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.