PSA: Ibis bikes 40+% off Competitive Cyclist

[altasnob]

Sue them in small claims court

[John_B]

Sue them in small claims court

Lawyer says what?

[Eluder]

Can they not honor the price? Its not like they lose money on the deal, they just dont make any. 40% off is not an unheard of discount and is not large enough to be obviously in error.

They are losing money at 42% off

[californiagrown]

They are losing money at 42% off

so anything <42% off should be honored?

My point was that 40% off is typical shop/proform (IME). Were they discounted beyond 40%? Even still, pretty common for +40% discounts on end of model year inventory... excepting the pandemic years for MTB sales.

[Norseman]

Email reply said basically, "since we fucked up, we can offer 25% off which puts the item at our cost."

In my case, they had listed the carbonated Ripmo frame at $1700, which was like 52% off, lol.

The main thing I learned from this experience is that Competitive Cyclist is owned by Backcountry (yes I'm a jong and should've known) so I can happily say fuckem

[jackattack]

The main thing I learned from this experience is that Competitive Cyclist is owned by Backcountry (yes I'm a jong and should've known) so I can happily say fuckem

My policy with bc is if they’re losing money on the sale, proceed, otherwise fuckem.

Good try everyone

[californiagrown]

25% off which puts the item at our cost."

Its been 3 years since i bought a bike, but the small handful of bikes i bought with bro-deals before that were all 30-40% off and i know they werent losing money on me. Is 25% really the retail markup on cost these days for frames and completes? Is it that insane?

[rideit]

They might be ‘factoring in’ overhead, storage, labor, etc.
Slippery accounting. I bet the original ‘mistake’ sales price was their ‘cost’, but who the hell knows. The average markup at my shop was 30-35% MSRP, but I bet this has come down a little due to the massive overall increases.

[muted reborn]

Email reply said basically, "since we fucked up, we can offer 25% off which puts the item at our cost."

In my case, they had listed the carbonated Ripmo frame at $1700, which was like 52% off, lol.

The main thing I learned from this experience is that Competitive Cyclist is owned by Backcountry (yes I'm a jong and should've known) so I can happily say fuckem

it should have been more honest and said "since we fucked up, we are taking your money back. If you don't like that, great, then we don't have to give you 25% off as that's even more money back to us."

And then I'm guessing they added the tone deaf closing comment "Thanks for you patience with this!"

[jmedslc]

Granted fuckups happen and they’re well within their right to rescind the offer and cancel orders. However I still have a distaste for anything backcountry.com and I will not give them a dime no matter how fucking cheap things are on their site. I won’t even click on their site when google tells me they got the cheapest price on an item I’m looking for. AITA?

[muted reborn]

they’re well within their right to rescind the offer and cancel orders.

They are? I presumed they were not.

[Danno]

Granted fuckups happen and they’re well within their right to rescind the offer and cancel orders. However I still have a distaste for anything backcountry.com and I will not give them a dime no matter how fucking cheap things are on their site. I won’t even click on their site when google tells me they got the cheapest price on an item I’m looking for. AITA?

Same.

They are? I presumed they were not.

Yes they are. Pricing mistakes happen all the time, and stores can choose to honor them or not. As long as it wasn't intentional, an intent to deceive, a bait and switch type thing, there isn't anything nefarious you can accuse them of. And you aren't damaged by them refusing to honor the sale price. I mean, if a small business had a massive fuckup and listed all their inventory for a dime, and everyone purchased their entire inventory, you think they are legally obligated to go out of business because they are legally obligated to honor the pricing? And that the only reason they don't go out of business is because people don't take them to small claims court (absurd suggestion, BTW, but par for the course)?

They may lose goodwill by not honoring the prices, and backcountry had very little goodwill to begin with, but they are under no obligation to honor the pricing so long as it wasn't a deceptive business practice (which is a different issue, they still wouldn't have to honor the pricing but could get in trouble because of that).

ETA: this isn't a formal legal opinion, just my understanding of consumer law.

[smmokan]

Its been 3 years since i bought a bike, but the small handful of bikes i bought with bro-deals before that were all 30-40% off and i know they werent losing money on me. Is 25% really the retail markup on cost these days for frames and completes? Is it that insane?

Margins are being cut all the time these days... I can't speak from direct experience as a retailer, but IME as a demo partner, the discounts have dropped significantly over the last few years. I'd be surprised if a company like BC only had 25% margins on Ibis bikes, but maybe they're factoring in overhead and talking about their net margin.

[Dantheman]

Granted fuckups happen and they’re well within their right to rescind the offer and cancel orders. However I still have a distaste for anything backcountry.com and I will not give them a dime no matter how fucking cheap things are on their site. I won’t even click on their site when google tells me they got the cheapest price on an item I’m looking for. AITA?

Meh, I have to bite my tongue all the time and buy shit from various evil empires that are far more nefarious than BC.com. I don't buy from there often, but if a Google Shopping result pops up showing they have a big discount on the item I want I'll order it.

Yes they are. Pricing mistakes happen all the time, and stores can choose to honor them or not. As long as it wasn't intentional, an intent to deceive, a bait and switch type thing, there isn't anything nefarious you can accuse them of. And you aren't damaged by them refusing to honor the sale price. I mean, if a small business had a massive fuckup and listed all their inventory for a dime, and everyone purchased their entire inventory, you think they are legally obligated to go out of business because they are legally obligated to honor the pricing? And that the only reason they don't go out of business is because people don't take them to small claims court (absurd suggestion, BTW, but par for the course)?

They may lose goodwill by not honoring the prices, and backcountry had very little goodwill to begin with, but they are under no obligation to honor the pricing so long as it wasn't a deceptive business practice (which is a different issue, they still wouldn't have to honor the pricing but could get in trouble because of that).

ETA: this isn't a formal legal opinion, just my understanding of consumer law.

Pretty much. Now, if they were too slow and the order was shipped and delivered you would be under no obligation to return it if they asked for it back.

[g_man80]

Unlikely, but I’m curious if anyone went to the SLC retail location and bought one in person? As Dan mentioned, I’m assuming the customer would not be required to return it.

[singlesline]

Pretty much. Now, if they were too slow and the order was shipped and delivered you would be under no obligation to return it if they asked for it back.

Semi-related fun fact. If someone ships you something you didn't order, you're also under no obligation to send it back. Law says to treat it as a gift.

Get a random trombone in the mail from Amazon (as happened to my dad)--yours to keep (or donate to a local school).
Order 1 xbox and get 2 in the mail? You just got a free xbox.

Apparently there used to be mail order scams where they'd basically send you unordered merchandise and demand payment (at inflated prices). Or people would ship things to businesses with an invoice and hope nobody realized it wasn't ordered and would just pay the invoice (or mail it back so the scammer can just try again somewhere else). So they passed laws that allow you to treat unordered merchandise as a gift.


That said, just because you can legally keep it, doesn't mean it won't damage your relationship with the seller. It is one thing to get a bonus item from Amazon--they know the law and even if you manage to get ahold of a person to report the item to, they usually just tell you to keep it.
But if you order something from a small business and they clearly fucked up and they ask for it back...you should do the right thing and send it back (and they are well within their rights to stop doing business with you if you don't).

E.g. I ordered a cheap clearance goretex shell a few months ago from the online store of some random ski/bike shop in CA. Wasn't sure what would fit so I ordered multiple sizes/colors. They sent me an email saying they couldn't find the Blue L anywhere, apologized for the website inventory being off, and refunded that jacket. Except when the package arrived, the Blue L was right there in the same bag as the Blue XL. Could I have kept it and resold it for a couple hundred bucks? sure...but it felt better to let them know and send it back with the other rejected sizes/colors.

[MarcusBrody]

I was pissed and disappointed, just because I got so excited for apparently getting a great deal on a bike that I'd been half eyeing for a long time. But I never thought they weren't within their rights to rescind the transaction for an error (particularly as I don't think my card was even charged, though I'd have to look). If a business made a mistake and listed the bikes at $72.00 rather than $7200, I don't expect to get a bike for seventy two dollars. This one was just kind of in that ambiguous range where the price was great, but not absolutely impossible, and BC is a megacorp not a mom and pop shop, so I was hoping that they'd take the loss rather than go back on the transaction.

I don't know how many bikes/frames were involved but I suspect that had it only been one or two, they'd have been less likely to backtrack, but as it was probably notably more (maybe 30 or so?) they weren't willing to eat a few thousand on each.

[Danno]

DTM and singlesline are 100% correct.

[MarcusBrody]

And Backcountry just emailed me again and told me that they can do 40% off. So I said "Go for it."

An XT/Fox Factory Ripmo for $4300 is good by me.

A adult middle class dad roller coaster of emotions!

[muted reborn]

DTM and singlesline are 100% correct.

Good points all around

And Backcountry just emailed me again and told me that they can do 40% off. So I said "Go for it."

An XT/Fox Factory Ripmo for $4300 is good by me.

A adult middle class dad roller coaster of emotions!

Awesome, maybe somebody was a Karen and complained loudly and now everyone gets the original deal

[Norseman]

And Backcountry just emailed me again and told me that they can do 40% off. So I said "Go for it."

An XT/Fox Factory Ripmo for $4300 is good by me.

A adult middle class dad roller coaster of emotions!

Ha, no way!

[Dantheman]

Semi-related fun fact. If someone ships you something you didn't order, you're also under no obligation to send it back. Law says to treat it as a gift.

Get a random trombone in the mail from Amazon (as happened to my dad)--yours to keep (or donate to a local school).
Order 1 xbox and get 2 in the mail? You just got a free xbox.

Apparently there used to be mail order scams where they'd basically send you unordered merchandise and demand payment (at inflated prices). Or people would ship things to businesses with an invoice and hope nobody realized it wasn't ordered and would just pay the invoice (or mail it back so the scammer can just try again somewhere else). So they passed laws that allow you to treat unordered merchandise as a gift.


That said, just because you can legally keep it, doesn't mean it won't damage your relationship with the seller. It is one thing to get a bonus item from Amazon--they know the law and even if you manage to get ahold of a person to report the item to, they usually just tell you to keep it.
But if you order something from a small business and they clearly fucked up and they ask for it back...you should do the right thing and send it back (and they are well within their rights to stop doing business with you if you don't).

E.g. I ordered a cheap clearance goretex shell a few months ago from the online store of some random ski/bike shop in CA. Wasn't sure what would fit so I ordered multiple sizes/colors. They sent me an email saying they couldn't find the Blue L anywhere, apologized for the website inventory being off, and refunded that jacket. Except when the package arrived, the Blue L was right there in the same bag as the Blue XL. Could I have kept it and resold it for a couple hundred bucks? sure...but it felt better to let them know and send it back with the other rejected sizes/colors.

I once ordered a $250 kids bike from Commencal and received a $3,500 adult trail bike (in my size) instead. A friend who works in online payment processing, and funnily enough worked for BC.com at the time, told me that legally I could keep it 100%. Ethically it didn't feel right, though.

And Backcountry just emailed me again and told me that they can do 40% off. So I said "Go for it."

An XT/Fox Factory Ripmo for $4300 is good by me.

A adult middle class dad roller coaster of emotions!

Dang, score!

[Canada1]

Ha, no way!

They've taken my returns without question and have a large inventory. I know/knew two of their first three, and they are / were really exceptional guys. I have not had the same experience with some of the guys from competitive cyclist, and find one to be an arrogant ass hat, but at this point the ownership and company is very different than it once was. I think honoring a screw up like this is freakin super cool. Frankly, with supply chain issues, they are losing money that a mom and pop shop probably couldn't afford to. I've also had a couple really positive experiences with Jensen. I think they try to do the right thing. So, while others were making comments about them, I just want to express my experience.

[snowaddict91]

And Backcountry just emailed me again and told me that they can do 40% off. So I said "Go for it."

An XT/Fox Factory Ripmo for $4300 is good by me.

A adult middle class dad roller coaster of emotions!

Hell yeah!

I boycotted BC for a while after the whole trademark thing, but got to the point where I'll buy from them if there isn't another comparable option. Good CS is super valuable to me though, so cool to hear they did that for you.

[jacob_dbu]

Damn $4300 XT/Factory build is nuts!