Ribble online

father_jack

What are Ribble like for online orders? They have a sale and can save 40% off one item I want.

redddraggon

They are fine, not the fastest, but reliable.

(Aftersales is not the greatest, but definitely liveable, when you weigh up the chance of something going wrong)

GMRK

Someone gave us a warning about buying from them with an unprotected card a while ago, sure it's been sorted by now:

http://www.bicycles.net.au/Australian-Cycling-News-and-Articles.63.0.html?&no_cache=1&singleID=34

Pork Sword

I've shopped with Ribble a few times now (two Deda Nero Corsa Framesets, Groupsets etc) and whilst they're not as slick as Wiggle, I've had no problems and would definitely use them again. Great value usually and with a 40% offer on at the moment you'd be mad not to!

MICHAELCYCLES

The last half dozen or so times I've dealt with them i've had my stuff next day and with free delivery, even quicker than Wiggle and their prices are about a third cheaper than wiggle. Its the first place i look now for everything.

Pork Sword

Can't argue with Ribble's service, they respond quickly to emails, give you free and fast delivery ,which, along with the savings you get over the likes of Wiggle must make them the place to go for online purchases now. I suppose the only advantage Wiggle has over them at the moment is the ability to pay by Paypal - Ribble are in the process of getting this sorted.

alfablue

Hmm...I have always found price good, and delivery okay (usually 2 days), but emails...never had a reply to 6 attempts now, and on the phone they were so rude and disinterested they lost £1000 of my money, and I bought elsewhere.

FSR_XC

I ordered from them on Friday (pair of tyres).

I'll let you know when they arrive.

tobyker

I thought they let themselves down because when I asked for a quote for Cyclescheme for one of their specials as advertised on the web they just said "we don't do them any more" without offering any alternative. So I went down the road to my LBS who were very helpful and now I've got my new bike from them.

giant_man

Ribble are very good, not the fastest (like Wiggle) but still very good. But they seem to be the cheapest out there usually, what with their little % offers at various times.

bendertherobot

Website has been flaky for me recently. And now I appear to be banned? ANyone else have this issue?

Anonymous

bendertherobot - which website?

bendertherobot

Ribble

FSR_XC

FSR_XC wrote:

I ordered from them on Friday (pair of tyres).

I'll let you know when they arrive.

Got an email yesterday saying they had been dispatched from warehouse.

Arrived in work this morning

majormantra

bendertherobot wrote:

Website has been flaky for me recently. And now I appear to be banned? ANyone else have this issue?

Which browser are you using? I find that much of their site doesn't work in FF, but it's fine in IE.

Matthew

fossyant

Fine - ordered some XT SPD's (bargain) - Ordered Thurs, arrived Sat morning.

bendertherobot

MajorMantra wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

Website has been flaky for me recently. And now I appear to be banned? ANyone else have this issue?

Which browser are you using? I find that much of their site doesn't work in FF, but it's fine in IE.

Matthew

Tried both today, wouldn't complete the order stage.

In the end went off to Stonehenge Cycles who dispatched within seconds of me ordering!

t0ny

When I first got into needlessly spending lots of money on cycling I used Wiggle and ChainReaction.

I have since found Ribble and ProBikeKit to be the best by far and by best I mean cheaper for the same service!

Wiggle have been getting more expensive and their deals nothing special....

Of course this is all my own personal experience..

JGS

I found Ribble are very cheap, and do eventually sort out returns but their service is very very slow. Also they can't build a bike to save their lives, but when you save over 40% compared to other manufacturers bikes you can spend some of saved cash on having it tweaked at your LBS instead. I regularly buy stuff from them if I don't need it ASAP, however I do this in the knowledge that stuff can be a little slow sometimes.

sampras38

I was told once that Ribble used to be very good, and before Wiggle came along were one of the main online retailors. They could have been where Wiggle are now but didn't quite do it.

andy_wrx

I'm fascinated that so many people are saying that Wiggle are so good !

Up to perhaps a couple of years ago they were indeed very good, they were cheap, they actually had stuff in stock and it was despatched immediately and arrived next-day even if you went for the free no-priority delivery.

But nowadays they are not at all cheap.
- Ribble, ChainReaction and ProBikeKit undercut them considerably, so it's generally a check around between them as to who is cheapest for a particular component.

e.g. I recently wanted some ProRace3 tyres : Wiggle £34.24, CRC £24.99, Ribble £23.25 if you spend over £50, PBK £25.64, Parkers £24.95
- even with a £5-off-orders-over-£50 voucher for Wiggle, they'd have still been pretty expensive for a pair of tyres

All the others have the straightaway delivery service too - CRC and ProbikeKit have always been next day, Ribble used not to be a couple of years ago, but all my recent orders have been.

I've mostly given-up bothering to look at Wiggle these days...

thegibdog

I've always found that Ribble's prices are cheap but their customer service poor.

For instance, I ordered some SKS Chromoplastic (P35) mudguards from them a few months back, they sent me the cheaper Commuter ones instead. When I returned them for replacement with the P35's and a postage refund they just sent me a refund for the mudguards with no explanation. It turned out they didn't have the P35's in stock and it took over a month to get my return postage costs refunded...

sampras38

andy_wrx wrote:

I'm fascinated that so many people are saying that Wiggle are so good !

Up to perhaps a couple of years ago they were indeed very good, they were cheap, they actually had stuff in stock and it was despatched immediately and arrived next-day even if you went for the free no-priority delivery.

But nowadays they are not at all cheap.
- Ribble, ChainReaction and ProBikeKit undercut them considerably, so it's generally a check around between them as to who is cheapest for a particular component.

e.g. I recently wanted some ProRace3 tyres : Wiggle £34.24, CRC £24.99, Ribble £23.25 if you spend over £50, PBK £25.64, Parkers £24.95
- even with a £5-off-orders-over-£50 voucher for Wiggle, they'd have still been pretty expensive for a pair of tyres

All the others have the straightaway delivery service too - CRC and ProbikeKit have always been next day, Ribble used not to be a couple of years ago, but all my recent orders have been.

I've mostly given-up bothering to look at Wiggle these days...

I personally wouldn't say Wiggle are fantastic, but they've rarely let me down. I do order stuff from the others mentioned as well though. Also Wiggle don't charge for delivery and most of the others do.

andy_wrx

sampras38 wrote:

I personally wouldn't say Wiggle are fantastic, but they've rarely let me down. I do order stuff from the others mentioned as well though. Also Wiggle don't charge for delivery and most of the others do.

No, CRC are post-free, PBK seem to have a 'free postage this week only' offer on all the time, and Ribble used to charge for postage (something like £2.75, which was usually easily absorbed by their lower prices anyway) but now seem to have a permanent free-postage-on-orders-over-£50 offer.

So they're all free postage, as well as usually a lot cheaper than Wiggle.

Up to a couple of years ago, yes I'd have said Wiggle were good, but these days, no, too expensive.

sampras38

andy_wrx wrote:

sampras38 wrote:

I personally wouldn't say Wiggle are fantastic, but they've rarely let me down. I do order stuff from the others mentioned as well though. Also Wiggle don't charge for delivery and most of the others do.

No, CRC are post-free, PBK seem to have a 'free postage this week only' offer on all the time, and Ribble used to charge for postage (something like £2.75, which was usually easily absorbed by their lower prices anyway) but now seem to have a permanent free-postage-on-orders-over-£50 offer.

So they're all free postage, as well as usually a lot cheaper than Wiggle.

Up to a couple of years ago, yes I'd have said Wiggle were good, but these days, no, too expensive.

I'll do a test next time I want to order something. And free over £50 isn't that great a deal. A lot of my orders are under that.

ACMadone

Never had any problems but not as quick with the delivery as Wiggle.

fossyant

Shop around, use the main ones - you'll find the bits you want at a good price soon enough.

I've used Wiggle recently as a few of the things I wanted were the cheapest. Then Ribble were cheaper - CRC good, Parker, Merlin etc.

Just research the purchase !

Marchpast

Disappointed that Wiggle are now the supplier of choice for the CTC shop (10% discount with membership) - try finding anything that doesn't claim to be 10% or more off at Wiggle, yet still seems more expensive than anywhere else.

Tip for those wanting free postage though - order something that is not in stock (not hard), get over the £50 mark - it won't come in for ages so cancel the back-order, and they won't charge you postage on items they've already sent. Works for me every time.

Shame though - I used to go there all the time when it was Butler Cycles.

Smokin Joe

I've never had a problem with Ribble and I've been using them for years. I can never understand what people see in Wiggle, they've never been faster than any of the others and their prices are way too high.