In praise of Merlin Cycles

molteni_man

I just wanted to post in praise of Merlin Cycles.
Have used them more and more over the past 2 years or so.
Great prices, ( recent Castelli sale is v good example) , prompt efficient delivery.
Had to return an item recently as not needed by my son for his birthday. All done with no fuss and money back into account.
Have been a long time Wiggle person and before that Evans Cycles before take over. Wiggle have been good, but Merlin becoming my first’ go to’ !
Sigma have always been great too.
We sometimes read of complaints so just thought would spin this round with some positives!
( And not in any way an employee/ shareholder/ director etc etc of Merlin! )
Well done Merlin Cycles!

super_davo

+1 Merlin are great.
Look to have some decent offers on too, the 10% off big brands offer in conjunction with already competitive prices makes some very good deals.

feelgoodlost

Yep. They're mint. Similar situation with no fuss/question returns and quick refunds. Delivery is always spot on as well.

trevor.hall12

I find Wiggle terrible now, the hell I went through for 1 tyre recently was unbelievable
Merlin have always been great

carbonclem

Ive had two decent bikes from Merlin. Great service each time.

molteni_man

On a similar note - Victorinox, the makers of the Swiss Army penknives.
Met an American bloke this past Summer in the Swiss Army penknife shop they have in Zermatt. He told me about their free lifetime warranty scheme they have for their penknives which I hadn’t heard about. On returning I sent my 30 year old Swiss Climber model into the UK service centre. It got sent back all the way to Switzerland for a full refurbishment.
It came back last week beautifully restored and I am absolutely delighted as it holds such sentimental value to me. All I paid was £9 for transit costs. Everything sharpened, polished and cleaned and refurbished as necessary. What service!

molteni_man

Again I ought to add that I have no financial connection to Victorinox and I’m not a social media influencer whatever that is! 😊

shirley_basso

Just not as good as a leatherman

molteni_man

shirley_basso said:

Just not as good as a leatherman

I knew that debate would come up! 😂

joeyhalloran

Yup, me too. Wiggle was my go to for a long time but now Merlin and Sigma and more often that not where I'm buying from these days.

daniel_b

Merlin and Sigma generally my first ports of call here too, excellent service from both, and Sigma offer free returns.

Still shop with Wiggle / crc on occasion though.

Keller Sports, Alpinetrek, Bikester and Lordgunbicycles are also top drawer.

martynfayle

Wiggle is getting more expensive than Merlin, Sigma and others mentioned here. They are still using Evri (Hermes) who are so unreliable that their name has recently been mentioned in UK Parliament. Shame.

daniel_b

What I will say about Evri, it wholly depends on who your local couriers are - some are excellent, and some are not.

One way to mostly get around this issue, is to redirect the parcel to a drop off location, usually a convenience store, then you just rock up with some ID to collect.
To be fair, their tracking app generally works pretty well.

katani

Sigma are great. Have helped me recently to get a yellow colour BOA replacements for my Mavic shoes, which I haven't even bought from them. Those yellow BOA dials aren't easy to source. They first sent me a set of black ones by mistake, but when I emailed them they said "apologies for the error, you can keep those". They are £25 per set in retail. Then sent the yellow ones to me shortly after.

seanoconn

Not had problems with Evri and DPD. UPS & parcelforce however suck balls.

pangolin

I think daniel is right about Evri - out local guy seems pretty good but that feels like luck of the draw.

pblakeney

daniel_b said:

What I will say about Evri, it wholly depends on who your local couriers are - some are excellent, and some are not.

One way to mostly get around this issue, is to redirect the parcel to a drop off location, usually a convenience store, then you just rock up with some ID to collect.
To be fair, their tracking app generally works pretty well.

My circumstances are the complete opposite. The delivery depot loses stuff on a regular basis while the delivery woman is a delight. She has to receive the package first though.

katani

seanoconn said:

Not had problems with Evri and DPD. UPS & parcelforce however suck balls.

UPS I agree 100% suck a fat one. Salomon use them exclusively at their online shop. They will let you have your parcel delivered to an access point then will drop it off at a different one miles away and refuse to re-deliver to the correct one. Had to drive 16 miles recently because of that. Completely pointless. Trying to get through to speak to someone on their customer service phone line is an impossible task too.

Evri are very reliable in my opinion having had lots of deliveries done by them in the past couple months, except one of their drivers a while ago had a strange habit of leaving parcels at the doorstep. Visible to everyone who happened to be walking or driving past my house. Once it was a £200 Di2 rear mech. But somebody in my area must have reported him as it was some 6 months ago and have never happened since then.

Dorset_Boy

I've had no issues with Evri and our local ladies are excellent.

Had an Amazon box left in front of the front door in the pouring rain all day earlier in the week, yet within 2 feet is a large plastic box for such items, adjacent to our post box. Fortunately the item ordered is in a jar so undamaged. Kicked off to Amazon online about it.