TotalCycling.com Experiences

[Nomadmax]

Anyone from the USA used TotalCycling.com for parts? Are there duties or customs charges to be paid on orders from Canada to the US?

[Veloo]

I've ordered from them in 2016.
Not necessarily the cheapest, no free shipping but they've had some stock I couldn't find elsewhere.

Everything went fine. Can't recall if I got hit with duties but I usually ask if a shop will ship via post or some other carrier. If by post then there is a better than 50% chance that I won't get hit with duties.

They are in the UK BTW.

[Jared Purdy]

Originally Posted by Nomadmax

Anyone from the USA used TotalCycling.com for parts? Are there duties or customs charges to be paid on orders from Canada to the US?

I'm not sure what you mean when you're asking about dealing with totalcycling.com and then go on to ask about duty/custom charges when items are shipped from Canada? Those are two separate issues. I live in Canada, so this is my experience with totalcycling.com and a couple of other e-retailers.

I have ordered from totalcyling.com multiple times. Some things they carry are cheaper than any where else, and some about the same. I have also secured things from them that no one else had. Their default shipping method is Royal Mail and that is all I have ever used. It's quite cheap, at least for the things that I've ordered. The items were in my hands in ten days. That's fast.

I have also ordered from merlincycles.com and chainreaction.com. With what I ordered from Merlin, and their default shipper is Fed Ex Cross Border (really slow) I didn't pay duty but with my order from totalcycling, I did. Go figure. Currently, I've got another order coming from totalcyclng, so I'll be curious to see if I have to pay duty on it. There's also an order coming from chainreaction and they use a courier service (can't remember which one, though I think it's Fed Ex) so I'm also curious to see if I get charged duty on that one. Lastly, I have two eBay purchases, both of which are coming from the the US. I have a very strong feeling I'll be paying duty on those items. As an aside, I find buying anything from the US takes far longer for delivery than e-purchases overseas.

[paredown]

I had an annoying experience with Total this year--unlike past experiences that were all positive.

I ordered a few things January 27 of this year. Online I would see no progress or change on the order. I emailed and phoned at least twice for an update and was promised a call back regarding the failure to ship. I finally got an email from them May 24th (!) saying that they could not complete my order since one item was unavailable and they could not say when it would be in stock.

Meanwhile, they had charged my credit card for the full order at the time the order was placed.

At that point (May 24th) they then offered to refund me for the part they could not ship, and sent the rest of the order on June 1st. Good thing it was mostly replacement/repair items, but it killed a project I had planned.

The experience left me po'd--especially since I only ordered things that their web page said were "In Stock"--and they charged me before they were able to ship anything, plus took four months to respond to the problem.

[Nomadmax]

Thanks all. I don't know what led me to believe they were located in Canada. I may give them a pass and stick with vendors I've used before.

[Forza20]

i had a good experience with total cycling a number of years back..

of course, using visa or paylal may offer some protection/ comfort

and sending an email with any specific questions, etc.. in advance, that they will reply to in writing is always a good practice

[Wakatel_Luum]

I've had nothing but good service with them, PayPal is a different story though.