More CRC bashing, my order has gone AWOL.

[ozimad]

I work in transport and considering we can pickup in Sydney and deliver a parcell in Melbourne in 4 hrs I find it pathetic that this poor guy has not received his item let alone an answer as to where it is..

Unsatisfactory service from such a large organisation like CRC..

 

[JIM80B]

I bought a small item of clothing from CRC recently and it took >2 weeks to arrive. Not sure what the problem was, as the parcel was almost lighter than air, but it got here. Just keep open communication lines open with them and Im sure they'll sort it out with you. It's not like they're some dodgy backyard operation.

 

[JIM80B]

By the way a mate recently bought XTR pedals from a German website. He ended up emailing them daily about these pedals and evently cut his losses and bought them from another site, which arrived promtly.

Shortly after he got the parcel on the doorstep from Germany. So he now has 2 sets of XTR pedals.

He got to a point where he didnt even believe them when they were telling him, "Ya, ve haf send your pedalz."

Not sure anyone can explain how a parcel can take as long as it would to ride to Europe and pick them up yourself. But I suppose it is called "snail mail" for a reason.

JB

 

[scblack]

By the way a mate recently bought XTR pedals from a German website. He ended up emailing them daily about these pedals and evently cut his losses and bought them from another site, which arrived promtly.

Shortly after he got the parcel on the doorstep from Germany. So he now has 2 sets of XTR pedals.

He got to a point where he didnt even believe them when they were telling him, "Ya, ve haf send your pedalz."

Not sure anyone can explain how a parcel can take as long as it would to ride to Europe and pick them up yourself. But I suppose it is called "snail mail" for a reason.

JB

I recently spoke to the guys working at Australia Post overseas section.

Blame customs to some degree, they may grab the item to look at.

Or blame our strong dollar, now MANY people are ordering stuff from overseas and postage systems are swamped.

Its not necessarily the retailers fault.

Oh, and if you order via plain old standard postage, EXPECT delays.

 

[rydo2.0]

Royal Mail

I can understand your frustrations but unless you paid the extra for DHL service, I'm not surprised it is taking longer than expected.

Being a Scot, I have first hand experience of Royal Mail and I have never had a good experience with them! not once! Any contact from CRC will be met with excuse after excuse from their pathetic offshore call centres. (if they aren't on strike AGAIN)

It may well be on its way here now but it could just as easily be halfway to Austria by now, RM's staff don't have the greatest grasp of the English language!

 

[macca21]

Having a similar problem at the moment, although the time waiting for a response is three or four days so far.... not getting on to a month like the OP.
Although, it has taken them 3 1/2 months just to dispatch the order, now gone a month from then so I guess it isn't coming.
Would've used the traceable mail except they wanted more for that than the order was worth!

 

[sukebe]

I have finally been told that my order that was made nearly 3 weeks ago has been dispatched. What I am tired of with CRC is the onus is on you to check that they are doing things correctly. When I ordered, I paid careful attention that all items were in stock. A week later and my order still says "Processing". I emailed CRC to ask why it is still being processed, they got back to me 3 days later to say that "some of your items are out of stock" but no explanation as to why they were in stock when I ordered, but 10 days after ordering they are out of stock. The item should be checked against inventory when I order and if for some reason they are out of stock, I should be contacted immediately. This process should be completely automated. Unfortunately, I had to query them, and hound them, and remind them of what I wanted them to do 5 times, with around 10 emails over 3 weeks before anything was done. At no point in the process were they proactive in fixing their screw-up. This is the second time I have dealt with their poor service and systems out of 4 orders. That's a 50% failure rate. Ive ordered from Wiggle 4 times also, never an issue.

 

[rydo2.0]

Unfortunate

This is the second time I have dealt with their poor service and systems out of 4 orders. That's a 50% failure rate. Ive ordered from Wiggle 4 times also, never an issue.

That is not a good statistic at all. I used wiggle regularly simply because they have a loyalty program and they deliver free to Australia for less. I have nothing but good things to say about them. My only issue is that they don't have as much MTB specific items that CRC do.

I have just placed my first order ever with CRC so I will keep you updated as to how my experience goes. Hopefully I will have a painless process.

 

[fleebag]

I have finally been told that my order that was made nearly 3 weeks ago has been dispatched. What I am tired of with CRC is the onus is on you to check that they are doing things correctly. When I ordered, I paid careful attention that all items were in stock. A week later and my order still says "Processing". I emailed CRC to ask why it is still being processed, they got back to me 3 days later to say that "some of your items are out of stock" but no explanation as to why they were in stock when I ordered, but 10 days after ordering they are out of stock. The item should be checked against inventory when I order and if for some reason they are out of stock, I should be contacted immediately. This process should be completely automated. Unfortunately, I had to query them, and hound them, and remind them of what I wanted them to do 5 times, with around 10 emails over 3 weeks before anything was done. At no point in the process were they proactive in fixing their screw-up. This is the second time I have dealt with their poor service and systems out of 4 orders. That's a 50% failure rate. Ive ordered from Wiggle 4 times also, never an issue.

Remember that CRC probably get 100s of orders an hour so there is a good chance the item was in stock 10 seconds ago....

I have made orders where i know stuff is not yet in stock and they have emailed to ask i want to cancel the out of stock item so the can process the order.

I have a current order with CRC awaiting stock and i have sent 4 emails about minor changes to the order which are always answered in 1-2 days (usually o/n).

Wiggle on the other hand send what they have and the rest when it comes in.
I recently ordered a balance bike with lowering kit from Wiggle. The lowering kit was in stock and sent (airmail as it was small), 10 days later the bike was in stock and sent by courier and arrived 4 days later- 3 days before the lowering kit.
I have found big comes quick 4-5 days, small 2-3weeks.

 

[willsy01]

I work in transport and considering we can pickup in Sydney and deliver a parcell in Melbourne in 4 hrs I find it pathetic that this poor guy has not received his item let alone an answer as to where it is..

Unsatisfactory service from such a large organisation like CRC..

Well my order shipped on a Saturday morning (Sydney time) and was on my desk at work before I arrived just after 8am on the Monday.

Does that make up for it?

Fact of the matter is that humans make mistakes.

 

[MARKL]

Tracking numbers are only provided if the order was sent via Parcel Force International, which is the normal method if you get into the free shipping threshold. If he's chosen to have an item delivered by Royal Mail International than CRC do not provide you with any tracking number. From the CRC website in regards to Royal Mail: "Please note that due to the economy nature of the Royal Mail service it isn't possible to track a parcel’s progress online."

Wow never considered that as an option...I always get tooo excited and go for the free postage!!!! Further justification for spending more.

I wish the OP would post some more info if he has heard anything from CRC

 

[madstace]

I have finally been told that my order that was made nearly 3 weeks ago has been dispatched. What I am tired of with CRC is the onus is on you to check that they are doing things correctly. When I ordered, I paid careful attention that all items were in stock. A week later and my order still says "Processing". I emailed CRC to ask why it is still being processed, they got back to me 3 days later to say that "some of your items are out of stock" but no explanation as to why they were in stock when I ordered, but 10 days after ordering they are out of stock. The item should be checked against inventory when I order and if for some reason they are out of stock, I should be contacted immediately. This process should be completely automated. Unfortunately, I had to query them, and hound them, and remind them of what I wanted them to do 5 times, with around 10 emails over 3 weeks before anything was done. At no point in the process were they proactive in fixing their screw-up. This is the second time I have dealt with their poor service and systems out of 4 orders. That's a 50% failure rate. Ive ordered from Wiggle 4 times also, never an issue.

I've found exactly the same with CRC and am also at a 50% rate. My first order was fairly small and there were no problems. Second order was an absolute clusterf#%$ with all items initally in stock, then sat there unactioned for a week, then confusion with items not being in stock, partial refunds and replacement items. Took close to a month to sort, over a month to actually receive. Third order was a joke and cancelled in its entirety.

Wiggle on the other hand have been spot on everytime, regardless of order size. I just wish they had the same range as CRC.

 

[harmonix1234]

I have finally been told that my order that was made nearly 3 weeks ago has been dispatched. What I am tired of with CRC is the onus is on you to check that they are doing things correctly. When I ordered, I paid careful attention that all items were in stock. A week later and my order still says "Processing". I emailed CRC to ask why it is still being processed, they got back to me 3 days later to say that "some of your items are out of stock" but no explanation as to why they were in stock when I ordered, but 10 days after ordering they are out of stock. The item should be checked against inventory when I order and if for some reason they are out of stock, I should be contacted immediately. This process should be completely automated. Unfortunately, I had to query them, and hound them, and remind them of what I wanted them to do 5 times, with around 10 emails over 3 weeks before anything was done. At no point in the process were they proactive in fixing their screw-up. This is the second time I have dealt with their poor service and systems out of 4 orders. That's a 50% failure rate. Ive ordered from Wiggle 4 times also, never an issue.

This happened to me.
I ordered a ritchey carbon stem, about $130, it was 'in stock', I ordered and paid.
It said 'Order Processing' for two weeks.
I finally emailed them after two weeks just to do a friendly follow up and I didn't get an explanation or reply, just a refund directly into my bank account.
The day of the refund I went back on there to have a look and it said 'Out of stock'.

I guess the work experience kid forgot to tell his supervisor the ritchey stems box was empty and it was only my order that woke them up to the problem.
Had I not ordered it, someone else would have been the one to enlighten them to their oversight.

I'm glad to hear you got to the bottom of it.
But it didn't leave a sour taste in my mouth, I have made heaps bigger stuff ups in every job I have ever had, and they have always been reliable prior to this one incident.

Just a bit of human error I suppose.
(I suppose that rationale dosn't cut it with pilots and surgeons though haha)

 

[macca21]

Just heard back from CRC about my earlier post.... they're resending it along with a 10pound gift voucher.
OP: Hope you have get the same treatment I got!
Happy customer

 

[Beechie]

Customer Service

Peachy has it right - well put.

It is about customer expectations and service - everyone has a horror story or good result.
CRC Wiggle waggle or whoever - the large guys with a zillion transactions sometimes the whole process gets it wrong.
immediate delivery gratification is only available at a LBS!

If you want crap service/support buy anything Apple! Oops wrong forum.

 

[bleedinglegs]

Volcano

I ordered some stuff from CRC about 2 weeks ago, on a friday. By the time the order had been processed and forwarded for export, that stupid volcano in iceland flared up.

With the flights being delayed or cancelled, waiting 5-6 day is a pain, but not a big deal.

Well, for me anyway...

 

[rydo2.0]

Wow - Exceptional

I have just placed my first order ever with CRC so I will keep you updated as to how my experience goes. Hopefully I will have a painless process.

I placed the order on Friday morning for 10 items (all in stock) and paid the extra money to have it DHL expressed to me.

I got an email on Monday night from CRC telling me that the order had been processed and was winging its way to me so I took the tracking number down and went to DHL's website to see how it was getting on.........It was already here!

DHL had tried to deliver it that morning and I obviously missed it, so gave them a call this morning and explained the situation, "no problem, we will resend it today to your work address, apologies for the delay"

delighted with the service

 

[whitey89]

I have had to wait over a month to just a few days, its quite random.

If you are really worried post on their facebook page (if you have fb), they will get back to you asap.

 

[flamin'trek]

I just received my latest order. An item I wanted went out of stock while I was deciding what to add to the order so I knew it would take longer. When the item came back in stock the order seemed to get 'stuck' at processing. I waited a couple of days, then sent an email, got a response saying they would look into it within 1hr (during their opening hours). Order was dispatched within 24hrs, and arrived in 4 days.

 

[Pebble]

Once my order was taking longer than usual (about 2 weeks) so I emailed them asking why and they just re-sent the stuff (I expected them to say to wait a bit longer or whatever). Worst thing is that then I found the original parcel arrived a day later so I had to decline the 2nd lot and return to sender. It made me feel bad because they would have incurred the extra postage, but hey it was a simple inquiry asking if they knew where my order was!
In the end I believe the original order got stuck at customs.

Another time there was the stock issue, everything in stock when I ordered and then they process and send the items minus one, now I'd calculated the postage etc and ordered so it was cost efficient in how much I was spending and how much postage was costing to make it worth while. I was extremely disappointed because in the past when something was out of stock they generally ask if you want to preceded with the rest of the order or wait or whatever, in my case I had ordered two of the same item but one black and one silver, if they had communicated with me I would have got two of one color instead or maybe chose something else similar. After quite a few emails back and forth they agreed to send me the item when it was back in stock at the same sale price and not charge extra for postage, I can't remember how but in the end I got a similar item completely free (about $70 or so worth).

So I must say they do make mistakes sometimes but they also do make up for it.