I guess I’ve been spoilt by Chain Reactions quick turnaround but every now and then they don’t have what I want. I’ve just ordered a Thomson stem (nearly £70) from Rutland Cycling. I paid by PayPal at around 8.30 this morning and they should have had the money within minutes. As of 5.45ish this evening the order is still showing ‘Waiting for Authorisation’, so I guess I won’t be getting it tomorrow; I’m not entirely sure they even know I’ve placed an order. Their website also says allow 7 days delivery for in stock items! I might not be getting it for the weekend either.

Ha ha. Ha. Ha ha.

I have ordered 3 things from them. A bike, which got sent to the wrong place (this got sorted nicely by a great employee who I think has now left), and two ‘In stock’ items that had to be back ordered and took up to a few weeks.

They did email after a few days each time and offer to cancel the order, but I was in no hurry at the time.

IME – just because it says they have stock doesn’t necessarily mean they actually do

Well it would be nice to get it quick, but I can wait I suppose. As to whether it’s in stock, I don’t know, there’s no stock level indicator on the website so I assumed if you could buy it, it was in stock – I think that might have been a mistake! There’s no indication on the order placed email either, so I’ve emailed them.

No problems here. Ordered tyres on two occasions. Always quick to arrive (within two days at the most)

not used them for a couple of years because every order i’ve put in hasn’t arrived until i’ve realised days after that they didn’t turn up, both times i phoned and was told “waiting for stock” even though had invoice etc for item, won’t use them again even if there are cheaper, ALWAYS phone first to check they’ve actually got the item

things may have improved in the interim though, but judging by the OP’s post it doesn’t look like it

Ordered from them before and it took a long time and repeated phone calls to actually get them.

Several of my riding mates have had waits of several weeks for some stuff.

I like their main shop @ Whitwell but wouldn’t order online from them unless I absolutely had to.

I use them and always pretty slow on delivery. (it is my fault though as they are not that far away so I should pop in rather than order online)

I had a fairly painful experience trying to buy a Uvex helmet from them. I gave up in the end and cancelled the order, buying from a different company (or so I thought) called ‘Buy Bikes Now’, which as you may be thinking sound a little iffy. The trouble being Uvex helmets aren’t that easy to find.

The ‘Buy Bikes Now’ helmet turned up in good time, followed soon after by the Rutland Cycling order which I thought I’d cancelled, at a far lower price, for the newer model!!.

And guess what? They were both sent from the same address!! I ‘phoned up and had a moan, electing to keep the lowest priced helmet (£23.99 for a helmet retailing at around £80!) and Rutland Cycling even covered my return postage costs!

They were very apologetic and helpful when it came to resolving the problem. I’m well chuffed as it’s a great helmet and cost me next to nothing.

My advice would be to ‘phone them as I don’t think emails are their thing.

I had the same experience as Rocketdog, made an order, all but forgot about it so much time passed, then when I called them they said it would go out that day, 2 weeks later they confessed (only when I called mind) that they would not have stock and finally refunded me.

Conclusion: They’re rubbish.

Bought a chainset that arrived within 48hrs and a complete bike that arrived in 3 days.

Oh well, both good and bad then. I’ve just have a terse one liner back from my email saying:-

Paul

We expect the item you have ordered to be with you by 01/10.

Regards

I took it to be from a real person but it could just have been a bog-standard auto-responder for anyone with order enquiries. The fact that they talk of “the item you have ordered” rather than “your stem” tends to suggest that they couldn’t be bothered even to call up the order on their system to see what I had ordered.

01/10/2010 is 8 days on from the order placement so it could again just be their standard “7 days for in stock items” response. Who knows though, it might turn up (I’m hoping that “by 01/10” means “at the lastest”)

Still, I only placed the order yesterday, and they’re not CRC, so perhaps I’ll give them some time.

Bought something recently – out of stock – reply within 24 hours and got it 5 days later – I know if I order form them it might be out of stock but I buy it from them if I want it cheaper – if I want it ASAP I go elsewhere or phone them up 🙂

Well they’re not cheaper, they just seem to be the only people selling the Thomson stem size/colour combination I want.CRC and my other regulars don’t.

No I mean if they happen to be the cheapest – esp with the 5% voucher code then I get it from them but I don’t if i need it ASAP – same goes for All terrain cycles and Winstanleys as you don’t know online wether they really have stock 🙂

This is why I shop at Merlin….

😉

I ordered an expensive item (last year’s model at discounted price) from them early this week and, after reading this thread decided to give them a ring because my orders still showing as outstanding, despite being “accepted” online. They promised to check stock and have phoned me back within 10 minutes to tell me that the item is out of stock, but they’ll honour the order with next years (higher priced, higher spec) model but at the original price agreed – a considerable saving for me. Needless to say, I’m extremely pleased. I’ve only ordered tyres from them before and they’ve been v prompt. I’m a happy customer and would use them again. I’ll let you know if the order doesn’t arrive, though…….