. Though I’ve never had anything but good experiences ordering from CRC (and there has been a lot of it!) but I wouldn’t expect to receive LBS level of service if anything did go wrong.

+1 for not doing next day delivery. Rather trust the delivery by royal mail than Sh*tty Link. Almost always turns up the next day anyway.

If you were the one who had been dealing with a problem that could potentially ruin a day out on your bike, doing whatever it is you do, would you not be annoyed/tell others of your experience?

Nope. I work in the FMCG industry so fully understand and appreciate that stuff goes wrong sometimes, so on a rare occasion if something similar happens to me (it did recently on a non-bike related purchase), I view it as nothing more than a statistical anomaly.

Although it has been commented recently that I possess Vulcan-like levels of unemotional, rational and logical thought….. 😉

Really? Even after 13 days of being fobbed off? Lucky you 😕

I like CRC and have said that several times recently but I ordered wheels last Christmas on next day and had nothing but problems. They arrived some 2 weeks later and I had a refund.

I feel your pain but to be fair have always had a decent service from CRC.

I work in the industry and a lot of pick pack operations have kpi’s of about 95%. When you pick 10,000 items a day means you can get 500 items wrong, even a 99% accuracy rate is still 100 items.

Mistakes always happen but it’s more about how they are solved and CRC have failed on this.

I’m surprised a smart-arse hasn’t posted something along the lines of “if you want something urgently why not use your LBS” 😀

Good point joao but it wasn’t needed urgently. Just within 9 days of the original order 😉

i think 9 days is more than enough time for an order 😀

Ordered Mon 7pm…. arrived this morning 🙂

Not bad for Xmas