At what point does mail order make sense?

I've bought some stuff online. I usually wait until I have a few things I need that I will save enough money on to justify the shipping. It's averaged about one order per year. I still buy most of my stuff locally. Here is my experience with the places I've ordered from.

BikeNashbar (2002): My order arrived in 4 days with ground shipping (Nashbar is in Ohio), which means they had to have to shipped it out the same day I ordered it. Everything was correct and well packed. Great pricing and painless.

JensonUSA (2003): My order arrived in less than a week, nicely boxed. The only problem is they shipped me the WRONG FORK. I emailed them several times to try to fix the problem and was completely ignored until I threatened to slander them on every bike forum possible. I eventually got everything sorted out but it was a pain in the ass.

Bikeroom (2004): My order took 2 weeks to arrive. The box was trashed and the packing consisted of a crumpled garbage bag. My order was complete and intact though and the prices were good so I was still happy. Then 11 months later, BAM charge from bikeroom on credit card statement. Never again.

As you can see my experiences steadily got worse :lol:

I'm not so much worried about foul-ups associated with buying mailorder as the ethics of taking the cheapest option over an arguably better-intentioned bikeshop.

What made you deicide to go mailorder Jeff?

I'm a former mechanic.

I never had an issue with customers bringing in mailorder parts. There are crazy deals to be had.

It was irritating when customers would brag about the prices they paid. What do you want me to do? Give you a pat on the back? It is fine to choose the competion, when they offer the same product at a lower price, but there is no need to gloat about it.

I also found it irritating when customers would ask for discounted or free labor. We strove to maintain the reputation that we'd fix the bike right, the first time, every time. That you would choose our service, it's because we do the best job, and charge a fair price. All wrenchs are not equal. Asking for a discount implies that the labor is a commodity, the work I do is no different than any other shop, and you'll go with whoevers cheapest. It's insulting.

Bikeroom (2004): My order took 2 weeks to arrive. The box was trashed and the packing consisted of a crumpled garbage bag.

hahahaha… i'm sure that sucked, but i'm tempted to put that as a quote in my sig for a while.

My last mountain wheelset was XT 6-bolt hubs, laced 3-cross 32 spoke with Singletracks, with skewers and shipping it cost $150.00 US dollars. There's no way I could have bought anything like that locally for the price.

I don't see why a shop would turn down labour work, if they have a skilled wheel builder, particularly in a slow time like the middle of winter. The shop's hourly rate for wheel building will almost certainly be double what the guy's actual salary is. Good profit margin there.

I also found it irritating when customers would ask for discounted or free labor. We strove to maintain the reputation that we'd fix the bike right, the first time, every time. That you would choose our service, it's because we do the best job, and charge a fair price. All wrenchs are not equal. Asking for a discount implies that the labor is a commodity, the work I do is no different than any other shop, and you'll go with whoevers cheapest. It's insulting.

I agree. I've never asked for, or expected a discount of labour. In fact a good quick job can usually get a six pack thrown in on top. The only reason any bike of mine will be in a shop is for something I'm not capable of doing myself. For those occasions, I will gladly pay for the shop's expertise, tools, and time.

What I would do is go into the shop, and ask "I was thinking about buying rims and hubs online. How much do you guys want to build the wheels up?" Personally I wouldn't worry about "offending" the LBS. If they're offended by something like that, I wouldn't shop there anyways.

P.S. I would never ask for a discount on labour, and can't believe people do that. It's not like bike shop labour is $80 an hour or anything like that.

I found that when I was working, I was much more eager to spend a bit more and buy local, but now that I'm back in school, I shop around. So really I'd say, for me, it just depends on how much disposable income I've got at the time.

ya i feel a bit odd going into shops for labour with parts inhand. but for what i would pay for my fork in a shop im getting the fork,chainguide, and seat. but i still feel bad about taking my buisness away from my lbs but i will pay shop labour instead

Remember that ebay stuff, technically has no warantee.QUOTE]

Apparently as an ebay store this guy honours warranties:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Chris-King-Classic-FRONT-Hub-28-hole-BLACK_W0QQitemZ7150996067QQcategoryZ36144QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

…not that it would be easy to sort out though if something did happen.

sanrensho:

My main concern in asking for a deal is offending the shop. What good is it to save a few bucks if I can't go there without there being awkwardness from now on? I go there regularly, but am by no means a "freind" of anyone at the shop. In my experience this shop is pretty firm about their prices.

I spend megabucks at 2 local shops. Despite this I found that there are 2 things that will always result in a guaranteed piss-off…..1) telling them that you have made on-line purchases, 2) doing all the work yourself except for the real miserable stuff. I found that both shops have found it hard to be very courteous to me following my commission of these unforgivable sins. I resent the 'tude but I realize that these guys must find it hard to feel very kindly toward someone that they feel has no loyalty. If I had it to do again, I would never fess-up to shopping online to my "friends" in the shops (if I had to, I would go to another shop that I wouldn't normally frequent).

Yeah but is it reasonable to expect that the shop cut me a deal of some sort? These wheels are gonna be pretty damn expensive - if I buy all the parts from them should I expect a discount.

In the last year alone I've spent abot $2700 at the shop.

Should your employer cut your wages because someone else would be willing to work for less?

Okay. The only reason why I suggested a free build was because labour is apparently the only part of their servies that they can affect the price of; manufacturers set prices below which shops can't sell parts or they can't sell parts for less than what it costs to run the place.

The reason why I posted this question is because I didn't want to be rude. I would never walk into a shop, regardless of how much money I had spent there, and suggest that I deserve a discount. I work in retail and frequently have people do that exact thing - it's dirty and classless.

Reg:

"Should an employer cut my wages because someone else will work for less?"

What? Show how that is parallel to what I was suggesting.

I think it's great that you have the money to buy pay more than you have to for parts, but for me it would take several more months to save that kind of money.

Thad:

I find it funny that you would rather, your shop lose more money from me not buying all my parts from the shop, than get a free build. Mechanics get paid by the hour, not on commission, right? So why would you be more upset if the build you did was "free" or not?

Alright, so I'm piecing ogether parts for a new wheelset and am finding stuff way cheaper off ebay and mailorder sites. For example, I'm using CK hubs and a front hub will cost me $185 off ebay. That includes shipping, duty and tax. That same hub will cost me just over $350 from the LBS. That works out to a difference of $165!

You might want to check this out…
http://bb.nsmb.com/showthread.php?t=69220

Thanks for the heads up - I'll contact CK to verify that the seller is in fact an authorized dealer before buying!