State of the industry: a running thread

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Sir Neil d'Menture said:
Quite common in business. They pay for it when they sell it. Protects the manufacturers.
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Aye, I get how that practice is commonplace so if they’re working like that, where on earth has the money gone? How does it get to 90 million before someone decides there’s a problem? Why not 89million? 88? Or 1? To someone like myself in the lower layers of the finance pile, these numbers sound incredible and the fact that such a company will employ people purely to crunch numbers, just makes me think it’s all somehow a massive scam. Just fraud. Yes, that’s what I think - fraud.
 
Tbh I find CRC pretty useless. Sure their pricing is competitive but when scrolling through the website it just smacks of cheapness most of the time. So many of their goods are knock-down, cheap imports. The brands like Vitus & Nukeproof are just cheapened by the way they are marketed & sold via CRC/Wiggle.
I won't lie, I am a customer & infact bought a Vitus commuter a few years ago. Personally I don't see this as a loss, only for the individuals who have their livlihood at risk.
 
Twozaskars said:
Aye, I get how that practice is commonplace so if they’re working like that, where on earth has the money gone? How does it get to 90 million before someone decides there’s a problem? Why not 89million? 88? Or 1? To someone like myself in the lower layers of the finance pile, these numbers sound incredible and the fact that such a company will employ people purely to crunch numbers, just makes me think it’s all somehow a massive scam. Just fraud. Yes, that’s what I think - fraud.
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isnt that whats been basically going on since the 90s with all the corps doing this kind of ish just no one makes a stink for some strange reason unless its BHS or woolys whatever its just the tip of the iceberg
 
But are CRC/Wiggle really that much different in practice from Planet X who have also had their problems.
They are aiming, in large part, for the bottom end of the market. Pile it high, sell it cheap.
Lockdown has gone so the bottom has fallen out of the market. Winter is with us so casual cyclists have stopped for the year.
I've just had a warranty claim settled by Wiggle. 2 months it took and I had to threaten charge back to get anywhere. Claim dealt with somewhere in Asia. Makes Joe Public wary of using them. New website, new systems all introduced to save money.

CRC was good before the sell out. Now it is just another website chasing hard to find customers.
 
Sir Neil d'Menture said:
But are CRC/Wiggle really that much different in practice from Planet X who have also had their problems.
They are aiming, in large part, for the bottom end of the market. Pile it high, sell it cheap.
Lockdown has gone so the bottom has fallen out of the market. Winter is with us so casual cyclists have stopped for the year.
I've just had a warranty claim settled by Wiggle. 2 months it took and I had to threaten charge back to get anywhere. Claim dealt with somewhere in Asia. Makes Joe Public wary of using them. New website, new systems all introduced to save money.

CRC was good before the sell out. Now it is just another website chasing hard to find customers.
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Yep, I've found their customer service pretty woeful. Ordered two dropper posts (rather than one) by mistake, tried to cancel - impossible without emailing them and, of course, they'd despatched before they got back to me. If I wanted to return it, there was a £3 postal charge.
 
If CRC/Wiggle goes under, it would be awful for those who lose their jobs, but it might help drive custom to a whole bunch of smaller retailers, perhaps even bricks and mortar independent local bike shops. No consolation for those losing their jobs but, considering that so many independent shops have suffered as a result of large internet retailers, I wouldn't be unhappy if they were the major beneficiaries now. Of course, if the custom just went Amazon's way, I'd feel very differently.
 
I got to the interview stage at Ison distribution - didn't get the job, the owner sucked the life out of the room - seeing how some long established names have gone under, a bullet was dodged

Ironically the reason for not getting the job Apparently I didn't know enough about cycling or the industry despite a couple of staff stating they were new to both their jobs and the industry (which set off internal alarm bells regardless of the outcome).

This was at the back end of 2021 and there was little evidence of what was to come, in fact they were proud of their expansion plans and acquisitions at the time
 
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