Cant personally Import SRAM anymore :(

[MORNE1102]

This might be old knowledge but I recently tried to import some Sram components from Merlyn and was blocked form doing so.. worked around this by having a friend bring the parts across so big FU! all being said i saved around 50-60% on costs compared to the local shops.. 

Obviously the local distributor forced this change somehow what's weird is Merlin isn't on the official DI list. 

[Phillippe Coetzee]

8 minutes ago, MORNE1102 said:

This might be old knowledge but I recently tried to import some Sram components from Merlyn and was blocked form doing so.. worked around this by having a friend bring the parts across so big FU! all being said i saved around 50-60% on costs compared to the local shops.. 

Obviously the local distributor forced this change somehow what's weird is Merlin isn't on the official DI list. 

Could possibly use AGS as well ? (Aramax Global Shopper)

[DieselnDust]

This has been the case for a number of years. Search on this forum for SRAM geo blocking.

jt relates to Shimano and other component distributors as well

[madmarc]

Been like this for years now - I always buy my stuff online when i travel to Europe and have it delivered to my hotel. On average its been 50% cheaper.

[cadenceblur]

2 hours ago, Phillippe Coetzee said:

Could possibly use AGS as well ? (Aramax Global Shopper)

Yes. But do your homework with respect to weight of package and associated costs . 

[MORNE]

42 minutes ago, madmarc said:

Been like this for years now - I always buy my stuff online when i travel to Europe and have it delivered to my hotel. On average its been 50% cheaper.

What he means is, Merlin has until quite recently been one of the stores that weren't geo blocked. You can still buy Shimano from them. Wouldn't be surprised if someone sent an email. You could land gx AXS kits here for 7500 when local skelms were flogging them for 12k ‘on special’ lol. We should just stop sharing these places online…

there are a few others still.

Edited April 4 by MORNE

[Phillippe Coetzee]

44 minutes ago, MORNE said:

What he means is, Merlin has until quite recently been one of the stores that weren't geo blocked. You can still buy Shimano from them. Wouldn't be surprised if someone sent an email. You could land gx AXS kits here for 7500 when local skelms were flogging them for 12k ‘on special’ lol. We should just stop sharing these places online…

there are a few others still.

Oh, completely miss understood lol, would love to know what other stores overseas are legit, always nice to know 😁

[DieselnDust]

1 hour ago, MORNE said:

What he means is, Merlin has until quite recently been one of the stores that weren't geo blocked. You can still buy Shimano from them. Wouldn't be surprised if someone sent an email. You could land gx AXS kits here for 7500 when local skelms were flogging them for 12k ‘on special’ lol. We should just stop sharing these places online…

there are a few others still.

DM

[MORNE1102]

I rate the guys at Cape Cycles Systems put a stop to the imports. 

[MORNE1102]

18 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

DM

DM please

[droo]

It's part of the supplier agreement, you can't sell outside your region. Who told who has nothing to do with it.

It's annoying, particularly considering the local stock levels, but it is what it is.

[DieselnDust]

19 minutes ago, droo said:

It's part of the supplier agreement, you can't sell outside your region. Who told who has nothing to do with it.

It's annoying, particularly considering the local stock levels, but it is what it is.

Yip and that’s driven by stock management at different distribution centres that service the regions they are allocated. Remember things like a US charger is 110v dc while the Europeans have a different plug to Oceania. Different regions have different radio frequency control acts regulations and laws to kit has to be packaged and managed accordingly.  Having a retailer in Oceania selling kit into Africa introduces a whole bunch of issues with AXS kit for example.

for mechanical kit it’s more about stock allocation and managing inventory and warranty. The parent company also has to honour the contracts with its distributors on terms of pricing, inventory holding. It’s not a one size fits all agreement but rather a separate agreement tailored to the market they’re operating in. South Africa will never sell the kind of volume Europe la distributors can so CCS can never attract the same bulk discount at wholesale .

on the warranty side a Hubble may be keen to send a part back to Halfords  for warranty but hubbers are 1% of the buying public. The rest want a local distributor to sort out any issues and they want it sorted yesterday. 
sorry to say it but Hublands needs are relatively insignificant compared to the overall SA market

[droo]

13 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

Yip and that’s driven by stock management at different distribution centres that service the regions they are allocated. Remember things like a US charger is 110v dc while the Europeans have a different plug to Oceania. Different regions have different radio frequency control acts regulations and laws to kit has to be packaged and managed accordingly.  Having a retailer in Oceania selling kit into Africa introduces a whole bunch of issues with AXS kit for example.

for mechanical kit it’s more about stock allocation and managing inventory and warranty. The parent company also has to honour the contracts with its distributors on terms of pricing, inventory holding. It’s not a one size fits all agreement but rather a separate agreement tailored to the market they’re operating in. South Africa will never sell the kind of volume Europe la distributors can so CCS can never attract the same bulk discount at wholesale .

on the warranty side a Hubble may be keen to send a part back to Halfords  for warranty but hubbers are 1% of the buying public. The rest want a local distributor to sort out any issues and they want it sorted yesterday. 
sorry to say it but Hublands needs are relatively insignificant compared to the overall SA market

And the SA market is utterly insignificant in the international scheme of things.

Still annoying.

Although I have been called cantankerous more than once, so YMMV.

[madmarc]

3 hours ago, DieselnDust said:

Yip and that’s driven by stock management at different distribution centres that service the regions they are allocated. Remember things like a US charger is 110v dc while the Europeans have a different plug to Oceania. Different regions have different radio frequency control acts regulations and laws to kit has to be packaged and managed accordingly.  Having a retailer in Oceania selling kit into Africa introduces a whole bunch of issues with AXS kit for example.

for mechanical kit it’s more about stock allocation and managing inventory and warranty. The parent company also has to honour the contracts with its distributors on terms of pricing, inventory holding. It’s not a one size fits all agreement but rather a separate agreement tailored to the market they’re operating in. South Africa will never sell the kind of volume Europe la distributors can so CCS can never attract the same bulk discount at wholesale .

on the warranty side a Hubble may be keen to send a part back to Halfords  for warranty but hubbers are 1% of the buying public. The rest want a local distributor to sort out any issues and they want it sorted yesterday. 
sorry to say it but Hublands needs are relatively insignificant compared to the overall SA market

Was always my biggest fear with all those Garmins and ASX upgrade kits i brought back - Would they work in Sefrica - But they all did and still do 

[DieselnDust]

21 minutes ago, madmarc said:

Was always my biggest fear with all those Garmins and ASX upgrade kits i brought back - Would they work in Sefrica - But they all did and still do 

Same here. Individually we can make it work. Managing large inventory is a different matter. Hundreds of stock keeping units in one massive warehouse was and still is a difficult undertaking. So setting up distribution so that appropriate SKUs go to the right DC is far easier. Its supply chain 101. Small markets end up with the scraps. On the high end side though SA is one of the biggest markets funnily! Europeans are not as obsessed with having top end kit as us SAFFAs are.

 

ooops whole other debate ……

probably one for Friday 

[Jakkals.]

2 hours ago, DieselnDust said:

Same here. Individually we can make it work. Managing large inventory is a different matter. Hundreds of stock keeping units in one massive warehouse was and still is a difficult undertaking. So setting up distribution so that appropriate SKUs go to the right DC is far easier. Its supply chain 101. Small markets end up with the scraps. On the high end side though SA is one of the biggest markets funnily! Europeans are not as obsessed with having top end kit as us SAFFAs are.

 

ooops whole other debate ……

probably one for Friday 

correct...go see what the guys ride in london...all rode bikes with 105. leaving ultegra for local pros. unfortunately we have to be happy w dura ace.