Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Ribble Cycles - repeated non-delivery of new bike - is it just me?

Just wondering whether I'm just unlucky or whether others have had (are having) similar experience to me..

Ordered new Ribble CGR Pro Ti di2 bike back in May this year. Projected delivery then was early October due to supply chain issues which seemed reasonable in the circumstances. Due to how I wanted to finance the purchase myself I have already paid Ribble in full for the bike.

So the first delivery date early October was approaching when I received an apologetic email from Ribble advising me that due to component shortages my build was being delayed to late October. Fair enough I guess, everyone knows the bike component supply chain is screwed so I can live with that.

As late October approached I contacted Ribble via their support chat to confirm my 'new' delivery date shown on my live order tracking status page was still on track. Oh yes they said, everything is correct with your revised delivery date. This was the case right up to 24hours before the delivery date, at which point it suddenly jumped back to mid November... the same thing happened again a few weeks later when the promised dispatch date approached and got bumped back to 03 December...

I tried contacting Ribble customer service again to get some kind of explanation for why they no longer see fit to advise their customers when their bike orders are being delayed but was simply given some flannel about 'supply chain issues beyond our control' but no apology or explanation as to why my order delivery date keeps being bumped back a month or so at a time with no actual reason given or effort made to advise the customer.

So this time I waited again for 3rd December to arrive. A week before this date I contacted Ribble customer chat again who confirmed my order was still on track for 03 December dispatch... however again this week the dispatch date suddenly slipped back to 17th December just a day before the promised dispatch date of 03 December.

The bit that really pisses me off with this approach from Ribble is that they seem perfectly happy to take a significant sum in full payment up front for a new bike build and then repeatedly mislead the customer with continually slipping magical 'dispatch dates' (which they no longer even bother contacting the customer to advise have changed - it's left to the customer to keep checking the fictional 'order status' on the website to discover the delivery dates just keep changing the day before promised dispatch).

We all know the bike supply chain is on its knees at the moment, and I can accept that my new bike build could be affected by that, but why can't Ribble just treat their customers with some respect and admit they won't be able to deliver when they promised, and instead give a realistic (and honest) projected delivery date? It's just too easy to hide behind 'supply chain uncertainties' excuse and not actually engage in any honest dialogue with the customer.

Can't help feeling that now they've taken my money they're happy to just keep brushing me off indefinitely. Not impressed at all. Would welcome any advice as to how to get some honest communication out of Ribble?

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

Add new comment

93 comments

Avatar
JVN01 replied to Sriracha | 3 years ago
1 like

Interesting account....

I guess I made the mistake of assuming that cos so many Ribble bikes (and Ribble in general) get such rave reviews here on Road.cc then they must be a pretty decent outfit with real stock of real bikes.

Lesson learnt.. but they've now got all my money and I've still got no bike...

Avatar
Sriracha replied to JVN01 | 3 years ago
0 likes

Did you at least pay by credit card?

Avatar
IanMSpencer | 3 years ago
4 likes

It's not just you, but I've only had second hand reports.

Their full payment at time of order policy certainly has our club members muttering. It was fine when they did that in normal days as they were committing stock to a build, but when their lead times are 6 months to a year... It stopped me from even considering them, and I was a happy Sportive user some years ago.

Pages

Latest Comments