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Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...?
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I need a few items, tires, pedals, etc. and a recent post discussed possible issues with ordering from PBK. Anyone had any experiences lately with problems or should I use Merlin or Wiggle UK? Hard to beat the overseas pricing from any of them.
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [kodyw] [ In reply to ]
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I use wiggle and have never had any issues with them. I have had a few issues with PBK and I am UK based.

On the internet, you can be anything you want. It is a pity so many people choose to be stupid.
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [kodyw] [ In reply to ]
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I ordered pedals, and tires from them last year and had no issues at all and a giant bike bag. All arrived within 2 weeks.
Noticed most of these complaints late last year and early this year so not sure if something changed.


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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [kodyw] [ In reply to ]
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Keep the order under $200 with PBK and you should be fine

Edit: that way you don't get hit with $1.00 for Duty and $20.00 in fees

jaretj
Last edited by: jaretj: Mar 23, 15 4:05
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [kodyw] [ In reply to ]
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My last order with PBK was last year and it went fine. But I notice their prices and products aren't as great a deals anymore. I'd probably be more inclined to order from Wiggle just for that reason, but not service reasons.

Ian
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [kodyw] [ In reply to ]
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I just ordered a 105 Groupset from Merlin a couple weeks ago. Everything went great. Shipping only took 6 days.
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [kodyw] [ In reply to ]
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I ordered some pedals from Chain Reaction Cycle a few months ago. It took a while to get to the US, but the product was perfect & I did not get hit with any duty charges.


Hearing some of the stories on here about ordering from the UK to the US though, I am probably going to just go to my LBS & see if they can match any online deals I find.
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [Meathead] [ In reply to ]
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Over the years I've ordered lots of smaller things from PBK - mainly tires and tubes. I ordered a SRAM Red groupset from Merlin about 18 months ago - it came quickly and there weren't any duties - best price I could find and had free shipping.

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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [kodyw] [ In reply to ]
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I've ordered from Wiggle before, great experience and the price was hard to beat on a deal I got. Package was a pair of GP4000s tires, 23mm and 5 Continental 42mm Presta Valve Butyl Tubes for $80 with free shipping....plus I was allowed to use an $8 off coupon (5 pounds or euros converted to USD rates). Haven't frequented the site that much but have never seen a deal that good again.

I've also placed a few orders from Ribble and while actual transit time through customs varies from quick to not so quick...I've always received my items with no additional fees (their prices are really good too).
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [kodyw] [ In reply to ]
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Timely post, I am dealing with PBK right now and am so done with them it isn't even funny.

I've always used Wiggle without ever having an issue. I placed an order this last time from PBK because they had everything I needed in stock and on sale whereas at Wiggle a few of the items I needed were out of stock. I placed the order and it sat in "processing' for over a week, I then tried to use their online system to cancel the order but there was an issue in their system that wouldn't allow the last step to be executed without the page crashing. I then sent their customer service an email using their online system that never got replied to, I then sent another email to an address that I had in my email history summarizing the story so far and asking that they cancel the order immediately. Within 5 minutes I received an email with a tracking number, after over a week the package is still not shipped and the tracking number is 'not found' in the online tracking system. I have tried sending numerous emails since this and no one there is responding.

That is the last penny I spend at PBK and as soon as this package is received (if it ever is) it is going straight back with a nasty letter. Not that that will accomplish anything but this level of customer service is ridiculous. I had issues with them on my last order as well where they did not include any customs forms (commercial invoice) in a shipment which consisted of a full Dura Ace Di2 grouppo and Canada Border Services sent me a letter telling me they were destroying the package if the proper paperwork was not received by a certain date, luckily this was resolved at the last minute by me with no help from PBK, they were absolutely useless and seemed to not have any idea as to what paperwork I was asking them for. I should have known better than to order from them again after that experience but I am done with them now and will NEVER order from there again.

That's been my recent experience, I probably ordered from them 50 times in the last 10 years but it seems that in the last couple of years something there has changed.
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [kodyw] [ In reply to ]
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I've used pbk, wiggle and chain reaction. No issues with duties, sometimes transit time various but nothing outrageous. My only gripe is that the packaging boxes they use are quite flimsy and often arrived taped up and partially ripped. Since I only order products that are durable, nothing has been damaged to date. For that reason I am careful to not order fragile items from those sites, though.
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [kodyw] [ In reply to ]
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After research and thought, I placed my order with Merlin Cycles. Overall, best prices on what I needed. I'll report on the outcome.
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [kodyw] [ In reply to ]
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For the record, I ordered from Planet Cyclery in Colorado instead of going with Euro site.

The prices were the same, and it was to Chicago in 2 days for free. No duty, no waiting 2+ weeks for shipping.

No clue how they do it, as their retail prices are below dealer cost, but whatever.
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [Meathead] [ In reply to ]
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+1 for Chain Reaction Cycles. Very good customer service.

If they don't have what I want, I use Merlin, Wiggle and Ribble. PBK have been a bit patchy for me. I won't use them now.
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [JerseyBigfoot] [ In reply to ]
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I ordered one of those cheap 105 groupsets from Merlin. It took 18 days to delivery on the US east coast, including 4 days in customs, and I had to pay 10% (+$11.50 fees) in US customs duties on pickup. I have mixed feelings. All the product looks good, and even with the duties it was still cheaper than the very cheap Planet Cyclery mentioned above. But I was thinking delivery in just a few days, obviously wasn't expecting to pay duties. So okay experience, but my expectations have been tempered quite a bit.
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [kodyw] [ In reply to ]
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I've ordered loads of stuff from PBK over the last few years and haven't had a problem.
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [BLACKSHEEP] [ In reply to ]
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Update on pedal order. 2 sets of DA pedals, here to GA in 6 days, no issues,no extra fees, best pricing I could find. Very happy. Will use them again.
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [kodyw] [ In reply to ]
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One for next time, try the German bike websites like http://www.rosebikes.com/

I normally use Wiggle (and am UK based) but quite often the German sites blow the UK based ones out of the water price wise and if the dollar/Euro conversion is good you'll get a storming deal. Unfortunately the site I normally use (bikediscount.com) doesn't appear to ship to the US but Rose above looks to and it might pay to have a google and see if any more do. I've also heard German ebay has some storming deals on occasionally too.

Iain

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Re: Ordering from Germany? [Iain Gillam] [ In reply to ]
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Iain Gillam wrote:
try the German bike websites

I checked many online bike stores in Germany and pretty much all of them use DHL for shipping.
According to various online threads DHL charges "custom handling fees" (brokerage?) even if no duty is due when shipping to the USA.
Does someone have experience with using DHL when ordering from Germany and shipping to the US?

I almost ordered some Campagnolo parts from http://www.bike-discount.de but then decided against it due to the potential DHL problem.
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [kodyw] [ In reply to ]
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I will never order from PBK again. Placed 1st order last month for a pair of Conti 4000s. They had a 10% off coupon code on that page which I tried to us but it didn't show up in the cart. I tried to cancel the order, but the page kept erroring out. I then tried to contact them by email and they said that tire didn't qualify for the discount even though the code and entry space was on the order page! Contacted them a second time, no luck. Oh, and when I went to my account it showed the order shipped with a dispatch date of November 2015!!??? Contacted them on that too, and all they would say was that it was dispatched. So, three weeks or so latter, still no tires. If I don't have them in a week or so, I'll contact my cc company . . .
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [kodyw] [ In reply to ]
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I had always ordered from PBK in the past without problems (slow delivery but I knew that). This time I opted for Wiggle. I met the requirements for free shipping and I did an online chat with the company first to see if they shipped to Canada via regular postal service or courier. I was told free shipments or small shipments used regular postal service. That was fine with me as, while slower, they are easy to deal with concerning customs. The next thing I see is that they shipped using DHL, it arrives 3 days later and DHL wants $37 to release the items. For a $100 order.

Ian
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [tkos] [ In reply to ]
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I ordered from. merlin to canada. Quick delivery, excellent prices. I will order from merlin again
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [Drdan] [ In reply to ]
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Did they send via regular postal service? What sort of dollar value did you hit?

Ian
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [tkos] [ In reply to ]
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regular mail, £100, so just under $200
No duty/customs etc
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Re: Ordering from PBK, Merlin, or...? [Drdan] [ In reply to ]
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delivery was quite a bit quicker than chain reaction which seemed to take weeks
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