Weight Weenies

Who have shopping experience on Shinybikes.com?
Is the website safe for shopping?

Thanks for your share.

I ordered several hubs and a cassette from them in December. Hopefully the last item will arrive in the next few days. This is my only experience with them but so far I am not planning on doing business with them again.

First I ordered a front and rear record hub, they shipped only the front and the wrong cassette. My opinion but I feel like they should contact me prior to shipping just a front hub as I wanted a set but minor problem overall. The exchange of one cassette for another has taken waaaaaaaaaay to long and if the cassette is actually in the mail now its because I threatened letting my credit card company take over.

The prices are decent on some items but they have been difficult to deal with.

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I just bought a full SR11 group from them. Their customer service skills are worthless. It took 2 weeks for me to get everything sans crank and then another 4 weeks after for that to finally arrive. There were numerous excuses about Campagnolo shipments being late but I had to contact them through their website every week just to get an update.

Their prices are amazing, but they *really* need to work on their communication skills. If you can afford to wait a month for your parts and don't mind that they won't update you in any way as to the progress of your order, it's probably safe. I did get my parts after all... just not the way I would treat my customers.

I recently purchased a 2009 Centaur groupo from shiny bikes. Fast shipping, no safety issues, no probs whatsoever.

Echoing what Fitnerd posted, you do have to drag information out of them, I can handle delays and such but having to pull that from them vice the shop being proactive in updating me is important. To date they have never contacted me with anything or volunteered information on their own, I have stepped in it enough to know what they are selling.

I ordered my Reynolds DV46 UL's through them. No problem what so ever! They were the first store to get the 2009 stuff that I know of.

Communication was good all the way through

I've ordered once from Shiny Bikes, and had no problems communicating via email ... accounting for the 8 hr time difference, of course.

When I ordered, there was one potential problem, that was avoided. Their website stated wheelsets would have additional GBP 8 shipping, on top of the GBP 20-25 for the shipment ... no problem, I thought that was fair and still a good value.

But after ordering, I emailed again and requested final, total charges. They informed me the additional charge would be GBP 45, not GBP 8, for shipment to USA ... for a total shipping cost of some GBP 65-70.

Would they have notified me, had I not emailed first? Don't know!!

Anyway, I cancelled the wheelset portion of my order because ShinyBikes uses UPS for large items, which is notorious for outrageous "customs brokering" fees.

In summary, I would buy from Shiny Bikes for smaller items, but not for large items delivered to US.

Fitnerd wrote:Their prices are amazing, but they *really* need to work on their communication skills..

That describes many internet bike shops unfortunately.

Used them several times and their prices are competitive and service pretty reasonable though not the best as others have pointed out.

Stock information on many online bike stores is non-existent or unreliable so on purchases where timing is important I always check on the phone before ordering to avoid irritation.

James_London wrote:... Stock information on many online bike stores is non-existent or unreliable so on purchases where timing is important I always check on the phone before ordering to avoid irritation.

In the UK, Wiggle seems pretty good on reliable inventory info , plus they accept back-orders, which many of the other UK internet retailers don't. They also send automatic emails if items are delayed.

Wiggle's prices may sometimes seem a bit higher, but:
-- free shipping if total order is over GBP 100, not insignificant if shipping to USA.
-- Signing up for Wiggle's email newsletter gives an instant voucher code for GBP 5 discount.

I can only support what has been said on the negative side: prices are good, but customer service and delivery is terrible. Items will always arrive "any day". But nothing happens... My advice: pay the extra bucks elsewhere to get your stuff and to avoid hassles.

Emails can be a bit slow, but no real problems here.

Placed my order and was told they need to verify my address with the bank.
After waiting for 2 weeks, i am still getting no response/replies from them about my order, after i sent my email query.

Stuck in a very very slow process with poor customer service. Maybe its just because i live oversea. but didnt had any hassle with PBK, Wiggle, etc.

I ordered my Chorus 11s group from them back in 2009 and got it within a few weeks. I do not mind the wait and I do not expect anything faster than a week from oversees. I don't recall any bad communication, maybe I got lucky. If I ever need a full groupset I think I will go to them first. Their prices on groupsets are great, but I do not know if I would buy anything else due to the shipping charges.

Third week already, just dropped them another mail. Hopefully they will reply.

Visit starbike.com Online Retailer for HighEnd cycling components
Great Prices ✓    Broad Selection ✓    Worldwide Delivery ✓

www.starbike.com