Anyone bought from VelodromeShop recently?

Bozabyka

Ordered a Roller resistance unit from Velodrome shop on Sunday.
Expected item to arrive between 2 - 4 days.
Still not arrived on Saturday.
Just done a quick search on the web and found a few old threads.
Anyone had any recent experiences with these guys?

simon_masterson

Never had an issue when buying sprockets (most recent one in September IIRC) - always quick - but I have read other reports that weren't so positive. I'm not sure I would buy anything expensive from them.

imposter2.0

As above - I've never had a problem with them, but I'm aware others have. I doubt if they keep items like that on the shelf, so are probably reliant on it being delivered in a timely manner from the distributor.

Bozabyka

Yesterday Velodrome Shop informed me that they had not been able to obtain the part I had ordered.
Last Monday they told me the part had been despatched.
I have also been told I will be refunded within five days

Bozabyka

Today is the 5th working day and I have not been refunded.
Sent an email which was replied to quickly to inform me that I was refunded the day after I paid for the item.
I have not been refunded
Been on web chat for the past half an hour now waiting to speak to someone.

Bozabyka

Now spoken to the banks fraud team and raised a dispute.
Should be credited within ten days.
Really wish I had gone direct to the manufacturer.

horizon

They hide behind a PO Box number - that would rule them out for me before going any further. No phone number either.

Bozabyka

Interesting, Fraud team gave me my money back within 24 hours, never had that kind of service with any shop before

Man Of Lard

The one and only time I bought from Velodrome Shop, the item that was allegedly in stock took 5 weeks and 3 reminders from me to actually appear.

BenderRodriguez

Horizon wrote:

They hide behind a PO Box number - that would rule them out for me before going any further. No phone number either.

I have bought quite a lot of stuff of the Velodrome shop (Veloodrome STS ltd) over the years and everything I have ordered has turned up in good time. That said, who actually owns the company is not very transparent.

The directors are listed as being Jo-Anne Hamon (now Hewitt) and her husband Andrew Graham Hewitt.

https://companycheck.co.uk/company/0689 ... house-data

She is a former racing cyclist who between 2008 and 2009 rode with the Calapie-Reyno de Navarra track team, which is based in Spain, although she raced mainly in the UK.

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/point ... &year=2008

Between them her and her husband seem to be involved in a quite a few enterprises. For example, they are also directors of http://www.sportstrainingsolutions.com/ (The website layout will look familiar.)

Jo-Anne Hamon / Hewitt also works as an accountant for Capita local government. https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jo-anne-hewitt-fcca-68635986

I think the amount of 'hands on' involvement the directors have in Velodrome shop is somewhat limited, with all the warehousing and logistical side of things been run by a specialist company. This was MMC Reading, who were a part of Dawson Marketing. These are now a part of SKU Logistics - http://sku.co.uk/- and I assume they still handle the logistical side of running the Velodrome shop.

I think this is how a lot of retailing works these days: you create a company concept, decide what you are going to sell, make arrangements with suppliers and then let a third party do the actual retailing. It does mean that you are effectively dealing with some faceless logistics company though, which is where 'issues' can arise, especially when they hold minimal stock. At least with companies like Planet X you know where they operate from and who the people are that you will be dealing with.