Originally Posted by
DrIsotope
While I'm sure it's very frustrating, sadly I don't really see anything out of the ordinary happening here. That monetary savings comes at a price, and you've found it. I've had stellar instances of customer service, and I've had what you described here-- I had 3 tires go back to Maxxis for warranty replacement, and the shortest turnaround was about 45 days, of which 5-7 days was transit time. They would receive the defective tire in 2-3 days, have it in hand for usually around 4 weeks, I would get a "replacement authorized" email, and then hear nothing until the tire showed up on my doorstep a week or so later. Compare this to Panaracer, when I had a tire catastrophically fail: I emailed them some photos, they asked for my address, 3 days later I had a new tire.
So is Wiggle doing everything they can to assuage you? Not at all, but as a person who has to ship things all the time, I too know what it's like to be at the mercy of package carriers. Now if the wheels had arrived in Wiggle's hands quickly and there was then no movement from them, I could see the amount of ire directed at Wiggle. But this is a UPS/USPS issue-- Wiggle can't call 'em up and demand to know where the package is sitting.
I've never ordered from Wiggle, so I have no opinions for or against them. But I also don't leave it up to the universe when things go sideways. My bike computer had a charge port failure, well within warranty. I contacted the company, and was given an RMA after a couple of days. I shipped the computer back on a Friday, they received it in NYC on the following Monday. Then I didn't hear anything for about 3 weeks, which is what I expected. Got an email saying replacement was authorized, got the new computer in my hands about a week later, so turnaround was 32 days, and transit was ~8 of those days. But I wasn't bothered in the least, because the same day I dropped the defective computer off at the post office, I stopped into REI and bought a new computer. I'm not putting my riding schedule in the hands of strangers on the other side of the country-- or in the case of Wiggle, the other side of the world.
It's a bummer, but I don't think Wiggle is doing anything nefarious.
I don't think they are doing anything nefarious either, but I do:
1) Hold them responsible for using two shipping companies just within the US, which is a recipe for finger pointing disaster that was entirely avoidable by using one shipping company and thus having one company you can definitively hold responsible. Every single time in the history of humanity where two companies are involved with something - every single time - they will point the finger at the other when there is an issue. Every. time.
2) Hold them responsible for failing to communicate or follow up on the case they supposedly opened with UPS - twice.
3) Hold them responsible for really just flat out not seeming to care whether a customer who purchased a high value item is satisfied in the least. They basically told me if it was a $40 item they would just refund me up front and deal with it in the background, but because it's a high dollar item, they flat out won't do it. So you get penalized for making a high dollar purchase if there's an issue? Duly noted. Again, I've voiced firm displeasure for this process and experience, raised it up the chain, and they just don't care. Most companies worth their salt will do what it takes to satisfy the customer in an extenuating circumstance. Not Wiggle/CRC. "Sorry, can't (won't) do anything."
4) Getting conflicting information from them every time I ask a question. Who sends them to the UK? Royal Mail? UPS? Who? They should know, they told me both. They also told me the wheels should've arrived by now, and now it's "four weeks". Which is it? Is anyone there competent and have actual, correct information? It's literally a different answer for everything each time, simple things that they should know the answers to.
For those reasons alone, I will not use them again for any future purchase. There's no reason a return, even if we cut out 15 of the 20 days the wheels sat in the back of the post office while USPS and UPS needlessly pointed fingers at each other while Wiggle just sat around with their dicks out while I sorted it out myself, should take 50+ days. No reason for that at all under any circumstance - let alone entirely at my expense. No product, no money, no return shipping money. I'm out everything and I'm sorry, but I'm not going to consider that even remotely reasonable for that length of time.