Thursday, June 12 2008, 04:09 AM
I went over to BC as Katriona suggested and had a live chat with someone called JJ about the ridiculous international freight charges but he insisted that they only use UPS Worldwide Expedited because they are safer and quicker.
Wednesday, June 11 2008, 05:19 AM
I'm still here, flogging a dead horse...
Sent an email to Cl and got the following prompt reply -
Hey Falchoon, Thanks for contacting ChainLove.com-what took you so long? Believe it or not, this is actually a discounted price. We do not ask the customer to pay full price for shipping as split the shipping costs on all shipping options with the customer. The price from UPS is even higher. For an item as small as tubes, you would be much better buying them locally. With gas prices the way they are, I live in the same city as the warehouse and it was going to cost a hair over $17 to ship a set of non-folding tires to my house. And, that was ground shipping, non-expedited! Sorry for the shipping prices. Maybe if a certain country (mine) would stop bombing oil producing countries, the prices would begin to drop again. I know business would pick up when we could help our international customers at more reasonable rates! If you have any additional questions or concerns, just let us know and we'll get right on it. For now, get out there and ride—we'll be here in the ChainLove laboratory concocting another deal. Please use this link to rate the response you received in this email. https://sales.liveperson.net/hc/s-9551721/web/ticketpub/feedbackController.jsp?t
So basically they seem to be blaming UPS and high fuel prices for the super expensive freight charges. So how do other places like PBK do freight at realistic prices?
As to all the suggestions by people in yesterdays thread, I'm not prepared to take the chance that it is some sort of technical error and that they won't really charge me $300 to ship a set of wheels or $170 for some socks. I want to know the proper price up front or I'm not buying.
Also, how do these freight forwarding companies work? Anyone used them? I would think they would be even more expensive as they have to make a profit so obviously put a charge on whatever the freight company decides to charge.
I just did a quick calculation on myus.com based on 2kg weight and it was <$50. They say on the website " This calculator should be used for reference purposes only. The actual cost may vary based on any additional services, packaging charges and/or dimensional weight. "
Has anyone (Katriona?) got the direct link on gear-addicts.com where freight forwarding is discussed?
Tuesday, June 10 2008, 03:17 AM
Dunno mate, I commented on this forum about the same thing last night. $170 freight for 3 pairs of socks!
Monday, June 09 2008, 05:35 AM
Thanks for all the heads up on different items and suppliers, yerleft. Got no use for messenger bags though.
Just been checking out the De Rosa bike with Campag Centaur running gear over at STP, looks like a pretty good deal if anyone is looking for a new bike.
Monday, June 09 2008, 05:07 AM
Sierra Trading Post of course! I had heard of it, so many acronyms to remember!
Monday, June 09 2008, 05:04 AM
Never heard of Northstar or whatever that cheapo shoe is so wouldn't buy them. Can't recall now if it was BCO or REIO that had some Shimanos for a reasonable price.
Everything bicycle is so exxy here in LBSs, much cheaper online but US sites seem to be a bit harder to deal with and have higher freight costs than UK sites. Bikes Direct only ship to address listed on CC, no good for me because I am work all day, no one home to sign for parcels. PBK is probably the best online place I have delt with. They will send parcel wherever you want and invoice seperately to wherever. Less than $20 Aus freight for smallish stuff, free to USA. Not a shrill, just telling my experience.
Monday, June 09 2008, 04:51 AM
Ha, funny you should mention cranks, FSA ones at that. The OEM FSA ones on my Felt broke so I bought some 105s to replace them. Was a holiday weekend and I wanted the bike back on the road, didn't have time for internet deals so paid retail from LBS. That hurt! So I'm not keen on FSA stuff now.
REI Outlet is a bit odd, some stuff is cheap and some stuff is dear.
STP? Steep and Cheap?
Monday, June 09 2008, 02:37 AM
yerleft, the Zipps @ BC are a pretty good price, be good to get them here for 1/2 price and a SENSIBLE freight charge.
So you work for BC?
Monday, June 09 2008, 01:24 AM
I couldn't see any wheels at BC. Their DA crankset aren't very cheap, PBK is better ($335.96 vs $252.98)
Monday, June 09 2008, 01:13 AM
Not outback at all, I'm in the capital city of Australia, Canberra! The freight price quoted is actually US$ which is a bit lower than AU$ so US$170 = AU$177.
Monday, June 09 2008, 12:41 AM
$170 freight for four tubes! It just gets better and better!
Monday, June 09 2008, 12:31 AM
Dunno what happened to my previous post but freight for the same wheels from chainreactioncycles is less than AU$60. Must be the reason everything is "cheap" here, like eBay, they make up the difference (and then some) with the freight.
Monday, June 09 2008, 12:28 AM
Freight from chainreactioncycles is
Monday, June 09 2008, 12:18 AM
I wanted to buy the Easton EA70 wheels but not with UPS Worldwide Expedited freight @ $284.95! I can buy wheels from Probikekit for for only around $100 freight.
Saturday, June 07 2008, 04:22 AM
I signed up for the desktop alerts but it seems they too slow and don't keep up with what is actually being listed. I can have the CL open in a browser window (Firefox) and then click on the alert icon on my desktop and there will be two different products. Then I refresh the browser window and a new product appears yet the desktop is still telling me about the previous product. Why is this?
Also, with the email notification, I got one earlier saying there were Easton bars coming soon. About 4 hours later they actually appeared on CL website. That was OK, then I get another email saying Briko Endure Klip Sunglasses were coming and then seconds later the desktop alert notified me that they were the current product being listed for sale. Odd.
Is there a certain amount of time things stay current for? I don't think I've seem any products sell out.