rms13

Anyone order from them recently? I need new shoes and pedals and they have best price plus 10% off first time order.

bt

I say goforit.

TrojanHorse

not recently but I orders tires from them all the time, works great.

One of those british units has started shipping UPS lately, which will result in customs charges for you. Ribble maybe? Do a little quick checking before you hit "Confirm" on your order.

rms13

I think merlin

jaxgtr

I use them all the time...sometimes I get the stuff in 5 days or less, sometimes 2 weeks...kind of depends on the timing.

rms13

I'm mostly concerned with getting hit with customs or brokerage fees which I've read people had problems with in the past with pbk

mcours2006

I've ordered a few times from them. Never been hit with fees, but one order took over two weeks. Their prices are good, though lacking in selection in some areas.

Chain Reaction is what I used the most.

The only time I've been hit with fees is the only time I ordered from Ribble.

Shuffleman

I have never had anything but fast shipping and good experiences with them

Lazyass

I'm kind of scared to order anything from overseas now with all I've been hearing.

rms13

Well, my order is in. Shimano R171 shoes and 5800 carbon pedals for $198 shipped. Basically getting the pedals free compared to the $199 retail us retailers charge for the shoes. I've placed several orders with Ribble and Merlin and never had a bad experience.

Marcus_Ti

Merlin has taking to doing it...ProBikKit too...Totalcycling too IIRC.

Ribble, not unless you ask for UPS. They'll still send ParcelForce.

rms13

Hmm..well I chose the standard u.s. delivery as opposed to tracked delivery so hopefully that means royal mail to USPS. It's always a crap shoot to get bargains from the uk

Marcus_Ti

Thing is PBK and others might "upgrade" your shipping whether you want to or not. And you can specifically ask for Royal Mail or ParcelForce, and they'll confirm the choice...and then you get a nasty letter from DHL or UPS demanding hostage money for your goods.

Merlin is at least transparent so far in stipulating what goods only UPS (like parts groups). Ribble is still good too, respecting your shipping choices.

FLvector

I recently ordered and received shoes from Merlin a few months ago. Very good pricing, no additional fees added and received them in less than two weeks. I've had the same experience from PBK, but delivery usually takes about a week longer.

hls811

I just ordered wheels from Chain Reaction which is also in the UK, A few days after the wheels arrived I got an invoice from Fedex for customs charges. I went back to the Chain Reaction website to see if there was any mention of it (since I paid $35 for shipping) - and in their policies it does state that over $200 you *may* get hit with charges - its out of their hands. My bad for not looking for that first but I guess $200 is the threshold for those ordering from the UK - you may get hit with charges.

And I do recommend PBK, I've ordered from them a few times and they've been really good. The thing to keep in mind is that you want to order things that there's a low probability of you needing to return because that could get expensive.

canamdad

Can't comment on PBK but my last order (May 2015) from Ribble shipped Royal Mail, delivered by Canada Post, involved no additional fees at delivery. In Canada, at least, there is no duty on "bike parts" and I haven't had to pay provincial sales tax on my orders which are always under $100 CAD. Your experience in the States may vary but I think that you also want to avoid getting orders shipped by private shippers- e.g. UPS, DHL, Fed Ex etc.

jaxgtr

Never paid any extra fees or postage

cydewaze

I've used PBK, Merlin, and Chainreaction. Only ever had a problem with Merlin because they inexplicably flagged my order as fraudulent because I ordered during Xmas (!?). I finally had to phone them, and I missed a coupon during the shemozzle, which they refused to honor even thought it was valid when I placed the original order. But now that I'm an "existing customer" everything's been smooth.

dr_lha

Merlin ship groupsets UPS, but the one I ordered I had no customs charges for it. DHL is the one you have to worry about as they use brokerages which means you always get charged I believe. As used by Wiggle and (IIRC) probikekit. FYI I've recently ordered some small stuff from Merlin and Chain Reaction and they sent it Royal Mail. Didn't get charged.

rms13

Well, my order arrived from PBK today. 10 days. No hidden charges. And they threw in a free box of Brittish tea (weird, but thanks)

LGHT

Wow 10 days is pretty fast. My last order took about 3 weeks and I didn't even get tea!

bananabacon

Ordered a 10 speed Shimano HollowtechII 105 double crankset with an English threaded outboard bottom bracket. Got an 11 speed... The BB was right tho. Still haven't confronted them on this simple mix up. But the 10 speed 105 cassette for $28!!!?!?! My LBS was going to charge me $75 for the same one today!!

WalksOn2Wheels

Having worked at a bike shop, and even before then, I've always been a "support your local shop" kind of guy. But geez. I needed to pick up a Shimano 105 10 speed crankset for a project in the next couple of months, and naturally I looked at what retail was to get an idea of what it would cost if I had my shop get one for me at an employee discount. I decided to look around and found it for 74 and some change at Ribble, plus they were doing an additional 10% off, so it came out to 68 bucks even. I couldn't get it that cheap at cost, or even find it that cheap used on the Bay. I don't know how they're making margin. I guess they more or less wrote it off after they made X amount off of the previous cranksets sold for profit. I even threw on a 3-pack of wool socks to get free shipping. Joke is on me, I guess.

dr_lha

Simple: They get it cheaper than your LBS does. Shimano screws LBSs in the US by being their own distributer, and setting prices artificially high for wholesale. In Europe the distribution is handled differently, and the prices are more competitive.

WalksOn2Wheels

I do remember when Shimano went dealer only. My manager was super pissed because they pulled the 'ole "Oh, we'll give you special pricing! You just need to order X thousand dollars in Pearl Izumi to be eligible for the premium dealer program. That won't be a problem, will it?" Additionally, it screwed the customer because it suddenly went from "Oh, you need a set of Ultegra brifters? QBP has those in stock, should be here in two days." to "You need some Ultegra brifters? Well, we'll have to call Shimano on Monday. It might be 1-2 weeks. We're not sure." He even resorted to buying non-Shimano pedals because it was impossible to keep them reliably in stock. We probably sold 10-20 sets of pedals in a given week during peak season.

But dammit if the DA9000 on my Domane doesn't shift like a dream.