Ordering From Bike Inn

[Miz3r]

8 minutes ago, ians H2Sport said:

Merlin is great, but they use UPS who are shocking on the SA side. I had substantial delays due to their (UPS) very poor communication (check out hello peter for reviews on UPS). 

Ye I had to call them earlier on now to remind them to send my invoice , I have yet to recieve it or a call to confirm details.

It's amazing everything up till it reaching us in Sa has been smooth, soon as it touches our shores absolute disaster it seems.

Waiting patiently here for that mail,  pitty the DHL route not viable from merlin anymore unless you book collection via DHL at merlin and go that route but don't know how that process would work.

I will look into it cause the reviews of ups are horrific reading it now

[Miz3r]

Update on this.

They confirmed their cod office has a 48 hour turn around time to process invoices for import tax payments.

So let's see if they keep to that 

[splat]

59 minutes ago, Miz3r said:

Update on this.

They confirmed their cod office has a 48 hour turn around time to process invoices for import tax payments.

So let's see if they keep to that 

That was my experience with them.

To be honest, it could have been done while the package was en route so that the transition was seamless. But alas...

[cadenceblur]

11 minutes ago, splat said:

That was my experience with them.

To be honest, it could have been done while the package was en route so that the transition was seamless. But alas...

If you fail to contact UPS to prompt the submission of invoice nothing happens , which is ridiculous. 

[Immink]

I tested pricing by adding a XTR 203mm rotor to basket and went to checkout and price went from about R589 to R1389 which is shipping then still have to pay whatever comes next whereas locally R1 600 with less effort.

[cadenceblur]

1 hour ago, Immink said:

I tested pricing by adding a XTR 203mm rotor to basket and went to checkout and price went from about R589 to R1389 which is shipping then still have to pay whatever comes next whereas locally R1 600 with less effort.

You clearly need to increase your basket, does not make sense to buy one item and attract shipping cost on it . 

[MORNE]

1 hour ago, Immink said:

I tested pricing by adding a XTR 203mm rotor to basket and went to checkout and price went from about R589 to R1389 which is shipping then still have to pay whatever comes next whereas locally R1 600 with less effort.

If you ship one rotor or random item for R700 odd rands you are doing it wrong and you are better off paying extorted local prices😅. You sure can get that rotor for R589 (ex vat and duties) if you do it right. 

But you need to make the shipping fee worth it. If that means being a ‘baller’ and racking up a R10k cart by coordinating an order with your riding buddies, then so be it. 
shimano is a great example…i havent bought shimano locally in years, partly because there is never stock of anything, but also because the local pricing us ridiculous. 
 

example:

Edited July 10, 2025 by MORNE

[NeilJHB]

I have purchased a few items from Bikeinn, and I must say I am happy. Service is fast. No duties except VAT on bicycle parts. Just stay away from clothing or shoes. Another place you can try is Merlin Cycles in the UK. Best prices, even better than here. If you want to know more, you can WhatsApp me. Thx

[Miz3r]

Got my invoice just after 8am, paid and sent documents

Got email confirming its being released for delivery now

paid around R1100 duties for a R5300 order.

[Immink]

On 7/11/2025 at 5:59 AM, Ezzydrop Cycling Club said:

I have purchased a few items from Bikeinn, and I must say I am happy. Service is fast. No duties except VAT on bicycle parts. Just stay away from clothing or shoes. Another place you can try is Merlin Cycles in the UK. Best prices, even better than here. If you want to know more, you can WhatsApp me. Thx

Hi, tried to find your contact number to whatsapp, can you send to me,(Drijus - 0832594003)?

[Miz3r]

On 7/11/2025 at 10:53 AM, Miz3r said:

Got my invoice just after 8am, paid and sent documents

Got email confirming its being released for delivery now

paid around R1100 duties for a R5300 order.

Package delivered to my house yesterday, all in order

Besides having to phone a few times to remind them to send me the import invoice etc, the rest was ok,

all in all a week from the Uk

[Mr Awesome]

Hey, guys. I have been buying from BikeInn for the past 5 years. Service has always been excellent. Specials are always worth while. It normally takes around ten days for parcels to arrive. 

[warick_wrx]

Is there a way around the geo blocking of certain components when shipping direct from Bikeinn to SA. 

[splat]

On 7/8/2025 at 9:07 PM, splat said:

I ordered from Starbike.com and I don't think that I fully understood their shipping policy, so I have a terrible feeling that they drop it off at SAPO.
 

Update:
Just collected from the local Post Office after they phoned and messaged.
They actually tried to deliver it to my house this morning, but I was out

This is 3 days after clearance from DHL (and that took 3 days on its own).
So, faith in SAPO restored.

Moral of the story: understand the shipping policy. Economy DHL is incredibly slow.

[warick_wrx]

4 hours ago, splat said:

Update:
Just collected from the local Post Office after they phoned and messaged.
They actually tried to deliver it to my house this morning, but I was out

This is 3 days after clearance from DHL (and that took 3 days on its own).
So, faith in SAPO restored.

Moral of the story: understand the shipping policy. Economy DHL is incredibly slow.

which shipping option did you use ?

[Jbr]

I had ordered from star bike before and also got the unpleasant surprised when told economic dhl is not dhl and goes through sapo here, was a nightmare to get my super expensive handlebars !

i ordered a few more things this year on bikeinn while traveling through france, including some sram red brakes that I returned when the force were released and got a refund no questions asked (at a 5€ price for the shipping of the return though).

now waiting for approval on a free return as they shipped me the wrong size handlebars, hopefully it gets approved before I leave here. They haven’t been the best on this one as first they screwed up the shipping by sending the wrong item and then didn’t ship the same day the 2nd bars I ordered once I found out the size was wrong on the first one, so had to cancel that order as it wont get by me before I’m leaving.

nothing dodgy, just not good timing for them to make a mistake