Trying to buy bike parts on the cheap - A cautionary tale

Ya know, I'm generally a nice guy. I try to be patient with online orders. I realize sometimes stuff gets screwed up, and frankly, sometimes it's my fault for going with a retailer I don't have experience with trying to get a bargain. I really wanted to build a set of 29" Velocity Dually wheels around some Carver hubs I bought.These new wheels, to also be set up tubeless would hopefully save me a couple pounds over the horrendously heavy set of wheels I'm currently using.

Enter, name redacted. I've chosen not to "name and shame" this particular retailer. Ultimately, I had to throw down a proverbial glove to "get satisfaction" as it were. They ended up making things right, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Online retailer name redacted had Dually rims cheaper than anyone else. A whopping $83/rim and free shipping. The next closest competitor was a retailer I frequently use who had the rims available for $107 each. I was saving myself nearly $50 by going with name redacted. My regular retailer does price matching but in this case would not match the price from name redacted. I bit the bullet and purchased the rims. The initial order was delayed, and delayed some more. It was only calling in that alerted name redacted to the problem that my rims had gone to back order and they'd neglected to tell me. Fast forward something like another week and a half and eventually they show up. Wrong size. I checked everything and found out it was somehow my fault. In spite of specifically looking for 29er rims I had ordered and paid for 26ers.

(Note - not the actual box, but a box that rims came in nonetheless. Still, two very similar boxes sat here as a reminder of my bike part purchasing hubris for something like a week. Yeah, sat there and taunted me day after day.)

I now think sizing mistake must have had something to do with the piss-poor "web 1.0" design of their website and shopping cart. Still, it's ultimately my fault for not catching it in the subsequent receipt email. So, I paid out of my own pocket to send those back. But wait, it gets better! A day or so later, a SECOND SET of 26er rims arrive! WTF?! So, I call in and get things sorted out. Some b.s. on their end resulted in a double shipment. At least I wasn't double-charged. Still, it necessitated me making a trip to opposite ends of my neighborhood because I always ship FedEx, and of course the free return label from them was for UPS. Forty minutes of walking around the neighborhood later, and I finally dropped off the last set of rims at the UPS store and rewarded myself for an afternoon of frustration with a six pack of brewskis from the liquor store next to the UPS store.

(Not actually what I bought, but those bottles have long-since been recycled. Also, I don't leave empties laying around on the counter like this. It's supposed to be humorous, okay?!)

On top of mixed up sizes, double shipments and the like name redacted  wasn't able to speedily do a return for exchange, and suggested I buy the correct set outright in order to speed up me getting the right rims. I went ahead and paid out of pocket again for the correct size rims thinking I'd have my new rims inside of a week. However, it could never be that easy. At 17 DAYS AFTER I placed the order for the 29er rims there was absolutely NO INDICATION of whether I would receive them SOMETIME THIS YEAR!

So, I called in yesterday figuring since it was already past noon and I was told last Monday 4th that the rims would be in and shipped out, "that week," that it was time to get to the bottom of this once and for all. Mind you, the last time I spoke with them was over a week ago when I was told my rims were, "...supposed to be here and will ship out this week." So, frustration level at an all-time high at this point, I called in and demanded a refund. I was immediately asked, "Was it taking too long?"
"Yes. WAY too long," was my reply.

He then tells me they may have come in that day. I told him absolutely the ONLY way I was NOT going to persist with my request for a refund was going to be if they had indeed actually arrived, and they would agree ship them to me to arrive by next day air. He asked if he could investigate it and shoot me an email later that day. I agreed and resolved not to hold my breath. The tab with the rims from my regular bike part supplier sat open in my browser window, since I figured I'd be placing that order for the more expensive rims by the end of the day.

Coming in scant minutes under the draconian "one to two hour" time limit I gave them for contacting me, I had an email stating that the rims had in fact arrived and would ship that day via USPS Priority Express for arrival the following day. I still wasn't holding my breath. Seeing the rims arrive today would be the resolution I was looking for. Ninja postal workers inevitably snuck in and deposited the box o' rims and departed without so much as a peep from the buzzer. Only checking the tracking a second time since getting up alerted me to their presence. This nearly month and a half saga would not come to an end though until I opened the box, and checked the rims, examining them for signs of damage or them not being the correct item. Would they be 26ers again? Perhaps 28 hole, even though I'd specified 32 hole?

It's about damn time!

The box was there, the rims undamaged, and yes, even the correct size and hole count. A sigh of relief escaped my lips and a grudging email was sent acknowledging, "The rims arrived in good condition. Thanks for sorting this out. By the way, tracking shows you received the other rims. Just need to make sure you're processing that refund for the original purchase. Thanks." Thus ends our cautionary tale. Would $50 extra have been worth it to get the rims within the same week they were purchased, thus avoiding a lot of aggravation and phone calls to a less-than-responsive retailer? Maybe. However the siren call of the bargain is often hard to resist. Next time I hope I can convince my crew wife to tie me to the mast and just put wax in her ears so she won't hear my cries of, "But it's $50 cheaper!"