Tredz NOT* Committed to Halting their own Demise (*updated status)

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Proto

Legendary Member
Yes, in the Freewheel (Madison) catalogue.

I went to the Freewheel shop in West Hampstead where it all started. About 1988, I think. I even went to a Freewheel jumble sale somewhere in west London. Bought some Shimano lugs and dropouts. Nearly bought a shop soiled Rossin race frame. Wished I had.

Eventually Freewheel stopped doing retail, concentrated on their distributor business, Madison.
 

robgul

Legendary Member
I just checked out the Madison / Freewheel site. Bonkers pricing, I don’t see it lasting a long time.

Have to say I was surprised at the pricing ... and the business model is neither fish nor fowl with the direct delivery or click and collect at an LBS. We'll see what happens.

Rob
 
Well, for parts that I can't get trade through mainstream distributors I'll stick to using SJS

They've always been good by me, and on the rare occasion they have got it wrong it's been quick and simple to get rectified. That second bit is what separates a good retailer from a bad one because sometimes s**t happens
 

DCLane

Found in the Yorkshire hills ...
Ordered something from Tredz last night, an unusual item, but they had it showing 'in stock'.

Guess what? ... An e-mail this lunch-time stating that their supplier was out of stock. So neither they nor their supplier had it :angry:
 
You're not wrong. I thought the whole point of internet retailers was they undercut high street retailers by not having to pay for premises etc. The Freewheel pricing is daft, no justification seeing as they're the importer of much of it.


Or maybe they are pricing things correctly with a proper margin:rolleyes:.

As they are the UK importer of Shimano they are not going to undercut all the LBS's they supply; as an example the shop I work in was asked to price match a Shimano cassette with Chain Reaction which we couldn't do as it was only a couple of quid more than we could buy it in at :blink:.d in to it

The main reason Wiggle/Chain Reaction etc are keeping going is the amount of equity money being ploughed in;they certainly aren't making much profit from the stuff they sell.
 

Ajax Bay

Guru
Location
East Devon
Have just tried to engage Tredz using their 'LiveChat' :laugh::laugh:
Name - tick
Order no. - tick
Will pass you on.
"Typically 55 minutes response"
60 minutes later, changes to:
"Typically 2 hours response"
"LIVE chat"!
Answerphone on permanent music - of poor quality.
ETA: A human (Steve) has popped up after 86 minutes to help. Happy days.
 
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derrick

The Glue that binds us together.
As mentioned up-thread Tredz is merely a different brand owned by Halfords (as are Wheelies and Cycle Republic) - doubtless it's a central purchasing and stock-keeping set-up ... and with the number of SKUs they have I'd bet a lot of items are obtained against orders from the wholesalers/distributors thus causing the delay.

As an aside, the major cycle trade distributor - Madison - has just launched a consumer website called Freewheel where you can order stuff from their MASSIVE warehouse with either direct delivery or click and collect at a nominated LBS. Chances are that Tredz is getting the stuff from Madison.

Rob
Freewheel, Bloody expensive.
 
D

Deleted member 26715

Guest
Or maybe they are pricing things correctly with a proper margin:rolleyes:.
You mean to support the illegal price fixing that manufacturers & wholesalers are involved in.
 

ozboz

Guru
Location
Richmond ,Surrey
I had a bad deal with this lot , they claimed to honour price match and told me they had stock , I got the price match code via email I entered into purchase part , then suddenly within an hour of getting code , they were miraculously out of stock, I phoned them and got a lot of lying answers , never again ,
 
You mean to support the illegal price fixing that manufacturers & wholesalers are involved in.


Nope,just the 'real' price for retailers to make a sufficient margin to keep going.

I know some peeps here don't give two hoots about their LBS's so I'll not say anything more on the matter.
 
D

Deleted member 26715

Guest
Nope,just the 'real' price for retailers to make a sufficient margin to keep going.

I know some peeps here don't give two hoots about their LBS's so I'll not say anything more on the matter.
So you believe that price fixing is not rife within the UK, my comment was not specific to cycling only
 
So you believe that price fixing is not rife within the UK, my comment was not specific to cycling only

Don't know about other retail sectors only cycling which I see from 'the inside'.

It may well come to pass that there is two tiers with the big internet boys dumbing down premium brands (cough Mike Ashley cough;BMC jumped ship pretty quick when he took over Evans) and premium stores selling more up-market brands which will control their branding;Ortleib among others already do this.

Also there has been a re-think after the Evans scenario;some brands took a big hit after that went pear shaped(talking thousands not the odd quid or two) and there is some big on-line companies that would make that look like pennies if they wen't tit's up and it apparently wouldn't take much.
 
D

Deleted member 26715

Guest
Don't know about other retail sectors only cycling which I see from 'the inside'.
If you are as you claim on the "inside" then you know full well that price fixing is rife & that if you try to buck the trend & offer discounts on manufacturer 'suggested' pricing then you will suddenly run into stock issues, delays in manufacture etc. yet stock to the shops selling at the full MRP strangely manage to get stock.
 
Location
London
On the OP, yes I think it's pretty certain that Tredz advertise stock they don't have.

I have experienced odd delays in shipping several times, with those "after the order" mails that make little sense.

Stuff has always come though.

If it's stuff that isn't urgent it isn't a great problem if the price is right - sometimes it is - I used a £10 discount voucher they sent me the other day on something I needed to buy from someone - their headlie price wasn't the cheapest but with the voucher I saved something over £5 I think. Then there is that regular £5 discount they regularly offer if you just do a feint from their page.
 
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