deepakvrao

Why the heck would I lie? Some guys are just over suspicious. Of everything.

dr_lha

For f***s sake, I was not saying you're lying. You might be temporarily resident somewhere else for all I know. I couldn't figure out why you'd get charged VAT importing into India, so I took a wild guess that maybe you were somewhere else.

And of course, I was right in a way, as you were getting the item shipped to the UK and not India, as most people would have assumed from your location.

deepakvrao

Yup, I realised after I posted. Apologies.

dr_lha

No worries, it's the internet.

Stucky

Dude, you can't have personalized, responsive full-service when you're paying rock-bottom prices. The reason you get the rock-bottom price is because it's a big, automated business...not some little hole-in-the-wall where the guy who answers the phone can walk into the next room, find your box and change the address. To do so in a huge automated warehouse, would be so costly as to not only kill any profit they'd make on the order, buit to actually cost them money.

Accept the fact, that when you click "place my order", you're committing to what you've chosen. The fault is with you, not Merlin. You are expecting too much. You might get that kind of service if you were paying full retail....but on the margins places like Merlin operate on, you're looking at a system that is too big and complex to be so responsive- and that is how they can offer such low prices.

2manybikes

How do you find the local parts and bike shop availability? A lot of internet purchasing? I'm buying more on the internet, because It's so easy now.

2702

I work for the USPS and as a non carrier employee working Sunday delivering Amazon is mandatory unless I hit 6 numbers. I don't buy from Amzn cause I don't like the idea of my local shops destroyed by them. But they put money in my pocket. I do think one day they will cut out usps and do it all themselves.

Machka 

We get most of our stuff through the internet ... ebay, a place in NZ called Torpedo7, several UK places, and a couple mainland Australia places.

FLvector

I just received two items that were ordered on 2/29 - I believe they were shipped the same day ordered.

RR123

I buy from Merlin quite frequently and every order has been shipped in less than 24 hours. That's part of the reason I buy from them, they have the fastest shipping and generally the best prices on most things. The quick shipping obviously didn't work out in the OP's situation.

deepakvrao

OK, like I said, I might have been hasty. Might have been, but not so sure.

Over 48 hours between ordering and shipping, so it's not like it was same day. In that period, I could not even get a chance to cancel the order? Most sites I use have the option to cancel before the items have shipped. I had asked them this too, and they said no.

Machka 

You know that an address change on the shipping label involves a whole lot more than just someone printing off a new label, right?

DOS

I have had good luck with Merlin, with stuff shipping in less than 24hrs. The only site that ships quickly where I have noticed an ability to cancel an order reliably is Amazon and that I think is limited to orders covered under Amazon Prime. So I am pretty forgiving since so,often I am amzed at how quickly I get stuff, even stuff ordered from overseas.

The only time I had a run is where I felt the site was being unreaonable was a noncycling purchase where I had paid for express shipping, found out three days after I had ordered that not only item not shipped, but site could not tell me when it would ship. So I tried to cancel, since I had paid extra for shipping an item tne site claimed was in stock. and the item would clearly not arrive when I needed it to (was a gift). I got the runaround for two weeks during which time the item still had not shipped. I even tried to cancel the paypal payment, which paypal would not allow me to do. They finally agreed to cancel after about three weeks of failing to ship my order.

deepakvrao

Yes, I realise that, after this thread. Already admitted that, but unable to cancel? Before shipping? Tell me honestly, don't most online stores allow that?

PeregrineA1

How much money are we taking about?

CliffordK

I've had the occasional order that has been revised for one reason or another. For example realizing that there are multiple different octalinks, and I need the right one. Or, on the supplier end, being out of stock of a discontinued item. Or, sometimes appending something to an order.

Most vendors are pretty good if you catch them in time.

Unfortunately the OP was apparently late in the processing (or so they say).

Good point. I'd be extremely suspicious if anybody wrote or called requesting my order to be routed out of the country.

Best thing would be to cancel the order, and have the "friend" place a new order using their own computer, IP address, credit card, etc. It never hurts for someone travelling to have money waiting for them in their destination country anyway.

deepakvrao

Never thought about this. very valid point.

However order cancellation should still have been possible. Anyway, this can go on endlessly.

Machka 

If the order was ready at 9:35 am, as you say, then that likely means that your box was packed, closed, and complete with shipping address and invoice etc. ...... and packed into the crate or shipping container bound for India complete with waybill, manifest etc. ...... and waiting for the delivery truck to arrive to take it to the airport. It could be waiting at the warehouse, or it could be waiting at another delivery location.

Cancelling, or changing something about your order, at that point would involve opening the crate or shipping container, digging out your package and changing the waybill, manifest or whatever. Doing that could, potentially, mean that the crate or shipping container would not be ready for the delivery truck to take to the airport. A delay like that could, potentially, mean that all the packages in the crate or shipping container might not make that flight and all would be delayed because you wanted to cancel your order or make a change to it.

It would indeed be less hassle to just ship the package, once it has reached that point, and then have you return it if you really don't want it, than it would be to, potentially, hold up an entire shipment to dig your package out.


It all happens fast these days!

If you're going to cancel, you've probably got about an hour.

FLvector

You mean it doesn't work like this???

indyfabz

I remember when Merlin was just a wizard.

wphamilton

FWIW my recent order from Merlin Cycles, just a couple of folding tires, took a little over two weeks to arrive here in Georgia USA and I was good with that time frame. I'd be a little miffed if I wanted to cancel and couldn't but a lot of big operations have a small window where you can cancel, generally between placing the order and "processing".

At some point they have to generate a list (or text message or whatever) and physically pull the ordered product from inventory to a staging area (of functional equivalent). That's what they really mean by "processing" when your order is "in process." Prior to that it's nothing to cancel, after that point it becomes increasingly more time consuming and error-prone. The more efficient they are, the smaller the window.

So bottom line it's one of the trade-offs for dealing with high-volume low margin merchants. The stress-free way to do it is order and forget about it until it arrives, or is a week overdue.

deepakvrao

100 dollars. Not a fortune, but a lot I could do with that money.

Anyway guys. I have to eat my words.

Ordering shifters and another crankset from them.

rpenmanparker 

That's the spirit!

aubiecat

Amazon has leased twenty 747 cargo planes and is working towards that goal.

aubiecat

I'm surprised that there isn't widespread melting about Ribble right now. Their transition to the new website and inventory/shipping system has been a complete cluster cluck.