Rob

Ritebike Review - Ritebike Problems

I had a poor experience with Ritebike, They have poor communication with both customers and internally which seems to be one of the causes of the bad experience I received - misleading and infrequent communication, none-delivery, false promise of a tank of fuel, long delays and the bike delivered with a terminally dead battery. I purchased a bike from Ritebike on the 5th June 22 online and payed my deposit by phone straight away. I was told the bike would be ready for collection or delivery in 2 weeks time. After two weeks I had received no communication, no updates on their customer portal and no updates by phone or email. I tried contacting them over a period of 5 days using all of their contact methods - phone, automated "contact us" pop up, email and customer portal messaging. None of these had a staff member to answer or respond leaving me without any information as to what was happening. This did make me consider that perhaps they were a scam just taking peoples deposit money as they also hadn't emailed a deposit receipt as I was initially told they would. After a few days more I eventually received a call saying the bike was not ready and it'd be ready in 4 days time. After 5 days I received another call saying the bike was now ready. Due to the delay I was now unable to collect and opted for delivery (at extra expense). I explained I was away at the weekend and they said they'd get it to me by early Friday afternoon in 3 days time. I took the day off to receive delivery of the bike and when it passed the delivery time I'd been told, I phoned up (via the sales line which is the only one that gets answered) and they told me they would find out and call me back. I was called back by a sales agent saying he was phoning to arrange a day for delivery. I had to explain that it should have been delivered hours ago and that this was now a string of delays and missed deadlines on their part. He talked over me every time I spoke and reeled off excuses about the portal which weren't really relevant to what had happened. Eventually he said they would deliver the bike with a tank of fuel as an apology and arranged a new delivery date when I was back and able to take delivery. On the new delivery day, it was delayed again and I got the bike at about 9pm (with a completely empty tank). The Ritebike / We Buy Any Bike delivery driver seemed annoyed and said that it was passed to him last minute to drop off and also that he had had it on charge it all afternoon as the battery was flat when they gave it to him. In the morning I went to get a Jerry can of petrol, took it home, poured it into the tank and tried to start it. The bike wouldn't turn over. The battery was completely dead, something Ritebike knew but chose not to deal with. I think that because the bike was being delivered, they knew I wouldn't be taking it back so they delivered the bike anyway and offloaded the issue to me. I phoned up again (via the sales line) and they agreed to send me a battery but there was no offer to have it fitted. It arrived a week later, the bike sitting on the drive unusable until then when I changed the battery. I definitely felt like a second class customer to Rite bike because I was on the end of a phone and ordering online. Delivering with a dead battery to none local customers seems to be a regular corner they cut looking at other reviews. A time saver exercise when they're busy perhaps. They seem to be unable to deliver on the time schedule they set. I'm assuming they're understaffed. This plus poor internal communication has lead to further frustration, disappointment, delay and expense. The choice of bikes they have is tempting but Ritebike don't deserve your business with this kind of service. I'll definitely be avoiding the superstore type of companies from now on and I encourage you to do so as well.