Rutland Cycling - one to avoid

ravey1981

I recently bought a pair of rockshox revelation 2009 forks from Rutland cycling ebay store

After paying I received an email saying that they had been dispatched...Then about a week later another one saying that DHL had lost the package and since they did not have any more a refund would be given....fine

But then I looked on both their ebay store and website and they were still selling them....

Now.... I hate having my time wasted and even more I hate being lied to, a quick look at the negative comments left for them showed I wasnt the only one...

I wrongly assumed that as they had 50 odd thousand feedback they would be reliable, but infact the emails i got were rude and arrogant

I promised them that i would pass on my thoughts about them so now i have (they threatened to report me for member abuse when I said i would do this, but as i see it, its free speech and i'm hopefully doing you all a favour)

Regards

Dave

ccc

I ordered a frame saver kit from Rutland as I was taking my bike overseas. For some stupid reason I assumed that I'd get it within two weeks before I went away. It didn't arrive and I actually forgot about it until last week when I received an email saying it had been dispatched - 3 MONTHS after I had ordered it. I kept it as it may still come in handy and I did completely forget to cancel the order.

Funnily enough I am actually looking for some Revelation 426s and saw that Rutland had them for a good price, but wasn't sure because of my previous experience. Cheers for the heads up though, will definitely give them a miss now.

Did you get the refund as promised?

ravey1981

Hi

Yeah i got the refund but my my time was still wasted and they didnt seem to give a damn.... My gut feeling is that they never even sent them in the first place but i cant prove that so....

If you're after some revelations, Winstanleys have them in at £365 (I bought some yesterday) and Merlin have an offer on them now at £350 i think

Dave

Mr Wu

I think you've both been unfortunate, but, rutlands have always been really quick with delivery and cheap (I got my codes for£120) last year. Bear in mind that they are a busy company running both an eBay shop and a " normal" shop. The fact they've got fifty odd thousand feedback would suggest that they are normally ok. As for winstanley...

petegoodyear

rutland have been a little slow sending my order after a week i had not received it so prompted them for it, on receiving it part of the order was wrong and i have waited a week and still not got the pads, have been waiting over 2 weeks now, crc again next time, i think.

Parkpre Boy

Never had any problems with Rutland Cycling and the sister shop Grafham Cycling, on mail order, Ebay and in person at the shops. If you received a refund I cannot see what the problem is.

BorisSpencer

I have bought from Rutland both online and at their Grafham Water store, never had a problem.
They even gave me some bar plugs for my lads bike when I was trying to buy some.

junglist_matty

So DHL lost your parcel and its Rutlands fault how exactly??? They offered you a full refund as soon as they could so whats the problem?

Your problem should be with DHL, not Rutland, they are a very good company, and if you care to visit any of their shops you'll realise they have very knowledgable staff and are very helpfull and willing to give advice.

I don't blame them for reporting you, what have they done wrong? Nothing. You got your money back and the problem has been sorted, sounds like your just being an arsehole of a customer.

nonnac85

I also have never had a problem with their ebay shop or the actual shop at Rutland Water. They have always been helpful and even fixed my wheel for free when it got damaged in the car.

alfablue

ccc wrote:

I ordered a frame saver kit from Rutland as I was taking my bike overseas. For some stupid reason I assumed that I'd get it within two weeks before I went away. It didn't arrive and I actually forgot about it until last week when I received an email saying it had been dispatched - 3 MONTHS after I had ordered it. I kept it as it may still come in handy and I did completely forget to cancel the order.

Funnily enough I am actually looking for some Revelation 426s and saw that Rutland had them for a good price, but wasn't sure because of my previous experience. Cheers for the heads up though, will definitely give them a miss now.

Did you get the refund as promised?

I ordered a pump, a week later I got an email to say it was out of stock. I emailed and phoned to cancel my order. Fine, cancellation confirmed. 2 months later they delivered it. Repeated emails telling them went unanswered. They may be a good shop, but I have plenty of other choices where I don't get this sort of annoyance. The competition is tough out there, they need to try harder.

phase3uk

So lets get some facts right, Rutland have sold over 56k items and there's the odd one or two glitches so you make a witch hunt. The fact that you then slag them off online I don't blame them for threatening to report you, it's not as if you didn't get a refund. Did they keep your money and run, no it seems they made an error but gave you your money back instantly.
Whilst I appreciate it's not nice expecting something only to get an order cancelled but to then waste time creating a forum to slate what normally are a very good company seems a waste of time, I wonder if you'd of made threats face to face in one of their shops?!
Seems to me you need to get a life and get some sleep rather than writing pointless forums at nearly midnight!!!

Northwind

junglist_matty wrote:

So DHL lost your parcel and its Rutlands fault how exactly??? They offered you a full refund as soon as they could so whats the problem?

They said they didn't have any more and so couldn't send a replacement, despite still showing them as in stock, is I think the problem.

Question for you OP, was the price the same? Or had it increased since your sale?

TheRevOlutionary

phase3uk wrote:

So lets get some facts right, Rutland have sold over 56k items and there's the odd one or two glitches so you make a witch hunt. The fact that you then slag them off online I don't blame them for threatening to report you, it's not as if you didn't get a refund. Did they keep your money and run, no it seems they made an error but gave you your money back instantly.
Whilst I appreciate it's not nice expecting something only to get an order cancelled but to then waste time creating a forum to slate what normally are a very good company seems a waste of time, I wonder if you'd of made threats face to face in one of their shops?!
Seems to me you need to get a life and get some sleep rather than writing pointless forums at nearly midnight!!!

...I see you're from Rutland...work in a LBS by any chance?!

Every shop has it's good and bad moments, and with 60,000 sales since eBay has been going, they must be doing something right?! But my impression with the dealings I've had are that they are a (slightly) 2nd rate outfit, and where possible I would much rather use Wiggle/WHS/Merlin etc

ihatecyclists

amazing comments the 56000+ people who had a positive experience counts for nothing it seems!, but then it is allways the 'few' whitch hunting maggots that cause problems for everyone else. if the forks are available elsewhere at a good price and you have had an instant refund what is the bloody problem? as stated by someone with some intelligence if DHL lost them what can they do?

N0bodyOfTheGoat

I bought a Saracen Pylon 8 and a Saracen Zena 2 from the Rutland Ebay store at the end of March this year...

They arrived within 48 hours of sorting out payment, great repsonse from them and the courrier!

Both bikes were "crunching that credit" items of the top order:-
An Alfine hub geared bike for £300! About 50% less than going rate for such spec
A women's geometry hardtail; XCR forks; Deore groupset; hydraulic discs; solid WTB SX24 rimmed wheels for £350

junglist_matty

Northwind wrote:

They said they didn't have any more and so couldn't send a replacement, despite still showing them as in stock, is I think the problem.

And how does he know that they are in stock? I've ordered many items off the internet before saying there is 4 or 5 in stock then get emailed to say sorry its out of stock.... Also on eBay, if they say they have 20 to sell they get charged to sell 20 by eBay so they must put 20 aside for that particular listing so they have enough to cover all possible sales.

phase3uk

No I don't work for them, although have bought many items from them succesfully, but if I did then I'd know that it would be easy to get his personal details!!!!! :twisted: The guys at Rutland are a great bunch so I think this was more a case of a simple error rather than a major rip off scam that "ravey" seems to think it is.

Lesson of the day: If you're going to act all big and mighty on email or forums then make sure that you've got the bottle to do it for real as you might easily get found out.

Anyway must go now as I have a life I need to continue with

Steve_b77

I've never had an issue with Rutland to be honest

Northwind

junglist_matty wrote:

And how does he know that they are in stock? I've ordered many items off the internet before saying there is 4 or 5 in stock then get emailed to say sorry its out of stock....

And that's very poor, don't you agree I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with the OP by the way, just being devil's advocate, but selling stuff you don't have is very bad form (and maybe more, didn't Dave Hinde get some sort of bitchslap from the authorities for advertising items he didn't have?)

Northwind

phase3uk wrote:

Lesson of the day: If you're going to act all big and mighty on email or forums then make sure that you've got the bottle to do it for real as you might easily get found out.

Well, reading his post he says he told them outright that he'd be coming on here, so he seems to have already learned today's lesson

junglist_matty

Northwind wrote:

And that's very poor, don't you agree I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with the OP by the way, just being devil's advocate, but selling stuff you don't have is very bad form (and maybe more, didn't Dave Hinde get some sort of bitchslap from the authorities for advertising items he didn't have?)

Yes and no...

If you have 5 pairs of forks to sell in your shop, you can advertise them on the internet, then state that you have 5 available on the internet, if someone comes into the shop on a busy day and buys a pair you now have 4, but its not always possible to update the website the second they are sold then can be a forgotten "to do job", some shops obviously don't have a synchronised database that updates for sales made either over the internet or through the shop. So the website will still say there are 5 when there are 4 just because of a silly mistake.

However, if they are advertising something and say its in stock but its actually not in stock and not been in stock for a while thats a different story, however I doubt that Rutland would not say they didn't have stock if they did, I can't see why they would ever want to do that, a potential customer is now going to your competitor to buy what they were originally planning to buy from you.

elPedro666

This is a very odd thread; someone gets messed around by a shop, posts a straight forward warning on here, then gets lambasted for it! :?

Changing stories, blaming the courier, not answering emails or being rude in them - doesn't sound like good service!

And advertising stock you don't have at prices invented to put you at the top of internet searches is more than a little annoying (current pet-hate)...

A lot of the time people don't like leaving bad feedback as the seller used to be able to just neg you right back (I believe that's not possible anymore?).

Just take the info, add it to what you already know and come to your own decision about where you'd like to spend your money - laying into someone who's trying to share an experience they believe to be helpful just doesn't make sense!

Da Mighty Chicken

elPedro666 wrote:

This is a very odd thread; someone gets messed around by a shop, posts a straight forward warning on here, then gets lambasted for it! :?

Changing stories, blaming the courier, not answering emails or being rude in them - doesn't sound like good service!

And advertising stock you don't have at prices invented to put you at the top of internet searches is more than a little annoying (current pet-hate)...

A lot of the time people don't like leaving bad feedback as the seller used to be able to just neg you right back (I believe that's not possible anymore?).

Just take the info, add it to what you already know and come to your own decision about where you'd like to spend your money - laying into someone who's trying to share an experience they believe to be helpful just doesn't make sense!

+1 Agreed

Andy

The second post in this thread is more worrying than the OP as it seems to suggest they are a little disorganised and poor with communications. Only time I have encountered Rutland Cycling is buying a Yeti Arc frame off their website direct rather than through ebay and it came almost next day.

It seems that if they want to open themselves up to as wide a market as possible by using a shop, ebay and a website they need to be sure that they can provide an equally good service for all of those.

CRC are widely regarded as one of the best internet shops but they have been known to make their fair share of mistakes as well.

Moral of the story? Support your LBS

ravey1981

What a great place this is.... I was merely sharing my experience with the hope of informing others of potential problems and I get slated for it.... I guess I was wrong about free speech then...

As to the time of my posts, i'm on late shift at the moment, and yes i do have a life thanks...

My concern with rutland is that they were selling an item that they didn't have....when i bought with buy it now there were 4 available......this went to 3 when i purchased....and the auction ended with 3 still available...

On the day i recieved the email saying they had no stock a new listing of the very same item had been put up and is still there now....

If they have no stock why are they advertising these forks?...this goes totally against ebay policy....

In this economic climate customer service should be right up there on a sellers priorities and rutland showed none.... i stand by my original post. Those who want to attack me for it feel free, those who want to take my opinion on board likewise...

Dave

ads4

I appreciate the heads-up. It's always good to hear of people's experiences, good or bad, of different shops. I have never used Rutlands and probably never would have considering the amount of other shops there are out there.
However, no one ever gets blasted for sharing their good experiences now do they

gillyboc

can't comment on Rutland, but can say that Merlin & Wiggle have been excellent.

dag_on_a_bike

junglist_matty wrote:

However, if they are advertising something and say its in stock but its actually not in stock and not been in stock for a while thats a different story, however I doubt that Rutland would not say they didn't have stock if they did, I can't see why they would ever want to do that, a potential customer is now going to your competitor to buy what they were originally planning to buy from you.

I've used Rutland only twice and I suppose my only criticism is that their website does not say whether an item is in stock. So, my choice is simple. Assume it's advertised so must be in stock; or phone to check; or just order anyway on the basis that it will arrive; or go elsewhere. Ultimately it's my choice so I'm partly responsible for my shopping experience.

Having said that, the 1st of my orders was fulfilled quickly, and a return/replacement dealt with promptly (and at no cost despite what their returns policy states). The 2nd order met with a prompt and friendly email advising item on back order with manufacturers, which I was not suprised by as it was an item from Specialized's 2010 range and no-one else is advertising it yet.

SO, will I use them again? Almost certainly.

Mrs Toast

Well, it's always worth bearing in mind that you'll always hear more negative reports about a shop than good ones, as people don't tend to say, "I went into such and such a shop, and I received great service!" - because people expect good service as standard. However, when someone's received terrible or sub-par service, it is worthwhile bringing it up, because it keeps the shops on their toes. Plus it gives people the chance to recount their experiences, so others can make up their own mind whether it's worth 'the risk' of using them.

From what I can gather, the OP wasn't so much annoyed about the fact the item wasn't in stock and he'd been given a refund, but that it was still being advertised on eBay. Even if they couldn't update their main website, you'd think they'd be able to (and would) fix the eBay listing fairly sharpish to stop more people from buying items they didn't have.

wemac

If it was a genuine mistake I'd have thought the shop would be apologetic and conciliatory - instead it seems from the OP's comment that they were anything but... that's very telling if you ask me.

'Dodgy' advertising seems to be happening more and more. It seems Rutland are only one of a number of sites doing it. Parker International seem to get some flak for advertising stuff which is out of stock, and CRC run a fine edge advertising items at bargain basement prices when all bar one of the sizes are double that.

Price is obviously important - it's why we shop online - but you gotta trust the Company you're dealing with, right??

TarkMalbot

I recently ordered 3 cycling jerseys from their Ebay store I have E-mails saying they have been dispatched so I will let you know how I get on.