Bike4Work scheme and offers/sales

ianianian
ianianian Posts: 29
edited July 2008 in MTB buying advice
Hello,

I'm in the process of buying my bike and wondered how cyclescheme vouchers worked in relation to other offers.
I believed that the vouchers were the same as money to a bike shop, however they seem to be invalid in regards receiving deals.

I had asked for a £700 pound voucher and planned to get a bike plus accessories and then pay for a bike for my girlfriend on top of this. The owner offered me a good deal, however the second her saw the voucher this was retracted. Similarly a friend visited Evans' with the corresponding voucher and was told he would have to 'pay' full price for sale items if he wanted to use the voucher.

Is this correct?

Comments

  • BobbyTrigger
    BobbyTrigger Posts: 377
    its a bit muddy that one like.

    i got all the offers etc with mine at halfords, including the £50 of free stuff for spending over £250 on a bike.

    my mate went into the same shop a week later with his voucher and they wouldnt let him have any of the deals at all.

    i did quite well out of it like, a £400 voucher, they threw £60 on top for free, then halfords gave me the £50 for spending over £250.

    £510 in total and i'll pay back about £290 all in all :)
  • ianianian
    ianianian Posts: 29
    Sounds good.

    My bet is that they're supposed to treat it as cash/ offers etc, however they think they can bulls££t you into believing they're doing you a favour in taking it off you and assume they don't have to offer you anything!
  • tjm
    tjm Posts: 190
    I think it might also depend on the scheme. If it is something like cyclescheme.co.uk then they take a 10% commission from the bike shop. So you can understand that the bike shop might not want to accept that on top of other discounts.
    Certainly when I was looking I got told that I'd have to pay list price if I used the scheme.

    On the other hand a friend has just got a bike via the Evan's scheme and i am pretty sure he got a healthy discount on a last years bike. I am guessing that Evans do not take a commission from themselves so I guess other discounts are then allowed!
  • matrices
    matrices Posts: 9
    I got mine through the Halfords Cycle2Work and got my company's extra £40 on top and the Halfords £50 voucher. Did you not ask the guy in the shop what difference it made to him and if there was some kind of deal you could come to?

    M
  • I got my Dawg on sale from JE James cycles, reduced from £1500 to £900. No problems accepting the Cyclescheme voucher.
    Kona Dawg Deluxe ('07)
    Kona Lava Dome ('95)

    Losing weight and (slowly) getting fitter...
  • Father Faff
    Father Faff Posts: 1,176
    As has been said above there are different schemes and only some would be equivalent to cash for the bike shop.
    Commencal Meta 5.5.1
    Scott CR1
  • FSR_XC
    FSR_XC Posts: 2,258
    Bike shop were honest with me when getting bike on Cycle to Work - It costs them 10%.

    So did a deal with them.

    Last years bike was on offer at £700 instead of £950, so I paid £770 on the scheme. £70 to Scheme, £700 to shop and I pay £439 (over 12mths) - everyone's happy!
    Stumpjumper FSR 09/10 Pro Carbon, Genesis Vapour CX20 ('17)Carbon, Rose Xeon CW3000 '14, Raleigh R50

    http://www.visiontrack.com
  • passout
    passout Posts: 4,425
    It varies - depending on the shop.

    You'll have no such problem with Evans or Wiggle. Full discount plus cyclescheme.

    Some places will reduce any discount to cover the cyclescheme costs (about 10% of RRP) - so your 30% off deal may become a 20% off deal with cycle scheme.

    Some places, usually smaller ones, will not offer cyclescheme with discounts.

    Cheers
    'Happiness serves hardly any other purpose than to make unhappiness possible' Marcel Proust.
  • Personally, I think if you find somewhere that is not willing to give you the same offer as someone paying by cash/cheque/card then take your custom elsewhere.
    Kona Dawg Deluxe ('07)
    Kona Lava Dome ('95)

    Losing weight and (slowly) getting fitter...
  • Chaka Ping
    Chaka Ping Posts: 1,451
    I second Megatron, there are obviously people willing to do a deal - don't waste your time arguing with somebody who won't.

    You're not tied into using one shop are you?
  • supermonkey
    supermonkey Posts: 315
    When I was looking for a bike a while ago there were no offers available on the bike I was interested in. That was OK as the bike was a popular 2008 model. The shop I was talking to was obviously prepared to sell it to me for the full RRP, then I mentioned the bike to work scheme. They said if I wanted to use the scheme they would need to add £150 to the bike's RRP! So instead of being £1600 they wanted £1750! As you can imagine, the conversion ended shortly after that.
  • Chaka Ping
    Chaka Ping Posts: 1,451
    Which shop was that?
  • edthedead
    edthedead Posts: 23
    Just got my c2w voucher through this morning, which I have to use at Halfords. I was planning to phone up and order a Scott Aspect 45 for £399, but thought I would wander into Halfords and see if they had any offers on.

    I picked up a GT Aggressor xc1 for £409.99! It was reduced from £549 to £449, but was the last one they had left so had been on display and had a tiny scratch on the brake leaver, so they knocked another £40 off... and then gave me the £50 of free accessories voucher (even though it says on it not vaild with c2w!)... I was well chuffed! :lol::D:lol:
  • GibboGT
    GibboGT Posts: 287
    That's a bargain!! :o
  • edthedead
    edthedead Posts: 23
    And I used my £50 voucher to buy a load of cleaning/maintainance stuff (oil etc) which was all on buy 2 get one free...... :P
  • Ghengis
    Ghengis Posts: 90
    Hope my work hurry and get their fingers out of their asses and sort out this scheme. I really fancy getting a decent commuter bike sorted. For some reason they are dragging their heels - tossers!!!! Looks like it really is a good deal if you get to the right shop.
    Nearly there, just over this hill and round the next corner...

    2005 Specialized Rockhopper Disc
    2009 Giant Defy 2.5
  • supermonkey
    supermonkey Posts: 315
    Chaka Ping wrote:
    Which shop was that?

    All Terrain Cycles if I remember correctly.
  • starsky007
    starsky007 Posts: 185
    Tredzs in cardiff would not give me any thing off with my voucher, thats where i got my trance 3 from £999.99. they told me they have to pay the voucher company 10% of the bill. so any offers on the net they had was just cash only offers.
    nice new giant trance 3
    also ht coyote
    s-works epic 2008.