akelman
05-02-2012, 08:30 PM
Almost two month agos, I bought a couple of Centaur rear derailleurs (http://www.go1bike.fr/Derailleurs-Rear/5167-Campagnolo-Centaur-alu-chape-courte.html)* from an online vendor, Go1bike (http://www.go1bike.fr/). After a month passed without the derailleurs arriving at my house, I sent the company a query. I didn't hear anything back. I waited another week and sent a second query (this time in both English and French). Still no answer. Another week and the same thing. And then another. Finally, I sent a message saying that I needed some reply or I'd have to take the matter up with my credit card company. When I still didn't hear a word back, I called my credit card company, and that was that: money refunded.
Having said all of that, I've purchased something from Go1bike in the past and had no problems. And it's possible that it's actually a small operation -- one can never tell with online shops -- and someone there is ill or something and thus couldn't reply to my messages. In other words, there may be mitigating circumstances. At the same time, I have no interest in getting into a long discussion about the relative merits of brick-and-mortar versus online vendors. There are plenty of threads for that argument. I just want to make sure that others don't end up in the same situation in which I found myself.
* Yes, I know that's a Veloce mech pictured. But at the time it was Centaur.
Having said all of that, I've purchased something from Go1bike in the past and had no problems. And it's possible that it's actually a small operation -- one can never tell with online shops -- and someone there is ill or something and thus couldn't reply to my messages. In other words, there may be mitigating circumstances. At the same time, I have no interest in getting into a long discussion about the relative merits of brick-and-mortar versus online vendors. There are plenty of threads for that argument. I just want to make sure that others don't end up in the same situation in which I found myself.
* Yes, I know that's a Veloce mech pictured. But at the time it was Centaur.