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Buying stuff at big race expos as an out-of-towner.


Jaco Steyn

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How does the Hubbers feel about this? I think I have paid school fees in doing this.

 

I purchased cycling related items at a major retailer at last year's CTCT expo, having flown down from Johannesburg to CT. As most cyclists do, you wander around at the expo and are tempted by all the items on "special", which I succumbed to.

 

Now I am experiencing defects in said purchase, made contact with the dealer, but they now want me to courier the items to the CT greater area to their store for assessment, and I must also include the proof of purchase.

 

The item purchased probably is considered as a consumable, so I did not even think about keeping a receipt. I know that probably was a mistake on my part, but it wasn't a huge amount. If it was a high value item such as eg. a cycling GPS, wheels or cycling shoes, I definitely would have kept the receipt.

 

The lesson I have taken from this is to try and avoid purchases at an expo if the retailer is far away from my place of residence.

 

I am not going to elaborate on what I purchased, and I am neither going to say from which retailer I made this purchase. Doing this will serve no purpose. I probably made a mistake of not keeping my receipts, and I would think the dealer is within his rights to be afforded the opportunity to assess it and to ask for a proof of purchase.

 

I am just interested in the general opinion on making purchases when you are far away from the retailer.

Edited by Jaco Steyn
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Did you pay with a card? If so, you can quite easily check the line item in your statement. It is POPurchase.

 

I think you can courier these days for 99 bucks, which is reasonable. Tell them to reimburse you if it is defective.

 

Without details it's hard to say. If it's a tire then you are probably on your own.

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I am just interested in the general opinion on making purchases when you are far away from the retailer.

 

Sounds like you don't make online purchases? Normally, that will cure any reservations regarding distance.

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How does the Hubbers feel about this? I think I have paid school fees in doing this.

 

I purchased cycling related items at a major retailer at last year's CTCT expo, having flown down from Johannesburg to CT. As most cyclists do, you wander around at the expo and are tempted by all the items on "special", which I succumbed to.

 

Now I am experiencing defects in said purchase, made contact with the dealer, but they now want me to courier the items to the CT greater area to their store for assessment, and I must also include the proof of purchase.

 

The item purchased probably is considered as a consumable, so I did not even think about keeping a receipt. I know that probably was a mistake on my part, but it wasn't a huge amount. If it was a high value item such as eg. a cycling GPS, wheels or cycling shoes, I definitely would have kept the receipt.

 

The lesson I have taken from this is to try and avoid purchases at an expo if the retailer is far away from my place of residence.

 

I am not going to elaborate on what I purchased, and I am neither going to say from which retailer I made this purchase. Doing this will serve no purpose. I probably made a mistake of not keeping my receipts, and I would think the dealer is within his rights to be afforded the opportunity to assess it and to ask for a proof of purchase.

 

I am just interested in the general opinion on making purchases when you are far away from the retailer.

You are 100% correct.

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Same goes for overseas trips and buying “stuff”. Get back home, it breaks and oh my ...........

 

One day I’ll bloody learn!!

 

And of course another reason why you should build a good relationship with your LBS and support them. I can guarantee you that over a longer period it will be well worth your time and money.

 

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Hope the “school fees” weren’t too bad.

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Thanks for all the responses, appreciated.

 

Luckily it wasn't a lot of money (<R1000), so I am not fretting too much over this.

 

We also had a chat at work during out lunch break, and there sort of was consensus that it's something to try and avoid, making purchases when you're away from home. Most of my colleagues had stories to share of stuff that's broken down, had defects, or were plain just poor quality that would have been a big schlep to try to return to the place where it was purchased. If it at a major retailer eg. Makro, PnP, Game etc, then it's a different ball game because with them you can return items irrespective of where it was bought.

 

Anyway, I've moved on. Lessons learnt..... (hopefully! :whistling: )  

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How does the Hubbers feel about this? I think I have paid school fees in doing this.

 

I purchased cycling related items at a major retailer at last year's CTCT expo, having flown down from Johannesburg to CT. As most cyclists do, you wander around at the expo and are tempted by all the items on "special", which I succumbed to.

 

Now I am experiencing defects in said purchase, made contact with the dealer, but they now want me to courier the items to the CT greater area to their store for assessment, and I must also include the proof of purchase.

 

The item purchased probably is considered as a consumable, so I did not even think about keeping a receipt. I know that probably was a mistake on my part, but it wasn't a huge amount. If it was a high value item such as eg. a cycling GPS, wheels or cycling shoes, I definitely would have kept the receipt.

 

The lesson I have taken from this is to try and avoid purchases at an expo if the retailer is far away from my place of residence.

 

I am not going to elaborate on what I purchased, and I am neither going to say from which retailer I made this purchase. Doing this will serve no purpose. I probably made a mistake of not keeping my receipts, and I would think the dealer is within his rights to be afforded the opportunity to assess it and to ask for a proof of purchase.

 

I am just interested in the general opinion on making purchases when you are far away from the retailer.

what?

 

Long story but short on info.

 

of course you don't need to name the store, but the actual product/defect is kind of important.

What is the item?

What went wrong?

Is it under warranty?

How much was the "discount"?

 

I'm sure many people buy stuff at expos and have no issues. Your experience does not make their buying decisions unwise.

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How does the Hubbers feel about this? I think I have paid school fees in doing this.

 

I purchased cycling related items at a major retailer at last year's CTCT expo, having flown down from Johannesburg to CT. As most cyclists do, you wander around at the expo and are tempted by all the items on "special", which I succumbed to.

 

Now I am experiencing defects in said purchase, made contact with the dealer, but they now want me to courier the items to the CT greater area to their store for assessment, and I must also include the proof of purchase.

 

The item purchased probably is considered as a consumable, so I did not even think about keeping a receipt. I know that probably was a mistake on my part, but it wasn't a huge amount. If it was a high value item such as eg. a cycling GPS, wheels or cycling shoes, I definitely would have kept the receipt.

 

The lesson I have taken from this is to try and avoid purchases at an expo if the retailer is far away from my place of residence.

 

I am not going to elaborate on what I purchased, and I am neither going to say from which retailer I made this purchase. Doing this will serve no purpose. I probably made a mistake of not keeping my receipts, and I would think the dealer is within his rights to be afforded the opportunity to assess it and to ask for a proof of purchase.

 

I am just interested in the general opinion on making purchases when you are far away from the retailer.

It is simply a calculated risk decision you need to make on the day of purchase.

 

I am sure if you had your proof of purchase, a solution could have been found with the local distributors that you could arrange for exchange at a local dealer. This is something I have done before.

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Thanks for all the responses, appreciated.

 

Luckily it wasn't a lot of money (<R1000), so I am not fretting too much over this.

 

We also had a chat at work during out lunch break, and there sort of was consensus that it's something to try and avoid, making purchases when you're away from home. Most of my colleagues had stories to share of stuff that's broken down, had defects, or were plain just poor quality that would have been a big schlep to try to return to the place where it was purchased. If it at a major retailer eg. Makro, PnP, Game etc, then it's a different ball game because with them you can return items irrespective of where it was bought.

 

Anyway, I've moved on. Lessons learnt..... (hopefully! :whistling: )  

Only took you 7 months to get over it... you sure you have?

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If it's a product that is supported in SA, you would be able to take to any bike shop that is an agent for that product, no matter where you are.

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I ordered a bride from Russia, she got here and worked like a charm for the first few months. Then she just stopped and became expensive. Now I have been trying to return the faulty item to Russia but this is proving seriously difficult. My advice, stay away from mail order brides from Russia.

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I ordered a bride from Russia, she got here and worked like a charm for the first few months. Then she just stopped and became expensive. Now I have been trying to return the faulty item to Russia but this is proving seriously difficult. My advice, stay away from mail order brides from Russia.

how many hours of service has it done ?

has it got full service history ?

any scratches or worn out components ?

 

maybe advertise it on thehub classifieds, I'm sure it will sell at the right price.

:whistling:

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I ordered a bride from Russia, she got here and worked like a charm for the first few months. Then she just stopped and became expensive. Now I have been trying to return the faulty item to Russia but this is proving seriously difficult. My advice, stay away from mail order brides from Russia.

My friends dad did this. A few months later many spare parts arrived and he ended up with a few more Russians than he'd ordered. Many here have similar stories though usually involving bikes

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how many hours of service has it done ?

has it got full service history ?

any scratches or worn out components ?

 

maybe advertise it on thehub classifieds, I'm sure it will sell at the right price.

:whistling:

Mint condition, only ridden a few times

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I ordered a bride from Russia, she got here and worked like a charm for the first few months. Then she just stopped and became expensive. Now I have been trying to return the faulty item to Russia but this is proving seriously difficult. My advice, stay away from mail order brides from Russia.

actualy the story above by Waynemol reminded me.

 

Had a neighbour next door, when I moved in he was on his second wife, they got divorced and a few years later he had a Taiwanese lady with him. They eventually got married, but what struck me was his group of "friends". all elderly very south african white men, all with Tai wives. My wife and I used to joke with each other that they were mail order wives because none of them could speak english

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