eduskator

Long short story, I am in the market for new pedals. I currently have a set of PD-R540 and want to upgrade for PD-R8000 to shave of a few grams (88 to be precise) from my bike & match them with my current R8070 drive train. I normally prefer to encourage local economy by spending at my LBS or other ones close-by, but for some reason I found a pretty good deal at Merlin Cycle that no one around can price match (we're talking about a 100$ difference in the total price).

Anyways, my question is the following: has any of you recently bought products from Merlin Cycle, Chain Reaction Cycle or other cycling stores in Europe? If so, did you experience any additional delays in the shipping due to the COVID-19? Based on Merlin Cycle's website, it would take 5 to 9 working days for the product to arrive at my door, which is very reasonable. I doubt the carrier will be able to do it though given the current situation worldwide

Thanks!

melikebikey35

I just ordered a groupset from Merlin's on Thursday. It shipped out Friday (yesterday), and the tracking shows that it is already in the US, and has cleared customs.

I too was expecting a little bit of a delay, but that definitely was not the case...quite the opposite, actually.

mprince

I bought some shoes from Merlin a few weeks ago, and got the package in less than 10 days. So, good performance from a shipping perspective.

vtje

Just ordered some parts from ChainReaction and got it within 3 days.

eduskator

Thanks for your prompt responses. I have placed my order.

I feel bad for not supporting my LBS, but the price difference was simply too much.

RiceAWay

Seems like a lot of people had a lot of good luck. Most of the small items go on aircraft. There are no commercial airlines moving at the moment. So items from Great Britain or Japan are likely to take a very long time to get here. I have been waiting a month for a front derailleur that was mailed the same day from England and two weeks for a product from Shimano in Japan that just hit of all places - LA - two days ago and is still stuck in transit somewhere.

This lockdown is doing a whole lot more than slowing people up - the mail is atrocious and getting worse. What's more, since these items are going on unusual routes by unusual means the tracking is all shot to hell as well.

So perhaps you'll be lucky too, but perhaps you'll have my luck and be waiting a long time. If so have patience. The mail goes through but it might take some time.

BluFalconActual

I bought 2 kits from Wiggle 2 weeks ago and they were at my door 8 days later. It was actually quicker than normal.

DaveSSS 

An order I placed from a store in Germany was canceled and my money returned. It was supposedly coming by DHL.

eduskator

Seems like it's a hit or miss thing. Merlin Cycle says they now use FedEX since they offer faster & better shipping these days.

''Covid-19 Shipping News

As we are all aware the Covid-19 outbreak is changing the way we live our lives and how business operates. We are currently working and dispatching as normal and UK services are with Royal Mail and DPD and running smoothly with some delays. Please note both DPD and Royal Mail have removed their next day guarantees and as such Merlin Cycles cannot offer refunds if goods arrive late.

International Shipping - Due to the severe restrictions on flying there are a number of restrictions in place and with limited cargo space on planes delays may occur. Many services have stopped and we are having to use FedEx as a new shipping partner. FedEx offers a much faster door to door service but at a cost, therefore many shipping options have changed in the basket and free shipping levels will be higher. We will go back to normal when we can but for now we are still able to deliver you your goods.''

I ordered the pedals yesterday & got a ''dispatch'' confirmation this morning with a tracking number. I will keep you guys updated on the delay throughout the process.

mstateglfr 

your experience and claim of taking a long time from GB isn't shared by others in the thread. Certainly looks like typical anecdotal so far.

Overall, domestic package shipments are taking longer. At the same time, there has been an increase in residential delivery due to a spike in online retail.
In this instance(domestic residential), slower transit isn't due to covid closing shipping lanes as much as its been due to covid increasing shipment demand.

noodle soup

What groupset did you get?

melikebikey35

Ultegra Di2 to replace the GRX 800 on my gravel bike

surak

I ordered R550 pedals and an Ultegra cassette March 27th, Merlin shipped out April 2nd and they arrived by FedEx April 10th.

ZHVelo

Ordered two things within Europe, arrived in 3 days (2 nights). One night flight, one night waiting after it got to the local distribution center. Can't ask for more, would not have come faster in normal times.

eduskator

This is nice. 8 days. I ordered yesterday and it got shipped today so I should receive it anytime between April 24 and 29 unless it gets delayed at customs.

RiceAWay

My experiences are anecdotal but others who did not experience the delays are not anecdotal huh? Maybe you should look up the definition of anecdotal.

mstateglfr 

Yes yes, I know what it means. And at some point, like if 150 individual responses align while there are 5 on the contrary, then all those personal accounts become an accepted trend and more than the sum of its parts.

Russ Roth

I placed an order a few weeks ago with bike24 for 3 sets of tires and a spoke nipple threading tool and they arrived in 5 days. Ordered 2 sets of Miche track hubs from one the UK shops before I ordered from bike24, I've now gotten 2 notifications of delays. I suspect its since these hubs are ordered direct once they get an order and the company is probably shut down right now; it was a great price and from what I've heard the track is closed so I'll keep waiting.

esuad

Ordered from Merlin avril 13th, they shipped the 14th. Still in transport. I will add the date of arrival. I live in Turkey by the way.

diphthong

ordered two saddles from chain reaction over the weekend. order is supposed to be dispatched on mon, april 20th. i’ll keep y’all posted...**edit-order dispatched on april 20th.**

kingston 

I placed an order from bike-components.de on April 8th that still hasn't shipped. I assume there's something in the cart that's backordered and holding up the shipment, which can also happen when there's no pandemic.

RiceAWay

My GB order says "received" and then nothing. The person on the other end questioned them and they said that all you can do is wait. I would have expected them to show arrival in the US by now. What if they were put on a ship that is waiting to go through the Panama Canal or around the world to the west coast via India?

eduskator

That's why I read the shop's updated shipping policy prior to ordering from EU. Merlin Cycle has temporarily switched to FedEX to avoid any unwanted delays. Orders are shipped by plane I believe. Mine was packed & shipped within 24 hours of ordering, but was also shown ''in stock'' at the moment of the purchase. I am expecting that it should arrive in my country this week & be delivered next week. I bought grease in the meanwhile to service my current pedals.

Bob Dopolina 

It depends on where you are shipping from/to.

National postal services are closed in many countries. We receive daily updates from our national postal service (EMS).

The US is open but experiencing delays (purposely).

DHL and FedEx are operating as business as usual, but we have seen our delivery times increase from 2~3 days to around a week. If things continue that may even become longer unless some commercial aircraft are converted to handle the increased volume.

Bob Dopolina 

It's not going by ship. Unless you ordered a pallet or container of goods it's going by air.

If it shipped, you should have tracking.

If you track your order and it disappears for a day or so it means it's in Customs. Once it clears it will be visible in the system, again.