Horrrible service from Chain Reaction

ZMC888

After years dealing with Chain Reaction Cycles, I've finally reached the end of my tether.

They've always been reliable, but recently they've switched to some cheap clowns called Skynet to deliver some of their free International Deliveries when you spend over 100 pounds. The entire postal system they use is totally dysfunctional demands you upload ID card numbers and pictures you don't have, and pay import taxes that are never charged on such small cartons if sent by Trackpak, Royal Mail etc, so it's just extra pocket money for the couriers. Worse the 'service' isn't even available in English.

OK, we all make mistakes, if Chain Reaction actually gave to figs and even did anything to help, rather they just give some generic, weak fake 'cut and paste' apology and never do anything substantial or really apologise.

In the end I'll have two deliveries returned to sender and months with money missing from my bank account with nothing to show for it.

They're turning my hobby from a joy to an irritation and annoyance. I'll be avoiding them like the plague from now on. When things go wrong they totally suck.

Bobbinogs

Why not just buy from someone else, there are plenty of decent options out there (depending on where you are).

ZMC888

Bobbinogs wrote:

Why not just buy from someone else, there are plenty of decent options out there (depending on where you are).

Well obviously from now on I will be buying elsewhere.

fat daddy

I kind of agree with the op ... my last 2 orders I have ended up having to call up and get cancelled .... perhaps demand is high at the moment and they can't keep up.

Started using other companies and buying my second option choice rather than the item I want just to avoid CR

Matthewfalle

Agree 100% - their service has turned from brilliant absolutely rubbish: orders half fulfilled, not turning up, takes ages to turn up (now on 10 days for a stem and 11 days for some tubs), disjointed emails when trying to sort stuff.

As per other posts, Merlin are a million times better in every way - it's just that CRC have so much stock.

I used to get everything from CRC - now they are just a back up to Merlin.

Shocking drop standards.

imposter2.0

ZMC888 wrote:

They're turning my hobby from a joy to an irritation and annoyance.

FFS...

N0bodyOfTheGoat

I blame Wiggle. :twisted:

redvision

I've actually been impressed with the service from CRC in the last few months. Had a few warranty issues which they have sorted very quickly. I have noticed their free delivery has become slower, but now i just pay for next day and its always here on time.

bernithebiker

I thought Wiggle and CRC were the same thing now?

Fairly damning write up here;

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/busin ... 66322.html

tangled_metal

I paid for next day and they used royal mail tracked 24hr service. Not a guaranteed service only aim to deliver in 24hours. It didn't turn up in 24 hours so i called CRC and got my carriage charge back. Took 2 minutes and i still got the package in time for when i planned to use the parts.

Never had any problem with them at all so far. I guess they, and wiggle, do so many sales that they'll always get unhappy customers. Add in wiggle factor there's bound to be a change somewhere.

CRC were northern Ireland based. There's probably efficiency savings made at the expense of northern Irish jobs. The Belfast telegraph is definitely not going to be influenced by that and it's audience bias against the takeover. I'd lose my faith in the integrity of the independent press if that happened!

bernithebiker

Tangled Metal wrote:

CRC were northern Ireland based. There's probably efficiency savings made at the expense of northern Irish jobs. The Belfast telegraph is definitely not going to be influenced by that and it's audience bias against the takeover. I'd lose my faith in the integrity of the independent press if that happened!

Fair enough, they're obviously going to be cheesed off at losing local jobs, but it sounds like jobs lost, period, not just 'local' jobs.

I don't really like 'corporate' so personally I'd rather give my business to smaller, private companies, and yes, I too have noticed a drop in the service and delivery speeds at both Wiggle and CRC.

fat daddy

Matthewfalle wrote:

As per other posts, Merlin are a million times better in every way -.

what couriers do Merlin use ????

I like wiggle they use DPD ...... I am scared of Yodel they don't use yodel do they ?

imposter2.0

fat daddy wrote:

Matthewfalle wrote:

As per other posts, Merlin are a million times better in every way -.

what couriers do Merlin use ????

I like wiggle they use DPD ...... I am scared of Yodel they don't use yodel do they ?

Planet X use Yodel - used them twice recently, for a frame and for a wheelset - no issues.

Matthewfalle

P/x are DHL'ing my new c/x frame to me.

Merlin use Royal Mail next day delivery to my crib but it's not so much next day but 6 hours. They really are so efficient compared to CRC.

CRC used to be brill: now: not so. Ugh.

tangled_metal

Imposter wrote:

fat daddy wrote:

Matthewfalle wrote:

As per other posts, Merlin are a million times better in every way -.

what couriers do Merlin use ????

I like wiggle they use DPD ...... I am scared of Yodel they don't use yodel do they ?

Planet X use Yodel - used them twice recently, for a frame and for a wheelset - no issues.

Used dpd to me and once royal mail next day (24hr tracked which isn't guaranteed next day just "aim to" delivery).

Why do companies use royal mail tracked 24 hour and sell it as a next day delivery? It's not guaranteed. It only states on their website that they aim to deliver in 24 hours.

+1 on dpd being good.

kingstongraham

ZMC888 wrote:

They're turning my hobby from a joy to an irritation and annoyance.

Is shopping your hobby?

imposter2.0

Tangled Metal wrote:

Imposter wrote:

fat daddy wrote:

Matthewfalle wrote:

As per other posts, Merlin are a million times better in every way -.

what couriers do Merlin use ????

I like wiggle they use DPD ...... I am scared of Yodel they don't use yodel do they ?

Planet X use Yodel - used them twice recently, for a frame and for a wheelset - no issues.

Used dpd to me and once royal mail next day (24hr tracked which isn't guaranteed next day just "aim to" delivery).

Why do companies use royal mail tracked 24 hour and sell it as a next day delivery? It's not guaranteed. It only states on their website that they aim to deliver in 24 hours.

+1 on dpd being good.

Just double-checked my PX account and the last two orders have definitely been via Yodel. Perhaps they use different carriers for different areas of the country or something.

PTestTeam

ZMC888 wrote:

After years dealing with Chain Reaction Cycles, I've finally reached the end of my tether.

They've always been reliable, but recently they've switched to some cheap clowns called Skynet to deliver some of their free International Deliveries when you spend over 100 pounds. The entire postal system they use is totally dysfunctional demands you upload ID card numbers and pictures you don't have, and pay import taxes that are never charged on such small cartons if sent by Trackpak, Royal Mail etc, so it's just extra pocket money for the couriers. Worse the 'service' isn't even available in English.

OK, we all make mistakes, if Chain Reaction actually gave to figs and even did anything to help, rather they just give some generic, weak fake 'cut and paste' apology and never do anything substantial or really apologise.

In the end I'll have two deliveries returned to sender and months with money missing from my bank account with nothing to show for it.

They're turning my hobby from a joy to an irritation and annoyance. I'll be avoiding them like the plague from now on. When things go wrong they totally suck.

It's the beginning of the end. I;m off to the shops to bulk buy canned food

cooldad

When I was young we had to actually go to shops to buy stuff.

Horrible process and time consuming.

Personally I find CRC excellent. Stuff arrives at some point (if you need it urgently get off your ass - anything other than their standard delivery seems to confuse the robots.)
Returns, for any reason are free and easy. Great when you're not sure what size you need. (Same goes for Wiggle, but they still need to take the blame.)

As for international stuff, find someone local. Simple.

ZMC888

KingstonGraham wrote:

ZMC888 wrote:

They're turning my hobby from a joy to an irritation and annoyance.

Is shopping your hobby?

Yeah, I've got a 300 mile a week shopping hobby. :?

tangled_metal

There's a lot of variation in courier performance across the country. For me Yodel has Always been good. Other couriers have been bad like royal mail.

Recently a package from CRC made its way to the local delivery office of royal mail about 5minutes walk from home and the delivery address. It was a day late so i called the DO. The guy couldn't get on the system so i read it out to him. He said that was just about the retailer booking it in and royal mail hadn't received the package. So i read it out to him again including the trail from CRC through collection office to regional sorting office in NI to Preston then up to my local DO the morning after collection at 3pm in NI. Over a day after arriving in the DO it got delivered a day late. Still CRC had already paid back the delivery charge.

BTW used to know a few posties. If yodel is bad for you don't use Parcelforce or royal mail. There's a thing showing them about shifting responsibility for delivery to the other company. Then Parcelforce has a local reputation for their staff parking at a certain layby and ditch packages for out of the way addresses so they can finish earlier. The manager at the nearest DO got a few too many complaints so he drove over in his own car and collected the missing packages. It was a regular thing but sometimes the layby varied. It was known that sacked royal mail people (as in sacked for doing something wrong) ended up working for the local Parcelforce which had lower thresholds on behaviour. BTW that DO was effectively run by unions (tail wagging the dog with the weak management) so you had to be really bad to get the sack!

john1967

please allow 28 days for delivery.

kingstongraham

Deleted.

stu227

The problem with a lot of couriers (including skynet from painful experience) is that they piggyback on spare capacity from the big boys like UPS, DHL, FedEx, etc. So if FedEx aren't busy, then they're fine, but if FedEx are busy then Skynet just get told their stuff will have to wait. They also lose the tracking capabilities the big carriers have because they subcontract their carriage to other people. So they nly have a rough idea of where the package is at any time.

As a business (legal sector) we now have a policy of only usin FedEx or UPS for deliveries, depending on which country things are destined for, because all the other carriers have been so unreliable.

NeXXus

Picking up a collect+ package from CRC on my way home.

It was free and I wasn't in a hurry so I didn't bother driving up. Great service, if you count 3 days to travel 20mins

joenobody

Two CRC orders by me recently, one >£400 and the other >£150, standard delivery option. Both arrived with 48 hours from placing the order. I can't help but think that the OP has just been unlucky. Mind you, both we sent by Royal Mail, which might have influenced the experience.

navrig2

Yodel are a nightmare.

Several years ago, they left a parcel with us. The delivery address was a few miles away. I tried to contact them to come and collect it. have you tried contacting them? Their website has or had no customer service contacts and the phone service was fully automated with no humans.

Eventually after searching the web I found a customer service email address and the CEO email address. I emailed both stating that I had their parcel and if they wanted it they should contact me direct otherwise it was going nowhere. They did contact me and when I explained I had spent an hour on the phone and that the lack of contact details was really poor, they asked for my address. I told them I needed compensation for my time and phone bill. I asked they donate £20 to a chaity of my choice, send me a receipt and then I would send them my address.

They did and then they got their parcel.

Absolute shambles!

mac9091

Cheap courier service soely depends on the person employed to deliver the items. I have always made a point of getting pally with them and letting them know where (after a few deliveries) where they can get away with leaving parcels if they are happy to do so if im not in. Never had an issue. Granted i also get to know the Postwoman (this time round) so that they can do the same. It saves me the hassle of re-orging delivery or collecting from the sorting office. Call me old fashioned but the (regular) postie still gets a crimbo card and a £20 each year.

As for CRC my recent purchase was a groupset and they sent everything except the rear derallieur. They asked me to take photographs of the boxes and labels as "proof", I questioned what that would actually prove and i offered to take pics of the contents (not that i couldn't have just left the derailleur out) but they said that wasn't necessary and they just needed the labels photographed. Granted they promptly then sent the missing part out on 24 hours delivery but that was a week later.

ZMC888

Just an update.

The order was successfully returned to sender 2 weeks ago. However I have still not been refunded. Looks like credit card chargeback or legal action may be required.

Is this because Wiggle are out to destroy CRC? It's certainly a steaming pile of turd.

cooldad

Maybe they just hate foreigners. Using their (local) free returns it's never taken more than a couple of days.

So either buy local, or if you are in a useless place without bike shops, suffer.