Zaskar

I need some Stinger Waffles. Sadly, the store that was 2 miles from my house is no more. I went to their site and Amazon (I'm a Prime member... like 90% of the civilized world) and found:

Amazon:
Box of 16 = $17.79
Shipping = 2 days; Free

Performance:
Box of 16 = $21.99
Shipping = 4-7 days; $11.49

Spoonrobot 

To be fair I don't think performance has access to the subsidies and tax breaks that amazon does.

Zaskar

Competitive Cyclist has'em for the same price as Amazon, and $5.95 to ship them. That's where I expected to Performance to be.

I haven't checked anything else - hopefully these aren't "normal" rates for Performance. They're not going to last long.

rms13

but Performance does free shipping to the store....oh, wait

delbiker1 

Performance and Nashbar are now clones of each other. Both are out of touch and non-competitive.

rms13

I had to return something to Nashbar last year because they sent the wrong thing to me. No online or email return requests. You have to call them to set up a return and I had to talk to someone's grandmother to do it. Very nice lady but it took about 10 minutes on the phone to set up a simple exchange

sdmc530

spot on! Now sure what is going on. I used to shop on Nashbar but they are now not very shopping friendly.

TimothyH

Competitive is the same company as Backcountry.

Give Backcountry a call and order through one of their reps and you will get free two day shipping on anything, no matter how little it costs.

My backcountry "gearhead" sent a derailleur next day with no shipping charges just because I asked.


-Tim-

LesterOfPuppets

Pre-bankruptcy they had free shipping for orders over $49, dunno if that threshold still exists.

I think the threshold might be $100 now, since an $87 cart was $12.99 shipping and a $122 cart was free shipping.

Hopefully shipping is faster than it used to be when things were shipped from individual stores.

Zaskar

Some of their stuff is shipped in the normal range - time and cost. But, the fact that you know it "might" be normal or it "might" be $40 to ship a box of waffles with a guaranteed 4 or maybe 5 day delivery is a great incentive to just pick one of oh, I don't know - 25 better options?

Tim, good call on Backcounty - love those guys!

TimothyH

Kevin Schaefer is my guy. Give him a call.kschaefer@backcountry.com
801-619-7467 ext 2354

fietsbob

You a Taxpayer in Virginia ?

CliffordK

It is hard to offer free shipping on a $20 order. Part of the problem is the way USPS bills.

Amazon has been getting around shipping costs a bit through their fulfillment centers, some local deliveries, and "last mile" contracts with USPS. Then a lot of bulk consolidation.

How long do your waffles last? As long as Twinkies?

Net time order an annual supply.

cyclebycle13

Last I heard Performance and Nashbar were bought by amaincycling and their sites are pretty much the stuff amain sells.

Jazzguitar

mstateglfr 

I checked REI- they sell em for $1 per waffle if you buy more than 5.
Rare day when REI is cheaper than Amazon even. Ship free to your store or buy something else to get to their free shipping to home status.





As for Performance- i have no idea why anyone would think Performance would be the same as it once was. Its gone and the name lives on under new management- of course its different. The most obvious example of this is one so many people cry foul on- Motobecane USA. Obviously not the same as the French company's bikes of yesteryear. New owner gets to make decisions on the brand.

Nachoman

I've had the same experience with Backcountry. Old school helpful.

Sy Reene

+1 though my interactions typically have been thru the livechat experience.

A couple things though I really wish they'd fix about their site:
1. The periodic XX% discounts/sales ('some exclusions may apply..').. I hate these on CC/BC's site as you can't tell what's excluded unless you go for a full trip to your shopping cart after adding each item... And, just about everything I ever try is for some reason excluded due to manufacturer restrictions.

2. The entire cycling Shoe area needs a revamp. The only size filtering available is in US sizing (supposedly), and even that doesn't work to find stuff that's really in stock (try selecting eg. size 15 and see how many hits are returned, with most of them not at all available in US15 equivalent sizing). Cycling shoes (especially road), are sized in EU -- or at least that's how my shoes have always been labelled, and CC actually uses EU sizes to select for the cart, so WHY is filtering on US sizes?

MagicHour

You should tell them, I think they send out occasional surveys on how they can improve. Yes agree, exclusions drive me crazy too, but it's sort standard op online these days...30% OFF EVERYTHING!!!!! (no not those, only the items on the table over there, only. Nope, not in that color, just the purple ones...in size 38)

Check out BikeTiresDirect too, not as big inventory as CC/Backcountry but often you can find better deals on some of the same items.

Wileyrat

They're another option to check out before I order from Amazon, but I doubt they'll get much, if any of my money anymore.

I usually buy tubes, gels, etc, locally, and everything else from Amazon or Competitive Cyclist/Backcountry.