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Buyer Beware! Wheelword.com STINKS!!!

Mar 27, 2004
24
0
So, I ordered a KHS FR2000 a few weeks ago from wheelworld. When the bike arrives, the box is utterly destroyed. Upon unpacking the bike, I see that wheelworld's packing job had a lot to be desired. The front wheel was wrecklessly jammed in the box and one of the spokes was bent on the crank arm and there were scratches all over the downtube, crank arm and rear shock. Nothing was wrapped around any part of the frame to protect it(or any of the components), and the only packaging material used was newspaper. After searching through the loose newspaper, I had no luck finding a sales invoice or any owners manuals for the bike, shock or fork, which is standard when buying a new bike. It would be nice to know how to dial in my suspension and have proof of purchase!

I call wheelworld to tell them about all the initial problems and they immediately go on the defensive, blaming UPS for everything even though the actual damage was done because the bike was packaged improperly and the front wheel was jammed into the box, and the bikes frame/components werent protected with anything.(very poor packaging!) I get sick of arguing and give up happy that they are going to send me an invoice and the requested literature on the bike. When the invoice arrives, I see that I was charged a $35 "build/packaging" fee! I called wheelworld again, and I'm told that it's standard for mailorder bike companies to charge this fee, or else the bike would come as a frame and a build kit....WHAT???? I explain that this is the third mail order bike I have purchased, and that they have always come mostly assembled, minus the pedals, stem/handlebars, grips, front brake caliper etc...
After almost an hour of arguing I finally get the manager to credit me back the bogus $35 fee. Nobody should have to endure the amount of ridicule, patronizing and just plain out crappy attitude I put up with from a MANAGER, after buying a bike!

Oh, its not over yet. After I get the bike ready to ride, I turn the compression adjustment knob and the rear romic shock BLOWS UP ! Shock oil EVERYWHERE! I called wheelworld back and not surprisingly they immediately go on the defensive again, looking for any and every way to turn things around on me so I'm the dummy responsible for the shocks failure so as they dont have to help me. I finally get them to agree to switch out the shock for me after another HOUR on the phone. I send them back the complete shock, with hardware, and what I get back is just the shock MINUS the hardware! Great....am I EVER going to get to ride this bike? So, I finally get the hardware sent to me, and everything is assembled and ready to ride.

On the first ride, the bike has obvious drive train issues and continuously ghost shifts anytime a lot of torque is placed on the crank arms while pedaling. Additionally, when I try to shift into the lowest gear in the rear(big cog) the chain hits the spokes and falls off. I tried tightening the low adjustment screw on the rear deraileur so that the cage is perfectly aligned with the gears, and also played around with the barrel adjuster and nothing works. I call wheelword back to see if I can get some follow up tech support. The sales guy I talked to was no use at all, so I ask to speak to a mechanic. The mechanic talks to me for 2 minutes and tells me he is too busy to help me. I explain to him that I just purchased a $1500 bike from his store and that I think some follow up support is justified. I asked him if there was a better time for him to help me, and he stated I should take the bike to my local bike shop! After telling him that I would prefer to at least try and fix it myself first, he states that he has to go help on the sales floor! When I reminded him that I too was a customer, and that it appeared he valued potential customers more than customers whose money they already had, his response was, "sorry sir, in-store customers, take priority over mailorder customers!!!!!! That one statement sums up wheelworlds entire service philosophy as I see it. Can you believe he said that?

I will NEVER again order ANYTHING from Wheelworld! I don't care if their prices are good. I have been buying things mail order for years now, and have never recieved such poor customer service! On the other hand, I have had EXCELLENT experiences with JensonUSA. I guess I had gotten a bit spoiled dealing with a company like Jenson who goes out of their way to assist customers before, during AND AFTER the sale. I took it for granted that the type of service I was recieving from Jenson was NOT the mail order industry standard. POOR FORM WHEELWORLD!!!
 

KleinMp99

Monkey
Nov 5, 2001
479
1
United States
I would have said **** you to wheel world and sent the bike right back......as soon as I saw the problems it had in the box. Why did you keep it???
 
Mar 27, 2004
24
0
Originally posted by KleinMp99
I would have said **** you to wheel world and sent the bike right back......as soon as I saw the problems it had in the box. Why did you keep it???
Believe me I considered it. There were a few factors to consider though. First, I paid $60 to ship the bike to me from wheelworld, that I would have been out. Second, It would have cost me $114 to send the bike back via ups ground. I guess it's a lot less to ship stuff when you are doing so from a business...
So that would have been $175 down the drain.

Plus, I really wanted this bike. And although the process has been very tetious and frustrating, due to the lack of support/service I have recieved from wheelworld, the bike is finally all fixed and dialed in. None of the problems were unfixable or expensive to fix, just time consuming.

In the end I'm glad I kept the bike, I just wish I had been able to buy it elsewhere.
 

bushwacker

Monkey
Aug 21, 2003
224
0
Norcal :/
HippieShredder said:
When the bike arrives, the box is utterly destroyed. Upon unpacking the bike
Umm, the box was damaged when it arrived and you signed for it?

Wheelworld.com's return policy clearly states "NO RETURNS ON OPENED/USED ITEMS"

Plus, I saw on a different board that you said when you blew your Romic, you called Romic and they replaced it because it was defective at manufacture.

In this story, you claim you bitched at them (wheelworld) for an hour and they sent you a new one.
Which was it?
 
Mar 27, 2004
24
0
Echo said:
So how much money did you save by not buying from your LBS? Was it really worth it?
Actually, I wouldnt have been able to buy this from a local shop. It was last years model, only available by mailorder.
 
Mar 27, 2004
24
0
bushwacker said:
Umm, the box was damaged when it arrived and you signed for it?

Wheelworld.com's return policy clearly states "NO RETURNS ON OPENED/USED ITEMS"

Plus, I saw on a different board that you said when you blew your Romic, you called Romic and they replaced it because it was defective at manufacture.

In this story, you claim you bitched at them (wheelworld) for an hour and they sent you a new one.
Which was it?

"UMM," NO, I didnt sign for it. It was sitting on the front porch when I got home. I've recieved many packages that have arrived with damaged boxes but the merchandise inside was well packaged and therefore wasnt damaged. If the bike had been packed correctly, the damage probably wouldnt have occurred.

As for the shock, Your facts are mixed up. First of all, I DIDNT BLOW THE ROMIC, IT WAS DEFECTIVE OUT OF THE BOX. Second, I called romic to ask WTF when adjusting the compression and oil leaked out and talked with a guy named smitty who confirmed the shock was blown. The exchange was done through wheelworld, but took longer than it should b/c of a non-communication.

Thanks for your concern,
bill
 

bushwacker

Monkey
Aug 21, 2003
224
0
Norcal :/
HippieShredder said:
"UMM," NO, I didnt sign for it. It was sitting on the front porch when I got home. I've recieved many packages that have arrived with damaged boxes but the merchandise inside was well packaged and therefore wasnt damaged. If the bike had been packed correctly, the damage probably wouldnt have occurred.

As for the shock, Your facts are mixed up. First of all, I DIDNT BLOW THE ROMIC, IT WAS DEFECTIVE OUT OF THE BOX. Second, I called romic to ask WTF when adjusting the compression and oil leaked out and talked with a guy named smitty who confirmed the shock was blown. The exchange was done through wheelworld, but took longer than it should b/c of a non-communication.

Thanks for your concern,
bill
If you didn't sign for it, do NOT open it, call the shipper immediately when damage is obvious. Here's the link to save you the hassle in the future: UPS damage claims


From your other post:
"Romic fixed it under warranty in a couple weeks"
exchanged or fixed? by Romic or Wheelworld?


And wheelworlds rebuttal, which should certainly be allowed:

"There are two sides to every story. I did not want to get involved with this discussion but I feel there would be a great injustice done if I don't share the story from my perspective. I will simply state some facts that have not been mentioned and I will do my best to do it in the most respectful way possible. My intention is only to protect the reputation of Wheel World. Below I will simply list a few points which I believe will let all involved in this discussion have a much more clear perspective regarding Wheel World.

#1 Regarding the, "build/packaging" fee of $35: I spent over 20 minutes on the phone regarding this single issue two days BEFORE and the day of BigBill making his purchase. He was clearly informed and aware of this charge before making his purchase.

#2 After BigBill received the bike which UPS had unfortunately damaged, he called us and we gave him two options: The first was two fold; send the bike back to receive a full refund, or, we could send him a replacement. The second option, which he preferred, was to give him a $100 credit for the cosmetic damage which occurred during shipping, (a bent spoke, a scratch on the spring, crank and down tube). Please take note we did not ask for pictures or proof of any kind, we simply took his word for it. At the time he was happy with the credit of $100. He also brought up the $35 build fee again saying he should not have to pay it. For the third time I reminded him he knew of this charge before the purchase was made, and, if he didn't think that fee was fair, you should not have made the purchase? He knew of this fee and had been told of this fee over and over BEFORE he made his purchase. After discussing this for 30 min. he also wanted a credit for a disc brake bleed because he said the rotor would not slide into the caliper properly. Again we simply took his word for it and required no sort of proof and gave him another credit of $35.

#3 All in all we spent over 1 hour and a half on the phone, being very patient with him. He continually used profanity with one employee of mine and my employee, who is a great guy, could no longer take the verbal abuse and turned the call over to me. He then continually use profanity with me but I hung in there and remained patient, at times he did apologize for the offensive language, I much appreciated his apologies. BigBill makes it sound a lot different then it really was. We did not treat him with any kind of disrespect. Also during our conversation he threatened more than once to make a post on MTBR. Which I can see now that he did.

#4 When he called back about the Rear Derailleur adjustment he talked with two of my employees. He did not mention who he was and that he had purchased the bike from us. My first employee could tell he was frustrated and did his best to help the anonymous caller but was unable to help him. My employee then asked me if I could help this customer adjust his Der. over the phone. I reminded my employee, and he already knew, that we can't help someone adjust their Der. over the phone! My employee agreed but felt the anonymous customers pain and gave the phone to a mechanic for one last try. The mechanic tried to help but could tell that over the phone a respectable fix would not work out. The mechanic also had customers breathing down his neck and politely suggested that BigBill take it to a local shop and have a professional look at it. BigBill then used profanity on my mechanic and hung up. BigBill then called back and talked again to the first employee, told him for the first time who he was, used profanity on him and said he would make this post, (the one you are reading now), and hung up the phone.

#5 I noticed while registering to this group the clear instructions agreed upon, before registering, not to use vulgar language or to post hateful messages. It appears to me BigBill is on thin ice at Wheel World’s expense using this forum the way he is.

#6 UPS is giving Wheel World credit for the damaged bike. UPS will not give a credit if they feel the product was not packaged properly. But they went to BigBill house and looked at the box and saw that it had been properly packaged. UPS also could clearly see how the box had been treated and UPS is giving us credit because they acknowledged it is their responsibility.

I do hope these facts clear up some doubts any might have had about the way Wheel World does business and also hope that in the future you might give us a try. We are not perfect and understand there is always room for improvement and are working hard every day to improve on our weaknesses. Our goal is to give the best service at the best prices every time! If we can't do that for you, please call and talk with me, Kyle, about any good constructive criticism you feel could make Wheel World a better place to shop. Thanks for reading this post and keep riding!

Kyle Paulson
Wheel World"
 
Mar 27, 2004
24
0
bushwacker said:
If you didn't sign for it, do NOT open it, call the shipper immediately when damage is obvious. Here's the link to save you the hassle in the future: UPS damage claims


From your other post:
"Romic fixed it under warranty in a couple weeks"
exchanged or fixed? by Romic or Wheelworld?


And wheelworlds rebuttal, which should certainly be allowed:

"There are two sides to every story. I did not want to get involved with this discussion but I feel there would be a great injustice done if I don't share the story from my perspective. I will simply state some facts that have not been mentioned and I will do my best to do it in the most respectful way possible. My intention is only to protect the reputation of Wheel World. Below I will simply list a few points which I believe will let all involved in this discussion have a much more clear perspective regarding Wheel World.

#1 Regarding the, "build/packaging" fee of $35: I spent over 20 minutes on the phone regarding this single issue two days BEFORE and the day of BigBill making his purchase. He was clearly informed and aware of this charge before making his purchase.

#2 After BigBill received the bike which UPS had unfortunately damaged, he called us and we gave him two options: The first was two fold; send the bike back to receive a full refund, or, we could send him a replacement. The second option, which he preferred, was to give him a $100 credit for the cosmetic damage which occurred during shipping, (a bent spoke, a scratch on the spring, crank and down tube). Please take note we did not ask for pictures or proof of any kind, we simply took his word for it. At the time he was happy with the credit of $100. He also brought up the $35 build fee again saying he should not have to pay it. For the third time I reminded him he knew of this charge before the purchase was made, and, if he didn't think that fee was fair, you should not have made the purchase? He knew of this fee and had been told of this fee over and over BEFORE he made his purchase. After discussing this for 30 min. he also wanted a credit for a disc brake bleed because he said the rotor would not slide into the caliper properly. Again we simply took his word for it and required no sort of proof and gave him another credit of $35.

#3 All in all we spent over 1 hour and a half on the phone, being very patient with him. He continually used profanity with one employee of mine and my employee, who is a great guy, could no longer take the verbal abuse and turned the call over to me. He then continually use profanity with me but I hung in there and remained patient, at times he did apologize for the offensive language, I much appreciated his apologies. BigBill makes it sound a lot different then it really was. We did not treat him with any kind of disrespect. Also during our conversation he threatened more than once to make a post on MTBR. Which I can see now that he did.

#4 When he called back about the Rear Derailleur adjustment he talked with two of my employees. He did not mention who he was and that he had purchased the bike from us. My first employee could tell he was frustrated and did his best to help the anonymous caller but was unable to help him. My employee then asked me if I could help this customer adjust his Der. over the phone. I reminded my employee, and he already knew, that we can't help someone adjust their Der. over the phone! My employee agreed but felt the anonymous customers pain and gave the phone to a mechanic for one last try. The mechanic tried to help but could tell that over the phone a respectable fix would not work out. The mechanic also had customers breathing down his neck and politely suggested that BigBill take it to a local shop and have a professional look at it. BigBill then used profanity on my mechanic and hung up. BigBill then called back and talked again to the first employee, told him for the first time who he was, used profanity on him and said he would make this post, (the one you are reading now), and hung up the phone.

#5 I noticed while registering to this group the clear instructions agreed upon, before registering, not to use vulgar language or to post hateful messages. It appears to me BigBill is on thin ice at Wheel World’s expense using this forum the way he is.

#6 UPS is giving Wheel World credit for the damaged bike. UPS will not give a credit if they feel the product was not packaged properly. But they went to BigBill house and looked at the box and saw that it had been properly packaged. UPS also could clearly see how the box had been treated and UPS is giving us credit because they acknowledged it is their responsibility.

I do hope these facts clear up some doubts any might have had about the way Wheel World does business and also hope that in the future you might give us a try. We are not perfect and understand there is always room for improvement and are working hard every day to improve on our weaknesses. Our goal is to give the best service at the best prices every time! If we can't do that for you, please call and talk with me, Kyle, about any good constructive criticism you feel could make Wheel World a better place to shop. Thanks for reading this post and keep riding!

Kyle Paulson
Wheel World"
Bushwacker you are pathetic! Who has the time to go trolling through old posts for amunition to use in an argument against somebody they dont know? Go outside and ride your friggin bike you come stain! If I didn't know any better I'd think you had a vested interest in this thread and might come to the conclusion that you worked for wheelworld!

But, nevertheless, I will humor you and answer your frivilous question about the shock replacement, even though I'm sure you already know all the details because you have trolled through all my messages and/or work for wheelworld. The romic shock was replaced EVENTUALLY by wheelworld, b/c Romic agreed in advance to warranty it within a couple weeks. Since wheelworld was assured that the shock would be warrantied by romic, they agreed to switch it out for me directly. HOWEVER, since wheelworld failed to communicate with me, I ended up having to wait for the hardware to arrive that wasnt sent with the replacement shock. So, when posting about romic shocks, their failure, and my dealings with their customer service on a different, unrelated thread, I find it much easier to just generalize by saying, "romic warrantied it in a couple weeks" than go into the longwinded, drawn out version that nobody but you seems to care about!!!

Folks, if you haven't figured it out already, "bushwacker" is AFFILIATED with wheelworld. AND, if you believe ANYTHING that Kyle Paulson from wheelworld wrote in that rebuttle then A) I have an amazing bridge for sale in the florida wetlands you might be interested in buying, and B) You should order from wheelworld.com and see what award winning service they have!
 

bushwacker

Monkey
Aug 21, 2003
224
0
Norcal :/
Go outside and ride your friggin bike you come stain!
Liar, if I was a 'come stain' as you put it, I would be a little white starchy dot on somebodies clothing, I'm not.


"bushwacker" is AFFILIATED with wheelworld."
Liar. Not sure how you came up with that.



I find it much easier to just generalize
Now that is an understatment.


You sure seem delusional.

Anyway, can I have your $135 credit? Or were they nice and charged it back to your credit card?
 
Mar 27, 2004
24
0
bushwacker said:
Liar, if I was a 'come stain' as you put it, I would be a little white starchy dot on somebodies clothing, I'm not.



Liar. Not sure how you came up with that.




Now that is an understatment.


You sure seem delusional.

Anyway, can I have your $135 credit? Or were they nice and charged it back to your credit card?
So Kyle, .....or Pat, or Bill, or whichever wheelworld employee posts under the name "bushwacker", I hope if nothing else, my threads regarding your mail order customer service standards, have shown you that many people, not just myself, are not satisfied with the way you conduct business. If you don't change things soon, and start treating your customers with the service, respect, courtesy and fairness they deserve, they will go elsewhere.

I'm finished posting on this thread. I'm gonna go ride my bike. You should too!
 

Freak

...............................................
Aug 15, 2001
3,728
0
Redmond, Washington
HippieShredder said:
Bushwacker you are pathetic! Who has the time to go trolling through old posts for amunition to use in an argument against somebody they dont know? Go outside and ride your friggin bike you come stain!

Here is your first and last warning about personal attacks.
 

bushwacker

Monkey
Aug 21, 2003
224
0
Norcal :/
HippieShredder said:
So Kyle, .....or Pat, or Bill, or whichever wheelworld employee posts under the name "bushwacker", I hope if nothing else, my threads regarding your mail order customer service standards, have shown you that many people, not just myself, are not satisfied with the way you conduct business. If you don't change things soon, and start treating your customers with the service, respect, courtesy and fairness they deserve, they will go elsewhere.

I'm finished posting on this thread. I'm gonna go ride my bike. You should too!
Sorry, I must post again.

The LIAR has once again stated I work or am affiliated with wheelworld.com. This is as untrue as most of the 'facts' hippieshredder has posted here. :D

oh, and my name is Paul.

And please answer my question, can I have your $135 store credit?
 

Lexx D

Dirty Dozen
Mar 8, 2004
1,480
0
NY
HippieShredder said:
So Kyle, .....or Pat, or Bill, or whichever wheelworld employee posts under the name "bushwacker", I hope if nothing else, my threads regarding your mail order customer service standards, have shown you that many people, not just myself, are not satisfied with the way you conduct business. If you don't change things soon, and start treating your customers with the service, respect, courtesy and fairness they deserve, they will go elsewhere.

I'm finished posting on this thread. I'm gonna go ride my bike. You should too!
www.pinkbike.com
This is a nice place, you should check it out.
 
Apr 1, 2002
284
0
NY
Echo said:
So how much money did you save by not buying from your LBS? Was it really worth it?
-----------mutha fukin werd up! sorry about ur troubles bro, but ur local LBS would had that all nicey nicey. good luck man.
 
Mar 16, 2004
11
0
Santa Maria
I have to agree your LBS would have taken care of your der issues and even if they didn't have that exact bike imo it might have been a better idea to make a compromise and get a different bike fromthe LBS
 

AA_Freeze

Monkey
Mar 8, 2003
150
0
Ferndale,Wa
bushwacker said:
Anyway, can I have your $135 credit? Or were they nice and charged it back to your credit card?

Bushwacker, how did you know he used a credit card :think:



Hey Freak, this is the "Bad seller" forum and I think it does everyone some good to see anothers misfortune in dealing with a shop. It is very competitive within the market right now and I dont see how ANY shop can justify treating someone to this degree where they have to post on multiple boards about the frustration they went through. I would rather loose money as a shop than have something this nasty posted about me on any board.
 

Echo

crooked smile
Jul 10, 2002
11,819
15
Slacking at work
AA_Freeze said:
Hey Freak, this is the "Bad seller" forum and I think it does everyone some good to see anothers misfortune in dealing with a shop.
You obviously didn't read what was said, or what the warning was for.
 

AA_Freeze

Monkey
Mar 8, 2003
150
0
Ferndale,Wa
AA_Freeze said:
the frustration they went through.

ya, I read it all...this guy was posting about dealing with a shop and is obviously upset. I realize the warning was for the bad choice of words, but this other person does seem to have some connection to the shop in question and that would frustrate me also if I couldnt get my opinion across.
The funny thing about this is that if the person does work for or have some affiliaton with Wheelworld they arent doing them any favors on this board by debating with the consumer in this manner.

Good luck in New Jersey Freak! :thumb: