Paid a 10% deposit to a shop on a Zesty last month on the basis it was due at Hotlines (importer) first week of May with the shop 3 or 4 days later.

Split and sold current FS bike, due date came and went, now apparently I'm told by the shop they don't know when stock is coming "it just turns up on the door step"!!

Rang Hotlines and asked if they had any idea and was told I needed to speak to the shop! Explained how helpful they had been, he sounded unamused and said he's speak to branch manager, check the dates and get the shop to call me back ……… !!

NOTHING!!

Do shops/importers really not get delivery dates? The shop I'm buying from have 6 medium and 4 large models of one model of Zesty on order, so I'm thinking Hotlines order will be LARGE and not just left on a doorstep as they bike shop would have me believe!!!

Depends on the attitude of the shop I imagine. I have been waiting for 6 weeks for something, it has been restocked elsewhere but when I asked for a due date I was basically told "don't call us, we'll call you". I'm pretty close to asking for a refund and going elsewhere, not as much because of the delay but the attitude that I should just sit and wait indefinitely.

In general (and this is general) we get advice on when a bike is to be expected.

Occasionally bike just don't turn up on time for little explanation but they come through in the end.

It is conceivable that there is not delivery info – we have that problem sometimes. A manufacturer may not give good info to importers on what is coming and when it is coming.

To be fair to Hotlines -they rank pretty high on our 'good to deal with' barometer. They have yet to let us down on a date or promise.

Also – stock RARELY turns up on the doorstep – in fact Hotlines will tell you when they are about to ship. They do this to make sure your account is clear etc etc.

Speak to the shop again.

I've been waiting on a new frame that was due in Jan. The fabricators got delayed, so the manufacturer kept having their dates put back, so the importers did too.. etc…

Usually when they're on the water from Taiwan etc it's about 4 weeks. The shop is in the hands of the distributor – they don't have much of an idea.

GB

thebikechain – thanks for the insight, just what I was after.

gee – I sympathise, my last frame purchase was 6 months late! That was a Niner frame, all sorts of excuses about the Reynolds tubing being delayed going from Germany to US or Taiwan or something, then something else, they can tell you want they want really!

I thought getting something 'mainstream' might be less hassle, but so far ….. not!

It's all coming back to me now, after the Niner saga I promised never to get involved with anything that wasn't in stock!!!

Just have to sit and wait – unpatiently!

IM(historic)E the supply chain was pish and this sort of thing was common.

when you buy something from chainreaction or wiggle or whatever you 'know' when something is going to be delivered. i.e. you can roughly say what day it will probably turn up based on what they have told you and the companies previous form with you, but you dont really know exactly.

shops are exactly the same. the process of manufacturing, packaging, distributing and delivering a product has a great many variables, why is it so hard to understand that a shop wont know exactly when what they have ordered is going to turn up?

Sometimes it's the shop's fault, sometimes it's the distributer's. In general it's a bloody mess.
I know of one instance recently where a distributer told a private customer they had the spares he had ordered three months before from the LBS. The LBS immediately rang this distributer and were told there were none in the country and had not been any for several months.

Hotlines have not sent a Carnegie bar I ordered and they have taken about three months and one back up request not to do so. I'm not in a rush so I haven't asked, it's probably going to be out of stock.

Because its really in a bike shops interest to make you wait,they have no incentive to get you the bike at all..its probably sitting in the back while they drink tea and laugh at you.
In reality the importer gets a vague due date from manufacturer,who gives a vague due date to the shop who has to make up a possible due date to the customer.Who then takes this as gospel and get annoyed when it inevitably slips.
Don't ever back order a Santa Cruz!!!

The distributors do have "due dates" on their website but it's rare that they actually come in on that date. Since that date is usually all we have to go on there's not much we can do sometimes sadly.

…and Lapierre are struggling to keep up with demand on Zestys, so I'm told by my LBS (a LP dealer).

The shop told me Hotlines will get the bikes first week of may and have them out to them in 3 to 4 days. I rang towards the end of the first week of May and was told they'd spoken to Hotlines a few times that week and everything was still on schedule.

Now their deliveries just turn up on the doorstep.

I still struggle to see that the importer doesn't get more info, which is why I went to them. If this one shop has 10 of 1 Zesty model on order, Hotlines must be expecting 100's of bikes from them, which I guess would need a bit of organising?

Sure, I'm a middle aged IT idiot that knows nothing about bike supply, which is why I'm asking, but if I was expecting a new Mainframe or 15 Unix servers I'd know when they'd be turning up!

"Sure, I'm a middle aged IT idiot that knows nothing about bike supply, which is why I'm asking, but if I was expecting a new Mainframe or 15 Unix servers I'd know when they'd be turning up! "
Everyone should voluteer for a few days in their Lbs-the amount of griping that goes on here would reduce by about 98%.
Just because it does'nt work like you think it should/or would like it to work it does'nt mean that its wrong.It's how it is and its not usually the chump you're berating's fault.
Its sometimes understandable how lbs bods end up as embittered/grumpy/misogonistic/anhedones (tho to be fair they usually start out like that).

Similarly, as an LBS staffer, I bet if I did a week at a distributor I'd go a bit easier on them!

'Similarly, as an import staffer, I bet if I did a week at a manufacturer I'd go a bit easier on them! '

Fancy a job swap for a week SC?

Whilst I've never had any issues (previous purchases of new bikes for me have always been end of season bargains) it does seem like the bike industry thinks it's somehow special and their "variables" (as stated above) make it a dark art to predict when things will arrive.

It's fundamental supply chain understanding which is applicable to all industries, big and small, and I don't see why bicycles are any different. Maybe it's actually down to the relevant parties not wanting to quote you a long lead time for fear you won't purchase that brand.

All any customer wants is information, if the information changes then it's the duty of the seller to update the customer, not for the customer to beg for an answer!

Into a distributor or are you an IT middle manager?

IME most distributors were fairly prompt with their deliveries and gave good info, but occasionally things went AWOL, but it was maybe once a yer from each supplier. Everything was ordered by the shop on a certain day of the week (if they were not every-day type suppliers) and it tended to arrive the same day each week too, but sometimes suppliers would supply the last of their stock to their biggest retailer and the others had to wait for the next shipment. And they'd squirm around the reasoning but that was effectively it – we sometimes visited the supplier in person and saw them sitting in the corner bagged up for someone else.

I haven't raised a voice to anyone, been rude to anyone, simply want to know when my bike will arrive, somebody must have an idea! Am I really being unreasonable? I didn't go to Hotlines to cause trouble for the shop, but thought they might have info on when the bikes were due to them, and therefore a few days later to me.

If the shop were reserving me a bike on a good will basis and not a 10% deposit basis I would be more tolerant.

At the end of the day it strikes me they know they are like Rocking Horse Sh*t and if they have to refund my money someone else will be along to buy it.

Even Estate Agents have to be honest these days, I don't think the shop have been that honest with me, unless they too are being strung along.

I just can't see why it all has to be a big mystery!!

Notter – Exactly!

Having dealt with various distributors, worked in shops and distributors over the years, the supply varies hugely between the manufacturers and the distributors to the shops.
The last 6 months I've had service that has been absolutely brilliant and appalling from various distributors.
Basically if there is one weak (or just crap) link in the chain it all goes tits up, I'm not sure the bike industry is any better or worse than any other….

Oh and by the way when I say customer I mean customer at each step of the way, so in this case Lapierre to Hotlines, Hotlines to the LBS and finally the LBS to PikeBN14. Why should the final end customer have to call the distributor? What's next, he has to speak to Lapierre directly? Or perhaps the welding facility in the far east?

My item was sold out UK-wide. it has now been re-stocked into other shops but not the one I ordered from. Even if my items have been ordered later and were in a queue I would at least expect a realistic lead time. I am not in a mad rush but its 8 weeks since I paid, the items are in stock elsewhere, and I've basically been told to continue waiting for an indefinite amount of time.

he has to speak to Lapierre directly

Bonne chance avec ça 😉

Shandy – Member
My item was sold out UK-wide. it has now been re-stocked into other shops but not the one I ordered from. Even if my items have been ordered later and were in a queue I would at least expect a realistic lead time. I am not in a mad rush but its 8 weeks since I paid, the items are in stock elsewhere, and I've basically been told to continue waiting for an indefinite amount of time.

Mibbe your shop isn't paying its bills?

You read my mind druidh. It is easy to pass the buck back up the line and blame someone else.

Could be druidh, they are a decent sized business but organisation doesn't seem to be a strong point. I have a month or so before I need the stuff but I am wary of it going out of stock everywhere and leaving me high and dry.

vote with your wallet, cancel order, buy somewhere else, lesson learned on both sides
sometimes its the only way

If the bike I was after was in stock elsewhere I'd cancel the order and buy somewhere else, it isn't a very LBS anyway!

They just seem to get a bit blase when they know you can't go elsewhere!

I hope the shop is telling you the truth. I'm new to the bike trade but it REALLY needs a shake-up – distributors get rich and wee shops get to take all the risk. If they don't and they want a bike "mid-season" (i.e. now and for the last two months apparently) that they haven't ordered months earlier when they didn't know the brand or the new models in some cases then they get to look like the idiots as they are customer-facing.

We need to find a way to improve matters methinks. In the meantime, I shall do what I can for customers but I cannot afford to just give stuff away/discount products forever because items don't arrive when they are supposed to.

I'm new to the bike trade but it REALLY needs a shake-up
Welcome to the world.