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Athlete Shop - Warning

This is a warning to anyone who might have been tempted to purchase Elite Direto (or any heavily discounted item) from athleteshop.co.uk. This trainer is still "available" on that site for £588. If you search for this product using google shopping, this store will be listed, with the price way below any other store. DON'T DO IT!

 

How can a company sell a £750 cycle trainer (Elite Direto) over £200 cheaper than anyone else? They can’t — my money had a nice long holiday in the Netherlands, though.

 

Skeptical that a store could offer this kind of discount and fulfil all orders, I emailed them to ask if indeed they could. Though they said they can’t guarantee 100% that they would be able to cover all orders, but orders are placed directly with the manufacturer, so they should have enough products to fulfil them all.

 

The manufacturer has struggled to keep up with demand for this trainer. At the time I placed the order, all retailers, including Athlete Shop, gave a lead time of around a month for delivery. With this in mind, and admittedly against my better judgement, I decided to place an order. I paid a little extra to order via Paypal for the buyer protection.*

 

The day before the original delivery date I received an email saying delivery would be delayed by five days — fair enough, I can live with that. One day later came another email saying the product is not available at this moment, we expect new stock around.  I didn’t trail off there; there was no date for when new stock would be available. Looking at the website, the date given was February next year. That’s around five months after the date of the order.

 

I did get the generous offer of swapping the product I’d ordered for a range of cheaper trainers, though. The difference would be refunded, of course — AS STORE CREDIT! How could I refuse?

 

I decided to contact the manufacturer. I explained what had happened and asked if Athlete Shop had placed orders directly with them, as they claimed they would. Their reply: “We don’t have any direct relationship nor do we supply this online retailer”. Now, to be fair, Athlete Shop didn’t explicitly state they would place orders with the manufacturer, Elite. They could have been placing the orders with the manufacturer of those vacuum cleaners that have faces. That could explain why they didn’t get sufficient stock.

 

When I asked for a refund I was informed it would be 5-7 days for it to go through — of course, seven days later I had to give them a nudge, before eventually getting my money back.

 

On the plus side, their customer service is very prompt

 

I hope that helps anyone who has considered  using this store. 

 

*I wouldn't do that again. Though I didn't need to use it, reading the small print, I'm not sure Paypal buyer protection it all it's cracked up to be.

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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6 comments

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mtbtomo | 5 years ago
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Just for balance I ordered some Shimano shoes from athleteshop and they came straight away, no issues.

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majorendo | 5 years ago
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Just had a similar experience with Athlete Shop. I ordered some panniers. After a few days, I received a message saying delivery was delayed by a week. Then a couple of days before delivery was due, another message saying delivery was delayed further. I don't know where or how stock is sourced, but it's no good offering the cheapest price and then expecting customers to wait while they sit on your cash. I went to a more reputable on-line dealer in the end with a far better delivery date. I would avoid this trader in future.

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abusivemonk | 6 years ago
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I ordered Elite arion digital rollers from Athlete shop as they were about 30% cheaper than anywhere else. They were delivered quickly and have been great. The only issue I had was that the unit came with a European two pin plug. Luckily I had an adaptor already. Recommended by me.

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philhubbard | 6 years ago
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Just to check you didn't check with Elite directly did you? 

 

I'd imagine they would have an NL distributor which would take their orders for them?

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CXR94Di2 | 6 years ago
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When a price is too good to be true, check and get email confirmation they have the item in stock before ordering. I just order from Wiggle/CRC, at least you know when it's in stock, it is.

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BehindTheBikesheds | 6 years ago
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I bought some stuff recently, a light was faulty and they sent out replacement straight away without any fuss.

the one thing that annoyed me was the visa charge, so i opted for the bank transfer only to find it was a NL bank. Given they supposedly have a UK outlet and no mention it was a foreign bank and this would cost me £12 i initially cancelled the order after I'd told them to ring me to take my visa payment.

In the end after the fiddle-faddle with not getting the original 1st order discount i set up a new account, went through Topcashback to get extra bunce off and the £5 odd off my order which just about covered the £7 delivery charge.

prices for items are cheap though and picked up some nice water bottles plus lights, tyre levers etc.

Rarely do companies on tinternet get it right all the time.

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