I’ve had a bad run recently with CRC and Wiggle. In all cases items have been in stock, ordered before 1pm, paid for next day tracked delivery. Next day… nothing.

In the opinion of STW which online store is the most consistent when it comes to delivery times on tracked / priority services? One that doesn’t use Royal Mail / Parcelforce / Yodel

With CRC, the only time they haven’t delivered the next day is when I’ve paid for it (once).

A lot of the time it isn’t the shops fault, it’s RM/the delivery company being crap

I think that most of the big online stores (not just the bicycle ones) now seem to put a deliberate delay on orders that aren’t paid to be prioritised.

Merlin. More often than not, stupidly quick.

Merlin have been excellent the few times I’ve used them recently. Also Ribble.

By the way, paid for tracked next day delivery – if it doesn’t turn up I take it you’re claiming refunds for that? I would be.

Bikediscount.de are pretty rapido too..

Bikediscount.de are pretty rapido too..

Schnell, surely?

Merlin are great, even phoned me when the top cap I ordered was not in stock with the colour I wanted so did I just want a black one so they could send it out that day(was quite a big order)

Obviously they don’t sell everything but superstar are stupidly quick, ordered some nanos on a Friday at 2pm and turned up Saturday morning.

The swiftest I’ve had recently were bike-components.de
Bike24 seem to hold on to the order 3 days before doing anything (and that’s specifically ordering on a Tuesday not in any of Germany’s large number of weeks with public holidays*), then delivery lightning quick.
CRC – last 2 orders have been 15 day turnaround (makes planning orders near vacations etc. impossible)
Superstar were very quick.
Wiggle managed a 10am next day delivery in Germany for a 4pm GMT order once, just with whatever their basic delivery is.

Even better – another Wiggle order came via a courier that uses a local bike store as a parcel collection point 🙂 😈

(* just a note for those in UK who do order from the regular German bike stores… May/June has a lot of holidays)

ordered from wiggle yesterday at 1500 delivered today 0900. Never had a problem

Ordered Mon am. Paid next day delivery. Still not arrived.

Evans Cycles. I know its fashionable to slate them on here but can’t fault them on their mail order, very quick delivery and it was what I’d ordered. Unlike CRC who have managed to send me the wrong item on a few occasions…

They are all pretty quick. I don’t think I can complain about delivery times at all.

Merlin are ridiculously quick with their deliveries…i’ve used CRC once and they were pretty quick but nowhere near as quick as merlin

Evans Cycles

😆 No, have another 😆

Merlin has been very quick in my experience, Wiggle used to be a few recent orders have taken quite a while.

I only ever use those two.

Superstar again. Brake pads ordered Friday lunchtime, arrived Saturday morning.

crc used to be good but gone off the boil for the last 8 months or so,
MERLIN are ace and my first call for anything needed in a hurry.
Or check if they have it in Halfords. reserve online and pick up local 2 days later.

Used several in last week, in order of speediness:

Halfords (ordered Sat, arrived Monday)
Merlin (1-2 days)
Wiggle (solid 2-3 days)
CRC (2-3 days just to come out of processing)
Tredz(tooks a week)

…these were all free delivery options.

i have noticed that with Wiggle it depends on what you buy. if its just a small item then it will go royal mail standard delivery, but if its larger it then goes via Hermes or similar and can take longer.

it would be easier if they were consistent but they arent capable of this!

Merlin are usually fastest in my experience, but I’ve never found CRC to be far behind. I ordered from them at 1pm yesterday and it arrived at 10am today.

Currently waiting on a CRC order that I paid for AM delivery on, so not them. The bastards.

I used tredz for some knee pads as they were £15 cheaper than anyone else. Ordered on 3rd of this month and they still haven’t arrived.

Emailed Monday and was told they had been sent that morning then Tuesday morning I got a dispatch email. Maybe tomorrow who knows?!

2 recent CR deliveries have been 10 days for a front mech and 6 days a pair of tyres. Other times is usually 2 to 3 days, which is fine as long as I work around what I have ordered. Merlins are 1 to 2 days. Recent high value orders with merlins were next day am, with registered and recorded.

ribble cycles seem to be good, CRC not bad and wiggle terrible. Seems wiggle have a systems issue where if you order the last item in stock, the system gets confused as it has accepted your order but then updated itself to show no stock left so the order for the last item gets put on hold.

I am told it is due to be fixed any day now but has caught me out several times.

oh and highonbikes are brilliant too, even refund the postage if you return something that was incorrectly ordered on my part.

Out of CRC, Wiggle, Merlin, Tweeks and Halfords Merlin and Tweeks are the fastest and most reliable for me. Had an order from CRC sent in 3 separate packages a few weeks ago and the second one went missing for over a week. Eventually turned up but was annoying!

I fit bits to my mate’s bikes (mainly their kid’s) for cake/contributions to the upgrade fund so order a fair bit!!

As others have inferred, in my experience paying extra for next day from CRC more or less guarantees you won’t get it next day. I occasionally do on their regular free delivery but usually its the day after that.

Thanks for the tips.

I’ll give Merlin a go for the next purchase.

One that’s already been mentioned lots, and one which hasn’t:

Merlin, On-One

Have got next day delivery from both of those on every order – OK so I’ve not ordered vast amounts, but probably at least 5 orders from each.

Interested to hear the Ribble are speedy nowadays – that didn’t used to be the case, and has put me off ordering from them in the past.

First Merlin order placed.

Always good to see DPD as a delivery option.

Merlin by far the quickest and most reliable. Crc have been shocking, wont use again until i hear much better things, doesn’t sound like that’ll be anytime soon

My first Merlin order showed up at 9:30 this morning.

Great work Merlin & DPD!

Ordered from Merlin Tuesday turned up this morning. Wiggle has been good recently and because of that I use them more than CRC at the moment after my last delivery from them took 5 days.

Merlin have always been solid.

CRC took a bit longer than I expected with my last order.

On One have been hit and miss

Superstar were good with pads but now I have switched back to organic pads I use my LBS.

I’ve had a few recent order with CRC that have definitely used the full “3 working days” – as in order Wednesday arrive Monday or order Tuesday arrive Friday. I guess it’s only annoying as I’ve got used to them being quicker, so they’ve turned up later than I’ve expected. Although I guess as this thread is about picking your supplier according to how quick stuff arrives it matters and CRC seem to have slipped behind some of the competition a bit.

Also I did have one thing marked as dispatched, but it didn’t appear on Parcelforce’s tracking for over 24 hours – so it’s clear that “dispatched” doesn’t mean it’s left the building.

I gave up paying for next day from Wiggle as it was always the day after next day, and the free postage stuff turned up quicker.

Tweeks were very quick when I used them recently – definitely proper next day.