vendorz

shrugging shoulders... I wouldn't stock it either if I had QBP right down the road. One pick up per day (or two) and you're ready to ship anything in QBP's warehouse. Don't know how the drop ship program works, but the return addy is for Edina.

vendorz

AND IF Edina's price is below the contractual minimum...

Bekologist

...the return address goes back to the shop is EXACTLY how drop-ships work, vendorz.

The edina bike website is a 'realtime' QBP enabled website. AEbike uses it, so do other shops. it's nothing more elaborate than that, bro.

Shops agree to use a supplier as a dropshipper in MANY industries, its not uncommon at all. I'm assuming QBP offers it up at a price and with conditions.

compare Aebike with edina, you'll find exactly the same products at any given time. An item falls out of stock at QBP, these shops no longer have it for sale on their website. is that basic enough of an explanation of website dropships, dude?

Gibbygoo

Price is $680.23 now.

nowheels

That's a hard price to beat.......regardless of the components.

x37

I emailed Edina for a price quote on shipping. They replied: "If you want a Surly, we no longer have access to the brand because of our violation of their online price policy."

vendorz

Sure... it's pretty obvious that most online sellers have access to QBP's realtime database.

And thanks for the condescending explanation of drop-shipping practices of many industries, dude. It is certainly easy enough to ID a return addy that is different from the actual shipper's addy, and I can certainly see the logic of doing so in the case of a drop-ship arrangement. What it does not explain is why many of the vendors who use QBPs realtime database explain that there will be a delay for out of stock items by suggesting that they receive shipments from QBP a couple of times per week.

vendorz

I thought I remembered that forum user Sheldon Brown's shop (or at least the shop at which Sheldon is employed) has just such an explanation of their use of the QBP catalog:

Quality Bicycle Products Special Order Catalog

Quality Bicycle Products is our favorite wholesale supplier. We typically place orders with them every Tuesday and receive them on Thursday (please keep this in mind for time-sensitive shipments). They have a great stock both of mainstream and hard-to-find parts. If there's something you haven't found in our store, or in our Website, we offer this searchable Product Finder. It contains thousands of items representing many of the commonly available parts and accessories in the bicycle universe. Many of these items are things we actually stock in our retail store, so they may be available for immediate purchase. Others may need to be specially ordered.

https://harriscyclery.net/page.cfm?Pa...egory=1&type=C

Of course, this neither proves nor disproves the existence of a drop-ship program. But hey, you're the guy who says he works in a bike shop... seems like you oughta be giving us definitive inside info rather than just speculating with us customers.

Bekologist

NO, vendorz. Some small shops use QBP's virtual online store becuase it's easier to put up and maintain an extensive catalog of bike parts and accesories. with a virtual online shop, enabled by the direct QBP online link, QBP DROPSHIPS items from their warehouse directly to the customer.

If a shop chooses to obscure their ties to the direct online QBP dropship program, i guess they are free to do so. But one thing they CAN'T do, is sell items lower than contractual prices that way. For a while, Aebike couldn't sell Shimano parts on-line becuase they violated Shimano's price obligations.....

Harris Cyclery does not use the QBP dropship program, they merely link to their parts database. different animals from Aebike and this upstart Edina bikes, which use QBP to direct dropship to customers. see the Harris Cyclery quote "other items may need to be special ordered."

The bike shop I work at places QBP orders twice a week too. We sell online, do NOT link to QBP, and don't use them to dropship either. but you want a part, we'll order it for you, twice a week from QBP.

Edina and Aebike, the only two I know of, but am sure there are more, link to a realtime QBP online catalog that gets dropshipped direct.

and it looks like x37 got the skinny......"I emailed Edina for a price quote on shipping. They replied: "If you want a Surly, we no longer have access to the brand because of our violation of their online price policy."

Butterthebean

I knew the price was too good to be true. $300 for the 60cm frameset. Here's the letter they sent me...


Thanks for the order, but we have lost access to the Surly bike line
because we violated the online pricing policies, therefore we can not
fill your order.

We have many other bike frames and complete bikes that can be shipped
and will be happy to make a recommendation if you will consider a non
Surly brand bike.

Sorry,

Carl
Edina Bike
952-929-0313

This, to me, wreaks of the old "bate and switch".

But you know what they say, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

georgiaboy

I bought the Crosscheck from Edina last August when it was listed for $708. Shipped and delivered as ordered. It appeared to come straight from Surly according to the labeling.