Manufacturer, Retailer, Survey and Consumer Feedback - Niagara Cycle Frustration

I don't really remember the specific gripe; and I'm too lazy to go back and reread.

However, as I recall, the gripe is not about a seller collecting his $$ before he sends the merchandise, as that is certainly the way it's always done.

Rather, it is irritating that the seller keeps little or no inventory. I pay, the seller takes my money and then uses it to procure the merchandise from the wholesaler, and then sends it on to me two or three weeks later at probably twice what they paid the wholesaler. It rankles because the seller basically provides no service besides remailing what was purchased from the wholesaler with my money.

Niagara is certainly not the only one who does this; and their prices are sometimes better than the others; so i will continue to use them when I can't find a better price elsewhere. But I can always count on a long wait, because of the process described above. What I prefer to do now is find the best prices for the items I need (using Google shopping) and then buy them all from Jenson, using their price-match feature. This way I pay only one shipping charge. On my last Jenson order ($400) I saved $91 off Jenson's regular prices. And Jenson usually has the stuff in stock and ships speedily.

The Niagara customer service is excellent, if it is handled by the woman who owns it. If handled by others, it is often as screwed up and useless as the others. However, with Niagara I have the idea that their intentions are always good (which is no more than enlightened self-interest since satisfied customers are repeat customers), a simple concept which eludes Icycles, who seem to delight in doing everything possible to frustrate the customer. Go figure.

I don't really remember the specific gripe; and I'm too lazy to go back and reread.
Rather, it is irritating that the seller keeps little or no inventory. I pay, the seller takes my money and then uses it to procure the merchandise from the wholesaler, and then sends it on to me two or three weeks later at probably twice what they paid the wholesaler. It rankles because the seller basically provides no service besides remailing what was purchased from the wholesaler with my money.

First off when I ran a business there were times we had to procure the item from a wholesaler for a customer, and we always took the money first. This is done so you don't order the item using business funds and then call the customer later and tell them their order is in please come in and pay, then the customer says, oh so sorry we already bought it from another place. Now you spent your business funds for something that may not be returnable so you have to sell it to some else later, if you can and probably for less then I could have sold it to you for.

So what if the business gets the item from a wholesaler first? You agreed to buy the item at the price advertised, and the business sold it to you for the advertised price you agreed to...where's the problem? You, as a retail purchaser cannot go and buy something from a wholesaler unless you have a wholesale license, thus your not going to be able to get the item you wanted from a business at the their cost, a business is in business to make a profit, if you don't want a company to make profit then I suggest you stop buying because every thing you buy from, even food, makes a profit. Speaking of food, they get their food from a wholesaler too and then sell it to you for a higher price, but you cannot shop at the wholesaler, so does that rankle you too?

Oh sure Jenson says it's in stock but sometimes not in their immediate location! They have a deal with the wholesaler to send it directly to you instead of the wholesaler sending it first to Jenson then Jenson sends it to you. Jenson being a much larger retailer then Niagara gets special treatment from the wholesalers, as part of the doing business with a large retailer they made certain concessions. Walmart does the same thing, they order is such a huge volume that Walmart can dictate now to a manufacture on how to make a specific product, meaning make it cheaper so you can sell it to Walmart for less. Sears has been doing that for years. except with Sears they jack the prices way up more then Walmart does; Walmart wants profits by doing volume and Sears wants profits by charging more.

I've never been frustrated with Niagara. Of course they have good customer service because they want repeat customers which is logically in their best of interest so they will have a successful business, and so that the owners can have a degree of personal wealth, and so that they can hire employees who might otherwise be without work. What the hells wrong with that?

I have visited Niagara Cycle several times including today. The staff is always pleasant and helpful. There is also the continuous buzz of sounds and activity from the back - packing up boxes for shipment, etc. They're definitely credible and have some amazing deals if you visit the store. And no, it's not a mega store, just a nice shop on a mission. I have also ordered online with them and the item was received amazingly fast. I have ordered out of stock items that were shipped to store, and they called in just a couple days to notify me that the goods had arrived. Great service and fast action if you ask me. Any business has it's moments when things slip up. The key is whether they attempt to put things right. I also noticed the "Help Wanted" sign has been hanging in the window for several weeks, so I imagine they are trying to land some qualified assistance - ask any business owner - this is generally a challenge in this day and age of lazy loafs who are content with hanging around and playing Call of Duty 24/7. I have no reservation recommending Niagara Cycle.

slow slow slow website today -- i only need a few things but I've been puttering for a loong time -- will look elsewhere next time

By the way, I found out directly from Jenson that they carry all their stuff IN HOUSE, they do not outsource to another wholesaler then either have it shipped to Jenson then to you or from the wholesaler directly to you. I wrote and earlier post to report this finding but discovered today it never got posted I guess. So if Jenson has it they'll send it to you, if they don't it will either be back ordered or it's sold out.

I just got Niagara's website and it was working fine, maybe they had a problem this morning but it's working fast when I got on it just about 5 minutes ago.

I have to give a recommendation for Niagara Cycle. To echo the sentiments above, they run a very professional shop, with knowledgeable people.

EVERYONE there is a cyclist of some sort, and one of them will be able to answer your questions. If the first person you talk to doesn't know, they will hunt down the "Mountain bike guy" or the "roadie guy", or the "clunker guy".