I am reading a lot of negativity of CRC on here and I thought I would try and turn the tide.

I have recently had to send two items back and without a question or anything I got a full refund on one and a swap on the other.

Top Notch Customer Service and Top Notch quick delivary times 🙂

I think the negatives are mostly people highlighting an apparent change, rather than something awful

CRC (and wiggle) used to be, in my view, almost literally quicker than me going to LBS for something. They were v cheap, utterly reliable and incredibly fast (I'd include my 1st 20 orders at least in this). If I ordered Wed night or Thursday morning I knew it'd be here by Friday.

There are now other small online shops apparently faster than them – not as cheap overall, but you shop around (which is something I'd mostly stopped doing when CRC and wiggle were "great"). If/when those places expand as massively as CRC must have, I guess there'll come times when they "fail" too

Yes. Wiggle and CRC used to be my default. Never bothered looking anywhere else. Now I shop around a bit more. If you're not moving forward you're going backwards. Others are learning the CRC/Wiggle model and they're failing to respond.

Which is all good for us customers in the end.

Is it the fact that they use Royal Mail though and not an external courier? Ive used CRC loads and never had an issue with delayed stuff.

Wiggle the same, alhtough last time I orderd with wiggle they has stuff "In stock" but didnt.

I agree that they are not as quick as they used to be.

I remember one of my first orders with CRC was placed at 5.45pm in the evening didn, and it arrived at 10am the next day. My last order was placed Friday morning around 11am, and;didn't arrive until Wednesday morning (I know Monday was a bank holiday). I guess this is the problem as they get bigger. Need some bit's for this weekend, and was going to order them on-line, but I'll be going to the LBS now.

CRC have always been great for me 🙂

But i have noticed reacently that they just dont have the things i want. But when i order stuff it is usaly here within the next day but i have noticed recently it is getting maybe the day after. (maybe because it's the airports)

My recent experience of both CRC & Wiggle is that there's been a day's lag before things get shipped, so if I placed an order for allegedly in-stock items on a Monday morning I didn't get the shipping confirmation until the Tuesday night, with delivery then on the Weds. It's not exactly a hardship in the grand scheme of things, but not the service I got a year or so ago. Merlin still seem to be on the money for next day delivery though.

Martin, I've an order "processing" at CRC & has been for 2 working days now (placed BH Monday – granted a busy time I'm sure, plus the intermittent volcano-bollocks)
An order placed elsewhere was processed & sent by 1200 Tuesday and was delivered yesterday at 9am – courier, but the CRC one is "processing" not in transit

Is it the fact that they use Royal Mail though and not an external courier?

that is my number one reason for going CRC by default. Even if it saves a fiver at wiggle it may involve driving a 25 mile round trip to get treated like shit by citylink staff.

it would almost be easier for me to collect from wiggle but they don't allow it!

Thats a bit poor scardypants.

Ive alaways tried to use my LBS where needed to keep it going but sometimes the cost online just makes sense.

It's 'cos Andy@CRC is now AndyNot@CRC now…

I've needed to speak to someone at CRC since christmas to arrange returning a couple of unwanted pressies, but they just don't ever answer their phones! Email them and a robot answers.

oh, and they seem to be pretty slow at getting orders out these days too

🙁

CRC stuff has always been prompt for me.

Same here, used to be next day but it is an average of 3 days now, not a great hardship but a definite reduction in service. What is a tad annoying is their prices which don't seem so keen anymore and their dubious "Sales" which seem to have no price difference at all only on weird fits/sizes.

I now look around a lot more, even ebay where some retailers knock stuff out at bargain prices. CRC please go back to your old efficient , bargaintastic ways.

Waiting on a Hope Top Cap to arrive from CRC ordered on tuesday.

I would agree with the days lag. I've noticed a slight (24hours) delay between placing the order and receiving it. Almost as if Royal Mail are collecting at the start of the day not the end leading to stuff being delayed by a day. Stuff used to arrive the day after ordering it, provided you did so before 12 but not any more…

Online Order to Chain Reaction Cycles. 03/05/2010. 12:20:23 GMT+01:00

5 May 2010 13:32:33 GMT+01:00 Order shipped.

Brake cables and stay protector simple order but why the delay?

I use CRC cos they are reasonalbly cheap, have a large range and don't charge postage. My only issue with them is that they are a little slow with order processing and dispatching but then you have to remember that it is quite a large company now and these things take time! I'll give them Thumbs up TBH!

Do Wiggle carry any stock these days? Don't even bother with them anymore. CRC do take a couple of days to deliver, Cycle Store are good, fast and cheap, with a flat-rate delivery charge of a £1 you'll need to order a couple of things, but you get it the next day.

Postie has been today and still no sign of a simple Hope top cap now that i ordered tuesday. Blimey, maybe they are making it?.

Wiggle i used to use a while back but noticed they're prices creeping up, low stock levels also. Stopped shopping with Wiggles mainly because they are not what i would call competitive anymore even with the discount scheme they run.

iam afraid iam going to have to join the crc bashing fest ordered first thing tuesday morning and it say order still processing only ordered jockey wheels,chain link and small bottle of oil would have thought that these thing would be in stock.
as for delivery has allways been next working day on all my orders so far and because of volcano was allowing extra day but postie been and gone and still no bits bugger knew i should have used lbs even if they are a bit over priced and full of smug sh*ts.

I just cancelled a tyre order as I got fed up waiting. Bought the same tyre on ebay for £2 more and it's been posted already.

Positive experiences here as well.

The last two orders I placed arrived next working day.

And I sent something back for a refund last Saturday. Tuesday lunchtime I got an email confirming the refund. They could only have got it that morning.

The only issue I have is that the pricing seems a little more than in the past. Or at least there seems to be less bargains.

i waited around three weeks for my last order……..it never did turn up.

I always used to use CRC for stuff and it pretty much always came next day. I've always found wiggle fairly slow (never pay for the shipping though), like they deliberately don't process stuff or a day or 2 unless you pay them too.

Now i use merlin or mtb-direct. Both next day everytime, answer the phone and are really helpful.

I take this back. Waiting over a week now for something. Their excuse when they got back to me?

"We didnt realise how well our Sale would do and were overwhelmed"

AND? Whats that got to do with me? Get more staff in you bell ends!

CRC no more for me after that sh!te excuse.

When they started out CRC were quick because the volume of orders coming in were a lot lower hence could get found, packaged up and sent off. Now i would predict there are a lot of warehouse staff doing it all day and it will just be whatever order is on the pile first.

Although stuff is a day slower than used to be still pretty quick considering! Ordered a few things recently and had no problems. Using RM is there key point, yeah RM sometimes cock up but for the amount of mail that goes through there system everyday its not surprising! Being able to collect parcels at the sorting office is a big plus rather than re-arranging delivery!

CRC thumbs up from me!

If its dispacted I can live with it being slower due to RM, if I have something I need ill goto LBS.

Whats pissed me off is the fact that its not even been dispacthed yet. Unacceptable as its in stock. The lame @rse excuse pissed me off even more.

I made 3 seperate orders on Tuesday; one in the morning, one at 9.30 at night and another 10 minutes later (when I realised I'd forgotten something). Everything was "in stock" (and still is) and so far only the order I placed last has been changed to "complete" – the two earlier orders are still "processing".

I'm guessing the warehouse is so big that stuff kept right at the back is an extra day or two's walk for whichever order-picker has to go and get it off the shelves!

I'm processing. Have been for a couple of days now….. not used to this from CRC

🙁

I have gone off CRC now, ordered Sunday Dispatched yesterday. The service is not what it was. Don't get me started on warranty issues. 2 months my XTR shifter has been broke, had to send it back twice before they sent me a new one. which then turned up missing it's top cover so that has had to go back. I prefer Merlin, ebay and superstar(for pads) at the moment great service.

I ordered 9.21am this morning, still not arrived 👿

I posted on the other CRC thread, but thought I'd give a reply on here too for balance.

My recent gripe with CRC is that you place an order and it seems to sit processing for ages.
A few times this has happened, the item has also either disappeared from the site, or has gone to "out of stock" which makes me generally (and cynically) think that either I have coincidentally nabbed the last one, or they've checked stock & found out it isn't there. I have had both situations occur.
With past orders, the 'processing' would generally be a day at most and then the next day the item would be despatched. I wouldn't mind if it took a week if the information was provided that explained this, but if you choose the free post option, it does say something along the lines of 'your order will be generally be despatched within one working day'.

Once an item has been shipped, it seems to always be here next day.

Last week I ordered a couple of bits on Wednesday. It was still processing on Friday so I sent an e-mail to enquire. On Monday morning I had an e-mail saying the items had been despatched and they arrived on Tuesday. About 30 mins after they arrived, I received an e-mail reply to my enquiry explaining that the items had been processed & shipped.

One of the items I ordered wasn't suitable, so I am in the process of sending it back. In the meantime I ordered a replacement yesterday (along with some NC-17 grips) and they turned up today, which is FANTASTIC service! <24hrs from order to delivery. And I have no doubt that my return will be dealt with, without hassle.

It's just the "sat at processing" thing that I have an issue with.

Nearly all my recent orders have been delayed and required emails and phone calls to hurry them up. However, this weeks order has been turned around pretty quickly and one a couple of weeks ago was here the next day. It is still a bit hit and miss though.