Any updates?
Their website is certainly still alive and well
Looks like they have removed the Ribble and Canyon bikes from the site
CAVEAT EMPTOR Canyon Spectral All sizes in stock
Couple of Ribble bikes there too.
The have popped up on Trustpilot now with negative reviews
i asked what time the shop closed, got told 5pm. Asked if that was the Sheen Road store, thne to be told i need to make an appointment due to Covid. They advised i read their covid guidlines, which i couldnt find, so asked for a link. Link gives me info, but nothing about making an appointment.
it does state tho 'Both our Peterborough and Richmond stores have now reopened. Due to Welsh Government Guidance, for those over the age of 11, face coverings must now be worn within ours stores.'
My geography isnt great, but why would they apply Welsh government guidance for stores not in Wales?!?!
Update whilst typing this.... i have an appointment for tomorrow at 12pm......
Wonder if James (owner of Bicycle Richmond) is aware of this as the sheen rd address is his shop !!
I did email James last week to give him a heads up, he replied:
Many thanks - This has happened a couple of times before over the last 10 years, using the same URL.
It has been reported to the police and Companies House as ID theft and fraud.
Update whilst typing this…. i have an appointment for tomorrow at 12pm…
Take a friend! 😳
haha, dont worry, i have no intention of going, i just wanted to see what the outcome would be via the live chat.
Their online sales guy seems really keen to persuade 'Lachlan Morton' to buy online rather than to pop into their shop, even though it's only a 20 minute bike ride away!
Their online sales guy seems really keen to persuade ‘Lachlan Morton’ to buy online rather than to pop into their shop
They seemed quite keen to sell "Steve Peat" an e-bike too.
I wonder if they would try and sell Bradley Wiggins a mountain bike!
Jag, did your bike turn up?
Looks like they are still going......
SCAM!!! DON’T BUY from them. They stole all my money!!!I purchased a bike from them, they sent me an email confirmation with all the details to go and collect it in the store. I went to the shop(to the address they show in their website) and it’s another different bike store and they had no idea about my order plus they mentioned that many people went there asking for bikes from the bicycle company uk they even reported it to the police but the police didn’t really care. It’s a shame! Please everyone who can report this SCAM company do it so we can avoid this to happen to others like it happened to me.
Looked legit to me !! Sarcasm switch off !
Why oh why do people still fall for these scams 🙁
If it looks too good to be true ? It is !!!!!
lana- if only you joined earlier...
@jag did TSB help you get the money back or were they terrible?
They got my review pulled from Trustpilot, there are load of negative reviews on there already, all replied to saying they are fake reviews.
There are also a bunch of positive reviews, they must have been really busy on the 26th and 27th of July because that is when all them were posted.
Honestly its Scammy McScamface. I guess the website is actually hosted outside the UK so there is not much that can be done to pull it down. Maybe @stwhannah wants to investigate and see if anything more can be done to stop people being scammed?
@plus-one no need, I'm sure they feel bad enough without you ripping the piss.
I'm surprised that credit card companies still deal with them as they must be getting lots of claims
UPDATE
No bike - no surprise I guess :o(
TSB have said I have to wait 15 days after the promised delivery date before I can make a claim. In that 15 days I'm supposed to contact the supplier to organise delivery or a full refund. If I have no joy I can then claim my money back. The 15 days expires on 15/8/2021.
The only helpful thing that's happened is that my payment has been 'held during an investigation of fraud' by their Card processing agent; Vivawallet. I'm hoping that will make the claim back easier.
I've decided that I am an idiot and it was clearly a scam which I didn't see through.
Let's all be careful out there!
I’ve decided that I am an idiot and it was clearly a scam which I didn’t see through.
It wasn't so clear it was a scam apart from the price. They have worked hard on this one
seems to me that if you are a keen cyclist, eg: knowing Canyon, Ribble, etc are direct sales models then there are clues but not everyone is such a saddo obsessive as the average STW dweller and then it does look very convincing.
The only regular advice that everyone should know is to always use a credit card when you buy online. I know there's often a backlash against credit cards, but used wisely, in this case for the protection they bring, they are very useful. Even though banks may refund after investigation, with a CC it's a legal obligation.
It wasn’t so clear it was a scam apart from the price
And the homepage of the website.
And the homepage of the website.
Which part of the homepage? It looked good by most normal standards
Hannah brought this to my attention. I'm doing some digging. If anything we will get something up to warn others. If anyone who has made a purchase or spoken to them wants to drop me a message please feel free to do so!
Which part of the homepage? It looked good by most normal standards
For me it was the bit where you landed and was immediately presented with 'Largest Bicycle Manufacturer'. That seems unlikely, apart from anything else they reckon they're a shop not a factory. After that, all their news posts are dated the same day (4th March 2021), the discounts are all too good to be true, the videos consist entirely of stock imagery, and if you Google streetview their apparent address it looks very different to their supposed shop picture (among plenty of other things I'm sure).
I'm not saying they've not put some effort in because they have (all the links generally go somewhere, they've gone to the effort of writing out or at least stealing someone's privacy policy etc.), but it still doesn't pass the sniff test for me and it's a lot of money to send somewhere that looks even a little bit curious.
Coming out of a worldwide pandemic/brexit/supply chain issues.
Massive bike/parts shortages worldwide and folks waiting months on bikes etc!!
A company no-one has heard off pops up with lots of stock of pretty much any bike and at a discount !!!!
Aye it might be true !
For me it was the bit where you landed and was immediately presented with ‘Largest Bicycle Manufacturer’
Exactly - as I posted up there somewhere ^^
Coming out of a worldwide pandemic/brexit/supply chain issues.
Massive bike/parts shortages worldwide and folks waiting months on bikes etc!!
A company no-one has heard off pops up with lots of stock of pretty much any bike and at a discount !!!!
This is all very true as well of course, I was just trying to point out things that made me suspicious that could happen on any scam site rather than just a bike related one (when I first looked at it for example, they reckoned they were selling Canyon bikes which the bike nerd and STW dweller in me instantly flagged as 'nope').
When I first found this I clicked on a specialized diverge. It didn't take me to the front page. The only reason I was suspicious was the discount and then the 2nd and 3rd discount codes. That's when I did some digging and posted on here. I was pretty sure it was a scam but there was a little bit of me that thought maybe someone in IT had cocked up!
I once bought a bike from Evans cycles that was ridiculously cheap and they called me the next day to say they'd made a mistake and refunded my money. So it does happen.
Tbf the website is better than some major bike companies websites and easier to use!
I've had another email from them since posting the UPDATE.
This time telling me that because my payment has failed they will issue a full refund in the next fourteen days - which seems unlikely. However I have to wait at least that long before I can contact TSB about getting my money back so I guess we will see what happens.
I'm not going to hold my breath :o)
This time telling me that because my payment has failed they will issue a full refund in the next fourteen days
Why would they issue a refund if the payment failed? This is just delay tactics.
Has the money come out of your account?
Yes - the money is gone from my account but is being held by the card processing company; Vivawallet
Vivawallet tell me this happens if the website is reported for fraudulent practices.
I don't think the refund offer is real - just a delaying tactic as you say :o)
I hope everyone scammed gets their cash back.
I've not seen the website in question but from the scammers point of view it seems like a good time to set something up. I've been looking for a bike recently and the combination of the drought and the desire to get something I can commute on before I return to the office in September has led to a feeling of the pressure being ramped up.
I can easily imagine many people are hitting the "buy" button much more impulsively and quickly than they usually would if they see something "in stock" and feel there is a tiny window to grab it.
Lauren's done a story on the STW homepage now
Anyone that has fallen for this, don't feel ashamed of yourselves. This is a very convincing site, and is actually one of the better ones i have seen.
I work for a large bank and investigate fraud cases, so i have seen more than my fair share of these types of scams.
This one looks like they have done their research quite well, changing the address to the actual bike shop, with all the details as lots of people investigate these shops by googling and street viewing the premises then decide its okay as its an actual shop.
Good luck on getting the money back, this can be a slow process, sometimes the beneficiary bank will hold the funds and return them especially if there have been numerous reports of fraud, other times they will have to reach out to the beneficiary to gain consent to return the funds, obviously this never happens.
However these fraudsters generally have a few accounts which when one is burnt they move to the next.
What to do:
Phone the bank to say you have been made aware that the website is a scam site and you would like to recall the funds due to fraudulent activity, they then have to investigate this, sending messages to the beneficiary bank and if they deem it is a fraud attempt have a legal and regulatory obligation to file a SAR(suspicious activity report) to the National Crime Agency.
Report to Action Fraud and provide as much info as possible, these reports from Action Fraud are sent to all banks who "should" proactively search for any of their customers who also have been defrauded and it helps build a case.
And always, always, always pay for online stuff via your credit card even if you have the cash to pay it off, stick it on a credit card, then pay it off straight away, you'll still be eligible for the chargeback and pay no interest.
They are loving replying to their Trustpilot reviews: https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/is-the-bicycle-company-uk-britains-biggest-cycling-scam/#post-11989839
Emtb forum we’re onto them back in June !
looks like the site might be down now. they really went to a lot of trouble to make it lookgood. I know it might have been obvious to some and definitely smelt funny but I know a lot of people who would have been taken in by that. these days I tend to always google new company names along with 'scam' when trying someone new
Yeah it does like their site has been taken down, but they have changed the url on their Trustpilot to a genuine bike shop now.
ooo, stw gets a mention on their reviews. the power of seo
They aren't happy with us. I have just spoken to the bike shop and they are aware the Trustpilot links to them and they have reported it.
I saw these guys about 2 or 3 months ago. I remember thinking at the time that I'd never heard of them & for then suddenly they are all over the net with all kinds of stock. The site looked good & legit but something about the way this company came from nowhere & had loads of stock of many different things seemed off. Spidey sense went tingaling & I walked away. Sorry for those who fell for them - it was quite convincing..
Good job sniffing out the bullshitters before they find too many victims.
Any genuine dealer will be on the Dealer List of said bike brands website. This could be faked if stealing a real dealers name, but at least it's something anyone can check easily.
For the same reason the bike industry should be able to sniff these sites out a bit quicker and get them taken down.
How did you find out about vivawallet? Did they emailed you about it? I’ve got an email from the bicycle company telling me that my order ID failed and I will be fully refunded in 14 days and if I want to keep the order valid I have to submit the order once again and they guarantee me they won’t charge twice and they add a link. A JOKE!!! I don’t think I will get the money back, my bank refuses to give me back the money because at first they cancelled the transaction and I did approve it, so it went through, so NO MONEY , NO BIKE 🙁 the best thing to do is to report the website.
