Manufacturer, Retailer, Survey and Consumer Feedback - bikesdirect.com shipping policies

I love to buy bike stuff online. I would like to order a bike [or two] from bikesdirect.com, but there's a catch - I'm not in the lower 48. I asked about having a bike shipped to Canada, and this is the reply I received.


Thanks for your email -
We only deliver within the US, free freight to 48, $150 addtl (non refundable) to AK/HI/PR
All other locations - read below information:
If you or relative who lives in the US have a United States issued bank/credit card with a United States billing address for delivery you can order using the online shopping cart system.
Otherwise - you will have send us a United States Postal money order
(get this USPS money order in a United States Post office)
Or you can pay by wire transfer from your bank.
Then we can ship to any of the lower 48 united states address such as a friend, relative.
Or rented post box service or freight forwarding company address service available through companies like:
www.myus.com
or
you can arrange for pickup by www.DHL.com at your expense with all paperwork pre-fille/paid.
Box dimensions are approx 50x8x27 30 lbs zip 77023
Wire transfers should be pre-arranged by email.
Bike must be in stock and held for customer for 24 hours.
Please email to make sure the bike is in stock and reserved for you.
Wire Transfers must add $20US non refundable wire transfer fee to Order
total. Plus a numeric indicator tag in the form of a fractional dollar amount - please email us for this.
ABA ROUTING : SUNTRUST BANK #061000104
FOR ACCOUNT OF BIKESDIRECT #1000000006998 (THATS 1 - 8-ZEROS - 6998)
Bank Address:
SunTrust Bank
100 Sawgrass Corners Drive
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082
Let me know by which method you would like make your payment
once we have confirmed the funds have cleared,
you can arrange for DHL pickup at
your expense
OR - we can deliver to any lower 48 United States city by FREE UPS Ground

I'm a little surprised that this info isn't posted on the website. I'm sure they get e-mails all the time like mine, and this would make things easier for both them and their customers. More importantly, is there any reason they have such trouble shipping outside of the continental US [no-export agreement with the manufacturer]? It's their business, so they can run it how they want, but it's really very easy to have UPS handle the customs work. Any additional fees can be passed on to the consumer. It's a shipping model used by hundreds, if not thousands of online sellers.

I think bikesdirect.com provides an excellent value. However, they could gain additional market by reducing barriers for potential customers. It's not like we won't buy a bike from somebody else. Imagine a Windsor or Motobecane in every garage in Canada, the UK and Australia...

Makes no sense to me either. I buy stuff all the time from the US and it gets here and my payment gets there and everyone's happy.

I'll ask Mike.

Thanks Brian!

Hi

We do ship to people in Canada all the time

We take non USA payments by wire transfer; which is easy and quick

Many customers in Canada have us ship to the UPS terminal in the USA which is close to them and they drive in and pickup the bike.

Others have the bike picked up on their account by DHL or UPS and taken directly to them in Canada
and in that way they file and control their own customs documents.

We have found credit cards from outside the USA are not fruad proof and that if we do direct shipping to no USA addresses the customers are sometimes not happy with the customs processing in their home country.

Thus we use this system; which works great for hundreds of customers every year

We could more aggressively sell and advertise outside the USA
but the truth is - we can not get enough bikes for our USA customers anyway.

We hope that the supply situation will improve and maybe we can later find a better way to handle export.

Hi

We do ship to people in Canada all the time

We take non USA payments by wire transfer; which is easy and quick

Many customers in Canada have us ship to the UPS terminal in the USA which is close to them and they drive in and pickup the bike.

Others have the bike picked up on their account by DHL or UPS and taken directly to them in Canada
and in that way they file and control their own customs documents.

We have found credit cards from outside the USA are not fruad proof and that if we do direct shipping to no USA addresses the customers are sometimes not happy with the customs processing in their home country.

Thus we use this system; which works great for hundreds of customers every year

We could more aggressively sell and advertise outside the USA
but the truth is - we can not get enough bikes for our USA customers anyway.

We hope that the supply situation will improve and maybe we can later find a better way to handle export.

Thanks for replying so quickly! Your response is interesting, to say the least.

I know this is an old thread but I just wanted to add that MyUS just verified to me they only use weight as a determining factor in cost. Anyone shipping bikes knows that it's the crazy size that screws you. And now that airlines are charging crazy prices to bring a bike this company is actually cheaper than bringing the bike on some planes. I'm thinking of using it to send my new road bike to korea. UPS and fedex want 700$ - 800$ MyUS is under 200$

i would love to get a couple of bikes from Bikes direct! they have the best prices on the web...but living in P.R. doesn't help! and 150 is a bit steep for shipping.

A friend told me just send ti to someone you know in continental and pay them to re-ship the package which might be plaussible anc cheaper...still, it would be nice if bikes direct would consider alaska hawaii and Puerto Rico a bit more...

dont mean to diss bikes direct at all.

There are some us companies who just won't ship to Canada. I've purchased from bikesdirect and chicabike. Had one bike shipped to a friend in Rochester - put it together in his garage then my wife and i went for a fabulous weekend of cycling in the finger lakes area (see hylandercycletour.com). No problems an amazing full dura ace bike (American classic wheels) with alum frame/carbon fork for 1299.00 !!!!!!! Then bought a carbon Motobecane frame from bikesdirect. Free shipping to my cousin in California, he mailed it to me here in Canada - bingo! Transferred the Dura ace components to it - the sweetest frame by far I have ever ridden in my almost 50 years of cycling - from high end Cannondales to custom built Columbus bikes! UPS will not "drop ship" to one of their offices near the border so don't waste your time.

I salivated over the bikesdirect site for months, but just could not bring myself to throw away $150 for shipping. Performance will ship bike here for $50. I just bought one of the last carbon-fork 105-equipped Italian bikes from Walmart.com. They charged $25 to ship a $500 bike to Hawaii.

What BD is saying loud and clear is that they don't want our business. OK, we get the message and I'm sure you can figure out what we think of you!

I salivated over the bikesdirect site for months, but just could not bring myself to throw away $150 for shipping. Performance will ship bike here for $50. I just bought one of the last carbon-fork 105-equipped Italian bikes from Walmart.com. They charged $25 to ship a $500 bike to Hawaii.

What BD is saying loud and clear is that they don't want our business. OK, we get the message and I'm sure you can figure out what we think of you!

A $500 carbon-fork 105-equipped Italian bike from Walmart.com? That's funny. But I'm sure you can go to FedEx.com or UPS.com and use their shipping calculator to find the actual shipping cost to Hawaii. Some companies get shipping discounts due to their volume, some subsidize the shipping themselves. In the end, you've got yourself a Walmart bike.

A $500 carbon-fork 105-equipped Italian bike from Walmart.com? That's funny. But I'm sure you can go to FedEx.com or UPS.com and use their shipping calculator to find the actual shipping cost to Hawaii. Some companies get shipping discounts due to their volume, some subsidize the shipping themselves. In the end, you've got yourself a Walmart bike.

As much as it pains me to admit it, that was a clever rebuttal!

I think the simplest way is to setup a mail box somewhere near the border.

I live in Vancouver and have a mail box down in Point Robert, WA which is less than an hour drive from my home.

whenever they don't do delivery to Canada, i have them ship there and pay little bit handling fee to the store.

You can set it up online or by phone.

check out this site:
http://www.tsbshipping.com/services.htm

I also order parts from the US, but I just get them shipped to a location along the US-Canadian border so I can then go pick them up. I do this because most companies won't ship to Canada, and if they do they want to charge a lot extra. I live in Toronto so the place I use is called Bay Brokerage in Buffalo, New York. You can ship to them using a service called Kinek. You can check them out at www.kinek.com/baybrokerage (http://www.kinek.com/baybrokerage)

When your package arrives they send you a text message and email letting you know it has arrived. The Kinek company also has locations all across the Canadian border in Vermont, New York, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Washington. It's definitely worth checking out since it is free to register with Kinek and ship to their locations, you only pay a small receiving fee when you pick up your stuff which is usually less than $5.

I heard about them at www.shiptotheborder.com (http://shiptotheborder.com)

I think BD shipping policy to AK and HI is atrocious. THey offer free shipping within the 48, but rather than show a similar policy and charging only the DIFFERENCE between 48 shipping and AK or HI shipping (which would be about $50), they charge excessive shipping to AK and HI. Speaking only for AK, I know darn well you can ship a bike from nearly anywhere to AK for less than $100. I've had it done for as little as $75. But you don't see any of this reflected in BD shipping policy and why I will never buy anything from them - the good prices are negated by excessive shipping.

You're blaming a retailer because UPS and FedEx charge a lot more to ship to HI or AK?

I think BD shipping policy to AK and HI is atrocious. THey offer free shipping within the 48, but rather than show a similar policy and charging only the DIFFERENCE between 48 shipping and AK or HI shipping (which would be about $50), they charge excessive shipping to AK and HI. Speaking only for AK, I know darn well you can ship a bike from nearly anywhere to AK for less than $100. I've had it done for as little as $75. But you don't see any of this reflected in BD shipping policy and why I will never buy anything from them - the good prices are negated by excessive shipping.But... They're a business. They can charge whatever they want; you're free to purchase or not.

Remember, their shipping fees need to be calculated to cover warranty problems, returns, etc.

I'm not a Bikes Direct fanboy (their marketing techniques sometimes seem shady to me, although it appears Mike is trying harder these days), but he's free to charge what he wants and lose or gain business as a result.