For those Gadgets & Gear folks who are interested in bicycles, I thought I'd just post a heads up about this company.
Several days ago, I placed an order for two tires for my son's bike with IcyclesUSA.com
Price looked great, and shipping was more than reasonable. Site looked well kept and updated, and so I zipped off an order.
Big mistake.
When I got home, I tried show my son what I'd ordered. The Google shopping link still worked, but it took me to a page that read, "The product you have attempted to access either does not exist or has been discontinued." Wanting to know if I was going to receive my complete order (just one tire wouldn't do), I went looking for a phone number to IcyclesUSA.
Uh-oh. Just an email contact form. No phone number. No street address. My "what a dumbass move" alarms started going off.
So I searched Google for a contact number. That lead me to this thread on a bike forum titled "Beware of IcyclesUSA.com". Crap, thought I. However, at least one guy there had tracked down a number and posted it.
So, I sent off a query via the email contact form, replied to the order confirmation with the same question, and left a quick request for call-back at the phone number I'd found.
And I waited. Couple of days later, I got this response via email:
That made me feel a little better, and so I went to see if the item was listed again. Lo' and behold, it was back up, but at a higher price. I also found that the company had a lot of the same tires listed on eBay (merchant name: icyclesusa.com) in an auction that had just ended the day before. Inventory was listed as "More than 10 available," but there was no record of any of the tires having sold.
Today, however, I got this lovely notice:
Who knows? Maybe IcyclesUSA sold their entire eBay lot to someone else behind the scenes. Maybe IcyclesUSA never had the tires in the first place. Maybe IcyclesUSA didn't like the fact that my order involved the old, lower price. Given what I read in the bike forum thread, I wouldn't be surprised if the tires hit their site again at an even higher price.
Anyway, buyer beware. And learn from my mistake. I'm usually good about checking out companies before I order, but I totally spaced this time.
Several days ago, I placed an order for two tires for my son's bike with IcyclesUSA.com
Price looked great, and shipping was more than reasonable. Site looked well kept and updated, and so I zipped off an order.
Big mistake.
When I got home, I tried show my son what I'd ordered. The Google shopping link still worked, but it took me to a page that read, "The product you have attempted to access either does not exist or has been discontinued." Wanting to know if I was going to receive my complete order (just one tire wouldn't do), I went looking for a phone number to IcyclesUSA.
Uh-oh. Just an email contact form. No phone number. No street address. My "what a dumbass move" alarms started going off.
So I searched Google for a contact number. That lead me to this thread on a bike forum titled "Beware of IcyclesUSA.com". Crap, thought I. However, at least one guy there had tracked down a number and posted it.
So, I sent off a query via the email contact form, replied to the order confirmation with the same question, and left a quick request for call-back at the phone number I'd found.
And I waited. Couple of days later, I got this response via email:
That made me feel a little better, and so I went to see if the item was listed again. Lo' and behold, it was back up, but at a higher price. I also found that the company had a lot of the same tires listed on eBay (merchant name: icyclesusa.com) in an auction that had just ended the day before. Inventory was listed as "More than 10 available," but there was no record of any of the tires having sold.
Today, however, I got this lovely notice:
Who knows? Maybe IcyclesUSA sold their entire eBay lot to someone else behind the scenes. Maybe IcyclesUSA never had the tires in the first place. Maybe IcyclesUSA didn't like the fact that my order involved the old, lower price. Given what I read in the bike forum thread, I wouldn't be surprised if the tires hit their site again at an even higher price.
Anyway, buyer beware. And learn from my mistake. I'm usually good about checking out companies before I order, but I totally spaced this time.
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