I'm fuming! CRC service sucks

I suspect CRC can afford sen out annother roll for good will and not go bust

So the OP wants either a replacement or his money back but can't be bothered to send the tape back because its low value.

The length of the bar tape isn't the issue here!

I've returned stuff to CRC before and they have always refunded the postage. Just put the tape in an envelope and send it back.. job done!

You cant expect CRC to replace the part if they have no prrof it doesn't work!

Think about it from a seller's point of view. It's a £4 bit of bar tape – probably costs them £2-3 to buy, stock and ship to you. If you post it back, and they receive it, they have to match it up to the problem on their system, get a pair of road bars out of stock and ask someone to fit brake levers and try wrapping the bars. Easily half an hour to an hour's work for someone in picking, assembling and repacking the bars and levers. Employee time will be easily worth more than £10 an hour to CRC, even if paying £6 an hour.

Therefore, it's cheaper for them to just send the guy some bar tape that does fit. They've already inconvenienced the guy by screwing up his bar wrap, perhaps stopping him riding his road bike, and now they want him to mess about posting stuff so they can be 100% sure he's not a liar?

I used to work dealing with customers, some of whom did lie in order to get what they wanted. Part of the job is working out when people are lying or pushing things, but an equal part is knowing when you should give people the benefit of the doubt.

Everyone working in retail should have one fact burned into their brain – people tell twice as many people about bad service than they do about good service.

FWIW, I can recommend SJS for their service – I ordered some shifters for an old racer, it arrived without the mounting hardware. No need to send it back, they sent out a complete new shifter assembly. No third degree either.

i think you should maybe give it a rest and chalk it up to experience. people like you who complain and stamp their feet at the slightest little thing really grind my gears. if your lucky you may get someone fired or in a lot of trouble over a £4 roll of tape – which is nice. should have bought something decent in the first place – or, as you said, read the reviews that mention the length. proper internet buying fail.

WTF are you blethering on about? CRC are selling an item that isn't fit for purpose and instead of dealing with the matter professionally they've taken the ostrich approach. This should have been such a simple matter to resolve, without getting into an email 'argument' with a customer (is that ever going to come across well?) that it beggers belief CRC could **** it up to such an extent!

Rusty

Therefore, it's cheaper for them to just send the guy some bar tape that does fit.

But according to the OP the bar tape doesn't fit so sending out the new bar tape it won't fit either. There not going to send out another brand are they!

So yes they will need to check the length of the tape to prove if its to short and then go to the manufacturer. Yes its only £4 but if X number of folk bought the tape it all adds up regardless of how big a company is, and where do you draw the line?

If you're trying to stick your handlebars together with tape I'd argue that there's something wrong with your handlebars in the first place. Hope that helps.

PS: get a proper bike
(hope that helps too)

Insulating tape works. My dad used to put it on his Raleigh. Cheaper than £4 too. Everyone's a winner.

All resolved now. For completeness…

Hi Adam,

The issue is not about the cost of the item and we can sort this easily, do you want a refund or an exchange because the tape you received is going to be the same length but if you want another one sent out we can send it if you feel adding two lengths is going to resolve your issue, please let us know what it is you want and we will get back to you, but as advised the item itself is not actually faulty but get back to me with what you want and we will be in touch.

Kind Regards,
Mark

———

Mark also kindly rang up. Offered to send me the same bar tape in replacement (fairly pointless) or a refund.

Lesson learnt, getting a refund and am going to buy it from a bike shop instead.

Suppose, just for a minute that, perhaps, just perhaps Brand X had, for some reason, sent out some bar tape that was actually shorter than it should have been. For example the tape comes off a big roll in the Brand X factory and is cut to length. The OP has got some off the end of the roll and was slightly too short as a result.
Why doesnt the OP get all of the tape he was sent, measure it and then request that CRC get a roll of the same stuff off their shelf and then measure theirs?
Im assuming that its one roll for both sides of the bars and not two separate ones for each side?

bigyinn- already did that and told CRC that the bar tape is 170cm long. Even the shortest listed on their site is 185cm.

So Mark's boss saw the thread then. Result.

Or Mark took one of the offending items from the warehouse and tried to fit it to some bars and realised what an arse he was?

Either way. Result.

Coffeking – Yes I see your point but they will get people trying it on all the time, just like folk that put forks on back to front, not everyone is installing parts correctly however simple to most folk they seem!

I'm sure they do, but with the feedback already existing and if they actually try their own product before selling it….

As for knowing about the reviews – as far as I know they moderate them all anyway, so someone there already has read the review, accepted its validity and posted it for reading. This tells me something.

So are all those who vowed never to buy from CRC ever again going to relent now ?

The issue is not about the cost of the item and we can sort this easily, do you want a refund or an exchange because the tape you received is going to be the same length but if you want another one sent out we can send it if you feel adding two lengths is going to resolve your issue, please let us know what it is you want and we will get back to you, but as advised the item itself is not actually faulty but get back to me with what you want and we will be in touch.

For Gods sake man, punctuation!

so what did frank say?

I'm trying to work out how not having bar tape makes a bike impossible to ride??
No wheels, a bit of a problem.
No frame, going to be difficult.
No seat, slightly uncomfortable.

No bar tape!!!! FFS!

Im not going to the effort of sending you some useless grip tape and wait weeks for a refund or replacement (or neither). I also have to use the bike, which right now even though it doesn’t cover the hood clamp, is just about functional. Having to take it off makes my bike totally unusable.

😆 🙄

Glad you've kissed and made up.

So are all those who vowed never to buy from CRC ever again going to relent now ?

that malarky has certainly put me off using crc again. Ok, they've kind of sorted it, but I wouldn't want THAT much email exchange in order to get a replacement/an issue resolved.

don simon- ever tried holding a bare metal bar for a 70 mile ride over pot holed roads with sweaty hands? (plenty of room for double entedres there)

Sorted – Well done – They saw the light – MOve along move along – you can all go about your business 🙂

So are all those who vowed never to buy from CRC ever again going to relent now ?

that malarky has certainly put me off using crc again. Ok, they've kind of sorted it, but I wouldn't want THAT much email exchange in order to get a replacement/an issue resolved.

My brother has had to deal with CRC over a cracked frame (and associated mess that made of other components). His experience has certainly put me off ever buying a high end item/high price item off them.

Sounds like it's a faff buying £4 grip tape now 🙁

Astonishingly 100th post!

ads-b – Member

don simon- ever tried holding a bare metal bar for a 70 mile ride over pot holed roads with sweaty hands? (plenty of room for double entedres there)

Uncomfortable but not impossible! 🙄

¿Gloves? 😉

In order to try to redress the balance a bit I've always found CRC very good to deal with.

At the end of the day cheap bar tape is cheap bar tape and will never be as good as the bigger brand stuff. You pays your money…

Hmm don't thik some people on here have ridden very far on a road bike if they don't have bar tape 😯 Would you ride 70 miles on a MTB off road without grips 😉

Like I said, insulating tape. 😯

Its really simple to slove this problem.

If like me you are utterly obsessed with your hobbies/pastimes, you end up spending alot of money on products to support you hobbies, usually in one favoured shop. If they start messing you around over something that quite clearly is disputable and worth a few quid, then never shop there again (take a breath).

I spend more money on climbing gear, ropes etc, at least 3 hundred every couple of months, and if my local shop quibbled over something worth 4 quid, then I would stop shopping there and go next door.

Hit them where it hurts! It will be there loss in the long run. I hate un helpfull staff, especially in shops like bike shops who rely on loyalty and good word of mouth. Whatever happenend to the customer is always right! Wether or not you can or cant fit tape correctly and may have messed it up, is not the issue. The fact is you are a loyal customer, and they should value that. They quite clearly dont. So dont shop there again.

I have heard alot of bad press about crc on here recently, and I certainly wont shop there again.

I spend more money on climbing gear, ropes etc, at least 3 hundred every couple of months, and if my local shop quibbled over something worth 4 quid, then I would stop shopping there and go next door.

What if the shop next door was Ann Summers, or Greggs the Bakers. That wouldn't help you when falling off a massive climb. Best to travel further afield and go to another climbing shop.

Tip top tip that, for free!

Well Greggs make excellent climbing gear!

I,ve had sausage rolls from there that would make great rock bolts, they just would not break if you fell onto them from 5 meters above them.

Fair point, and you could probably get some sort of 'harness' from Ann Summers

Haha, never thought of that!

You may have hit onto an idea here, Erotic climbing harness'es! I wonder if Scarpa or Wild country might be interested?

As a side note, if you've got a complaint about a particular service or store it's best to use their trading title in full when complaining on a forum.

example: I received poor service from Chain Reaction Cycles (http://www.chainreactioncycles.com)

Why? Forums are frequently indexed by search engines so when people search for 'Chain Reaction Cycles' there's a good chance Google will throw up results such as: 'I received poor service from Chain Reaction Cycles' which is obviously not great for business.

Good luck with your case, and be happy that whilst it may have cost you £4 it's already cost CRC the sale of one bike.

CP

it's already cost CRC the sale of one bike.

And some road wheels here too, went to ribble instead but that was because crc screwed up my brakes as well, even though i called to make sure they were as pictured….. They were not…

But i think its fair to say that this will be an error on marks part. He or his team leader will have a credit limit and parameters under which to use them.

The minute this started costing them money ( ie when adam sent his second mail, any inbound correspondance probably costs them £5 a time, phone calls more so.) he should have sent the tape, ended the issue.

It seems to me this is an individuals failure to understand employers business rather than a policy failure at crc

went to ribble

The subject of a startlingly unfair complaint about services standards on here as recently as last month. 🙂

CRC really need to re-hire Andy. Now there is a man who could do damage control.

Why didn't you just support your local bike shop in the first place sure they would have sorted it out

Surely people use bar tape on things other than drop bars (ie straight bars)…no where on the product description does it say that the tape is for road bikes.

Why didn't you just support your local bike shop in the first place

Not everyone has one (or a decent one at least) and even then, they may not stock the specific brand/item you want, so mail order is the easiest, quickest and often cheapest option.

Talking of which – has anyone used or know about the new'ish shop that has opened in Framwellgate Moor in Durham. Might have a look in there tomorrow anyway.

The subject of a startlingly unfair complaint about services standards on here as recently as last month.

Maybe read other positive posts about Ribble before you slag them off.

Seems mud sticks on here despite all the good posts or good service not posted we get from mail order bike services!!!

there are many different types of bars.
tri bars, cowhorns, some people only tape up to the hoods if they've got fancy aero bars. it would be fine for all of those bars…

I've not read all this… who would?

Can I be the last post on this £4 adventure, please?