jmccain

Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see what you ordered. Paying $3.01 shipping on a $3.00 item happens sometimes. Paying $3,000.01 shipping on a $3,000.00 item is unacceptable.

If I absolutely couldn't make the shipping work, I'd call, or visit, a local LBS, give them the list and see what the total price would be.

gtragitt

It hasn't changed in Houston. Other than bicycle shorts there is nothing I would consider buying there. I get better merchandise at similar prices from my preferred LBS in Houston. I do find I can get many things on-line that aren't in stock in the LBS. For example there was no LBS in Houston that had the Ultegra Di2 upgrade kit. I didn't even see a bicycle in the store with Di2 last week.

David Bierbaum

My LBS shops in the area all get parts the same way I do, unless I brave City traffic and make the half-hour trip to St. Louis, MO. City traffic. Ugh. They order it online on the spot. I just save myself the time and trip, and do the ordering myself.

tony_merlino

What I've found is that, when there are multiple sources for items on Amazon, the sum of the price plus the shipping from at least one non-supersaver seller is within pennies of the Amazon price without shipping. This isn't always true, but often enough. The advantage of buying from one of those sellers (even if you do it through Amazon), is that the shipping is usually faster.

For trekking bars, Nashbar's are as good as any. And they seem to be constantly running some kind of a promotion that includes either deep discounts or free shipping.

I guess the bottom line is to shop around, and wait for the good deals...

Retro Grouch 

My objection with Nashbar has been shipping time. They had consistantly taken at least a week longer than anybody else that I've bought from. I think that, if you don't pay for expedated shipping, they hold your order to be sure it doesn't get to you too soon. I've gotten used to much better service so now I don't use them anymore.

Retro Grouch 

Yeah, I think that I must be a PITA customer because none of the local shops ever has the kinds of things that I want either. If I'm going to have to wait anyway, I cut out the middleman. Usually, for me at least, what I save by not paying sales tax pretty well covers the shipping cost.

David Bierbaum

Nashbar was out of stock on the trekking bars anyway, when I made my order, so that was a moot point for me.

USPS Shipping is a mystery to me. I made an order for 3 things, and my mirror was being shipped almost the instant I hit the buy button. During my last order, my pump was shipped (in State) two days before my panniers and rack (shipped from Kentucky), but the panniers and rack arrived 4 days before the air-pump.

rdtompki

+1. I was surprised when I order four tires and tubes from Wiggle at an outstanding price and shipping was exactly $0. Arrived quickly as well.

byte_speed

+1.

In the past, I got orders from Nashbar in a few days with regular shipping. Now it is more like two weeks. I still order stuff from them, but only as a last resort.

tony_merlino

I think the last thing I ordered from them was the trekking bars, and that was last fall. They were here within a week...

Doohickie

In my experience, Performance has been been fine. They seem to carry only what they think they can move, plus some high end "museum pieces" that are more for display to give them cred. Since most of my bikes are out of date though, they usually don't have too much that I want (eg., limited selection of 27" tires). My impression of the help is that they are friendly and try to help, but I've never gotten a hard-sell vibe from them. I generally prefer to support locally owned businesses though, so on that basis Performance isn't my first choice.

On ebay, feedback is requested for every transaction and reminders ensure that there are a lot of feedbacks submitted whether the transaction was good or bad. Sellers strive for 99.x% positive feedback and if it is less than that, I may avoid a seller. But if you're looking at feedback on something other than ebay, bear in mind that for stores like Performance there are probably tens or hundreds of thousands of transactions, and most people don't submit feedback. Most of the time only the complainers take the time to submit feedback, so you see maybe 20 negative reviews but not seeing the feedback of thousands of satisfied customers. Just food for thought.

Mugre

Take online reviews, especially negative ones with a grain of salt. My wife owns a service oriented business and has several bad reviews online that are complete fabrications by customers who were not rational and one recent one that is clearly an attack by a competitor. My vet has a scathing review by a nutjob with 5 dogs who wanted to be able to buy prescription medicines without bringing the animal(s) in. Of course she didn't mention that in her review. She only said that the doctor is a souless, greedy quack who orders unnecessary tests to pad his bill.

My last transaction at the Performance in Santa Monica, CA, was better than I've had in most LBS's. No pressure, real information without condescension, real choice and an unconditional, if it doesn't suit you for whatever reason bring it back policy.

Mugre

mikepwagner

If all you are doing is ordering online and picking it up in their store, why do you care about whether or not they they have a hard sell approach or a "grocery store" environment?

Mike

zonatandem

So why buy on-line?

David Bierbaum

In my case, if I want to buy at all, most of the stuff I want has to be ordered by the bike shop anyway, so I'm cutting out the middleman and saving a trip by ordering online myself. None of the local bike shops are really all that local to where I live, and I'd rather not waste gas going to one, only to find out they'll have to order it. The selection is just better.