Sourcing Shimano Parts in Canada

I just wasted 3 hours trying to find some (one) place that I can order a 50m box / roll of Shimano SP41 derailleur cable housing and 2-3 packs of 10 of the sealed nylon endcaps. I can't find any online retailer in North America that has stock on both and does not have ridiculous costs to ship to North Vancouver, Canada.

If I log into Bike Discount.de they have have them both (at the usual killer German pricing) but will no longer ship to North America.  If Shimano was going to enforce this embargo, they could at least have fixed their f****d up supply chain here in Canada first.   Why has no one in North America started an online store that actually has a full catalog like the German ones?  Even the big boys in the US such as Jenson USA barely have half of what is available on the German sites and most of what they do have is out of stock (they do have my housing but not the sealed nylon ends).  Every time I try to order something from a local bike shop all I get are run arounds, delays, frustration at trying find someone who even wants to help me or just general excuses.

(On a similar vein, I could start a whole thread about the number of times I've had to call one local shop to just get a set of Sapim spokes and nipples for a wheel I want to rebuild - I know there are supply chain issues but the level of disorganization and poor communication is just mind boggling to me - once I finally get my order I guess I'll move on to yet another shop to try in the future).

Anyway, that's the end of my rant.  I really wish someone in Canada would step up their game and fill this hole.  TBS?  Dunbar?  Comor? MEC?  They all have an online presence but their online catalogs and the amount of stuff they actually stock all currently suck. At present I hold out the most hope for TBSBikeParts but its got a long long way to go before it rivals Jenson USA let alone its German counterparts.

Find a friend in Germany, get the product shipped to their house and have them send it to you.

Posted by: syncro

Find a friend in Germany, get the product shipped to their house and have them send it to you.

It was so simple, staring us all in the face the whole time.

Oh I hear you... that's why I usually buy a ton of wear-parts (pads, tires, cable/hose, spokes, etc.) at the start of the year.  (I paid $50 each for my Vert-star Magic Mary's and $20 for my Saint pads *)

bike-components.de ships to Can for $39.99.  It makes a lot of sense to just do a giant order with a few riding buddies.

* https://www.bike-components.de/en/Kool-Stop/Disc-Brake-Pads-for-Shimano-p50726/

Pretty sure these are made side by side with Shimano's.

^19.99 Euro. Prices goes up by amount and size of the order. 

Remember when you believed CRC was cheaper than Germany 😂 

Also shipping parts within the Euro Zone will have one paying the 18% VAT on goods. 

Also some people must be getting fat when one could buy a full set of Shimano brakes from Germany for the cost of one brake in Canada.

Don't be such a little bitch xorrox, how do you think it feels to work currently in the industry telling most customers on a daily basis that what they want isn't available with no accurate ETA (it's a little soul crushing and fatiguing). To use Shimano as an example, three warehouses, 1 in Canada, 2 in the US, and yes, guess what, they are out of most things. They may have an ETA on a part but those keep getting pushed back. This isn't just Shimano, it's EVERYONE. When we look at bike availability and see March or April or even May of 2021 for ETAs, it's almost impossible to advise customers on what to do.

Honestly, I get the feeling next year won't be that much better as it feels like 2021 may just be a catch up for 2020.

Posted by: RAHrider

Posted by: syncro

Find a friend in Germany, get the product shipped to their house and have them send it to you.

It was so simple, staring us all in the face the whole time.

It’s easier than you think.

You guys don't have an equivalent to Youshop in Canukistan?

Jesus! That could be a game changer. 

Many people here use freight forwarders in the States to get good action from ‘Merica.

Posted by: robnow

Don't be such a little bitch xorrox, how do you think it feels to work currently in the industry telling most customers on a daily basis that what they want isn't available with no accurate ETA (it's a little soul crushing and fatiguing). To use Shimano as an example, three warehouses, 1 in Canada, 2 in the US, and yes, guess what, they are out of most things. They may have an ETA on a part but those keep getting pushed back. This isn't just Shimano, it's EVERYONE. When we look at bike availability and see March or April or even May of 2021 for ETAs, it's almost impossible to advise customers on what to do.

Honestly, I get the feeling next year won't be that much better as it feels like 2021 may just be a catch up for 2020.

Wow, I must have touched a nerve! Notice I mainly called out Shimano on this. I did not do an extensive search but bike-discount.de seemed to be relatively well stocked in Shimano parts so how have they been able to maintain their supply chain and North America has not? (Perhaps it has something to do with our friend the Mango Mussolini's response (or lack thereof) to Covid).

My other dig at the local bike shop was not with the supply chain issues they are experiencing (which I totally understand), it is with the absolute crap communication and organization I've experienced. I was told my stuff was on order by one employee, kept phoning (roughly once a week) to ask if they had any ETA, kept getting the we don't know and then, about 5 weeks later got a response of "You ordered what? We can't find your order but we can order that if you want." Re-ordered and this time they said they were in stock at the local distributor and should be in in a couple days, called again in a couple days, still not there "should be in after the weekend". That was roughly at month ago. I've stopped calling but have not got a call back from them yet. Guess I have to try again one more time to see if it actually showed up. Will not deal with this shop again after this. All I want is to do is go on a website, find what I need, confirm price, ship/pickup and lead time and order it, all without wasting any time on phone calls with people that don't know what they are talking about or are going to lie to me because they don't actually know. Also, at least if everything is online I can use screen shots and confirmation emails as a record of the transaction in case there are any issues.

Posted by: velocipedestrian

You guys don't have an equivalent to Youshop in Canukistan?

Yup that would be a game changer indeed!  Has anyone found a reliable freight forwarder to Canada in a country that is not embargoed by Shimano in Germany?  PM me if you want to keep it on the downlow!

Posted by: robnow

Don't be such a little bitch xorrox, how do you think it feels to work currently in the industry telling most customers on a daily basis that what they want isn't available with no accurate ETA (it's a little soul crushing and fatiguing). To use Shimano as an example, three warehouses, 1 in Canada, 2 in the US, and yes, guess what, they are out of most things. They may have an ETA on a part but those keep getting pushed back. This isn't just Shimano, it's EVERYONE. When we look at bike availability and see March or April or even May of 2021 for ETAs, it's almost impossible to advise customers on what to do.

Honestly, I get the feeling next year won't be that much better as it feels like 2021 may just be a catch up for 2020.

Yeah, it’s tricky now. I’ve been in customer service my whole life, in my experience it’s best to under promise and over deliver, exceeding expectations, than it is to over promise and under deliver.   Sounds like this shop over promised when they didn’t really know and they also didn’t place the order when they said they did and also didn’t tell the customer what is going on. 

Waste of time for the customer, particularly when the shop is just functioning as an ordering system and adding zero value itself.

Posted by: syncro

Posted by: RAHrider

Posted by: syncro

Find a friend in Germany, get the product shipped to their house and have them send it to you.

It was so simple, staring us all in the face the whole time.

It’s easier than you think.

Is there a Tinder category "Looking for freight forwarding hook ups?"  :)

I guess you could use a forwarding service like https://www.mailboxde.com/ but you'd pay 19% German VAT and 2X shipping. That's before your package has left Germany. On arrival in Canada technically you'd still have to pay GST and the CP admin fee. Not sure it would still make sense.