[Closed] Planet X - dodgy trading practices?

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So did your legal friend suggest you take them to court, or to get on the Internet and accuse them of fraud, or neither of the above?

You sound very cross, but not terribly reasonable as far as I can see.

Mistakes happen. Old stock being sold off and not taken off the site, a glitch in the site that means the page is still visible? Who knows. Some of the OnOne/Px guys post on here and I'm sure they'll sort you out. They try hard and these things happen. Man up and stop ranting.

Idiot.

I think you've been hard done by. But have you given them a proper oppertunnity to respond? Did you phone then today? What did they say?

Interesting legel question. If you take some ones money can you opt to refund rather supply, even if the item is in stock?

Occam's razor I reckon - cock-up is much more likely than conspiracy, particularly as it's PlanetX. Annoying - yes; end of the world and justification for lots of pouting and threats of legal action - not so much.

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It's one thing not having the item and taking the money, which they shouldn't do until its been dispatched. But not getting a refund immediately after calling would annoy me. Mistakes do happen but its how well they are delt with. Doesn't sound like they have dealt with it that well to me.
I have had no issues myself with on one.

Some bike companies (not specifically on one) have a lazy half arsed approach to business and I'm suprised they stay in business. But then I remember how over priced bikes/parts are with Hugh mark ups from production to sale. I'm fully aware of R&D tooling etc but mark ups are still massive.

I don't see any rich LBS owners, in fact most seem to be going out of business. Have you spoken to them about these massive mark ups?

Advertising goods for sale that you havent got, and taking money for them. Fraud, isnt it?

Making statements like this is libel, isnt it?

Making statements like this is libel, isnt it?

No, clue is in the question mark.

Did you pay with Paypal? I've never had oo/px or any of the other regular internet bike places take money beforehand other than when using paypal- seems to be how the process works so I'd be surprised if you didn't.

I'd put this down as a mistake personally. Annoying from your perspective but not the end of the world. You would have thought the warehouse walla given the job of posting out your order would have flagged the problem. What was the frame?

Yes they do have massive mark ups. There is no denying it. Granted some enforced buy the distributed or bike company. LBS are going under for different reasons, recession, online outlets with lower over heads and bulk buying power etc. I'm all for LBS but the bike industry in general is way overpriced with there products.

What do you consider a massive markup? And who's markup are you talking about here - retailer, distributer or manufacturer? What would you consider reasonable (at each stage)?

I'd be surprised if most retailers were making more than a 2.5 markup/60ish% margin

so, to get this clear-you bought a frame they advertised at £x.
Frame wasn't delivered, you enquired and they said it was an error, hadn't been available for ages
A fortnight later you haven't been refunded.
Frame has been subsequently advertised again at £x + 250, but wasn't really available at this price either.

btw, op hasn't mentioned anything about markups, exorbitant or otherwise 😉

btw, op hasn't mentioned anything about markups, exorbitant or otherwise

What the OP said is irrelevant to how the thread degenerates

btw, op hasn't mentioned anything about markups, exorbitant or otherwise

I'd be surprised if most retailers were making more than a 2.5 markup/60ish% margin

I'd be absolutely astonished if any lbs had margins anywhere near that size 🙂

What the OP said is irrelevant to how the thread degenerates

Exactly 🙂

I'd be absolutely astonished if any lbs had margins anywhere near that size

me too - most bike stuff is around a retail markup of cira 30% iirc

I agree with kfp, imagine if you bought a car, paid for it and then went to pick it up, only to be told we didn't have any of those but sat on the forecourt is the same car but £1000 more expensive. I'd be pissed off.

Seriously? I only know 2.5-2.7 is common mark up for fashion retail. No idea re bikes.

Why would you bother unless at volume like CRC?

I agree with kfp, imagine if you bought a car, paid for it and then went to pick it up, only to be told we didn't have any of those but sat on the forecourt is the same car but £1000 more expensive. I'd be pissed off.

I agree, but the devil's in the detail.

If I've read this correctly it appears that the car's still not on the forecourt, though the price has gone up.

Seriously? I only know 2.5-2.7 is common mark up for fashion retail. No idea re bikes.

Yes, seriously. Bike shop margins are nowhere near that.

Where did the car come from? Its a planet x frame no?

Someone made a mistake, sue thief ass, brag about your legal knowledge on the Internet.

What can you possibly hope to gain from your post?

I can give a pretty full and detailed explanation for most of how this happened . Its a pretty harsh assessment kung fu panda and clearly you have been hard done by , but pretty much this is the result of and end of year audit (that we have to do) coupled with an attempted systems update (advanced warehouse functionality) and a bit of a nightmare over the easter stock take / systems reboot.

Basically our financial year end is end April - HMCE / David Cameroon / Inland revenue and the rules of the country mean we have to file audited accounts since we are now over audit turnover limit .

Our auditors insist on a full stock take .

With our operating system the aptly named khaos control , and when doing a full stock audited stock take - effectively you have to take your system "offline" for around 48 hours , or the duration of the stocktake - the penalty for this is you lose the ability to stock control - so it is possible to oversell as there is no live update of stock as it is sold . So each year we have a 48 hour window when we don't have stock control - this normally results in around 20 orders that oversell and we have to sort out afterwards with the customer .

This year unfortunately our systems provider keystone software took an extra 72 hours as they could not correctly import the conted stock levels - so we were down for 5 days . They had no explanation and it has caused us a lot of grief .

Furthermore at the same time we initiated what is known as an "advanced warehouse functionality" plugin - which was intended to vastly improve our stock control and ability to replen stock effectively , this was integrated by unfortunately despite being told otherwise , it also allowed customers to buy frames that are in a bonded warehouse location .

In short this meant we had over 1000 items oversold , plus this came on the back of a long bank holiday , after which we were short staffed as a few staff extended by taking that week off .

Now that clearly out our customer service under intense pressure , and they have tried incredibly hard the past 10 days to get things sorted and to sort all of theses issues and backlogs .

So yes - apologies , looks like your order has gone to pot , it was no means intentional or fraudulent , and you should not question the work ethic of our customer service staff , and despatch teams in the past week .

I am surprised at the refund - that should have been done promptly and if you mail me the order number i will look int it .

To date we haven't really bothered explaining the full sequence of events , but we have to do the audit - coupled with our systems supplier taking 5 days to get live stocks back , caused us a lot of oversells , coupled with the easter weekend , and low staff numbers the following week - then that is what has legged us up .

Clearly none of this is your issue , and you have not had a great experience - and we are sorry for that . Mail me you order number and I will see if there any options / alternatives - or at a minimum get our refund sorted .

dave@planet-x-bikes.com

Fashion retail has MUCH higher markup but being so seasonal/fashion orientated they sell far higher quanitities at markdown so need it. There is a reason bike shops don't often sit in the premium/high rent retail spots you know 😉

Dave - you need an Ops Dir!

Speak to your auditors, they should be able to work around your issues - I keep a whole factory moving during stock take with proper control.

Well done Dave. Hope the op comes back to the thread and thanks you for the honest and calm reply.

[i]Making statements like this is libel, isnt it?[/i]

It's only libel if it's not true, isn't it?

I suggest the op winds his neck in and emails dave. seems he's offering a reasonable deal.

pebblebeach - Member
Well done Dave. Hope the op comes back to the thread and thanks you for the honest and calm reply.
POSTED 8 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

+1 people are far too quick to assume the worst these days.

I'd like to say I was a victim of the stock take system fail and PX and On-One/Brant have done all they can and sorted my problem, so thumbs up from me. 😀

+1 people are far too quick to assume the worst these days.

I think the point is that the OP and customers in general don't get explanations straight away from the MD and it takes them posting in a public forum to elicit a response.

I know a LBS owner. His mark up is well above 30%! But it does depend on the product. 40 to 60% is more near the mark. He is a good guy and prices are negotiable if your a regular or spending a bit. People pay the prices including myself so it won't stop. I did refer to the bike industry in general regarding cost.

Convert, are you happy to pay 3k or more for a full sus MTB that isn't even top of the range? Do you think its good value for money. Or is it you like the exclusivity of it?

Sorry for detracting from the opening subject OP.

Yes but the deal always comes after a poster makes their complaint public. Would the same thing have happened if the op had remained silent.

daveplanetx - Member
With our operating system the aptly named khaos control

FFS - how many cock-ups does it take - or are you happy to ride on the back of the "man in a shed" image forever?

No. Really.

http://www.khaoscontrol.com/

well - I'm sitting with a spreadsheet open now I dug up (from a source that shall remain nameless) and the brand I've got in front of me has got nothing on the sheet with a retail mark up close to 40%.

Convert, are you happy to pay 3k or more for a full sus MTB that isn't even top of the range? Do you think its good value for money. Or is it you like the exclusivity of it?

That's an entirely different conversation for a different thread and in my opinion has got little to do with the bike industry business model. I think it's got a lot to do with current consumers excessive hunger for wanting to own close to the very best that can be designed and manufactured. I'm long in the tooth enough now to look at what we raced quite happily(on the road) in the 80's in Britian by proper national level riders that was merely average in comparision to what "could" be made at the time. Now every fat IT manager wants NASA levels of technology to ride around the park with his kids. Bike manufactures panda to our whims and gulibility and make us the daft expensive bikes. I'm not sure the markups are any bigger now than then but our consumerism has gone off the scale.

Well done Dave. Hope the op comes back to the thread and thanks you for the honest and calm reply.

+1 people are far too quick to assume the worst these days.

To be fair, it's not assuming the worst, it's telling a tale of woeful customer service. At the very least the refund should have been sorted in short order.

Having said that, it's always good to see a genuine and honest post on the forum in response – all companies big and small have expansion and logistical issues – it’s how they communicate to and recompense those affected that counts.

daveplanetx - Member
Now that clearly out our customer service under intense pressure , and they have tried incredibly hard the past 10 days to get things sorted and to sort all of theses issues and backlogs .

Like a few others have said, the OP shouldn't have had to post on here to see the start of a resolution.