CRC Woes

[Stuart569]

I ordered a Vitus E-Sommet on the 26th June. Chased them a few times over the last few days bring fobbed off each time with "we anticipate your bike will be shipped very shortly". They've now came back and said that the bike is prepped but they haven't had a reply from their shipping department which could take 5 days. Is this the norm for CRC these days? I remember using them via phone orders years ago from their add in MBUK magazine and they were brilliant. I go away for 3 weeks on Tuesday so I'm seriously considering cancelling and ordering a Canyon.

 

[steve_sordy]

The purchase by Wiggle may have increased the bureaucracy, or maybe a systems integration so that both companies now have the same visibility of stock and orders etc. Result: worse/slower.

 

[R120]

When they ship it, they tell you its been shipped, but you dont get a notification of when it will be delivered - all they say is that it will be 2-3 days or something similar, and basically the bike just turns up.

 

[Gary]

The "5 days" quoted is just their standard reply.
It errs on the side of caution (ie. worst case) . In reality they're usually shipped pretty quickly once prepped.
Back when they had a phone number in MBUK if you called on a Saturday and got through (you'd have to be persistent) you got the owners mum. At home) [true story]
Times change.

 

[Gary]

I have the shipping company's number somewhere. The girl in the office is really helpful.
Once it gets to the UK it's Tufnells. less helpful on the phone but my local driver is sound. He's seen rather a lot of Esommets to and from my door. ?

 

[steve_sordy]

I never had any sort of problem with CRC and I used to get most of my stuff from them. The prices were not always guaranteed to be the lowest, but they had a fast service, low order value for free delivery and you could send stuff back for free. What's not to like? Then Wiggle took over. Now they are OK. I still haven't had any problems with them, but their minimum order for free delivery has gone up and it seems to take a bit longer to get stuff. I haven't been logging it, it just feels that way. My spend with CRC/Wiggle is well down vs CRC before. Not as a deliberate decision, it just turns out that way.
CRC used to be my first port of call for bike stuff, but now it's Mr Google and I can end up anywhere.

Does anyone else remember that week when CRC offered Vouchers at a 20% discount? They must have been short of cash for the business and made the offer to get some in asap. I bought £200 of vouchers for £160 and spent them over the next 3-4 months. To my knowledge, they have never repeated that offer. It might have been while they were building their automated warehouse.
Warning: Anyone buying vouchers like this takes the risk that if the company goes broke, you lose your money! Look carefully at the expiry date on the vouchers too. I was given some that had 3-month expiry date!! I contacted CRC/Wiggle and got them swapped for ones with a longer date.

 

[Ginsterdrz]

Ordered mine on 26th like you.
My order was 'processing' (and still is!) but I did live chat on Tue to be told it'd been shipped using Express Freight and to expect it in a couple of days. It turned up on the Big Green Parcel Machine today (Fri). The bike is awesome and very handsome! I've dealt with Canyon several times and your delivery won't be quick even with in stock bikes.

 

[Stuart569]

Well

Ordered mine on 26th like you.
My order was 'processing' (and still is!) but I did live chat on Tue to be told it'd been shipped using Express Freight and to expect it in a couple of days. It turned up on the Big Green Parcel Machine today (Fri). The bike is awesome and very handsome! I've dealt with Canyon several times and your delivery won't be quick even with in stock bikes.

I'm not jealous at all?. Did it arrive in good condition then yeah? I heard the box is pretty flimsy and a lot of people's have arrived damaged. I'll just have to be patiant I guess.

I'm in the North East of Scotland so maybe a bit more difficult for them to arrange delivery but I just wish they could be more forthcoming. Being told to wait 5 days to see what the current status is just isn't on in this day and age. If they just said "we're having issues finding a courier" or similar I could understand. Guess I'll have to wait 4 weeks until I can ride it?

 

[Ginsterdrz]

Yes the box isn't the strongest but if the courier's are reasonable, it'll be fine.
Mine arrived with paint scuffed off the top cap (as described by another reviewer on CRC) and very slight damage to the box top where the top cap was located-otherwise fine.
Canyon send their bikes in over engineered, treble thickness cardboard boxes but they obviously travel many more miles by air/sea to get here.

 

[steve_sordy]

When buying my Capra, I had to pay an additional €25 to YT to get a strong cardboard box. It really is strong, as I still have it after three years and I use it as a shelf/worktop!

 

[Gary]

but they obviously travel many more miles by air/sea to get here.

Depends where "here" is I suppose but Canyon's headquarters in Germany is actually closer to London than CRC in N. Ireland is and the last time I looked both journeys require a sea crossing.
Maybe not quite to the extent Canyon/YT have gone with their boxes but CRC/Wiggle really do need to sort their bike shipment packaging out.

 

[Stuart569]

Update: The bike was shipped on the 3rd and is sitting in Perth. If the status had changed on the "my order" section if the CRC site or any one of the 4 different customer service advisors I have spoken to in the last few days had just told me that it would of saved everyone hassle. Still showing order processing on the site. Shambles but glad it's nearly here.

 

[steve_sordy]

I still believe that we should have a country signifier underneath the signature. It will resolve all the "where is here" issues.

 

[Stuart569]

I still believe that we should have a country signifier underneath the signature. It will resolve all the "where is here" issues.

Would be handy but I did mention in a previous post...

 

[steve_sordy]

So did I

 

[Gary]

I still believe that we should have a country signifier underneath the signature. It will resolve all the "where is here" issues.

One of 'em is in the North East of Scotland the other Lancs
it's kinda irrelevant
simply hovver over a users name/avitar to see location (if they supplied it)

You missed my actual point Steve... it's becoming more frequent

 

[steve_sordy]

I see that you don't provide your location (UK would be sufficient). Not sure if I have done so, can't recall it even being an option. If I haven't. I'll fix that.

Edit: Hmm, already done on sign up.

 

[Gary]

I see that you don't provide your location (UK would be sufficient).

You know fine where i am (ish)

 

[benny.c]

I ordered an E-Sommet from CRC but decided against it a day later, before it had shipped. Phoned them to cancel the order and was told to refuse delivery when it arrived. I did so but either the courier or CRC misplaced it and they refused to refund me until the bike was found. After many frustrating phone calls and e-mails I had to take them to court to get my money back. I used to buy a fair bit of stuff from CRC / Wiggle but never again. If it was a chain ring or something I’d have mildly annoyed but a £3K bike...!

 

[frazerrobbo]

I thought i'd add my two cents here.

I have the E sommet. Awesome bike and i love it but my E7000 motor recently stopped working. Long story short, That was on 7th June. I send email that night to start warranty return for repair or replacement. It took them over three weeks (23 days to return my email) basically to say they were refusing to accept it back because the was some scuffs on motor and a small crack on the plastic housing due to rock strikes back in March 2019 (They knew about this from previous emails with them when I complained the bike had no bash guard after I hit a rock), where all the images of the bike online had bash guards fitted. Anyway, the bike was fine at the time and continued to work for many months until 7th June when it just stopped providing power assist.

CRC just keep telling me accidental damage not covered and wont accept back on warranty and i need to go to local repair shop and deal with it all myself, so getting frsutrated i took it to Dundee to Shimano service center at Nicholsons cycles who have said all diagnostics are fine BUT, the bike is still refusing to work and constantly diaplays a screen sized E010 error code and no power. Nicholsons can strip down and look further but at my cost and basically could range from an hours labour to two days (£300) just to assess the issue so endless cash basically. So I've kicked off another email to CRC last week demanding them to send me out a box so I can return it and I am still waiting for a reply ......

The service is disgusting and meanwhile I'm left with a useless £3k bike, lost over a month of use now and still none the wiser as to when or if it will be taken back.......... i'm at a bit of a loss about how to make this happen quickly. Feel like I am at their mercy. I've even asked Shimano how much a new motor will cost as I contemplated just writing off the motor and buying a new one to get back on the bike and deal with the repair on the other one at a later date but Shimano mention they dont' think joe public can purchase them, it has to come via an OEM manufacturer.

My recommendation is to AVOID CRC at all costs. I certainly have learned my lessons here. For expensive ebikes where things can and probably will go wrong at some point, just use a local shop where at the very least you can talk to a human being.

Sorry for the rant, and any advice would be appreciated.
Fraz

 

[R120]

Tricky one as I can see why they can claim you damaged the casing, but looks pretty clear that that was because they hadn't supplied the motor guard in the first place

I am just embarking on warranty claim with them, as my E8000 motor just goes straight into the same error code you have, so will be interested to dee how they respond.

In your situation I would try and talk to someone up the food chain

 

[RocketMagnet]

Delivery comprises of the seller and the courier, I understand the excitement of a new bike and being in for delivery but if they are still inside their delivery window you've got nothing to complain about.. I agree not updating and giving the customer an exact delivery day is annoying but that's just how it's done.

Accidental damage, IMO the only option is to be nice with them as they don't have to do anything, Over the years I think I've seen every brand complained about not do a warranty for some reason or another. I was of the understanding that the E-Sentier didn't have a guard?

As for E010 it seems like a frequent issue now. Obviously check and clean all the connections with contact cleaner, check none of the cables are damaged especially the speed sensor as it's prone to get damaged. Also update all the firmware.
Did the shop witness the E010 error or is it intermittent.

Anyway hopefully you all get sorted as all they have simply lost future customers otherwise.

 

[Stuart569]

Delivery comprises of the seller and the courier, I understand the excitement of a new bike and being in for delivery but if they are still inside their delivery window you've got nothing to complain about.. I agree not updating and giving the customer an exact delivery day is annoying but that's just how it's done.

I think we have every right to complain and expect better service when ordering such a high value bike. Their systems are not working correctly. I didn't even get an update that mine was shipped and certainly not a tracking number. I get tracking for for a £5 item off of ebay, it's just not on in today's world that they can't get that right. Then even when customer services are approached they can't tell you anything. It's a joke.

Mine arrived yesterday at mid-day btw.

 

[steve_sordy]

Shimano E8000 system on a Focus.

I recently had a black display, despite power being "ON". Nothing else worked. The two cables emerging from the display were tight and also at the other end where they plug into the motor. The bike shop connected it to their laptop and very soon it worked fine, told me it was fixed, must have been a faulty update. Then the display winked out as I moved the bars! Then it came back on! Loose connection maybe?

Long story short, one of the cables I mentioned had been pinched and was giving a poor connection at the motor end. It seemed a firm connection, but a slight tug on the cable and the display went dark.

One new 1.2m cable later and several hours of motor and battery out and back in again and it was sorted.

Simple to do, but time consuming.