House of Fraser

[Sixmile]

Has anyone ever purchased a bicycle from the House of Fraser? I would be interested in your experiences.

A few weeks ago, a friend's wife had asked me to look out a bike for her husbands birthday. She has no knowledge of bikes so came to an expert with a tight enough £300 budget. She wanted to buy him something new but didn't want something wick. After a bit of hunting, I decided the best bike I could find within that price range and within other parameters that had been set, was from HoF. Now, I didn't know they even sold bikes but then recalled that Mike Ashley had purchased HoF when going got tough for them. MA, owner of Sports Direct has replicated his ethos now into the department store scene.

During my search for my friends bike, I discovered that they'd good deals on Whyte bikes and after selling a tandem last weekend, I treated myself to a Whyte e-bike for the princely sum of £1150. A gamble worth taking I thought. I paid for oversized 3-7 day delivery and 11 days later, still nothing. My friends wife completed her purchase the day after me, no bike at her end either. The courier seems to be DX - not one I'm familiar with. HoF customer services have fobbed me off with some 'picking issue' nonsense and they haven't been consistent in what they have told me and frankly, haven't been much use to talk to.

What have your relevant experiences been with HoF, SD or I suppose Evans. Young Ashley certainly spins a lot of plates.

 

[Spiderweb]

I ordered from them earlier this month, some small cycle related items, a cycle top and some Merrell footwear.
All the items eventually arrived but in 3 separate deliveries!
The first after a couple of days, the next after around a week and the footwear took a bit longer. Not the fastest postal service, a bit longer than stated for their basic delivery service but there were some bargains so it’s ok with me.
Yours is probably taking longer as they will have to liaise with Evans, build the bike and ship. They have a sale on so are likely to be busy right now too.

 

[Sixmile]

I had ordered 4 items at the same time, 3 have arrived but as you say - all three arrived separately on separate days. They all came via Fastway couriers. It seems the bike is coming from DX.

 

[Spiderweb]

I had ordered 4 items at the same time, 3 have arrived but as you say - all three arrived separately on separate days. They all came via Fastway couriers. It seems the bike is coming from DX.

DX in my experience have always been good, I think they deliver bigger freight that require a two man crew, our Washer etc came via DX.

 

[Sixmile]

Update: The consignment number given for my DX delivery draws a blank. Who knows if it was made up in the first place but an error page appears when entering the code that I was emailed from HoF.

I have been in regular contact with customer services in HoF who replied that they see that I have now received the item and hope that I'm enjoying the purchase.

Now, I have no item, am £1200 lighter and there doesn't seem to be any end to this saga just yet.

 

[wafter]

Sounds delightful

Worth raising with your credit card provider or Paypal if it was purchased using either of these..?

 

[Kingfisher101]

What do you expect buying from one of MA companies?

 

[richardfm]

DX is Document eXchange.
This is from their website "
DX Document Exchange is our private business-to-business network that provides a fast, trusted and secure delivery service for the legal and professional services sectors.

Established in 1975, ‘The Document Exchange’ swiftly became the legal sector’s preferred document delivery service. Today it is also widely used by the public sector and professional services companies of all kinds. "

I remember them from my time working for a law firm over 20 years ago. They've expanded since then.

 

[Sixmile]

And just like that. It's here!

No notification of the delivery, a van just arrived, the dog barked and the bikes were here (a friend had ordered a Forme MTB for £240 at the same time to be delivered to my house). I asked the driver if he was from DX but he was cityfreight, not sure why HoF sent me a tracking number for DX Delivery - who'd actually got back to me in the meantime to say they'd no consignments due to my location. That bit of the order was definitely strange.

On the bike itself, it's a wee cracker straight out of the box - Whyte Clifton E-Bike now joins my Whyte Portobello