their site is crashing on and off...discs have indeed all sold out within about 3 minutes.

What????? My sister-in-law and I were both logging in the moment it went live. How did anybody else get through? Poor business by FLO. Really, really bad.

They sent out a message a bit ago apologizing for the crash.

yep...im up at 3am here trying to order a 60/90, got as far as checkout waiting to identify ccard details and crashed....not sure if my order went through or not.

Sooo frickin frustrating

I know, but they are still not back up. They can apologize if they want, but their website it still down.

I've ordered wheels and can navigate the site. Disc is still in stock according to their site

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CEO at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

really? they said of fbook discs were all gone?
i have submitted order and said it was a duplicate so hopefully i got a set? who knows :|

i also got 'avs mismatch' errors

Seems that only the discs are sold out.

It took a while to get through as their site was up, then down, then up, then down and back up again ... But I was able to get my order for a front 60 ordered.

I think there was an underestimation of how in demand their wheels were, which makes it hard for small start up companies like them to deal with a "Huge" volume of traffic in circumstances like this. Word of mouth plays a big role in the sale of items ... especially in this day and age. You can only plan for so much, then when that's been exceeded you do the best you can.

Ultimately, it's a matter of sticking with it and you will get through.

People also need to remember, they have a limited number of wheels with this order available and they did state the Disc wheels would be very limited (they are making a production change to quiet them down) ... so that was expected before the web site issues.

Overall ... I give them a break due to being a start up company, having shown excellent customer service in the past and providing great wheels at a great price. They still have bugs to work out, but are working on it ... which sometimes is all you can ask for.

Yah, as I said in another thread, they are a hardware company, not a software company :).

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CEO at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

If you have a limited quantity of discs, then you give out that same number of passwords. Common sense. If you sign up for the pre-sale and are on the site the moment it opens, then you should get a disc. It's obvious what they did. They gave out an unlimited number of passwords to ensure their products would sell. Pretty bad practice in my opinion.

That's the same strategy all these black Friday stores have.

They do some door buster deals but only have 20 in stock. Mayhem ensues.

I'm waiting for the next gen disc anyways. They are adding a thin layer of foam to make it quieter. Worth the wait in my opinion. I'll still probably get it before my first race of the season.

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CEO at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

We are very sorry for the crash. We were on a dedicated server and even that went down! We are embarrassed and VERY sorry. I understand you are frustrated but there were over 60,000 requests sent to our site in a matter of minutes.

All I can say is sorry,

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Chris Thornham
Co-Founder And Previous Owner Of FLO Cycling

We have no idea how many people are going to commit or what wheels they want. During our first Pre-Order there were over 3000 people signed up and about 400 ordered. We'v always been very up front that this is first come first serve. Unfortunately the FLO DISCs went really fast. I understand why you may be frustrated but but with hundreds of people wanting the same limited quantity of products it's not always cut and dry.

Again, sorry for any frustration,

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Chris Thornham
Co-Founder And Previous Owner Of FLO Cycling

Your wheels are obviously very popular. Some thoughts: if there are 400 discs, give out 400 passwords and give them 1 hour to purchase. If they don't buy within that hour, then let the chaos that happened today ensue for the remainder of the wheels. Leaving it up to luck is not the way to go.

you really think so? this is pre-order#3, how long will this sale model persist before the company actually produces enough stock to have some available when folks actually want them? I understand it in the initial launch, but you'd think there would be enough margin that they might be able to get a steady stream in production to supply demand. pre-order 4 may be 5 months away based on current rate with delivery after that.

I actaully signed up to be on the pre-order list once and then opted out of it, still getting the unwanted spam though. i know there will be a ton of good reasons why this is still happening(read excuses to some), but i just want the spam mail to stop on my end as I am not interested in waiting for an opportunity to possiblly get in on an order.


vent over :) <= that is a smiley face

I'm not sure why they aren't ordering batches of wheels, then selling them afterwards. Maybe because of all the combos and they don't want to put stickers on themselves? I would just ship with the stickers in the box or go down to one default option and let people buy extra stickers.

I think they are bootstrapped though, so cash would be a big reason. Other HW companies usually get a line of credit to buy the product then try to sell them asap to pay back the line. That or investors, but I don't see why FLO should take investors.

Maybe FLO is still establishing themselves before they try to get good terms on credit...or maybe they want to by-pass credit all together and just use profit from these group buys to fund future purchases.

That's just my guess. It might by way off :). I think they could do more with more money, but that would make the wheel prices go up.

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CEO at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast

I guess I was a lucky one. Ordered and confirmed 60\90.

jeffp,

I'm sorry for the mix up. Please PM me your email address and I'll make sure your email address is removed from the list.

Again, sorry about that.

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Chris Thornham
Co-Founder And Previous Owner Of FLO Cycling

one of the 4 or 5 today, i again unsubscribed. i kept just deleting from phone, dont unsubscribe there as it is too slow. today, at home and done.

It's like everyone has never ordered anything online when there was a big demand. Just because Flo is a small company doesn't mean it's their fault. Kswiss, Target etc were all having server issues this morning. Welcome to the blackfriday.com 2.0. It's a part of life, if it pisses you off enough not to want their product, so be it. I was fortunate enough to stick with it for 1/2 hour and finally get my wheels ordered. And I'm pumped.
Thanks Flo!!

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My Blog | Twitter | Big Pistachio Racing Team

Exactly ... it's as if no one has ever had an issue with placing an order or ever had a site crash on them (I'd hate to see what they are like when their power goes out for a couple hours ... Oh Lord help them). But this is the instant gratification society we live in now ... If I can't have it NOW, the company sucks, the product sucks and I'll take my money elsewhere (many times for an inferior product at an added expense).

Seriously ... all one had to do is go do something else for 35 - 40 minutes and all was fine. I was able to get my order in around 10:45 or so. A little patience goes a long way.

Thanks Flo Wheels for getting things resolved fairly quickly ... I look forward to the Flo 60 front wheel to train on (to go along with my 90's that I already have).

Agree.

Kohl's was hit and miss for about 20 minutes last night when the sales started. Shit happens when too many people pound a website. Amazing people still complain on IM sign up days.