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Or more accurately, lack of stock...
Got some CRC vouchers for Christmas and pretty much anything i would like is showing as out of stock. Is this a year end thing or have they been getting crapper for a while now and i just haven't noticed?
Is this a year end thing or have they been getting crapper for a while now and i just haven’t noticed?
No possibility that it's both?
They've been terrible at holding any stock for a while now
I got the same issue, need new helmet, shorts and fancy a new Hans dampf none in my size for any really
They seem to have got steadily worse since they were acquired by Wiggle, both in range and stock levels.
It seems a *lot* of online shops now can show up in search engines or google ads as having an item, or even use their own site search, and ends in 'out of stock'. Or they list at one (lower) price, only to find the 'silver 10sp' is out of stock and all others are 50% more...
CRC and Wiggle are some of the worst.
I know you can search and tick the 'only in stock' box, but surely this should be default?
I have found I have stopped using CRC for this reason. I even walked into Stirling Cycles recently and bought something, at RRP. *gasps*
I would say they are worse than they used to be. If you browse for something almost everything is out of stock unless you check the in-stock only and highlight the odd thing that they have. It should be the default.
Quite a few large online businesses seem to run with no stock now. Cotswold Outdoor are bad for it - items show as in stock but they actually come from the manufacturer on demand. They still show in stock 2-3 days delivery but it's actually 2-3 days from supplier and 2-3 days to you, so longer than a working week. Annoying when you order over the weekend with the reasonable expectation to have it for the next weekend.
If you're a rapacious venture capitalist of the type that own these companies an excellent way to boast your cash position is to drive down stock and drive hard terms with suppliers. Both of which result in loads of stuff unavailable but a healthier short term cash position.
£10 off a £70 spend at the minute too... It's the well practiced way of "throttled sales" they did it last year too.. gain interest for items whilst showing discounted against RRP but also oos and then when it arrives in stock...the deal has finished and the price returns to RRP or inflated rrp, ready for the next "deal" to start.
as we know, Wiggle is CRC and with that in mind the CRC site is not really any different to how Wiggle has always been
Your search returned 743 items
*selects in stock only*
Your search returned 24 items
*selects Adult + Male*
Your search returned 3 items
*selects size L*
Your search returned 0 items 😐
The days of an actual business with tons of stock, an on-site sorting office and next day delivery are long gone
Also forces members of the public to make purchases sacrificing choice (i.e colour etc) therefore clearing previously slow moving stock. "driving the cattle" toward spending money/vouchers thats burning holes in pockets. There is also evidence to support that consumers find it easier and also put less thought in to purchases where the money has come to them via a gift.
Even if you click 'in stock only,' half the time the item you select is out-of-stock. Its pretty rubbish.
If bricks and motar shops are failing 'because of online sales', and online is failing to provide a decent service it seems there is something pretty wrong with the industry.
As long as your either3ft 12 or 7ft 12 with a penchant for early 90s lurid disco colours you'll be well catered for 😉I had an E Mail yesterday (not Wiggle or CRC) advertising "Massive jacket sale " Click on the link there 4 to chose from? 🤔Unless by massive they meant xxxxxxxxl 😉
online shop that sells stuff for less than high st shops can buy it for at trade in sold out shocker.
you just need to be quicker
Wouldn't trust vouchers for any shop in the current climate.
I appreciate that you may well have had no part in the purchase of said vouchers though.
I suspect the CRC stock turnover has plummeted since the 10% BC discount was reduced to £10 off a £150+ basket, people will be chasing the bargains elsewhere.
Quite often I find myself using Amazon because I trust their 'in stock' status (or the ability to see easily what is and isn't available). What worries me is that this showing of stuff that isn't 'in stock' by some stores will ultimately leading to less choice because people (including myself) use an ever decreasing number of stores that we trust.
I still use CRC but they aren't as good as they were.
I now search eBay/Amazon and smaller online shops much more than I used to.
Still occasionally look at the classifieds on here too.
CRC and Wiggle have always been about attracting sales with headline discounts based on the least popular items, sizes, colours, etc. Those are the items that are more likely to be in stock. The rest will go quick. Not sure it's got any worse or they've got more popular.
Said many times the rest of the online bike world is mainly based on stock levels from distributors and don't carry much stock themselves, which is why often in-stock can turn out to be out-of-stock everywhere if the system is wrong.
And yeah, Amazon is a lot more reliable when they say stuff is in stock, more so if fulfilled by them as it's in their warehouse. They've been doing a lot more bike stuff recently too.
Wiggle have ****ed CRC, plain and simple.
Shame in some ways, particularly for the nice Norn Irish folks who used to be so helpful when I had issues, but it's been an opportunity for other retailers to steal some ground back.
I run a couple of e-commerce companies and it's extremely difficult to get things right. You've just had a manic pre-Christmas period, followed by a few days closed, then a period when some of your suppliers/distributors aren't open. Unless you plan to overstock on everything (not really feasible, even for a company of CRC's size) you're going to have some issues until early January.
I'd suggest checking back in a week or two.
JP
dumb question time....on CRC if it shows out of stock does that mean that you can order it and then they will order it and get it to you..eventually. I always assumed it meant "sorry we don't have it and you cant order it" - which kind of defeats the purpose of even allowing you to see the item in the first place!
does that mean that you can order it and then they will order it
No, some out of stock stuff is clearly discontinued and will never be available again. You can ask for an email notice if stuff becomes available, but none of the ones I've set up have ever resulted in anything.
JP - Cheers, i'll look again at the end of Feb. Nothing urgent.