[The Sledge]

I ordered a titanium CGR from Ribble back in January and was looking forward to taking delivery this Friday (May 7). That’s a long wait for a bike, I know, but given the impact of the pandemic, and the handsome good looks of the Ti CGR, I figured it was worth it.

Over the last few (long!) months I’ve made a couple of minor changes to the spec I put together on Bikebuilder and Ribble were more than helpful.

This morning, just a few days before the big day (maybe three more sleeps?!) I contacted Ribble to clarify whether the May 7th date on my order form was the delivery date or build date.

Horror of horrors, I was told that due to parts shortage caused by the pandemic, my bike isn’t due to be despatched until week ending July 30 … that’s a 13-week delay to a bike that was ordered 13 weeks ago. 

As frustrating as the shortage of parts is, the increased demand for bikes during the last 15 months is understandable. What I’m struggling to understand is the woeful communication from Ribble, whose slick marketing sadly isn’t translated into other parts of their operation. A simple email in the last few weeks would have been both the courteous and proper thing to do. 

I’ve got a buyer for the bike the Ribble is replacing (a Cannondale Topstone) – he was expecting to collect it after the weekend. Thankfully, the Topstone was his N+1, so I hope he’ll understand. 

I’m about to ring him and break the bad news: it seems the decent and respectful thing to do, rather than wait until he rings me on Monday to ask what time he can pick it up. If only Ribble’s customer service team thought the same way.

Rant (whinge) over – I’m away now to re-fit all the parts I’d removed/changed from the Topstone…

PS Here’s the explanation from Ribble for the 13-week delay (although no explanation for why they couldn’t be arsed telling me until I contacted them today):

Hi John, I have taken a look into your order and can see that we are still waiting on receiving the majority of your components and as such this has resulted in a delay to your order. We are currently looking at dispatching your order to you the week ending 30th July. Please accept my sincere apologies for this delay and be assured that we are doing everything that we possibly can to reduce this delay. Our build dates are based on the dates our suppliers give us for when we are likely to receive the components for your build, and unfortunately, the unprecedented demand for bikes worldwide during the pandemic has severely affected the bike industry as a whole with many suppliers struggling to fulfil orders for components from not only Ribble but other cycle providers as well, and unfortunately, as we do not manufacturer the components ourselves, we are reliant on receiving these from the suppliers and this is impacting on our ability to be able to meet the dates. As such, the build dates do reflect the fluidity of the dates that we expect to receive the components and again my apologies for the delay.

 

Topic

[zeeridesbikes]

When I bought my cgr ti back

When I bought my cgr ti back in early January 2020 they told me mid March and it was done 3 weeks early.
 

There were some post build issues that needed to be resolved but just wanted to post about a largely positive experience.
 

It was pre parts crisis/COVID etc. 

[andybrock67]

Sadly same situation with me

Sadly same situation with me – CGR Ti ordered last December – same delays,same woeful non apologies ,same irritation with wall to wall marketing and influencer coverage  – final straw was a voicemail and email on the same day one saying it was delayed again until end June the other saying mid August – cancelled order and bought on ebay – truly dismal experience with Ribble 

[Steve K]

Just had Ribble contacted me

Just had Ribble contacted me – bike delayed by a couple of weeks to mid-June due to “delays to stock”.

Well, at least they contacted me rather than me, so better comms than for The Sledge.

[joncomelately]

This is definitely not new;
This is definitely not new; it’s the communication that is the most woeful. I ordered a CGR (alloy, can’t afford Ti regardless of how much drooling I do) in Jan 2019. Lead times then were much less and I was quoted delivery by the end of the month. That came and went, and only when I emailed them did I get some waffle about frame drops and a promise of a new build date. That never materialised, so I posted a low star review on Trustpilot (mainly complaining about the lack of communication, as the timeframes were still much better than other companies I had considered) and got a response within an hour from somebody. After a bit of a discussion they gave me a build date of the next day, but 3 days later when I still hadn’t heard anything I had to email again to find out what was going on. Eventually got the bike the week after.

It’s a shame, as the bike is nice and it feels somehow better to use a brand from ‘nearby’ (same half of the country); and if early Jan 19 they’d said you can have the bike by March that would have been fine. It was the lack of communication, and the lack of any follow up communication after having complained about the lack of communication, that was very irritating and after I used the £50 store credit they gave as compensation I haven’t been back because the experience was so soured. Probably never will, unless the current availability fiasco extends longer than the working life of the bike….

[bj9k]

Canyon, ordered May 2018 (BC)

Canyon, ordered May 2018 (BC), for August delivery. Delayed 3 times, each time after the due date. Arrived at the wrong address (how?) at Christmas after threatening a refund. Finally delivered to the correct address at New Year (7 months).

S**t planning and customer service. Sounds like Ribble has grown too quickly like Canyon did before covid.

[Steve K]

On the back of this

On the back of this discussion, I emailed Ribble for an update on my order.  They phoned me today to say it was still on track for early June.

[Steve K]

105 for me – so (selfishly)
105 for me – so (selfishly) fingers crossed that there’s a better supply.

[The Sledge]

Drinfinity wrote:

That is frustrating, but I can understand how it happens. If you have a supply chain system and staff levels designed for the times when deliveries are reliable, when it goes pear-shaped it’s a huge amount of effort to keep on top of. Lead times from suppliers can suddenly go out at the last minute, and manually updating thousands of customers every time there is a change is really hard. 
 

Unless you find a complete bike in stock, cancelling and switching to another manufacturer risks just going to the back of the queue again. 
 

Meanwhile if anyone can source me a 12 speed SRAM Eagle chain for a reasonable price you can win a Jaffa cake. 

Bugger, I swapped a 12-speed Eagle chain for a slice of buttered malt loaf only yesterday….

Communicating with customers shouldn’t be as hard as Ribble seem to be making it, ironically at a time when they’re busy promoting their ‘Talk to an expert’ feature. Clearly Ribble comms experts are as rare as Shimano groupset (and Sram chains)!

 

[The Sledge]

Steve K wrote:

Steve K wrote:

Not very good. And worrying personally as I have a Endurance Ti on order – due at the start of June. Dare I ask what groupset etc you ordered?

Ordered with GRX 600 1x – all other parts are stock, Level stem, bar, carbon seatpost.

[pablo]

Sounds like the coms has been
Sounds like the coms has been pretty bad at least a heads up that supply problems may affect delivery dates may have helped.
I would imagine they and many other bike companies don’t really know what stock they have until they build because their orders aren’t being fulfilled by suppliers.
I saw a guy trying to scalp a DI2 ultegra shifter for £250 last week the world has gone nuts!

[Dalzi]

I ordered a hybrid in
I ordered a hybrid in November, given a January date. My current wost case sernario date(I have had a couple) is middle of June.

[Socxs52]

Ribble have been having
Ribble have been having trouble communicating with their customers for awhile. I had ordered a 725 endurance with a 105 group set in June last year, for a end of August delivery. Understandable lead time due to pandemic and supply issues. Only because I checked with them to confirm the date was I told about the delay till November. I did complain and they gave £50 credit to use in the online store as a token of good will. Sadly I have only been out on it twice but loved it. Bring on the nice spring weather. Great bike and great after sales support with some questions I had about setting it up. If only they could sort out the post sale pre delivery support they would be onto a winner.

[Drinfinity]

That is frustrating, but I

That is frustrating, but I can understand how it happens. If you have a supply chain system and staff levels designed for the times when deliveries are reliable, when it goes pear-shaped it’s a huge amount of effort to keep on top of. Lead times from suppliers can suddenly go out at the last minute, and manually updating thousands of customers every time there is a change is really hard. 
 

Unless you find a complete bike in stock, cancelling and switching to another manufacturer risks just going to the back of the queue again. 
 

Meanwhile if anyone can source me a 12 speed SRAM Eagle chain for a reasonable price you can win a Jaffa cake. 

[Steve K]

Not very good. And worrying
Not very good. And worrying personally as I have a Endurance Ti on order – due at the start of June. Dare I ask what groupset etc you ordered?

[Secret_squirrel]

That apology is a bit mealy

That apology is a bit mealy-mouthed.  Unless you ordered an unobtainium handlebar as a special build I would be very very surprised if this was not par for the course and hence entirely predictable, thus warranting a much earlier contact.

I’ve had great customer service from Ribble in the past but I would be ringing around to see whats similar with shorter availability then cancelling my order.   At the very least they owe you something for the delay and poor customer service.

As a plug I recently got a Ti frame from Reilly.  They quoted a Oct-Nov delivery date when I ordered, and kept me updated when the frame finisher had to self isolate and various other times like when the frame batch arrived in the country.  Frame got to me on Friday 27th November, and I was delighted because they kept me informed every step of the way.

[Author]

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