“After numerous ignored emails, I am still waiting on a refund. If things do go wrong their customer service is abysmal.
Save yourself some stress, Evans cycles is much better.”
“Poor customer service
After reading previous dissatisfaction, there appears to be a recurring theme, where Merlin cycles are rather unhelpful when it come to problems with delivery/return. Poor customer service. If you want a stressfree experience there are better cycle shops online!
My story: I order a front derailleur to fix my bike for a race, thought Merlin, reliable no worries. Ordered on 6th and opted for premium delivery. With dpd. It didn’t arrive until 10th! I contacted Steve at Merlin to request a refund, which he agreed to if it didn’t arrive next day. I warned Steve at Merlin cycles on the 9th that the tracking for dpd said they had shipped in to Cornwall (I live in Glasgow). After several emails I still received no reply until the 15th! While Steve stated he had a family bereavement which is terrible, he then said he would renege on that refund because I had opened a PayPal case for the exact cost of premium delivery. Is this helpful? You might not be responsible for DPDs error, but they were couriers of your goods and hopefully customer satisfaction means something. At no point did I know or Merlin cycles website display they had closed business for the week. Still waiting on a refund….
Keep treating customers like this and we’ll see how long business lasts.”
“Bought a sdg bell air saddle,,had imperfections in it, like a factory second. After sales service, returns don’t want to know about it. Ship back to England from Australia at my cost, so they can inspect…absolutely shocking customer service..will never use again..if I could give less than one star I would..”
“Poor after sales service
I've never given a bad review for a product before I've had chance to use it, but in the case of these Shimano Ultegra disc brake shifters & calipers, I can't actually install these because the hoses need shortening, which requires 2x brass barbs to be pressed into in the ends of the cut hoses before joining (and they're not included in these oem kits). You'd think Merlin would supply them (because unless you've got an XXL sized bike you'll need them) or at least I'd imagine they would be happy to send me 2 (prob cost pennies)... but no...! Customer service said get a craft knife and cut them out of the hoses... easier said than done John. Lost fingers & corrosive oil everywhere... I won't be doing that... and I won't be buying from Merlin again...”
“Still waiting for 2 orders. Why does it take 3 days to send to Royal Mail? Take some lessons from Chain Reaction and Wiggle.Super fast packing and delivery. Really ,really slow from Merlin.Maybe its a Nothern thing.”
“As with others, payment made and no goods received. They claim delivery made, but no details of where, when, to whom other than a vague description. And this was after I reordered the goods and paid for a fresh order needed for Xmas presents while they looked. Worst customer service I have ever experienced. Cowboy levels. AVOID THIS COMPANY.”
“Ordered some bike pants.
Same situation as others have reported.
Shipping delayed with no tracking updates.
Told by merlin to be patient.
Patients ran out when tracking had the item reach Australia, only to be sent back to London UK.
Merlin's response is to send the shipper an email. It's been a week and no updates.
It's concerning that another poster has indicated that the shipper (DAI) steels these items to onsell them. Well, it seemed to be DAI that controlled the tracking but I reached their tracking website thru.......FedEx!
I use my bike for work and have been ordering parts lately. Recently having issues with a defective tyre via bikeinn.
Online Shopping seems to be about screwing the customer at all costs and I won't be doing it again.”
“Ask them if they could ship a certain item to Singapore, which they do ship other items and they ignored my email, I sense that they are racist and would not help you unless you are of a certain colour.”
“No real effort made in terms of aftercare when II reported frame damage from misalignment. Basically washed their hands of it and "nothing we can do". Well OK then, I'll take my future business elsewhere and I'd advise others to do the same.”
“heb schoenen gekocht in januari. deze waren niet goed en teruggestuurd. elke maand geïnformeerd wanneer ik mijn geld terug kreeg. elke keer het zelfde bericht dat ik geduld moest hebben tot vandaag. na wederom een mail dat het nu een half jaar geleden was kreeg ik de mail dat ik mijn geld maar moest terugvragen via de payment provider? alsof die er iets aan kan doen???????”
“I purchased a bike online from Merlin on April 13th, 2020. Received it a few weeks later in Canada. After a season of using it for commuting during the warmer months of Montreal and for an occasional weekend gravel ride, the freehub in my back wheel broke. I noticed Merlin about the faulty freehub on April 3rd, 2021, well within my initial 12 months of warranty for the part. Merlin's customer service agent (Bex) responded to me on April 6th, 2021 to return the freehub to them so they could ship me a new one. In April 2021 I replaced the freehub at my own cost (need my bike to go to work), shortly after I shipped the freehub back to them. Radio silence from Merlin and no replacements were shipped to me.
Another season later, I have the same issue with my wheel in April 2022, indicating a faulty wheel. Merlin's customer service agent (Steve) now refuses to ship me the replacement hub that was promised to me and to replace my faulty wheel despite the fact that I noticed them within the warranty period...
Lesson learned: purchase from your local bike shop! I was hesitant at first to purchase my bike from an online shop for this specific reason but chose to trust Merlin based on its "commitment" to excellent customer service, which I have not received so far.”
“Basically $800 out of pocket never recieved order even after paying more that 43 shipping. They used a fraudulent shipping company DAI a Singapore company that steals high paid items and onsells them.
No items recieved and zero effort from Merlin to resolve except blaming customs when if took the time to look at where package is would understand.
Merlin's answer check shipping. Literally no business principles.
Understand shipping is a hassle but Discusting Steve and Gemma really the way being handled expected more”
“Terrible logistics. Ordered some items to be shipped to Australia, after 15 days of no updates on the tracking page I find out my items have been sent to the Netherlands! Customer service was rude and unhelpful. My items are waiting in the Netherlands to be shipped out, over 25 days since I first placed my order. Meanwhile items ordered on Wiggle arrived in Australia within 8 days!”
“I ordered Token Zenith Konax Pro Carbon Clincher Road Wheelset on 22 September. The item hasn’t arrived yet. I pay 1.169,18.
Today, on 29 September, these items price drop to 1.052,26. The gap between these two price 116,92. If i order today I will be pay 1.052,26.
I mailed this situation to merlincycles, they offer me to return the goods and reorder the same wheelset. If i return the goods, first i have to pay tax about %20, and this will be approximately 230,00 Euro. I asked will pay me totally 230,00+ 1.153,42= 1.384,02 Euro and if I return the good, I had to paid postage costs (they even don't know what is the postage costs!!!) they answered me we could not refund any postage costs or taxes.
I think this is not fair and this behaviour of solve the situation is very bad.
The goods haven’t arrived me yet, but price drop 116,92 less suddenly. And they don't want to solve this situation. I won't never order any items at merlincycles. And i never suggest to anyone to buy any item on merlincycles.”
“atrocious warranty service/ aftersale.
frame was send back in June after sending them email and photo of some crack around bottom bracket area. .. they agree to file a warranty claim . but till date. status from them is tht they are still waiting for factory to arrange a pickup of the frame. but when i email the factory. they said they are waiting for merlin to send the frame over.. from May when i found the crack n to when i had send them the frame.. it seem that nothing much was done and it Merlin waiting for factory to pick up and the factory is waiting for merlin to send.and some email on status goes unanswer and last update was that this had been handed over to the warranty department and they are working with the factory for the pickup... isnt that what they told me in AUG??? ..”
“I live in Europe and I have bought some articles for 93 EUR, and 15 days later I received a notification that I have to pay 43 EUR to pick up the parcel. I contact Merlin and they say that VAT was not included and that I have to pay duty on arrival. 43 EUR out of 93 EUR of purchase? Is that serious? Of course in the process of purchase I was not inform about that. I hope they give me a good solution.”
“I don't recommend Merlin Cycles at all. I've bought some tubeless tyres from them, where they haven't even specified what rim tape is included yet advertised them as tubeless ready. They were not tubeless ready. I rang up the company and the lady who answered was unbelievably rude. Customer service is clearly not one of their priorities.”
“Absolutely unprofessional and high risk vendor.
Placed an order which got re-routed back to Merlin-without me having even seen or touched the package- tracking showed they received the product back but customer service claimed they did not receive it and that they could not refund me until they do. It has been 6 months - countless emails- and nothing- I do not have the product I ordered and am out $250!! They must have insurance for this type of situation---the fact that the consumer is left footing the bill for a shipping SNAFU is ludicrous! STAY AWAY- Shop at Chain Reaction Cycle instead!”
