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10-15-09, 09:46 AM
Be VERY careful when ordering from ProBikeKit - their US Dollars conversion are wayyyyyy off. After ordering a big ticket item from them several months ago, and then suffering an over-the-credit-limit fee on my credit card after my purchase price was over $100 more than it was supposed to be, I did some research and found that their currency conversion rates are wrong in MULTIPLE places. Today, I just checked their website as I got an email advertising a good rate on Michelin Pro3 Races ($71 for a pair) and checked to see if they had corrected their US dollars pricing conversions.
Nope. Not even close. By my calculations, the pair of tires would be $83.43 instead of $71.22. That's quite a difference! 17% to be exact! The current exchance rate as of 10-15-09 is 1.6274. Clicking on the "Currency" link on their website, they list 1.59714. While this rate is accurate from a few days ago, the rate when I had ordered hadn't been seen in several previous weeks! Even the rate that they have listed in their "Currency" link is incorrect based on the prices they give. At 1.5971 dollars to pounds and a base price of 51.28 GBP, it should cost $81.89. A price of $71.22 means that they are using an exchange rate of 1.3888, something that hasn't been seen since the January to March time period!
Recommendation: They still have pretty decent prices. I would browse their website in Great Britain Pounds, and then do a manual calculation to US Dollars based on the current exchange rate (easily found on the home page of Yahoo Finance). Also be aware that most credit card companies charge around a 3% fee for currency conversions.
Customer service: I sent them an email through their website (no email address given) and didn't hear back for about a week. There was no check box to send a confirmation to yourself so there was no record of them ever receiving it. I probably spent half an hour typing up the email as I had to get different exchange rates and explain my whole story about pricing, my credit card over the limit and whatnot. After not hearing back, I sent them another email (wasting another half hour or more composing it) to which they finally responded. The did honor the price that I thought I was paying for it (as listed in the US Dollars version of their website) but I still lost several hours of my time trying to straighten everything out (I was able to get my money back from my over the limit fee from my credit card company as well). I'd give them a neutral here due to balancing the length of time before my issue was resolved to the fact that they refunded me money to what I thought I was paying. Make sure to copy any email you send them into a text document in case you need to send it again.
Nope. Not even close. By my calculations, the pair of tires would be $83.43 instead of $71.22. That's quite a difference! 17% to be exact! The current exchance rate as of 10-15-09 is 1.6274. Clicking on the "Currency" link on their website, they list 1.59714. While this rate is accurate from a few days ago, the rate when I had ordered hadn't been seen in several previous weeks! Even the rate that they have listed in their "Currency" link is incorrect based on the prices they give. At 1.5971 dollars to pounds and a base price of 51.28 GBP, it should cost $81.89. A price of $71.22 means that they are using an exchange rate of 1.3888, something that hasn't been seen since the January to March time period!
Recommendation: They still have pretty decent prices. I would browse their website in Great Britain Pounds, and then do a manual calculation to US Dollars based on the current exchange rate (easily found on the home page of Yahoo Finance). Also be aware that most credit card companies charge around a 3% fee for currency conversions.
Customer service: I sent them an email through their website (no email address given) and didn't hear back for about a week. There was no check box to send a confirmation to yourself so there was no record of them ever receiving it. I probably spent half an hour typing up the email as I had to get different exchange rates and explain my whole story about pricing, my credit card over the limit and whatnot. After not hearing back, I sent them another email (wasting another half hour or more composing it) to which they finally responded. The did honor the price that I thought I was paying for it (as listed in the US Dollars version of their website) but I still lost several hours of my time trying to straighten everything out (I was able to get my money back from my over the limit fee from my credit card company as well). I'd give them a neutral here due to balancing the length of time before my issue was resolved to the fact that they refunded me money to what I thought I was paying. Make sure to copy any email you send them into a text document in case you need to send it again.