There is no excuse for poor customer service these days.
When I called the customer service for the 2nd time trying to get some answers the guy told me he had no idea when the bike would turn up! Probably a better set of expectations over the 2-3 days.
If companies cannot adhere to the service levels that they set and 'promise' to their customers (on more than one page of their website) they should really have a side note in their AGB.
All 1st world problems right! We live and learn and don't shop at Bikester again!
On the 11th before noon, I got a message stating that it had been shipped.
It was delivered today (13th).
Fast enough service for me!
First, two years ago I ordered a bike and everything went well except for the time I had to wait for the delivery. Something between 2 and 3 weeks. But the bike came finally, all good, no other complaints.
Then I ordered 2 or 3 times some accessories. All good, except the waiting time, but this time it wasn't as long as with the bike. All fine.
Earlier this month we decided to order a bike for my wife as there was a Sale on their website. The bike surprisingly came within 5 business days. Quite fast. But it was useless. The front fork and brakes were completely misaligned and we could not assemble the front wheel at all as the fork could not hold it.
So on the 16th of July I submitted a request to arrange for the return and pick up. After 10 days of waiting I submitted another request/ticket complaining about no response from them.
On the next day some guy from "[email protected]" got back to me saying that he sees in the system, that the pick up date is on 29th of July. I've waited the entire day and no one showed up. It's been 2 weeks since I've been waiting to return useless bike .
I also asked the guy if there is an option to get a discount/voucher from them as I still want to buy the same bike, but now there is no Sale any more. He said, he created a separate request to a "specialized department" who will contact me within 7 working days with a solution. We'll see.
I read some comments on their FB profile that their after-sales is a nightmare. And I experience this now.
Behind Bikester is a German firm internetstores GmbH. They own dozens of similar websites. Try to google other bikes in CH or DE and most pages are owned by them.
I am patient and will wait but I wonder how and when this will end. Definitely I'm done with this firm.
I've ordered two e-bikes from them, as well as a few accessories and and parts, mainly without problem. The first e-bike we bought had a defective display, and they sent a replacement free-of-charge (replaced it myself, involved removing the motor!). But requests for details on how to get a rear-mech hanger (a sacrificial item different on almost every model of bike) they never got back to me.
So now, I generally just by clothing and other parts that they have on sale at attractive prices. Otherwise, my internet sources for bike stuff are:
bike-import.ch: My go-to for common consumables such as tyres, brake pads, chains, etc. CH-based, great prices and next-day delivery, great service.
galaxus.ch : internetstores GmbH is one of their suppliers, but often Galaxus is cheaper! Worth comparing, and delivery can be faster on some items.
bike24.de: Similar size to bikester.ch and support is okay, but they have most of the hard-to-get stuff.
On the other hand, I'd never buy an assembled bike from a generic internet shop. Bikester or whatever the name. Big internet shops are cheap but not exactly talent magnets. Assembly only left to brand shops or local mechanic.
Bike24.de - very good range of products, good prices, pretty fast delivery, free returns from CH
Bike-discount.de - good prices, fast delivery, range is pretty good too
Bike-components.de - good prices, sometimes you get some pretty special products at good prices
Bike-import.ch - if you need something very fast, but don’t expect German prices, though...
Yesterday I sent a follow-up email to the customer service guy who contacted me earlier arranging for the pick-up that never happened. I said that I expect the pick-up by the end of the week because I'm soon leaving for holidays. In return I receive auto-reply from anti-spam filter...
That was it. I looked into internetstores.com to get a name of someone in charge of the support/client service department. I found a guy, but no contact details. But I also found him also on LinkedIn and so I wrote a (still non-emotional) professional email, describing the whole situation and asking for way to solve this.
Surprisingly, he reached out this morning, apologizing for the circumstances and that he spoke to someone internally and he/she will contact me soon. 10mins later I get an email with proposal for the quickest pick-up available for Monday 8th. I did not manage to reply yet and I get a phone call from 2nd person offering apologies for the situation and he'll do everything to arrange for the suitable date.
Finally we agreed on 16th Aug, as next week I'm off. I'll let you know then if finally I managed to return the bike...
Sad that I had to contact head of the team to make them work as they supposed to in normal conditions.
But, at least I got very swift response and (finally) proper support. But I'm not happy until the bike leaves my house and I get money back.
The parent company Internet Stores GmbH has apparently become insolvent , but is still trading. I'd recommend avoiding ordering from them right now.
As a cost saving measure (laying off staff), they are both imminently going to shut down their international shipping and concentrate on the UK market alone.
I quite like Wiggle but apparently they spent 14 million on re-branding and a new website recently which seems a total waste of money.
Not sure what is going to happen to Bikester but probably prudent to pay by credit card.
Other bike companies who have gone bust recently include the UK's Islabikes who make proper bicycles for children with smaller components.
The effects of COVID and Brexit are partly the cause, especially COVID as long lead times on bike parts meant long-term order projections were made but people stopped buying bikes once COVID was over.
Brexit has made shipping from the UK one big headache.
As for Wiggles well yeah...14 mil for rebranding / new website seems extravagant in a highly competitive market.
Bikester do have Wiggle's brand of bikes, Vitus, in stock so there is definitely a sharing of stock.
As an aside, they do have a very fluid pricing strategy which existed before their current business woes.
I saw a bike for 1600 Euros, then it was 748, then 850, then 1500 and now around 800.
Anyway, please beware money given to the shops could go to employee salaries and not to bike parts delivered to you. All legal.
I have cook lunch, but here's a press release of the preliminary insolvency process:
There appears to be nothing on their website which would indicate that anything is amiss with their business.
I don't think a credit company would expect a consumer to scour the business pages before making any online purchase.
I head about it back in October only because I have a news feed for cycling stories.