Anyone ordered anything from Decathlon lately?

[bungle73]

Ordered some bits and pieces for my bike last Saturday, so over a week ago. In that time absolutely no movement on my order has been seen. Now they've suddenly decided (over a week later) that what I want isn't in stock, and they have to get it elsewhere. Apparently they'll let me know "within 3 days" what the score is. So what have I been waiting a week for exactly? I've a good mind to cancel and get an alternative product somewhere else.

[TrevA]

Not recently, but I ordered a new wheel from Decathlon and it took about 3 weeks to come. I presumed it must have been sent from France.

[slowster]

Thread moved to 'Does anyone know...?'.

[Ray]

My experience is that they are very slow. The goods arrived but it took at least a couple of weeks. This is so poor compared to other online sellers that you get the impression that they don't really want that sort of business. I always buy in person nowadays, which is easier than it used to be now that they have a Leeds store.

I don't know whether Decathlon offer 'click and collect', but I was put off this when I found that Evans Cycles (who also have a store not far from me) make a charge if you collect the item yourself, which seems unreasonable!

[Redvee]

I was put off this when I found that Evans Cycles (who also have a store not far from me) make a charge if you collect the item yourself, which seems unreasonable!

Pre FG takeover this wasn't the case but it's a Sports Direct thing. I was in a SD store and a customer wanted a refund on a ship to store item which the store OK'd but they weren't refunding the shipping costs despite it comiing on the store's regular delivery.

[George goodyear]

FWIW Decathlon closed one of their Melbourne stores recently.

[Manc33]

It's a shame there's so few Decathlon stores in the UK.

I've heard tales of people driving 50+ miles there and 50+ miles back to buy a bike. What I noticed about Decathlon is, they attempt to put together a reasonably lightweight bike at a decent price and that seems to be why those 50+ mile journeys are done. I'm lucky enough to live within 3 miles of one (Stockport) but to be honest, unless you're after a complete bike, they are usually more expensive on individual bike parts. I bought a £299.99 "Triban 3" from there in 2012 (on the final day of the Tour de France that year - and it was an absolute ghost town in there - due to everyone watching the cycling including the staff!) That bike I consider a bargain for what it was. It was the same with the MTB I bought from there in 2010 "RockRider 6.2" that was £269.99 but it was more like a £500 bike, if the reviews are anything to go off. I still use that frame now on my Kickr smart trainer.

I wouldn't worry about the delays and just wait it out if you're waiting for an online order to be delivered. Yes it smacks of shoddy organization at their end, you feel like you're being made to look stupid, I get that, with them daft enough to not realizing people can order stuff that's out of stock, but honestly from my experiences with them, I'd let it slide.

I will always remember taking a "Stelvio" carbon fork into Decathlon that I bought from Planet-X (and they must have known they didn't stock it) and asking them to put a crown race on it... that takes 10 seconds... but most bike shops would charge something to do that like £5 or whatever. The (older) bike mechanic guy that handed the fork back to me after hammering on the crown race, just told me to forget about paying - he did it for free. I was just some random guy off the street that wandered in with a fork they didn't even sell me. These are the things you never forget about a bike shop, or "Workshop" as it's called in Decathlon. It looks all commercial if you walk into one, but there's a human heart still beating there!

It's annoying waiting for stuff to be done, but if it was me having these delays I wouldn't really care because of things like I just mentioned, from the past. They are a great bike shop. One I truly have respect for.

[toontra]

I had a similar experience while touring in France. The cassette had come loose. A Decathlon mechanic took off the back wheel, tightened up the cassette & checked everything else was OK. No charge.

Decathlon staff in every branch I've been to are superb - knowledgeable, friendly and helpful. I'm lucky to live within cycling distance of a store so I usually click and collect.

[borisface]

I live in Portugal. My local decathlon is about 25 miles away. If they have stuff in stock it's fine but when I order stuff to be collected from the store or delivered here, they are pretty slow maybe a week. Before the pandemic, it was next day. They are also quite a bit cheaper than the UK, particularly for bikes as they only attract VAT at 6%.

This bike below for example is 1399 euros, about £1200. In the UK, its £1600.

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/road-bike ... R-p-332106

And this one is 3699 euros or about £3,200. In the UK, its £4500!

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/road-bike ... R-p-341573

[carlislemike]

At least Decathlon has been good both online and in-store shopping for my daughter and myself AND unlike Chain Reaction/Wiggle, they still exist. Great store in Surrey Quays despite reduced stock post C19. Evans no where near as competitive price wise!

[Airsporter1st]

I live in Portugal. My local decathlon is about 25 miles away. If they have stuff in stock it's fine but when I order stuff to be collected from the store or delivered here, they are pretty slow maybe a week. Before the pandemic, it was next day. They are also quite a bit cheaper than the UK, particularly for bikes as they only attract VAT at 6%.

This bike below for example is 1399 euros, about £1200. In the UK, its £1600.

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/road-bike ... R-p-332106

And this one is 3699 euros or about £3,200. In the UK, its £4500!

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/road-bike ... R-p-341573

I remember when there was all the fuss over car tax and grey imports. The CEO of one of the big Scandinavian manufacturers was asked why their cars were so much more expensive in the UK. His response - not verbatim - “Because that’s what you are prepared to pay”.

[Tiberius]

Ordered some (really nice) cycling trousers a couple of weeks ago - arrived within three days.

No problems.

[freiston]

I ordered some overshoes and a pair of (non cycling-specific) trousers about a month ago and they took two and a half weeks to arrive, as indicated on confirmation of my order. I liked the trousers and so ordered a further two pairs, they came in about three days.

I can't remember the last time that I bought something from Decathlon that was in stock in my local store (Coventry). I have managed to find a few items (not usually in my size) that I have been able to rule out from my selection process but usually I can't even do that due to no stock in the shop - despite the store being about two miles from my home, I am forced to shop and order online and hope for the best or return the item.

[Vantage]

I can't really fault decathlon. I think the last thing I bought from them was my bike and the only issue I had with it was a lack of space to fit the battery to power the motor which it wasn't even designed for in the first place, which I bodged in anyway. That took I think about a week to be delivered. I've bought camping gear, cycling gear, walking gear and all has been top notch despite not having top notch prices tagged to them.
Staff have always been friendly and helpful too. I'm lucky in that the one near me is only a couple miles away.

[freiston]

I ordered a pair of trousers online today (confirmation email received at 13:25) - I just checked my emails and there is a refund confirmation email from Decathlon, received 13:41: "The refund for your order, totaling £25.48, is confirmed. You can expect to get the money back to the original method of payment within 2 to 5 working days" - the item was listed under the big bold heading "Details of the return".

No other email, no explanation. I went to the website (I don't like the new website - flaky operation, awful to navigate, awful search function -as was the old - and horrible graphics going from picture to picture) to re-order and see what happens - they've dropped my size from the listing - not even showing as out of stock; other colours show all the sizes with out-of-stock sizes crossed and greyed out. Anyway, I ordered a different but similar model in a different colour. Strangely, the different colour choices give different designs of trouser when you click on the colour - the most obvious difference being that some have rear pockets, others don't. Here's the link if you're interested but I have no confidence that things won't have changed between now and anyone clicking on the link:

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/resistant ... 1&c=bronze

Edit: the first order was £5.49 delivery fee, the second was £2.99 for the same "standard delivery" option - both orders for one pair of trousers.