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Infuriating online purchases

Old 09-04-20, 06:25 AM
  #1  
Deepcherry
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Infuriating online purchases

As I thought it may be a great idea to purchase my DTSwiss spokes and nipples together for ultimate compatibility, I went ahead and ordered from a very reputable online bike shop in Holland. They will know their spokes and nipples if anyone does...
Bikes, Holland...

I ordered after reading the item descriptions:

(qty. 40+40) DT SWISS spokes, 14
(box qty. 144 )DT SWISS nipples, 14

Easy. If only everything could be so clear and concise.

Now I think I have a full set (with spares) of lovely #14 DT Swiss spokes and nipples, for lacing into my lovely Ryde Andra rims, with some lovely brand new NOS Shimano STX hubs.
How exiting. It starts to look... lovely.

Some of the nipples have trouble engaging with the spokes, which surprises me. Others appear to thread happily into place, so with some trial and error, and discarding “faulty?” nipples, I have the FW side loosely laced. Looks great!

Flip her over and start on the other side... zzzip! ping! Lost a nipple. Zzzip! ping!! More nipples flying about the place as I manipulate the rim. Peculiar.

Darned things are a size too big apparently. I look at the invoice to check myself and the description of the nipples has transformed to :

DT SWISS Nipples 14 / 13GAT

It looks like the 14 here means nothing, if not just the length. For the spokes, on the other hand, it is the reference that means what we think it means. Same format, completely different meaning. Grr.

I do miss my old bike shop, which no longer exists.

-Terry would ask “ I know its a daft question, but are the nipples and spokes to be used together? Yes? Of course they are, silly me, but I have to check. Here you go then...”

Now we must resort to random if not ambiguous online stock descriptions, uninterested and unknowledgeable order pickers, and days of waiting and money lost in reordering the correct parts. Happy days!

Rant over.
Now on to Amazon.....



So close, but no cigar.
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Old 09-04-20, 06:45 AM
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Perhaps the 14 in the description refers to the length of the nipple rather than the wire gauge of spoke that it fits. I looked at a couple of Dutch vendors and agree that the info is confusing.
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Old 09-04-20, 06:45 AM
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I'm not really understanding your point. Did you order the wrong nipples, or did they ship the wrong nipples?
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Old 09-04-20, 06:46 AM
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Originally Posted by Moe Zhoost
Perhaps the 14 in the description refers to the length of the nipple rather than the wire gauge of spoke that it fits. I looked at a couple of Dutch vendors and agree that the info is confusing.

Very likely. Very confusing!
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Old 09-04-20, 07:25 PM
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story of my life with many online a la carte parts to build things. Try experiencing that when building a race engine.
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Old 09-05-20, 12:27 AM
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As a follow up, I wrote to the shop to ask what size nipple I ordered. They are #13s, as expected.
Upon asking about the number 14 reference in the nipple description, they informed me that this is the “rim hole size”.

Now I am really confused.

Come back Terry.
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Old 09-05-20, 04:33 AM
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Get used to it as online commerce continues to displace bike shops.
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Old 09-05-20, 04:52 AM
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Glad I live in a major city, where there will always be a need for LBS. Got a set of new touring wheels built two years ago. Aside from the front needing a very minor truing after a couple of hundred miles, they have performed flawlessly.
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Old 09-05-20, 06:56 AM
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Originally Posted by Troul
story of my life with many online a la carte parts to build things. Try experiencing that when building a race engine.
I rebuilt a very rare supercharged 660cc 4cyl 4stroke Subaru engine a few years ago, all based on online shopping of genuine parts.
Thankfully the japanese oem parts supplier knew their stuff and performed flawlessly.

I despair that with simple spokes and nipples I can order incompatible parts which by description appear to be compatible, with zero customer service between ordering and shipping, from so-called bicycle specialists.

I’m not even an old fart.
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Old 09-05-20, 06:58 AM
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Originally Posted by TiHabanero
Get used to it as online commerce continues to displace bike shops.
Our remaining LBSs are quickly turning into merchandising stores selling only top line 29” e-bikes, a million different water bottles, combined with coffee bar sideline.
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Old 09-05-20, 08:12 AM
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I do on occasion order things on line when I cant find then locally. What is infuriating is the unfriendly order forms. They force you to jump all around and search for what you want.
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Old 09-05-20, 11:09 AM
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It would seem you have a mis-match between the nipple size and spokes. There isn't any size 13 DTSwiss nipple as far as I know. They mean 13 guage?
Would are your spokes sizes at the nipple? 2.0 with 2.3 thread diameter? or 1.8mm with a 2.0 thread diameter?
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Old 09-05-20, 11:26 AM
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I don't have problems online. I use Competitive Cyclist and they are incredibly good.
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Old 09-05-20, 12:37 PM
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Go to the DT site: https://www.dtswiss.com/en/component...ipples/nipples There are several variables when ordering the standard DT spokes: 4 lengths, 2 materials, 2 thread sizes, 2 colors.

I believe the guy you talked to is wrong; what would a 14 size hole look like, it sure would not be 14 mm. I think it is the length. Brass spoke nipples go on smoothly when a lubricant is used. I'd check spoke thread with nipple compatibility. I'd start over again with the correct size nipples.
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Old 09-05-20, 12:58 PM
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I do most of my shopping with metric sizes.

So, nipples or spokes would be 1.8mm, 2.0mm, 2.3mm, etc.

Same thing with shoes. I look for size 46, which can have all different inch sizes associated with them.

This especially helps when dealing with international dealers.

Also for tires and tubes, I'd much prefer to avoid inches in most cases. 700c is fine, but for other tires, ISO/BSD is helpful. I've even seen vendors confuse 650b and 650c
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Old 09-05-20, 05:59 PM
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Originally Posted by rydabent
What is infuriating is the unfriendly order forms. They force you to jump all around and search for what you want.
I feel ya. As someone who has taken several courses on UX/UI, I get pretty frustrated when I see sites that are so poorly designed. Technical glitches are one thing, but when you see stuff that's just poorly designed... like deliberate choices to make something a certain way... and it's terrible and not user friendly in the least. That just gets to me these days.
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Old 09-05-20, 06:36 PM
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Originally Posted by NorthFloridaKev
I feel ya. As someone who has taken several courses on UX/UI, I get pretty frustrated when I see sites that are so poorly designed. Technical glitches are one thing, but when you see stuff that's just poorly designed... like deliberate choices to make something a certain way... and it's terrible and not user friendly in the least. That just gets to me these days.
My ex-GF does UX/UI. She feels the same way. I used to show her some sites and she would shake her head. As someone who is easily frustrated by on line crap, she would sometimes run ideas by me. I wish I could get paid for testing and evaluating interfaces.
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Old 09-09-20, 01:34 PM
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abaxo on eBay

abaxo in eBay effectively robbing me of $40 because they sold me a brand new defective handlebar and then blamed me for making it unsellable as new because of tiny scratches that the stem clamp made on the bar, which was actually due to the bar’s defect in design. I explained everything in clear detail so that they could investigate the bar themselves after receiving it. They ignored everything I had to say, and offered me half my money back because, “ I damaged the handlebar”. abaxo is very uneducated regarding technical support. Not only did they rob me of $40, but their crap handlebar damaged my otherwise perfect condition Thompson Elite stem, which really chaps my ass even more!

abaxo on eBay is NO GOOD!
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Old 09-24-20, 01:21 AM
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Another duff online purchase - I despair.

Here’s a good one.

I spent much time looking for a good supplier, on a popular chinese site, to provide a motor kit mounted in a wheel at a good price.
Great communication and speedy processing of my special one- off custom order. Wonderful.

The kit arrived, well packaged, but to my horror the rim is completely unusable due to.....

Well, you guys check the pictures






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Old 09-24-20, 08:39 AM
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Originally Posted by NorthFloridaKev
I feel ya. As someone who has taken several courses on UX/UI, I get pretty frustrated when I see sites that are so poorly designed. Technical glitches are one thing, but when you see stuff that's just poorly designed... like deliberate choices to make something a certain way... and it's terrible and not user friendly in the least. That just gets to me these days.
That's a pet peeve of mine also. I never had any UX/UI training but I've wound up doing a lot of it. I'm building corporate SharePoint right now in fact.

When I designed my own e-commerce site my cart wasn't beautiful but man was it smooth and easy. No abandoned checkouts, no complaints, ever.

It bugs me because it's so easy to get it right, but so few of the sites do it.
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