Posted by: mammal
Posted by: RAHrider
I've been finding sub $300 orders seem to go under the radar.
What's screwed is that I just split my order into two smaller orders, got the same $20 rebate on each order (for being over $150) and free shipping on everything! God bless CRC. Where else can I get 3 cinch chainrings and a carbon seatpost for $200 with free shipping and a $20 rebate?
Man, over the past year or so, every one of my CRC order has customs fees, regardless of the value. The only way I can avoid it is doing their "customs included" shipping option, which is quite expensive. I used to have good luck with CRC at customs, but not in at least 2 years.
They used to ship by canada post, which sometimes got through without taxes/duties. I just ordered some things and they sent it DHL - it looks like the old Canada post option is no more. DHL dinged me $45 on a $200 order. I went and did customs manually and it cost me about $25. At the end of the day, probably not worth all the effort to email, get the documents, go down to the office etc but it made me feel good on principle. From now on I will either do prepaid duties or just order through merlin.
@D.C. As for returns to CRC. They have been pretty good for me in the past. One time they sent me wire bead tires when they said they were "kevlar". When I raised it as an issue that their description was misleading they just refunded the tires but didn't want me to send them back. On a second occasion, they sent me a defective helmet. I had to take pictures etc but once they determined that it was defective they sent me a return label and although it took a while, I got a refund.
If I were you, I would not hesitate to buy the stem you want. If the error was on their end I would be fairly confident they will take care of you. If you are lucky, you will have an additional stem in your parts bin.