Anyone else had trouble with Merlin Cycles?

Darra8

I have ordered a few things from Merlin over the last few weeks, and they have managed to cock almost everyone of them up. Not once have they said sorry.

The last straw was, they sent me the wrong thing, and when asked if they could send the correct item out, they told me I would have to order something else to get the free delivery :shock: To make things worse, they sent the same (wrong) part out again :x I have sent them a snotty email, which no doubt they will ignore!


Anyone else had any trouble?

Andy B

If they made a mistake, it's up to them to pay the postage, tis the law.

ExeterSimon

Have ordered loads from Merlin and never had a single problem.

Emails can easily be ignored so pick up the blower and do it the old fashioned way. Sure once you speak to someone they'll rectify the problem(s) straight away.

bregante

Merlin have always been ace for me too. In fact, better than anyone.

GIVE THEM A BELL

Noclue

I've used them for a couple of years and have to say they seem to be slipping in the standards department, they used to be brilliant but my last couple of orders have been messed up, ordered a cassette and they took the money out of my account then e mailed me to tell me the one i'd ordered was out of stock and if i sent them more money i could have an upgrade!!, er.. no thanks i'll have my money back please and go to CRC, and last time i ordered a crankset and chain and only the crankset arrived, resolved eventually but it was a pain, just hope my brakes and mech turn up okay this week, i'd stop using them if they weren't so competitivley priced.

lfcquin

Great. I was really looking forward to receiving my new wheels until I read this post. Add to that my mate is going through the wringer with them right now. Fingers crossed my order lands tomorrow in good shape!

russwparkin

they are not good with e-mail, i asked a question about buying a bike and they ignored it. so i spent my £1100 elsewhere :P

Sloper

I've bought a few things from Merlin recently, no problems. My Reba forks arrived in only 2 days too
I didn't think much of the salesman at the shop when I bought the bike though. It seemed like he had better things to be doing :roll:

ccc

Merlin are the reason I will never buy a bike online again.

Any time I've called them with a question or for assistance they sound like they really couldn't give a sh*t.

Just a pity their prices are so good and to give them credit, since they left me without a working bike for two months and took two weeks to ship my Elixir CRs that were apparently in stock and with no other explanation, they have been pretty good.

cat_with_no_tail

Received an order off them last week. Big bottle of Fenwicks, big bottle of Epic Ride, chain checker to replace the one I bent.

When it arrived, the postie handed me a very pink, very soggy bag and explained that something inside the bag had leaked (it had also leaked over several other packages).

I pointed out that it was degreaser that had leaked. He marked the delivery sheet that it was damaged in case I needed to return it.

When I got in, I rung Merlin straight away, and explained that around 1/2 of the bottle of fenwicks was now all over the Royal Mail van and I didnt have the invoice as it had been soaked.

"No worries, we'll just send you out another bottle now. Keep what's left of the broken one" they said. and they did, and it arrived yesterday.

I spend most of my money between Merlin and Wooly Hat Shop these days. Both have always delivered nothing but excellent service for me. Not saying it's the same for everyone, but remember, you only really ever hear about peoples BAD experiences.

lesz42

Not saying it's the same for everyone, but remember, you only really ever hear about peoples BAD experiences.




true, never had an issue with merlin or wiggle, rather wait then get ripped off at my LBS,


ie, cone spanner, at my lbs £15, crc £3................................( my other LBS said that the 17mm cone spanner i needed, is rare, and he does not even have one in the workshop!)

scotto

Merlin are excellent every time, they answer my mails, where as wiggle are definately not so good, crc also very good.

joec1

just ordered some M520 SPD Pedals for £19.50

so far their service has been great... will see if it arrives today as expected lol.

guilliano

Bought forks, brakes, gears and handbuilt wheels from Merlin recently and all delivered quickly (everything next day except wheels).

Beardface

Never had any problems with Merlin.. they've always been quick to send out my goods.. as have CRC.. I tend to stay away from Wiggle as I dont find them competitive.

Do like Stif too though, always get good deals and quick delivery with them too

gk141054

I once brought some Shimano M520's from them and when they turned up I had two "right" pedals and no left.

They responded quickly to my e-mail saying to send it back and they would send a new one out... but despite my request for them to do so, they never refunded my return postage costs incurred through their mistake.

Only a little thing but still makes me think i'll go elsewhere in future.

Darra8

To be fair to them, they have always been very helpful on the phone, and their prices are excellent, they even deliver very quickly too. But, they just don't seem to be able to communicate with each other to the point where I get what I asked for.

To be told I couldn't have free delivery on part (less than £10) to replace the wrong thing they sent me, really is taking the p!ss.

bomberesque

I've only used them once, but had no complaints

alfablue

I have used them many times over the last 10 years. Bought 3 sets of wheels, all brilliant builds, all arrived fast, bought loads of components, many OEM, all fine, cheap, correct, and delivered promptly. Bought 2 bikes, one a few years ago, one a few months ago. For the recent one (Rock Lobster 853) there were several pre-purchase questions, they replied to my emails usually within 3 hours, got the bike delivered much faster than their specified build time - all perfect. The bike I bought years ago (Rock Lobster Ti) had a buckled wheel on arrival, they paid me to take it to the LBS for truing, but also the brakes were squealing, and the rear mech wasn't aligned correctly - they collected the bike, fixed it, re-delivered it, upgraded the brakes to XTR and also swapped the tyres from OEM to proper Panaracer Fire XC's, all at their cost. SO all in all, I am pretty pleased with Merlin. I am sure they are not immune to errors, though, and if they gave me the thing about paying post to correct their mistake I would respond badly!!!!

jayson

Ive used Merlin a number of times and so far ive had good service from them, a special thanks goes out to Graham there for answering my emails literally within the hour before my last purchase recently.

Its true that people only ever tell of their bad experiences with a cetain place, my experience with them has always been very good and the staff were always helpfull so i have no qualms bout using them again.

Salsa

I think it's like any shop in that they will make mistakes, only issue I have had with them was with a Thomson seat post. I ordered a 31.6mm which they sent quickly, put it in my £650 frame & it would only go in about 60mm, I measured the post & it got noticeably wider at the point it was getting stuck so I sent it back as faulty.
They refused to admit it was in any way faulty & stated it was within tolerance, they also refused to send me another one or refund my postage plus charged me a 10% fee because I had slightly scratched it (due to it not fitting!).
I tried 4 other seatposts at a LBS ranging from a £30 one all the way up to a £150 Ritchey WCS Carbon & they all fitted perfectly.

I have ordered other things from them that have been perfect & great deals so I shall use them again if I need too.

lfcquin

My wheels arrived from Merlin this morning. Apart from the courier leaving them outside my back door while no-one was home :shock: then everything eles has been excellent. Everything was in the box and delivery was just about 36 hours after placing the order. Can't ask for much else really!

ads4

Bought quite a few parts from Merlin and never had a proble with their delivery. I had to wait for a while on some 2008 carbon bars that were sale priced but when they sent me the 2009 ones instead I didn't mind

lock1981

Yeah they cocked up my custom sent it out chipped with the gears not set up and an egg for a back wheel and waited ages for it to come.

Had to keep ringing them but got 30 quid off and a shock pump in the end

Ordered stuff since no probs.

Only use them cos there cheap though not for the service

m_cozzy

I ordered some forks from jejames on a tuesday morning & paid priority, ample time for delivery before the weekend HA!
Phoned them thursday midday, hadnt even dispatched the order.
I called round all the usual places, no-one could get me forks the next day except merlin, who said 90% chance of them getting here. They arrived within 22 hours meaning I could ride on sunday! Thats with free postage as well.
I wouldnt use anyone else now.

supersonic

There are too many companies ont he net who claim they have stock when they don't, or do not update the net. Some stuff on Merlin (and others like Winstanleys, JE James) has been out of stock for months, with virtually no chance of it evercoming back in.

REMOVE IT, IT BUGGERS THE SEARCH ENGINES UP!

afcbian

Have ordered 2 or 3 things from them in the last 3 months and had exceptionally quick and accurate delivery each time. Can't fault them.

scotto

supersonic wrote:

There are too many companies ont he net who claim they have stock when they don't, or do not update the net. Some stuff on Merlin (and others like Winstanleys, JE James) has been out of stock for months, with virtually no chance of it evercoming back in.

REMOVE IT, IT BUGGERS THE SEARCH ENGINES UP!

Fair play in principle, but with all the pressure of people expecting consignments to arrive within 20 minutes of ordering, customer service and all the rest of the normal crud running a business throws at you, it's not always easy to find time to update an site with a few thousand parts on it.

scale20

I had 1 issue with merlins when i ordered a set of new wheels, I am more than happy to have to wait for something like that, build time and so on but didnt expect them to turn up looking like they had been ridden round the world, scratched to bits!

It took me a while to get it all ironed out with me having to go out of my way to prove I wasn't telling porkies by the way of emailing pictures of the damage. fair do's they sent a courier round to pick them up but took their time in turning the wheels around.

The thing that wound me up was that whoever packed the wheels must have seen the damage to the rims, which could'nt be missed, just ignored it and sent them. Probably chancing their luck!

They answered every email I sent appart from the final one airing my views on the whole shoddy service at the end of the whole ordeal.

That was my first and last order from them.

ricardo666

Ordered a new chainset shimano SLX for 80 notes and a new chain SRAM 990 ordered monday....arrived today (wednesday)

Never had any probs with these guys. Will use again

tricky_dicky

jayson wrote:

a special thanks goes out to Graham there for answering my emails literally within the hour

amen to that - same for me today!