Matt Gaunt

I don't doubt that your experience (along with the OP's) was a frustrating one but I will interject here only to say that such comments are not necessary nor helpful. Mistakes happen and given the volume of stuff that Ribble ship on a daily basis, it's hardly surprising that sometimes the wrong part is picked. Perhaps the warehouse pick locations could be looked at to make erroneously picking 5700 parts instead of 5800 less easy, I don't know. Either way, you cannot infer failings in the British pre-school education sector from receiving a couple of mis-picked warehouse items.

That said, of course, I am biased

Regardless, I know a lot of people who rely on Ribble for their supplies (I do too) and who have no complaints. Their customer service is spot on in my personal experience and I'm sure that if you picked up the phone to them then they would have your respective issues sorted out in no time.

All the best

jimc101

So, you didn't give Ribble a chance to resolve the issue, but went and purchased additional parts yourself, and then assume they will cover your, not their additional costs.

Having bought a 6800 groupset from them last year, yes it's OEM, but really doubt they package it, suspect it comes like that from the factory.

For the backing plate, from memory, this was included as part of the packaging, did you dispose of this when unpacking? very unusual for Shimano not to include all parts.

Jiggle

In my case it was about a month before it was all sorted. They use the slow boat when shipping replacement parts. Because they don't care.

bt

it's called a backup plate, silly boy.

rpenmanparker 

It would seem that buying from overseas sources like Ribble, Wiggle, PBK can be very cost effective but prone to logistic issues. I would be very comfortable doing this for a project that has no imminent deadline like an N+1. Since I have three more or less equivalent road bikes, I have the luxury of being able to wait for the supplier to make things right. But to rebuild or repair my one and only bike, no, I wouldn't depend on such a source. Except maybe in the dead of winter in Saskatoon when riding just isn't possible.

My former employer had a number of cultural faults despite being a tremendously well managed company. One of the most interesting of these faults was the belief that nothing should ever be left on the table. A cost savings project would have to realize 100% of the theoretical savings or be deemed a bust. So you would see the project team being flogged for months or even years to get that last 2%, wasting as much as millions in the process of trying too hard instead of just taking the 98% and running like they stole it. I see a similar thing playing out here. Sure you can save big bucks from Ribble, but sometimes it is just not the smart thing to try to do. If you need parts in a hurry and can't tolerate a screw up, settle for a smaller savings, say from a reliable ebay store and be happy with it. Not every deal has to be that good at the expense of your other requirements.

Matt Gaunt

Perhaps. Alternatively, you were just unlucky. Either way, you're sorted now and can choose whether to use them again or not, based on that experience.

Jiggle

That is a good assessment.

Dunbar

I'm not waiting 1-4 weeks for them to send me the backing plate then another 1-4 weeks to send the derailleur. That would mean I have no decent bike to ride for weeks. It's completely unreasonable to expect customers to do that because of their screwup. These are OEM groups so they did not include retail packaging. I could not find the backing plate anywhere. I was asking for a measly $10 refund for the backing plate which is probably less than it would cost them to ship it from the UK. There were several screwups noted on the RBR thread so it seems that Ribble is having some serious issues putting together groupsets from a pile of OEM parts. Ribble responded and asked me to ship back the derailleur for a refund.

Dunbar

I was prepared for a customs delays. I've had stuff take almost 30 days to arrive from the UK. The problem was that once I installed everything on the bike and discovered they sent the wrong RD my only option was to remove everything and reinstall 5700 then reinstall 5800 a few weeks later. Is it reasonable for Ribble to expect me to do that because of their screwup?

dtrain

Well, I can't find the backup plates for mine either. Looks like the support bolts are installed though. Still generally happy for the price.