Cyclescheme messing me about!

eXist said:
ive never heard of shops charging an "admin fee" when using cyclescheme, if any shops do then you should use one of the thousands of others that don't. The only time we ever alter the price of a bike under a bike to work purchase is if the bike is already on sale eg

we are doing 2015 defy 0s at £800 from £1000

if you wanted to buy that bike from us using an £800 c2w voucher we would only get £720 so we charge the customer the £80 difference as you cannot/will not lower the price any more. Almost every shop/website uses the term "cannot be used in conjunction with other offers" this is roughly the same thing.
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Plenty of places charge an admin fee. Not the big chains, but many smaller places do.
 
FrenchTart said:
PlanetX
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That's not an "admin Fee", the reason they do it is exactly the same reason why we do it on sale bikes, their margins are far lower than in a shop so they will not/cannot afford to let the customer also use cyclescheme as a £1000 vouchers is only £900.

Find me a normal bike shop adding an "admin fee" onto the normal RRP of a bike...

edit - Planet X bikes are essentially all priced at sale prices anyway hence the value for money. Ergo - nor to be used in conjunction....comes into effect
 
eXist said:
That's not an "admin Fee", the reason they do it is exactly the same reason why we do it on sale bikes, their margins are far lower than in a shop so they will not/cannot afford to let the customer also use cyclescheme as a £1000 vouchers is only £900.

Find me a normal bike shop adding an "admin fee" onto the normal RRP of a bike...
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That's exactly what an admin fee is. They even call it an "administration charge":

http://www.planetx.co.uk/cycle-scheme
 
eXist said:
edit - Planet X bikes are essentially all priced at sale prices anyway hence the value for money. Ergo - nor to be used in conjunction....comes into effect
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Whoa, shocker. They have low margins and hence they add an administration charge on to the price when you use a c2w voucher. You wanting to use a different terminology doesn't make anything different or anyone wrong when they use the same terminology as another shop.

It's pretty comical that you asked for an example, were immediately given one, then claimed that the example was invalid, *then* were linked to the website of the example showing you to be wrong and *even then* tried to explain how you were right and others were wrong.
 
ok whilst I agree I was wrong on the terminally planet x decided to use, your clearly not silly enough to realise the point I'm making tho, find me any other SHOP that charges an admin on the RRP of any of the big 4 brands in the uk over and above the RRP. If you can then I will truly eat my words, picking one of the most well known cheapest webshops isn't a great example of the big picture which is what I'm trying to get across.

Bearing in mind I know the top 20 cyclescheme shops in the UK ( as we are one of them ).
 
I don't think that anyone was suggesting the shop was ripping off customers - simply that they're passing on the c2w admin fee to customers (which is completely understandable).

edit: Actually, utmaniac made some odd claims. I don't agree with any of them.
 
FrenchTart said:
I don't think that anyone was suggesting the shop was ripping off customers - simply that they're passing on the c2w admin fee to customers (which is completely understandable).

edit: Actually, utmaniac made some odd claims. I don't agree with any of them.
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so could you find me one of those shops charging extra against the RRP of a know bike brand?

there is absolutely no drawback to using cyclescheme whatsoever so I don't even know why on there is often this anti c2w crowd on these forums...
 
eXist said:
so could you find me one of those shops charging extra against the RRP of a know bike brand?

there is absolutely no drawback to using cyclescheme whatsoever so I don't even know why on there is often this anti c2w crowd on these forums...
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You're changing the goal posts. I don't really shop against big brands so I can't provide any additional examples.

I'm not anti-c2w. I've used the scheme four times myself.
 
Back to the point from the OP - I will guarantee they will NOT be in touch with you. Can you imagine sending someone out to view 4 year old bikes from everyone who has ever had a bike from the C2W scheme.

Sorry lost it, sold it, didn't know you were coming etc etc. They won't be in touch, don't worry about it.
 
booyaka said:
Back to the point from the OP - I will guarantee they will NOT be in touch with you. Can you imagine sending someone out to view 4 year old bikes from everyone who has ever had a bike from the C2W scheme.

Sorry lost it, sold it, didn't know you were coming etc etc. They won't be in touch, don't worry about it.
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Yeah, this did sound odd. Most of my old bikes have either been dismantled, sold or stolen so they'd have a fun time trying to view them.
 
Vonhelmet said:
For what it's worth, I'll name another: Dolan.

Have another: Ribble.
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ROFL, you know fine well why those "shops" add a fee onto their bikes and its just silly to cite those particular 3 places. What i keep asking for that no one has provided is a SHOP selling a normal bike brand and adding a fee on top of the RRP. I know your probably going to say but these places have shops as well as their online store, again you know fine well that these shops are more about advertising more than anything as the Planet X shop in Edinburgh clearly proved it doesnt work as a profitable business model.

Coming back onto your 3 places your provided -

Planet X pro Carbon Ultgera at £1000

Planet X charge you an extra £100 fee plus your £1000 voucher,

Once you ve then taken into account your saving made on your £1000 voucher, you ve still bought the bike for less than you ever could have so im still not seeing a problem.
 
eXist said:
ROFL, you know fine well why those "shops" add a fee onto their bikes and its just silly to cite those particular 3 places. What i keep asking for that no one has provided is a SHOP selling a normal bike brand and adding a fee on top of the RRP. I know your probably going to say but these places have shops as well as their online store, again you know fine well that these shops are more about advertising more than anything as the Planet X shop in Edinburgh clearly proved it doesnt work as a profitable business model.

Coming back onto your 3 places your provided -

Planet X pro Carbon Ultgera at £1000

Planet X charge you an extra £100 fee plus your £1000 voucher,

Once you ve then taken into account your saving made on your £1000 voucher, you ve still bought the bike for less than you ever could have so im still not seeing a problem.
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I'm not sure why you have such an issue with people providing examples. Vonhelmet is actually also a c2w proponent so it's kind of baffling. People are just not providing a one-sided view.
 
UTmaniac said:
These schemes have completely messed up the UK bike market, shops started charging more to cover the scheme admin fees, so we get less bike for the money compared to ~2008 (taking account of inflation). In recent years, HMRC changed the game by asking for silly ownership transfer fees, making the schemes very questionable for basic rate tax payers.

These days, it is far easier to look for sale prices, perhaps in combination with benefits your employer might offer eg. shop vouchers purchased at a discount.
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Shops doesn't set the rrp the brands do.

Cyclescheme has allowed people to buy a bike more expensive than they otherwise would.

Places like planet x and ribble selling products for less than a shops trade price, doing an ultegra bike or groupset for less than a 'branded' 105 level bike costs. It's a race to the bottom to make 50p on a something at £10.

Thankfully some suppliers do their best to help out but bike brands typically don't.


If I want to sell someone a bike with an RRP of £1000 and I'm willing to take £800, I can't then do that bike on a Halfords voucher for £800 as they will pay the shop £680. The extra charge isn't to be greedy it's purely to make it financially viable.

The very small double digit profit made has to keep the shop here for any backup, deal with any warranty work, cover the hours of time dealing with said customer and then fitting the pedals/cleats they bought online for less than we can.

Apologies for the rant :o
 
It's just a really weird system, I belive things were tightened up since it's introduction as it was too generous ... It all seems overly complicated to me..

It was a tax free, interest free loan, which was designed to get more people on bikes, but I think these days you're better off saving up £700 or whatever and getting a cash discount with the retailer.. So it seems the object of the scheme has been defeated.

It seems like a lot of faf..
 
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