Rose bikes

[screenman]

I spend a few hundred a month with DHL they have been increasing charges on a regular basis for the last few years,they do though normally give very good service.

 

[Blue Hills]

There aren't any non-tariff barriers. Nobody is setting any quotas or limits on the amount of any given product that can be imported either into the EU or the UK.
If parcel delivery services have chosen to raise their prices, that's a commercial decision on their part, and probably involves a large element of opportunistic price-hiking using the customs process as an excuse to increase profit margins.

mm - additional paperwork and admin, which of course costs, and so may well be passed on to consumers by a careful business looking to maintain margins on volume sales, seems to be a barrier to trade and shopping to me. The fact that there is no tariff makes it even more noticeable.
But maybe journo-master-wordsmith Boris was referring to only physical barriers.
Made of bricks?
Sprouts?
I have a vague memory that I offered to buy you a drink a while ago.
I'll send the bunch of triplicate forms over later.

 

[rualexander]

Not just effecting the foreign based companies it seems.

https://www.brooksengland.com/en_uk/uk-shipping-notice

Brooks are a foreign based company, they are part of Selle Royal, an Italian company.

 

[andrew_s]

From what I understand Brooks saddles are manufactured in the UK but sent to Italy for packaging then sent back to the UK for sale (I'm assuming no one outside the UK is mad enough to buy one Tin hat on emoji )

My understanding is that the problem is that the https://www.brooksengland.com/ web shop is physically located in Italy, so there is the same problem with UK supply as with all other EU websites.
That leaves UK customers having to buy the saddles from actual physical shops, or from a web shop that is physically located in the UK, such as Wiggle or St John Street Cycles.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

One thing that will come out of this is UK suppliers are going to have to stop offshoring their retailing channels and base their sales operation in the UK if they want zero hassle business. I see this as a good thing. It's totally inexplicable to me why a British manufacturing operation would channel it's online sales through Italy! Which government gets the VAT and corporation tax income from Brooks saddle sales? Ours or Italy's? Maybe they are deserving of having problems, and it will force them to make local and sell local.

 

[Pale Rider]

Spectacular own goal from Brooks who said their saddles would no longer be available in the UK, which was never the case.

The PR man responsible should be forced to sit on one of their narrow saddles for a week.

 

[Blue Hills]

So effectively it's just sales where Brooks is acting as retailer that are affected, but the wholesale supply via local retailers isn't. I don't imagine that a very large percentage of sales are direct from Brooks to the consumer.

Sounds like Campagnolo have hit a similar issue. https://cyclingtips.com/2021/01/campagnolo-has-paused-some-direct-sales-to-the-uk-due-to-brexit/

Unfortunate that that article misreports the Rose situation though.

 

[rogerzilla]

Bikester have said they will continue to sell to the UK. I think they are setting up a UK warehouse. Hopefully Rose and Bike24 will change their policy if the market is big enough.

 

[Blue Hills]

Bikester have said they will continue to sell to the UK. I think they are setting up a UK warehouse. Hopefully Rose and Bike24 will change their policy if the market is big enough.

Latest from Rose on their website - tone somewhat more negative/less hopeful than their last form of words which, as I recall, seemed to say something along the lines of hoping to open up again soon.

Very much an "if" about this statement.

Dear Customer,

Because of Brexit, we are immediately ceasing shipment of orders to the UK. We are very sorry that we will not be able to deliver to you, our valued customer, as we did before. If we are able to find an alternative solution through the free-trade agreement, we will inform you here. Thank you for your understanding, your loyalty, and your support.
Your ROSE Bikes Team

 

[Blue Hills]

This article gives a good idea of the hoops to now be jumped through.

And it is clear that there are costs to this - hoops are not being given away.

https://amp.theguardian.com/politic...s-are-hurting-us-say-small-british-businesses

I have no reason to doubt that boss saying that profits will be cut/jobs lost.

In a thread related to this someone claimed that the new regime would help Spa.

Well it doesn't seem so:

Spa's website has a notice saying that they are no longer shipping to the EU.

I would imagine that they used to sell a fair bit.

No non tariff barriers my arse.

 

[chriswoody]

So I thought I'd add into this thread with a recent experience and a cautionary tale. So the problems of VAT and import duty are not just restricted to goods going to the UK from the continent, but the other way as well. As a result I've stopped purchasing from UK companies for the foreseeable future, until the situation is much clearer and I know just how much I will need to pay on top of a possible purchase.

So with all that said, two weeks ago I purchased 2 CD's from Amazon's German site (Yes I know I'm an old fashioned git who likes CD's). Anyway at the checkout it becomes apparent that the two CD's are from two separate Amazon marketplace companies and they would take 14 days to deliver. No problem, they both have German names and in these Covid times everything is disrupted, I though nothing more of it and clicked buy. Then fast forward two weeks, still the CD's are allegedly underway, however, I then receive an email to say one company has refunded my credit card. No explanation, just a refund. Puzzled, I check with Amzon and they say everything is still proceeding. So several clicks later, I uncover the fact that the German sounding company, is in fact a UK company, dispatching their goods from Guernsey.

Now there could be several reasons why it's never arrived and I'm being refunded, but the real crux of the story is the fact that I thought I was buying from a German company, when all along I was purchasing from a UK company. This isn't the first time It's happened, I purchased some outdoor kit a few years back from a German website, with a .de domain, that turned out to be a front for a Yorkshire based shop. No problems that time, but it's made me think, with all these tax and import duties now with Brexit, you really need to have your wits about you and check out the provenience of these companies and where exactly you are purchasing from. I really never thought to check out a market place shop from Amzon, but lesson learnt and thankfully not the hard way, with a knock on the door and a demand for import duties.

 

[rogerzilla]

Shipment from Bikester today. No extra charges. Delivered by UPS from what seems to be a UK warehouse. 30% cheaper than SJSC even though postage was £1.49 more.

They have got this sorted. Rose haven't, yet.

 

[Blue Hills]

Shipment from Bikester today. No extra charges. Delivered by UPS from what seems to be a UK warehouse. 30% cheaper than SJSC even though postage was £1.49 more.

They have got this sorted. Rose haven't, yet.

Never really been aware of bikester until this recent mess, maybe dimly aware of them.
I take it they are fine and dandy then.
Can I ask how you think they stack up against Rose?

(edit - just looked at two areas - I know times are odd/supply issues but they don't look cheap - not sure what the advantage is - so hoping for Rose to emerge from the fog.)

 

[rogerzilla]

A couple of quid more expensive than Rose, usually, but similar range and customer service. You'd barely know they were German.

 

[Tripster]

Never really been aware of bikester until this recent mess, maybe dimly aware of them.
I take it they are fine and dandy then.
Can I ask how you think they stack up against Rose?

(edit - just looked at two areas - I know times are odd/supply issues but they don't look cheap - not sure what the advantage is - so hoping for Rose to emerge from the fog.)

If Bikester have a UK warehouse, that dispatched and thus employed UK workers and contributes to uk economy then is that not a better option to Rose ? Maybe its slightly more expensive but its supporting our economy.