Wiggle taking over CRC, maybe

[Don1]

I prefer CRC over Wiggle mainly for the fact when you need to return something, CRC is free and Wiggle isn't.

[AndrewEH1]

Kermit power said:

I fear for the future of buying mountain bike bits.

It used to be that you could compare the price of almost anything on Wiggle & CRC, but in recent years Wiggle seem to have largely moved away from the MTB market.

A few examples...

Forks - Wiggle 19, CRC 188

Handlebars - Wiggle 60, CRC 223

Stems - Wiggle 53, CRC 219

Adult FS Bikes - Wiggle 36, CRC 198

Adult Hardtails - Wiggle 47, CRC 153

I also wouldn't be at all surprised to find that like for like, Wiggle will be more expensive than CRC on almost everything.

I just hope to God that Wiggle don't wreck CRC!

Hopefully Wiggle will move to be Road/Tri/Run only and CRC will move to be MTB only. Perhaps even remain as different names.

[BlueNGT]

Don1 said:

I prefer CRC over Wiggle mainly for the fact when you need to return something, CRC is free and Wiggle isn't.

Wiggle are free returns. In my experience Wiggle have the best returns policy out there. I bought some Deda bars and then swapped to Zipp Ergo and Wiggle refunded after me having bought the Deda 2 months before. I bought some Shimano pedals but decided I wanted to try Speedplay and returned the Shimano 4 month after buying them and Wiggle refunded no problem at all. Always free returns via Collect+ and always processed without any issue at all.

I am big Wiggle fan, shame they don't always have every brand you want, but with a loyalty discount scheme and 3% Quidco too they are a winner for me

[ecsrobin]

pablo said:

I bet they havent. Retail is a mugs game and one poor member of staff can bring a whole stores reputation down. Plus there is so much additional logistics faff with having stores compared to great big distribution centres that I would imagine Wiggle arent interested in changing their business model just yet. Wiggle know that having no shop fronts, no real public facing element to their business is a good thing, it works for Amazon.

As wiggle used to be a small bike shop I'm sure they are well aware of the pros and cons.

[Ridley]

I wonder if the new company will continue the British Cycling discount? More importantly, what about the Haribo?

[Rich_W]

ecsrobin said:

Rich_W said:

AndrewEH1 said:

Prices will go up if one company own both...not great for the consumer.

Although I've always found Wiggle's service much quicker than CRC but CRC are usually always cheaper.

So long as WigReaction don't also purchase Evans we'll be ok

I tend to spend more with Wiggle as a rule. But I always check both first.

Evans is rubbish anyway!

I don't agree (And I don't work for them!) Maybe I'm spoiled because I'm half an hour from their Crawley Warehouse. But they are more likely to have clothing in stock in sensible sizes than CRC or Wiggle. And their prices are competitive. Last store I went into was Wimbledon a couple years back (Croydon one disappeared after the stty Riots!) and tbh the staff aren't useless anymore and it was no grief.


Components I tend to buy online.

And I've grumbled about 2 Indy LBS recently being fairly poor standard. Despite everyone saying that they need saving, yet don't want to make the effort generally.

[Kermit power]

Rich_W said:

I don't agree (And I don't work for them!) Maybe I'm spoiled because I'm half an hour from their Crawley Warehouse. But they are more likely to have clothing in stock in sensible sizes than CRC or Wiggle. And their prices are competitive. Last store I went into was Wimbledon a couple years back (Croydon one disappeared after the stty Riots!) and tbh the staff aren't useless anymore and it was no grief.


Components I tend to buy online.

And I've grumbled about 2 Indy LBS recently being fairly poor standard. Despite everyone saying that they need saving, yet don't want to make the effort generally.

I'd agree with that. I'm also close to Crawley, so when I built up my hardtail, I was able to spend a comfortable evening in front of the telly, earning brownie points with my wife because I wasn't complaining about Call The Midwife, whilst doing a price comparison for every component, then heading down to the warehouse the following day. Everything in stock, everything price matched to the best price I could find online, and everything on the bike by the end of the weekend!

Also, with regards to "save the LBS", didn't most of the big internet players - CRC, Wiggle, Evans etc - all start out as local bike shops in the first place? It's not as though they did an Amazon and popped up overnight, so there was nothing to stop other local shops doing the same thing if they'd wanted to...

[ecsrobin]

Rich_W said:

I don't agree (And I don't work for them!) Maybe I'm spoiled because I'm half an hour from their Crawley Warehouse. But they are more likely to have clothing in stock in sensible sizes than CRC or Wiggle. And their prices are competitive. Last store I went into was Wimbledon a couple years back (Croydon one disappeared after the stty Riots!) and tbh the staff aren't useless anymore and it was no grief.


Components I tend to buy online.

And I've grumbled about 2 Indy LBS recently being fairly poor standard. Despite everyone saying that they need saving, yet don't want to make the effort generally.

The complete opposite can be said for my experience of the Reading store, poor selection of stock, mixed with bad staff who just didn't know what they were talking about or put any effort into making me spend £2k with them. After that I stick to smaller independents.

[anonymous-user]

ecsrobin said:

pablo said:

I bet they havent. Retail is a mugs game and one poor member of staff can bring a whole stores reputation down. Plus there is so much additional logistics faff with having stores compared to great big distribution centres that I would imagine Wiggle arent interested in changing their business model just yet. Wiggle know that having no shop fronts, no real public facing element to their business is a good thing, it works for Amazon.

As wiggle used to be a small bike shop I'm sure they are well aware of the pros and cons.

For sure but now they are owned by a private equity investor, my point is those are the people calling the shots now, not the people who ran a little bike shop in Portsmouth.

[JustinF]

Kermit power said:

I fear for the future of buying mountain bike bits.

It used to be that you could compare the price of almost anything on Wiggle & CRC, but in recent years Wiggle seem to have largely moved away from the MTB market.

A few examples...

Forks - Wiggle 19, CRC 188

Handlebars - Wiggle 60, CRC 223

Stems - Wiggle 53, CRC 219

Adult FS Bikes - Wiggle 36, CRC 198

Adult Hardtails - Wiggle 47, CRC 153

I also wouldn't be at all surprised to find that like for like, Wiggle will be more expensive than CRC on almost everything.

I just hope to God that Wiggle don't wreck CRC!

Wiggle spent months selling stock down, replenishing only key lines, basically they turned stock into cash and used that, in part, to finance the takeover.

[astroarcadia]

I see Evans as one step up from Halfords. The Cheltenham store is a large out of town retail park type. Everytime I pop in its full of bikes, clothing and kit yet not a single item of clothing or bike appeals to me. Their top end road bikes on display have 105.

Wiggle has a great website and returns are never questioned. Limited only by some missing brands.

http://www.mantel.com/uk and http://www.sigmasport.co.uk are favourites of mine also.

[JustinF]

astroarcadia said:

I see Evans as one step up from Halfords. The Cheltenham store is a large out of town retail park type. Everytime I pop in its full of bikes, clothing and kit yet not a single item of clothing or bike appeals to me. Their top end road bikes on display have 105.

Wiggle has a great website and returns are never questioned. Limited only by some missing brands.

http://www.mantel.com/uk and http://www.sigmasport.co.uk are favourites of mine also.

That very same store tried to sell me a 29er for my 11 year old

[astroarcadia]

JustinF said:

astroarcadia said:

I see Evans as one step up from Halfords. The Cheltenham store is a large out of town retail park type. Everytime I pop in its full of bikes, clothing and kit yet not a single item of clothing or bike appeals to me. Their top end road bikes on display have 105.

Wiggle has a great website and returns are never questioned. Limited only by some missing brands.

http://www.mantel.com/uk and http://www.sigmasport.co.uk are favourites of mine also.

That very same store tried to sell me a 29er for my 11 year old

Only item I have bought from them is my Edge 510.

Faulty after a few days I took it back, they said no refund or replacement possible - it had to be sent back to Garmin.

Four weeks later it came back, report said not repairable - new un-opened Egde 510 given to me!

[Rich_W]

astroarcadia said:

I see Evans as one step up from Halfords. The Cheltenham store is a large out of town retail park type. Everytime I pop in its full of bikes, clothing and kit yet not a single item of clothing or bike appeals to me. Their top end road bikes on display have 105.

Wiggle has a great website and returns are never questioned. Limited only by some missing brands.

http://www.mantel.com/uk and http://www.sigmasport.co.uk are favourites of mine also.

To be fair to them. They will sell more 105 equipped bikes than those with Di2. I bet they have BMCs with Ultegra on somewhere on site. Though I am disappointed they sell Rapha! No shop should stoop that low!

Sigma is a strange shop ime. When they had the smaller store there were fine (if a little overstaffed!) After 2012 when they moved, they went a bit poncy. And specialised a bit too much. Dropped the vast majority of their energy food. There's actually relatively few bikes on display. And those that are, are either Entry level or Race spec, not so much in between. And the prices on everything else generally aren't massively competitive. Also some of their stock choice is bizarre. They had every size of the Assos Swiss team Jersey. (How many Suisse ex pats live in and around Kingston?) But no long sleeved jerseys in any other colour than black and even then nothing above L.

Couple years back, needed a new Tri wetsuit. They'd been excellent when I bought my first one. So felt OK to go back to them. They didn't have one on site. But at their warehouse. OK, can you get it today later on? No. Really? So we ordered one speculatively and "they'll call me when it's in". Only 2 weeks later they hadn't, so I had to chase. Little things like that matter.

Worse though, is the "look down your nose" they've developed. Last year I wanted a new BB and Chain fitted. Looked on their website, both parts in stock. Booked it in based on the fitting prices of their own website and obviously paid slightly more than CRC/Wiggle prices for the parts since I know LBS hate fitting parts they don't supply. Support the LBS remember. Dropped the bike in on my way to the Swimming Pool. So was wearing Adidas Tracksuit bottoms and a Hoody (down). As I walked to look at the Helmets I was being hawk eyed by at least 3 staffers who felt I was a bit Chav. Soon as I touched the Giro Synthe. I was pounced upon. And whilst I TOLD the guy up front I wasn't about to buy today just interested. He knew nothing about the product, or availability of colours. I wondered about when a colour would be in. And he decided that meant I wanted to order it! Assume the sale? Got "the sigh reserved for time wasters" when I said NOT TODAY

Oh, and when I picked the bike up couple days later. The price was inflated compared to what their own website said (and still does today) and no explanation as to why. "That's the price"

I bought the Synthe from Evans in the end!

[Kermit power]

Rich_W said:

Oh, and when I picked the bike up couple days later. The price was inflated compared to what their own website said (and still does today) and no explanation as to why. "That's the price"

That's outrageous! I'd have showed them their own website and told them to either charge me that or put the bike back to its original condition, and I'd take the bike elsewhere to get the work done.

[PorkRind]

CRC have been my GO TO online shop and before that, since MBUK days in the 90's mail order. It always amazed me how they delivered stuff, free, almost next day from Ireland.. Their returns policy is great and their staff friendly. I've not had to use wiggle often, except when CRC didn't have something in stock, theyre generally more expensive and don't deliver as quickly. A shame !

[bakerstreet]

PorkRind said:

CRC have been my GO TO online shop and before that, since MBUK days in the 90's mail order. It always amazed me how they delivered stuff, free, almost next day from Ireland.. Their returns policy is great and their staff friendly. I've not had to use wiggle often, except when CRC didn't have something in stock, theyre generally more expensive and don't deliver as quickly. A shame !

Has their return policy improved since late 2014. I had to print off a form and fill it in by hand to return something? If they are still doing that now, then Wiggle still have them whipped.

[Theoldfm]

Yes, Wiggle do have their own racing team and also have their own Colnago livery too - which as you can see, looks great:

[louiebaby]

I put a message to Wiggle with my latest order saying I hope the staff were OK with the merger coming up, and that I always preferred them to CRC. I got a pack of Star Mix and a SIS Protein Gel. (They may be giving them to everyone, but the may not. It was a £48 order.)

[neilr]

I hope this doesn't happen. Wiggle are usually fast and efficient. CRC have just sent me some spokes that I ordered.....that have quite clearly been used to lace up a wheel before. Totally unacceptable. Wiggle would do well to stay well away, the consumer can only suffer. CRC are a PITA when things don't go right. (Although that's ok I wont be using them again after this)

Why did i use them? Wiggle don't sell spokes and LBS round me have a 'couldn't care less' attitude with regards to orders that arent a big ticket item.

I was looking forward to some new wheels to use as well next time its dry.