Can I break with what seems to be tradition on this (and the other) thread and be objective?
I’ve only ever ordered brake pads from superstar, loads of sets. One pad split and half the material came off the backing. Could have been nasty, but wasn’t. One-off failure could happen to pads from any of the big brands. I will continue to order pads from superstar.
I would order other stuff like grips and other lower ticket items from them. Their initial customer service seems fine, but I’ve never had cause to test the returns side. I would think twice about ordering higher end items from any outlet that began life under-cutting large retailers on low ticket items. Under-cutting legitimately of course. For example, I wouldn’t buy a LCD TV from Aldi, even though they do stock them. I view this as common sense.
I have had good and bad experiences with other retailers. R53 Sport did eventually send me some spares FOC, but only after a mildly fraught sequence of emails. But they did sort me out in the end. I was a bit miffed about a gushingly positive thread that appeared on here about them a couple of days after. In that case, the retailer was trying get a large ticket purchase, so probably went out of their way to help. I would put that experience as ‘neutral’ in the end.
On One were absolutely flippin marvellous a couple of weeks back, swapping a frame that had probably been courier damaged practically without quibble, although i did have to drive to Rotherham to do it.
Whatever the outcome of your good (and bad) experiences, it is very important to keep things in perspective. It really is not the end of the world when you get turned over like this. Annoying, yes. But not something to become a convulsed ball of rage over. Please take a couple of days off from being so annoyed, it will do you good, I promise!