Caveat Emptor Bikebandit.com

AZMike

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Sep 18, 2016
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338
Location
Tucson, AZ
I have been buying parts from Bike Bandit for many years without issue, until now. Last month I ordered some parts for a friend of mine to restore an Honda four wheeler. I placed the order no problem until the next morning they informed me the parts were on national back order with no ship date in sight. I immediately cancelled the order. They had already ran my card for $731 dollars. Fast forward to one month later, no refund after 20 phone calls and promises. Now they won't answer the phone. STAY AWAY from this once fine company.
 

03A3KRH

Active Member
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Jun 28, 2014
Messages
98
Location
Black Hills
Call your credit card company and have them cancel the order. You shouldn’t have to pay the bill before goods arrive.
 

Thrasherg

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Oct 16, 2017
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319
Location
Dallas, TX
Like you, I used to use bike bandit, but after Covid started 16 months ago, the service has been terrible and many parts are on really long back order. I switched to partzilla and have had much better success, I now stay clear of bike bandit.
 

WJBertrand

Ventura Highway
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Jun 20, 2015
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4,516
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Ventura, CA
I’ve always included Bike Bandit in my price comparisons before ordering parts. At least for the Honda and Yamaha parts I’ve needed, they’ve never had the best price. As a result I’ve never ordered from them.

I recently bought some parts from my favorite supplier, Partzilla, and this order took the longest to receive of any order I’ve had with them but I eventually received it. I put it down to the general supply chain issues. One part was back ordered with no know date for availability. Found out I didn’t need to replace that part so canceled it and was promptly refunded.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 

Sierra1

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Joshua TX
This is reason #269 to always use a credit card instead of a debit card . . . .
+1. I dumped my debit card years ago. Mainly for the fraud protection. Get the card number, so what. You don't lose any money until you pay the bill. I have alerts every time there's a charge made, and anywhere from 1.5% to 5% cash back. Pay "last statement balance" each month, and never get charged interest. There's no real good reason to stay with debit cards.
 

~TABASCO~

RIDE ON ADV is what I do !
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I have been buying parts from Bike Bandit for many years without issue, until now. Last month I ordered some parts for a friend of mine to restore an Honda four wheeler. I placed the order no problem until the next morning they informed me the parts were on national back order with no ship date in sight. I immediately cancelled the order. They had already ran my card for $731 dollars. Fast forward to one month later, no refund after 20 phone calls and promises. Now they won't answer the phone. STAY AWAY from this once fine company.


I had the EXACT same thing happen with some tires... This was the fist and ONLY time I will ever use those guys. Called my CC and got the money back. These guys had NO intention to give me a return or answer the phone.

***WARNING- DO NOT BUY FROM BIKE BANDIT !



 

Wallkeeper

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Debit cards were created by the banking system to help them dodge the mandated consumer protections that apply to credit cards. There is ZERO reason to ever use a debit card
 

holligl

Find the road less traveled...
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Nov 13, 2015
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2,211
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IL/AZ
I used them once upon a time, but like others they have not had good pricing, and I moved on to comparison pricing (including shippingn) between Rocky Mountain ATV, Partsfish, or Partszilla. I am guessing Covid and supply chain issues are killing some smaller marginal businesses. Supply chain issues are causing significant backorder increases. I always tried to support local dealers who would attempt to match internet suppliers, but most of them have gone under as well. PayPal might provide recovery services if you for some reason need to use a debit card, but like others, I'm credit card all the way. The cash back bonuses and fraud protection are both worth it.
 

OldRider

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Jun 7, 2013
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2,110
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Western Kentucky
I always tried to support local dealers who would attempt to match internet suppliers, but most of them have gone under as well. .
I'm in the business and local dealers can't match internet prices. They will find some items they can match or get close on, but across the board, it can't be done. let's say I can buy one tire for $100 each, ten for $96 each or maybe 25 for $92 each. The big boys will buy 1000 of the same tire and get them for $85 each and sell them by the truck full for $100 each. Your local dealer can't buy in those quantities. If I buy a Yuasa battery for $90 and try to sell it for $115, the internet sellers are buying them by the thousands for $75 and selling them for $90. The dealer can't win.

Everyone has had a good time saving money by buying online, but when all the dealers are gone, you sure are going to miss them.
 

Squibb

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Aug 10, 2014
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1,064
Location
Bedford, UK
Trustpilot tells the sad story, at least of recent events .............. https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.bikebandit.com

As I understand it, the founder sold the business on some 8 years back. More recently operations were slimmed down considerably, so they appear to have changed the business model whereby they rely on taking your money & then ordering the part for JIT delivery. Lately this appears to have been stretched to taking orders but failing to provide fulfilment or refunds in a timely manner, if ever. To state the obvious, this has all the hallmarks of an imminent business failure.
 

AZMike

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Sep 18, 2016
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338
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Tucson, AZ
Worse part of this story is I never use a debit card. My wife had her purse stolen out her shopping cart and I was waiting a new issued one to arrive. Just so much suck.....
 

~TABASCO~

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I'm in the business and local dealers can't match internet prices. They will find some items they can match or get close on, but across the board, it can't be done. let's say I can buy one tire for $100 each, ten for $96 each or maybe 25 for $92 each. The big boys will buy 1000 of the same tire and get them for $85 each and sell them by the truck full for $100 each. Your local dealer can't buy in those quantities. If I buy a Yuasa battery for $90 and try to sell it for $115, the internet sellers are buying them by the thousands for $75 and selling them for $90. The dealer can't win.

Everyone has had a good time saving money by buying online, but when all the dealers are gone, you sure are going to miss them.

Exactly why I'm out ! Ive actually had 2-3 people tell me over the phone they bought from "on-line" and saved $5.00 after I spend lots of time with them, helped them a ton with info. I chalk it up to: I helped them out. But then to have salt poured into the wound they admitted they bought it from somewhere else because they saved $4-$5.....
The industry (manufactures) has done it to itself and has just become a huge "Wal-Mart". I still know many people in the industry. Folks like Rev-Zilla / Rocky Mountain ATV and so on, buy tire by the shipping container. They buy shipping containers of all the brands. Thousands of tires at a time, they can sell them even with a "sale" for less than a local shop can buy them wholesale. I really blame the manufactures.

Im not going to name names, but there is one brand that comes to mind that is so BACKWARDS I was set up as a wholesale dealer and sold MANY of these items. I will admit that I sold them for a few bucks more than the "big boys" and I sold them for less than my cost. Lost a lot of money "selling" these to customers. Lost leader. And for people that have never owned a business with any type of inventory, the whole sale dealer almost always has to pay shipping, also you have inventory tax, similar to a car dealership, and inventory up front cost and storage 'foot print' cost. After I'm in a financial hole and have lost a ton of money to 'attract' a customer from the big boys and the customer says, "you do offer free shipping? Right"? SUREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. why not give away another $10-15 LOL. LOL LOL

This is all "awesome" for the end user customers.... It's killing all the local shops, and they CAN'T and WON'T hold on. They are just counting the days until they close the doors. Guaranteed !

Anyone reading this- if you have a local shop, if you like "Fred" down at your shop because he is helpful. And you want this shop to always be there to help you in a pinch, I suggest you buy everything you can from that shop even at the higher prices. Otherwise they will be gone EXTREMELY FAST !
 

03A3KRH

Active Member
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Jun 28, 2014
Messages
98
Location
Black Hills
I can appreciate the challenges associated with competition online, however, some dealers are digging their own graves...

When I went to replace my S10, none of the local dealers wanted to budge off MSRP plus fees. I bought the bike from someone else's local dealer 1600 miles away, (that dealer went out of their way to find me the bike, they didn’t have it on the showroom floor) for over $2k less than any dealer within a 700 mile radius of me, btw that savings includes getting the bike shipped to me.

The dealer I used wanted to sell bikes verses putting the screws to someone on a single large margin sale.

I’ve tried to buy tires at local dealers in the past and wouldn’t have minded paying more if they would have thrown me a bone on mounting them, but nope they wanted $150 to mount the tires if I took them off the bike.......I’m not going to miss those guys...
 
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AZMike

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Sep 18, 2016
Messages
338
Location
Tucson, AZ
I am in the Auto parts business, I have been for 32 years. Today:

Customer: Do you have X and how much?
Me: Yes it is $ per can
Customer: Wow! Competitor Y has it for $ .66 a can less.
Me: Well that is less than I pay for it.
Customer: But they don't have any in the State.
Me: Am I on camera?
Customer: I will take two cases.
Me: Sure thing.
 

Eville Rich

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Sep 15, 2016
Messages
463
Location
Wisconsin, USA
I'm a consumer and not a dealer and I 100% agree. I will use online from time to time for specific items, but really focus on my local Yamaha/Honda dealer and an independent. Unfortunately the independent is likely to close its doors due to the owner passing away, no one young wanting to buy it, and the property more valuable for other uses. But they have been invaluable for discussing nuances of maintaining my '87 BMW k75s and generally giving good parts advice and help with specific projects. I'll go through them even if they have to farm out the work (e.g. powder coating wheels) simply because they have a relationship with the painter that I don't have. I'll pay their margin for that to help get quality and less fussing.

My local Yamaha dealer has also been good to work with in the last few years. They will give me a 5 to 20 percent discount on non-parts stuff, essentially price matching online without me even asking. Worth it to have the personal contact and a way to engage a human if something doesn't work out.

Give your local merchants a shot. It's been worth having the rapport that you just can't get online. Might take some time for everyone to get to know each other, but my experience has been positive.

Eville Rich
2016 S10
 

~TABASCO~

RIDE ON ADV is what I do !
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One more note on CC use VS debit. Short story-

I was shopping at Wal-Mart years ago, it happened to be NASCAR weekend and the place was packed. I walked straight in and straight out, probably for an oil filter or oil. I think it was that night or the next day my phone started blowing up and then my bank called, and it was a real big mess. Fast forward a few days and a long story--------

Someone must have walked by me and scanned my info from me and never touched me. They got all my CC info. (I never stopped and talked with anyone, I didn't bump into anyone, no strange situation, no anything, I was on a mission and in & out) They tapped the card for $3K and when that with through they tapped the card three or four times for $5K each time. If I remember it was $3k-$5k-$5k-$5k-$5k.

Few days later the bank / CC company & police set up a meeting with fraud / security with Wal-Mart and we all had a meeting at Wal-Mart. (Police-my bank-me-Wal-Mart) It was really interesting. Any how, I was credited back everything (it was the first $3K) and everything else was taken care of by the CC company and my bank. I had no issues and had no personal loss. In this meeting, it was brought up and said, that "if this was a debit card in this case, they probably would have drained the entire account". And 'these people' in the meeting couldn't do anything about this if it was a (debit card) situation. I knew all this info but really interesting who would even carry a debit card, they would have gotten that info and drained the account.... Crazy tech and people out in this world.
With the CC it was 100% taken care of.
 

Sierra1

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Nov 7, 2016
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Joshua TX
In the long run, the vulture style dealers won't survive. My dealer is a lot like Eville Rich's. Of course it always helps that my two kids and I go to the same dealer. They'll even ask if we found it on line for less. That's probably why they're the only local motorcycle dealer that hasn't changed owners in the last ten years. The owner has his track ready R1m on the showroom floor. That could be the secret to his business success. . . . he's not just a business man, he's a rider too.
 
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