I know there have been a lot of threads and comments about Planet X not being the most organised or quick to respond. But I have a quick question about ordering from them.

At the weekend I ordered an On-One Whippet. The order process was simple and got just what I wanted. However since placing the order I haven’t had the confirmation email (apparently due in approx 24hours) and the order on my account says “order held whilst awaiting stock”. Is this normal?

The cash will, however, have been taken from your account within a nanosecond of you pressing buy. They’re probably out of stock of one or other of the components needed to build the bike which throws the order into a rabbit hole where, if it’s something simple, it will stay for a day until an alternative is found or if it’s something major like the frame, it will wait until a new container load arrives sometime in the next decade. Welcome to the world of Planet X where cash flow is king.

The strangest thing happened to me this week. Tried to get hold of a 10 speed cassette spacer for 11 speed hub as despite being advertised as coming with one my fulcrum wheels did not. Out of all the shops only P X seemed to have one in stock. Clearly , rather than only spend 1.99 I loaded up on pound shop goodies (titanium chopsticks? Yes please!) , pressed buy at about 2pm on Monday and fully expected delivery of half the order sometime next month…..

Came at 2pm today…..shaken my faith in the world it has.

Had two bikes from them, a Parkwood for myself, not set up properly, kept throwing the chain into the spokes when changing down. Complained, but ended up sorting it myself rather than lose time taking to a shop to get it sorted. Also, had the issue with the Guide R brakes not working properly in hot weather when the inner washers expanded, but they couldn’t care less and I ended up replacing them myself at considerable cost.
My son bought a Fatty and had the same gear issue, I fixed that again and the bike didn’t come with any bar ends, complained, but was ignored. Apart from that, the bikes were OK but would never buy from them again. Great service til they get the money, then **** off after that.

If your bike is ever certified by Adam or Liam on the cert, then FFS do your own service before you try to ride it…

On the flip side, had two bikes from there, both been spot on and couldn’t have got anywhere near the value from elsewhere. Did they maybe take a bit longer than expected? Maybe, but you pays your money you takes your choice.

Welcome to the world of Planet X where cash flow is king

Low priced direct selling with custom options, surely not just Planet X?

For balance, i ordered a Scandal 29er from them a few weeks back. It was built on the day they said it would be. Received by me the next day via courier. It was well packaged and I can’t fault it or their service.
Basic assembly required but the gears etc are well set up needing no tweeking as yet.
Thumbs up from me.

Happy shopper here with three bikes and a loads of bits over the years.

Thanks. So far I’m happy and was fully aware that the price reflected the service. Fingers crossed my order hasn’t disappeared into the Planet X black hole.

I ordered a whippet too and two days later I had an email to say it’s going to be built on the 8th

Also, had the issue with the Guide R brakes not working properly in hot weather when the inner washers expanded, but they couldn’t care less and I ended up replacing them myself at considerable cost.

That’s not PXs fault?

Im on my 4th On-One/Planet-X bike, no complaints about the service with any of them, they’ve always bent over backwards to solve any problems and then loaded me up with goodies to apologise for any warrenty issues.

To be fair on them with the issues mentioned above, gears always need indexing as the cables stretch. Not sure any mail order comapny is going to take a bike back for that?

And SRAM brakes have been a dice roll whether they were a good set since they were still branded Avid. I had a set on a sepecialized, after 2 trips back to the shop I binned them as it wasnt worth going round the Shop/Fisher/Sram loop again to be told “no problem they just needed bleeding” only for them to pull to the bars on the next ride (same with the Fox float that kept blowing up, and Stout rear hub that would sieze after a wet ride).

I’ll just add that the Parkwood is a great bike and was fantastic value for a complete. Apart from the initial niggles, the bike hasn’t missed a beat and I am still pleased with the way it rides and I’m not looking to replace it any time soon. I just expected a new bike to ‘work’, but I take on board the comments about SRAM and gear cables. And the Fatty sold for not far off what he paid for it a couple of years later…

I’ve recently bought one of the Enduro LED helmets (arrived today). I had a great customer service experience. I didn’t seem to have received a confirmation email and the order wasn’t showing in my account.  Used the messaging system and they responded very quickly.

Shame they seem so inconsistent, especially with bikes.

Never had a problem with them personally. I suspect their “problem” rate is similar to many others as a percentage of sales, but when you do 10 times more business, you get 10 times the complaints, which is a lot in actual numbers.

It looks like the delay has been sorted. They replied to my email to let me know it was because a tyre wasn’t in stock and wouldn’t be available until late November. A change to the tyres selected and I now have a build date.

It’s a shame it takes the customer to chase them for a detail like that but it’s sorted.

Had two bikes from them, a Parkwood for myself, not set up properly

I bought a £5.5k Orbea Orca roadbike from a LBS and on the first ride the RH shifter starting sliding down the bars – hadn’t been tightened. Derailleurs weren’t set up properly either.

Crap bike assembly seems to be universal…

I think they are struggling with stock. My scandal should have been built a few weeks ago but they keep changing the date due to lack of stock. I have my fingers crossed for next week! 🙂

If your bike is ever certified by Adam or Liam on the cert, then FFS do your own service before you try to ride it…

It’s ok I don’t work there anymore and haven’t for a few years