Question on shipping to Specialized dealers..

[Deadeye]

I'm ready to order a 2020 Levo but neither of the two Specialized stocking bike shops in my town show up as shipping destinations on the specialized.com checkout. The closest ones that are displayed are in Orlando 50 miles away. Are some Specialized shops more "special" than others and allow you to pick up bikes ordered online? My local dealers will order but want to charge me shipping. There is no charge for shipping on specialized.com for orders over $150.

Hoping someone has inside knowledge on this. I would assume Specialized knows who their dealers are and would ship to any of them. Should I eat the shipping charge and buy local from a shop that isn't really giving me any incentives or should I order online and get it from a shop 50 miles away?

 

[davarello]

I would buy local from whatever store you get on with better - if there are any issues they will be more willing to help.

 

[Deadeye]

I would buy local from whatever store you get on with better - if there are any issues they will be more willing to help.

Yes but if Specialized doesn't let you ship to a bike shop, is it a real Specialized dealer able to give real warranty support? The fact that Specialized won't let me ship to the local Specialized dealers makes me question those shops.

 

[dfkenevo]

I would buy from your closest shop. They will offer you any kind of support that you might need. The shipping charge doesn’t make any sense to me. Specialized doesn’t sell bikes online cheaper than shops. MSRP or price tag it’s the same so?
Another suggestion is calling Specialized and tell them the situation. Good luck and enjoy your new bike once you get it. I just sold my Kenevo and tomorrow I’m receiving a Levo Expert!!

 

[dfkenevo]

I agree 100% with Deadeye!!!

 

[Deadeye]

I would buy from your closest shop. They will offer you any kind of support that you might need. The shipping charge doesn’t make any sense to me. Specialized doesn’t sell bikes online cheaper than shops. MSRP or price tag it’s the same so?
Another suggestion is calling Specialized and tell them the situation. Good luck and enjoy your new bike once you get it. I just sold my Kenevo and tomorrow I’m receiving a Levo Expert!!

The price quote + tax from shop is exactly the same as online. But local shop has to add shipping... Something doesn't add up.

 

[Swan]

Shops have minimum orders that we have to hit in order to get free freight. For us its 10k. Once our order hits that, bikes ship for free.. If we are not putting a order that big, we end up having to pay freight for that single bike we order. If we have a customer that is willing to wait around until we build a full order, then great, free shipping for all! But if they want it now, we will usually split the freight with the customer.


With shrinking margins on bikes, we had to stop stop eating all the shipping costs on special order bikes and most customers understand. I don't know how much shipping they are charging you.. But if it's a deal breaker, I don't see an issue with asking the shop to split shipping with you..


The other issue you see with the local shop not showing up as a shipping location is that a retailer has to be signed up as a "click and collect" dealer that allows things sent from Specialized.com orders directly to the store.. Not all dealers are setup with that.

I believe that specialized is offering free shipping on orders off the website right now (thought I remember seeing a promotion about that somewhere) and so you are not being charged shipping at the Specialized level.. The local shop, because they are not a "Click-n-collect" store does not have that free shipping ability right now.. They are going to have to pay for shipping, so they are passing some(or all) of those costs onto you.

 

[Deadeye]

Shops have minimum orders that we have to hit in order to get free freight. For us its 10k. Once our order hits that, bikes ship for free.. If we are not putting a order that big, we end up having to pay freight for that single bike we order. If we have a customer that is willing to wait around until we build a full order, then great, free shipping for all! But if they want it now, we will usually split the freight with the customer.


With shrinking margins on bikes, we had to stop stop eating all the shipping costs on special order bikes and most customers understand. I don't know how much shipping they are charging you.. But if it's a deal breaker, I don't see an issue with asking the shop to split shipping with you..


The other issue you see with the local shop not showing up as a shipping location is that a retailer has to be signed up as a "click and collect" dealer that allows things sent from Specialized.com orders directly to the store.. Not all dealers are setup with that.

I believe that specialized is offering free shipping on orders off the website right now (thought I remember seeing a promotion about that somewhere) and so you are not being charged shipping at the Specialized level.. The local shop, because they are not a "Click-n-collect" store does not have that free shipping ability right now.. They are going to have to pay for shipping, so they are passing some(or all) of those costs onto you.

You are 100% correct about the click and collect. I called Specialized today and thats what they said. Local dealer says they had opted into click and collect before and are trying to fix it.