Ordering question (for a bike)

theone8181 · 15 May 2020 at 20:08

I've ordered my wife a bike from a website (winstanleys), however I ordered it on the 27th April and I've still not even had an email to say I've ordered it, in fact it still says processing on their website. Ive emailed last sat, however they are running behind about 2 weeks with responses according to their website, which has now passed the date I ordered the bike. It was only 200 odd quid, but it was on credit card. I accept that things might be slower due to vivid, but how longs too long? The bike now says pre-order on the listing, but their site says this means it will take a week to get sold off. Should I just initiate a chargeback? Oh their phonelines ate closed, the only way to contact the is email (can't even livechat :mad:

).

Any advice appreciated.

NoobCannon · 15 May 2020 at 20:50

I like paypal for this sorta thing not that it helps now but an idea for the future I ordered some plants and they didn't turn up and then they changed the delivery date to 2021.

like you they turned the phone lines off and were taking days to get an email response. Started a claim thru paypal and got a response within 3 hours and the money back in my account the next morning.

Shure · 15 May 2020 at 21:26

I've heard of similar things about Winstanleys in relation to advertising stock online and then once placed you find out they don't have it.
I'd assume at this point they've probably had a lot of business given the lockdown and the stock issues are still the same.
Chances are you'll be waiting for the bike from the manufacturer which may well have additional delays.

theone8181 · 16 May 2020 at 07:19

Oh I totally get it, I just wish they'd send some form of update and I can't understand why live chat wouldn't be available. If they have people working from home it can't be that hard to do, we've got a good 50 staff that are managing to work from home with little difficultly.

The_Arbiter · 16 May 2020 at 07:36

Winstanley's cleaned up their act significantly past 10yrs. The site would have said, instock, available to order/instock with supplier, available to preorder.

I've been waiting coming up a month for a mere waterbottle cage from Tritoncycles that was instock, and still is.

Some shops be slow, some be quick. Ebay purchases have been very quick as through RoyalMail. The Hermes stuff has been unpredictable. DPD couriers have been changed for Fedex on other purchases.

I had an order through Winstanleysbmx, half instock, half not. They sent some fast, then i cancelled one item via email, they acknowledged it about 10 days later, and rest order has now been dispatched. But awaiting refund, so that might be interesting.

Hard to say with your situation, but normally they email if the supplier hasn't got it. The change in stock status could be because you ordered last one. I knew my orders would be slow, but my local was shut, and i was keen for a few bits with some annual leave recently. A bike will have a tracking number at least, and you will get an email if dispatched.

arknor · 16 May 2020 at 10:20

should be illegal to take payment for goods you don't actually have available in stock. unless your claiming to order on demand

its basically a scam to get business

theone8181 · 16 May 2020 at 22:54

That's what annoys me, I was charged pretty much the same day, places like Amazon if you pre-order something you don't get charged until it's shipped. I'm going to give it till they respond to my email which should be this week sometime. Is there a time limit on chargebacks?

NVP · 16 May 2020 at 23:00

One thing with the title... are you referring to your wife? :eek:

JRJ · 17 May 2020 at 09:28

Bought a Garmin Fenix a while back from them, pre order with great price and delivery by a certain date, almost a month later it was delivered.

Stumble Bum · 17 May 2020 at 09:56

Companies that can not fulfil orders should not be accepting orders. So many of them are doing this during lockdown and it's pretty disgraceful. They then lie about the expected processing/delivery times even though they know how far behind they are. Visit these companies social media and it's shocking how many people have been waiting 1 month + for orders. This in turn creates endless correspondence and complaints for said companies to then also deal with and none of the customers can contact these companies.

They never learn, **** off decent customers and will probably have to refund most of the orders, the incompetence is on another level. I would be sending some rather strongly worded complaints to any companies still doing this.

arknor · 17 May 2020 at 10:16

Stumble Bum said:
Companies that can not fulfil orders should not be accepting orders. So many of them are doing this during lockdown and it's pretty disgraceful. They then lie about the expected processing/delivery times even though they know how far behind they are. Visit these companies social media and it's shocking how many people have been waiting 1 month + for orders. This in turn creates endless correspondence and complaints for said companies to then also deal with and none of the customers can contact these companies.

They never learn, **** off decent customers and will probably have to refund most of the orders, the incompetence is on another level. I would be sending some rather strongly worded complaints to any companies still doing this.

yea I don't get it...
surely people will never use the same company that employs these tactics more than once? it don't see the business logic unless you're about to go bankrupt and desperately need cash...

The_Arbiter · 17 May 2020 at 11:30

The bike industry is a messy one. Shops are struggling to make money, cut throat profit margins where big shops sell at losses even on new stock. It only encourages this type of behaviour.

Least when you buy local you get the customer service to back it up. Though some locals are not too great i expect.

theone8181 · 29 May 2020 at 06:33

So i've sent off my form for a chargeback, no idea why they couldn't just do it via email. How long does it normally take to get a response in peoples experience?

Diddums · 29 May 2020 at 06:43

theone8181 said:
So i've sent off my form for a chargeback, no idea why they couldn't just do it via email. How long does it normally take to get a response in peoples experience?

I bought a copy of Star Citizen for a friend recently and despite my account being over two years old, wasn't able to gift the game from my account to his as mine was gifted to me. Apparently I had to wait 30 days. I tried contacting their support and got no response for over a week, so I rang my bank (Natwest), explained the situation and they processed the chargeback over the phone, explaining that the publishers might fight it if it comes to it, a term which I happily accepted as I'm more than happy to stand and bang when it comes to bottom of the barrel customer service.

This was only £40ish(?) so it may be the amount involved but it was a very quick, seamless process for me and the money was back in my account within an hour.

Side fact: The amount of people coming to RSI (developer/publisher) defense was eye opening, these folks are happy to plow more and more money in to this eternally unfinished crap project and defend it until blue in the face was amazing. I bet they're all Trump supporters too.

theone8181 · 29 May 2020 at 10:34

They've got to recieve it first so i'm expecting a couple of days. Hopefully all will go smoothly.