CycleScheme - how to hand back after 12 months?
Discussion
I currently have an ebike via CycleScheme that's a few months old (we've been a bit naughty as my partner is PAYE so processed it via her employer).
The scheme has been a bit crap as the payments started coming off her salary in December but due to delays in delivery to the shop we didn't actually get the bike until March (was initially told it would be 2-3 days when we ordered it & presented the voucher). CycleScheme didn't want to know. The bike has had a few issues & there's a possibility my partner will move to a new job around the time the initial 12-month hire is up.
Soooooo, at the 12-month mark we'll just end the hire, pay nothing more & hand it back. Question is.... From looking online it seems some cycle-to-work providers will send a courier to collect it but as far as CycleScheme is concerned I read in one CycleScheme document online (which may have been out-of-date) that it is the responsibility & cost of the hirer (my partner) to return the bike to CycleScheme. Anyone know if bikes are returned to some central UK hub & so would need to be packaged-up & couriered, or if they are returned to local hubs, charities or even the original retailer that sold it?
TBH, I'll be glad to get rid of it in 6 months time & my next bike will be a simple courier/commuter bike, and will not be on a cycle-to-work scheme.
The scheme has been a bit crap as the payments started coming off her salary in December but due to delays in delivery to the shop we didn't actually get the bike until March (was initially told it would be 2-3 days when we ordered it & presented the voucher). CycleScheme didn't want to know. The bike has had a few issues & there's a possibility my partner will move to a new job around the time the initial 12-month hire is up.
Soooooo, at the 12-month mark we'll just end the hire, pay nothing more & hand it back. Question is.... From looking online it seems some cycle-to-work providers will send a courier to collect it but as far as CycleScheme is concerned I read in one CycleScheme document online (which may have been out-of-date) that it is the responsibility & cost of the hirer (my partner) to return the bike to CycleScheme. Anyone know if bikes are returned to some central UK hub & so would need to be packaged-up & couriered, or if they are returned to local hubs, charities or even the original retailer that sold it?
TBH, I'll be glad to get rid of it in 6 months time & my next bike will be a simple courier/commuter bike, and will not be on a cycle-to-work scheme.
Sheets Tabuer said:
Yeah I thought it was a tax scam, the payments come out before tax thereby reducing ones tax liability so essentially a free bike that you pretend you'll send back at the end but no one ever does.
Sell after a year for roughly what it's actually cost you and then repeat. The bike & accessories cost £1027.98. She currently pays £85.67 p/month out of her gross salary which translates to £49.69 from her net (Scottish 42% tax-payer).
After 12 months she (me) will essentially have paid £596.23 for the hire of the bike from her employer. Ownership then transfers to CycleScheme & there's 3 options:
1) Hand it back with nothing more to pay;
2) Pay CycleScheme £250 to own it outright;
3) Pay £70 to continue the hire for a further 3 yrs (but no monthly cost) after which ownership transfers to my partner.
We're going to do Option 1 & hand back at 12 months old. My question is if anyone knows CycleScheme's process for returning a bike?.... Package-up & pay for courier, or do they have more local drop-off hubs/charities/retailers?
After 12 months she (me) will essentially have paid £596.23 for the hire of the bike from her employer. Ownership then transfers to CycleScheme & there's 3 options:
1) Hand it back with nothing more to pay;
2) Pay CycleScheme £250 to own it outright;
3) Pay £70 to continue the hire for a further 3 yrs (but no monthly cost) after which ownership transfers to my partner.
We're going to do Option 1 & hand back at 12 months old. My question is if anyone knows CycleScheme's process for returning a bike?.... Package-up & pay for courier, or do they have more local drop-off hubs/charities/retailers?
Edited by EasternBlocGeek on Sunday 8th June 23:10
John87 said:
Why would you not just pay the £70 and sell it? Once you make your choice you will never hear from Cyclescheme again and although technically against the terms of the lease, it happens all the time. Lots of people do exactly this and get a new bike every year.
Exactly this. I've gone through the process with CycleScheme and Cycle2Work and you never hear from them again apart from marketing emails. Pay the £70 and punt it.beambeam1 said:
John87 said:
Why would you not just pay the £70 and sell it? Once you make your choice you will never hear from Cyclescheme again and although technically against the terms of the lease, it happens all the time. Lots of people do exactly this and get a new bike every year.
Exactly this. I've gone through the process with CycleScheme and Cycle2Work and you never hear from them again apart from marketing emails. Pay the £70 and punt it.EasternBlocGeek said:
Might do that then. I was just going to dump it back on CycleScheme at 12 months & take the hit but if I can iron-out its bugs then it might sell ok second-hand.
You’d be the first person to have ever handed one back. As below if it’s worth more used than £70 then just pay them that and sell it.It’ll have been supplied with at least a years warranty from the dealer, if it’s faulty / ‘got bugs’ get them to fix it pronto - won’t cost anything.
There are some bugs with the bike, mainly a low quality derailleur & shifter that constantly goes out of whack & temperamental electrics that sometimes cut out unexpectedly & at other times kick-in even when the power assistance is set to zero. I'm not too bothered as it was a bike I bought to get me back into cycling & I can keep on-top of the adjustments & ride around the electrical glitches (& it's a proper ball-ache taking it back to the store) but I've decided it's not a 'keeper' & I'm not all that comfortable with selling it privately at 12 months to someone else, hence thinking I'd just take the hit of the 12 month hire costs & then return it to CycleScheme.
Cheers for the good advice. If it needed to be packaged up & couriered back to CycleScheme, that would quite posssibly cost £70 on its own.
Would be easier to park it in the s
tty-shentre & walk away. 
The retailer it was bought from does buy-backs / trade-ins (& would offer around £500 for 'mine'), & there is another bike I'd want from them, but presumably I couldn't trade this bike in as it'd still technically be owned by CycleScheme.
Possibility we might be emigrating so to avoid any potential tax issues for my partner, that would be the only reason to return it to them it seems.
Cheers for the good advice. If it needed to be packaged up & couriered back to CycleScheme, that would quite posssibly cost £70 on its own.
Would be easier to park it in the stty-shentre & walk away. The retailer it was bought from does buy-backs / trade-ins (& would offer around £500 for 'mine'), & there is another bike I'd want from them, but presumably I couldn't trade this bike in as it'd still technically be owned by CycleScheme.
Possibility we might be emigrating so to avoid any potential tax issues for my partner, that would be the only reason to return it to them it seems.
EasternBlocGeek said:
beambeam1 said:
John87 said:
Why would you not just pay the £70 and sell it? Once you make your choice you will never hear from Cyclescheme again and although technically against the terms of the lease, it happens all the time. Lots of people do exactly this and get a new bike every year.
Exactly this. I've gone through the process with CycleScheme and Cycle2Work and you never hear from them again apart from marketing emails. Pay the £70 and punt it.Pay the token amount, list it as the cheapest one available and it'll be gone in a few days and you'll have a couple of hundred quid in your back pocket.
EasternBlocGeek said:
There are some bugs with the bike, mainly a low quality derailleur & shifter that constantly goes out of whack & temperamental electrics that sometimes cut out unexpectedly & at other times kick-in even when the power assistance is set to zero. I'm not too bothered as it was a bike I bought to get me back into cycling & I can keep on-top of the adjustments & ride around the electrical glitches (& it's a proper ball-ache taking it back to the store) but I've decided it's not a 'keeper' & I'm not all that comfortable with selling it privately at 12 months to someone else, hence thinking I'd just take the hit of the 12 month hire costs & then return it to CycleScheme.
Cheers for the good advice. If it needed to be packaged up & couriered back to CycleScheme, that would quite posssibly cost £70 on its own. Would be easier to park it in the stty-shentre & walk away.
The retailer it was bought from does buy-backs / trade-ins (& would offer around £500 for 'mine'), & there is another bike I'd want from them, but presumably I couldn't trade this bike in as it'd still technically be owned by CycleScheme.
Possibility we might be emigrating so to avoid any potential tax issues for my partner, that would be the only reason to return it to them it seems.
Pay the £70 and it is yours to trade in effectively. Don't be such a wet blanket rule follower Cheers for the good advice. If it needed to be packaged up & couriered back to CycleScheme, that would quite posssibly cost £70 on its own.
Would be easier to park it in the stty-shentre & walk away. The retailer it was bought from does buy-backs / trade-ins (& would offer around £500 for 'mine'), & there is another bike I'd want from them, but presumably I couldn't trade this bike in as it'd still technically be owned by CycleScheme.
Possibility we might be emigrating so to avoid any potential tax issues for my partner, that would be the only reason to return it to them it seems.
ChocolateFrog said:
You might even find they don't really want it back because no one ever does that so they're not really set up for it.
Pay the token amount, list it as the cheapest one available and it'll be gone in a few days and you'll have a couple of hundred quid in your back pocket.
True. Might ebay auction it, collection only, reserve of £200 & whatever I get, I get. Pay the token amount, list it as the cheapest one available and it'll be gone in a few days and you'll have a couple of hundred quid in your back pocket.
Fancy getting a fixie next. This ebike malarky's not for me. The assistance is only useful climbing hills but most of the time my riding speed is above 15mph anyway so it's of no benefit.GiantEnemyCrab said:
Pay the £70 and it is yours to trade in effectively. Don't be such a wet blanket rule follower
Tell my partner! It's via her company scheme. She's 200% moralistic......... until it doesn't suit her. Typical woman. Edited by EasternBlocGeek on Monday 9th June 20:08
My OH had a colleague who passed away suddenly midway though C2W year.
The employer was not interested, and basically an endless loop of trying to prove she was widow to the scheme participant of C2W wore her down.
So she just looked up thier head office address and posted it back, with all the documents and a death certificate copied in there... She never heard anything from them, not even acknowledgement of the bike being returned.
If you're emigrating, pay the £70, pop it on Gumtree for £250 and run away with some beer money...
The employer was not interested, and basically an endless loop of trying to prove she was widow to the scheme participant of C2W wore her down.
So she just looked up thier head office address and posted it back, with all the documents and a death certificate copied in there... She never heard anything from them, not even acknowledgement of the bike being returned.
If you're emigrating, pay the £70, pop it on Gumtree for £250 and run away with some beer money...
EasternBlocGeek said:
GiantEnemyCrab said:
Pay the £70 and it is yours to trade in effectively. Don't be such a wet blanket rule follower
Tell my partner! It's via her company scheme. She's 200% moralistic......... until it doesn't suit her. Typical woman. Edited by EasternBlocGeek on Monday 9th June 20:08
EasternBlocGeek said:
beambeam1 said:
John87 said:
Why would you not just pay the £70 and sell it? Once you make your choice you will never hear from Cyclescheme again and although technically against the terms of the lease, it happens all the time. Lots of people do exactly this and get a new bike every year.
Exactly this. I've gone through the process with CycleScheme and Cycle2Work and you never hear from them again apart from marketing emails. Pay the £70 and punt it.Gassing Station | Pedal Powered | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff