Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 113 total)
  • Planet X – dodgy trading practices?
  • KungFuPanda
    Free Member

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

    Bought a frame on the web site before Easter. Money taken immediately and receipt given. Stripped down existing accident damaged bike, bought some other new bits. And waited. And waited.

    Rang a week or so after Easter. Told ‘we havent had those for months, dont know how they got onto the site, sold four and everyone is getting a refund’. Great I thought. Thanks a bunch. And thanks for taking my money and not even telling me you werent going to deliver it. Still waiting for a refund, by the way. Bike still in bits too (no frame you see).

    And now, today, shock horror, theres the frame on their effing site again but for £250 more! Mrs KFP is a solicitor and advised me to ring immediately and demand they send me a frame at the previously paid price.

    Cue the pathetic story about not knowing how they got on the site, and they havent got any, blah blah. Yeah right. Apparently they would like me to believe that things randomly appear for sale on the site without their control.

    Anyway, be careful dealing with this lot. Theyve been dishonest and dishonourable in their dealings with me and the impression I got today is that they dont give a flying **** about it.

    I’m a PX/OO customer going back many years, until today. Back to the LBS for me!

    allthepies
    Free Member

    bol
    Full Member

    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.

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    whatnobeer
    Free Member

    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.

    chojin
    Free Member

    Idiot.

    ampthill
    Full Member

    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?

    MrGreedy
    Full Member

    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.

    Jamie
    Free Member

    sherry
    Free Member

    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.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    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?

    DuggieStyle
    Free Member

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

    Making statements like this is libel, isnt it?

    damo2576
    Free Member

    Making statements like this is libel, isnt it?

    No, clue is in the question mark.

    convert
    Full Member

    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?

    sherry
    Free Member

    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.

    convert
    Full Member

    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)?

    damo2576
    Free Member

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

    vinnyeh
    Full Member

    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 😉

    damo2576
    Free Member

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

    What the OP said is irrelevant to how the thread degenerates

    convert
    Full Member

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

    I was wondering where that bit suddenly came from 🙂

    simondbarnes
    Full Member

    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 🙂

    simondbarnes
    Full Member

    What the OP said is irrelevant to how the thread degenerates

    Exactly 🙂

    convert
    Full Member

    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

    monkeysfeet
    Free Member

    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.

    damo2576
    Free Member

    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?

    vinnyeh
    Full Member

    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.

    simondbarnes
    Full Member

    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.

    damo2576
    Free Member

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

    pebblebeach
    Free Member

    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?

    daveplanetx
    Free Member

    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

    convert
    Full Member

    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 😉

    damo2576
    Free Member

    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.

    pebblebeach
    Free Member

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

    esselgruntfuttock
    Free Member

    Making statements like this is libel, isnt it?

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

    bruneep
    Full Member

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

    tomhoward
    Full Member

    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.

    wysiwyg
    Free Member

    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. 😀

    damo2576
    Free Member

    +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.

    sherry
    Free Member

    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.

    taxi25
    Free Member

    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.

    druidh
    Free Member

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

    GET.IT.SORTED!!!

    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?

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 113 total)

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