SRAM and Chain Reaction Cycle orders - disgraceful

[Eldron]

I personally think that it is disgraceful that Chain Reaction refuse to ship SRAM (and some other brands like Sidi) to South Africa.

 

These practices are clearly anti-competitive and designed to protect the margin of the South African importers at the expense of South African cyclists. 

 

I have bought my last SRAM product ever, and will exclusively support Shimano going forward.

 

I hope that this post will make other cyclists aware of how we are abused by the suppliers (and not for the first time).

 

It isn't CRC's choice to make. It's a SRAM thing. I agree with it.

 

Bad news for you is that Shimano will be going the same route pretty soon and I agree with that decision also.

[shaper]

Don't need >1,000 inane, non-value add posts to ride a bike, my friend.   Prefer to talk to real people for example shop owners or friends (familiar with concept?). You going to call me to the back of the bus and initiate me?

Before you start bouncing your chips.... if you HAD spoken to shop owners they would have advised you of the SRAM worldwide situation... and you would have been correctly directed to why... rather than ranting about CRC which it has nothing to do about it..... so first get your facts straight before you join the hub to rant in your very first post !!

[ChUkKy]

It isn't CRC's choice to make. It's a SRAM thing. I agree with it.

 

Bad news for you is that Shimano will be going the same route pretty soon and I agree with that decision also.

 

Hmmm, always a topic that can get heated quickly.

 

From a business owner perspective, I think the idea is great.

From a free trade perspective, its rubbish for the consumer.

 

Do the local resellers add any value or simply add cost? In all honesty with the vast majority of places, its the latter.

 

Why and how can places like CRC, Bike24 and some others sell and ship the goods to the consumer in South Africa at prices cheaper than they can get locally. This to me doesnt make sense, but it happens.

I understand buying power and what not, but then let the consumer decide.

 

I for one am not a massive consumer of bits but I try support local as much as possible, some crazy oke that spends half months in faaar away lands.

[awolf50n]

Whilst I appreciate the SRAM reasoning and rationale, they should consider allowing parties to get such components from overseas when you cannot get the components in South Africa. Having recently required some parts, I found that SRAM doesn't bring those components into SA and more and more offshore distributors are no longer shipping to South Africa (even though it may work out cheaper even with duties and postage). 

[carbon29er]

Don't need >1,000 inane, non-value add posts to ride a bike, my friend.   Prefer to talk to real people for example shop owners or friends (familiar with concept?). You going to call me to the back of the bus and initiate me?

Oh the irony. Talk to real people but buy from CRC.

 

What an idiot.

[V12man]

Whilst I appreciate the SRAM reasoning and rationale, they should consider allowing parties to get such components from overseas when you cannot get the components in South Africa. Having recently required some parts, I found that SRAM doesn't bring those components into SA and more and more offshore distributors are no longer shipping to South Africa (even though it may work out cheaper even with duties and postage). 

PLENTY of sellers on ebay.... off you go then...

[BigDL]

Don't need >1,000 inane, non-value add posts to ride a bike, my friend. Prefer to talk to real people for example shop owners or friends (familiar with concept?). You going to call me to the back of the bus and initiate me?

Big D's first rule of life - Don't be a knob

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Hairy]

Don't need >1,000 inane, non-value add posts to ride a bike, my friend.   Prefer to talk to real people for example shop owners or friends (familiar with concept?). You going to call me to the back of the bus and initiate me?

classy second  post.....

[New Landy new life]

Slightly off topic - but I look online quite a bit, but the postage options for me seem to bring the value of the Shimano parts back to what they cost here in most cases from say CRC and Bike 24.  Am I missing a trick ?

[Grease_Monkey]

Holy crap, it's Friday already!   

[Eugene]

Hey Sebnac, just ignore them. It seems to be a common practice to attack the new members that voice their opinion on the Hub.

 

Give them a while to warm up to you. Until then, say what you want, that's what a discussion forum is all about.

 

By the way, I agree with you to a certain extent. This is Srams way of making us pay our inflated local prices.

[Ferro]

OP was last active on 7 Feb. Think you guys chased him away.

[Headshot]

Slightly off topic - but I look online quite a bit, but the postage options for me seem to bring the value of the Shimano parts back to what they cost here in most cases from say CRC and Bike 24.  Am I missing a trick ?

Mmm, not really. If you shop carefully, i.e. buy from CRC on sale etc, they are much cheaper. Look at a 10spd XT derailleur for instance. Well over R1k here - R1400 on CWC if I recall, as opposed to about R700 on CRC. We are ripped off badly here because there are precious few specials and end of season sales. 

 

The same applies to other items. I bought some 661 lightweight knee guards from CRC a month or two back. They were around R600.00. Saw them on the shelf at a local bike shop for R1300.00 last week. Daylight robbery.

[Eldron]

Hmmm, always a topic that can get heated quickly.

 

From a business owner perspective, I think the idea is great.

From a free trade perspective, its rubbish for the consumer.

 

Do the local resellers add any value or simply add cost? In all honesty with the vast majority of places, its the latter.

 

Why and how can places like CRC, Bike24 and some others sell and ship the goods to the consumer in South Africa at prices cheaper than they can get locally. This to me doesnt make sense, but it happens.

I understand buying power and what not, but then let the consumer decide.

 

I for one am not a massive consumer of bits but I try support local as much as possible, some crazy oke that spends half months in faaar away lands.

 

It is of course a complicated issue.

 

Here is the situation as I understand it - I could be wrong of course....this is "best of my knowledge" stuff..

 

CRC and the like get their stock in two (or more ways that I don't know about):

1 - from bicycle manufacturers that have bought too much shimano/sram (let's include sram for now) and sell the stock at reduced cost to free up cash. They get the stock at vastly reduced cost because they buy in bulk and get their stock arrives in zip lock bags with no instructions/pretty box etc.

2 - from "buyers" in the east who place big orders on shimano under the guise of being bicycle manufacturers but aren't really.

 

So basically CRC are supplying product in mass packaging based on OEM bike manufacturing pricing.

 

This raises the question of what is the real price?

 

In my opinion the real price is what we can get the product for locally -- the CRC no packaging/mass buying price is exactly that - a no packaging/mass buying price that should not be available to the general public. CRC and the like get to this no packaging/nass price through grey/morally questionable means.

 

Mr. Joe Public will of course always want the cheaper price. That is his/her "real price" because CRC and such have obtained the no package/mass price through dodgy means.

 

Other issue is back up - another debatable of course but Coolheat locally have a warehouse full of spares and knowledge to fix goodies when things go wrong. CRC and the like are not burdoned by these costs. Coolheat are by no means perfect and do not carry every item that is available from Shimano.

 

My 2c - have at it :-)

[Cippo]

Ordered some stuff from Probikeshop last Monday and by Thursday I took delivery. When I checked prices on a groupset for a friend yesterday they don't list South Africa as a delivery destination. And that is for none of their products. 

[Popit]

It is of course a complicated issue.

 

Here is the situation as I understand it - I could be wrong of course....this is "best of my knowledge" stuff..

 

CRC and the like get their stock in two (or more ways that I don't know about):

1 - from bicycle manufacturers that have bought too much shimano/sram (let's include sram for now) and sell the stock at reduced cost to free up cash. They get the stock at vastly reduced cost because they buy in bulk and get their stock arrives in zip lock bags with no instructions/pretty box etc.

2 - from "buyers" in the east who place big orders on shimano under the guise of being bicycle manufacturers but aren't really.

 

So basically CRC are supplying product in mass packaging based on OEM bike manufacturing pricing.

 

This raises the question of what is the real price?

 

In my opinion the real price is what we can get the product for locally -- the CRC no packaging/mass buying price is exactly that - a no packaging/mass buying price that should not be available to the general public. CRC and the like get to this no packaging/nass price through grey/morally questionable means.

 

Mr. Joe Public will of course always want the cheaper price. That is his/her "real price" because CRC and such have obtained the no package/mass price through dodgy means.

 

Other issue is back up - another debatable of course but Coolheat locally have a warehouse full of spares and knowledge to fix goodies when things go wrong. CRC and the like are not burdoned by these costs. Coolheat are by no means perfect and do not carry every item that is available from Shimano.

 

My 2c - have at it :-)

 

Eldron , I must say that ALL the Shimano parts I have bought from CRC have arrived fully boxed in original packaging .