I would avoid Ridbikegear.com at all costs. I paid over $750 for a set of stretched vivid black bags. They arrived broken and the paint was marred from the substandard packaging, additionally, the interior of the bags were tacky as if the paint never cured or was mixed improperly. I couldn't get a phone number to talk to a live body about the issue and when I finally decided to contest the issue with my credit card, the guy actually had the nerve to email me and call me a "fuc@in duo@chbag" because I initiated a dispute with my card. He also insisted that I pay for return shipping on this crap, which would have been a pretty penny. Apparently it was shipped from Canada and they wanted me to pay for shipping to New York, no phone numbers, hid behind the identity of email and lastly, they registered me on a Badbuyer.com web site because I initiated a claim with my credit card. Folks, I have excellent credit, a good reputation with Amazon and ebay, and definitely am pretty easy to please, this guy is a crook.

 

This all could have been avoided if you inspected the contents of the package before signing for them.

 

How did you ever find this business in the first place? Ridegear.com has has bad reviews going back to 2007. They were located in California & were bought by CruizerCustomizing in 2009. I haven't heard much about them for a long time, but there are plenty of old warnings on a lot bike forums.

 

Yeah, I wished I had been home when UPS dropped it in my driveway. The box looked like a train wreck when it arrived. Unfortunately, I guess this was a lesson learned. I bought a lot of stuff off of the internet over the years and with pretty good luck I guess. The website I was looking at at the time looked pretty legit and professionally done. There was even a Facebook page with thousands of followers. In the end, Visa made things right, just putting this out there for others so they don't have to go through the same struggle. Wondering if this was the same company as the old California Ride Gear, these guys were operating out of Canada....

 

There's no way that the UPS man would have hung around while you do a detailed open box inspection, and it sounds like the packing used by the seller is inadequate.

The sellers obnoxious first contact with you is just confirmation that they're a bunch of lowlife scumbags, and I'd not return their crap.
If they really wanted their crap back they need to arrange a pickup with packing by UPS.

When I look at something on a "new to me" web site, I make sure that they have a contact phone number, if not I'll look elsewhere.
If they do have a phone number, I'll do a review search, and on http://www.ridebikegear.com the reviews rule them out in my book.
https://www.hdforums.com/forum/gener...ught-here.html
http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Ridebi...nternet-929593
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/...debikegear.com
http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.ridebikegear.com

 

Sounds like a lesson learned, however even me being a experienced online buyer I too "roll the dice" sometimes to get what I want at a price I want to pay.

I recently was in the market for a used motor for my pickup.
A co-worked mentioned SW Engines.
After looking at their website they looked like a pretty well runned outfit.

As I dug deeper I started seeing more and more bad reviews however in SW's defense they sell a lot of used engines and with that much volume you going to get a few bad sales and a few unreasonable buyers.

In the end, I just didn't feel comfortable spending $1150 for a used engine online so I went ahead and bought a remanufatured engine locally for an extra grand. Sure the extra $1000 was hard to swallow but I got a new motor and if there's a problem the guys I bought it from are right down the street.

Like I said though; sometimes you just got to roll the dice and hope you don't crap out.
I'm glad though the credit card refusal process worked for you.

 

But you can refuse it if it looks like it's damaged....this is why I get valuables sent to my work, somebody actually Suggs and looks at the packages....not foolproof but little bit more of a chance to catch stuff lie this.

 

Agreed, if the outward appearance suggests the contents did not survive, its best to decline and let the seller and UPS deal with it.

Some of the reviews commented that they received defective/damaged goods in packaging that was in perfect condition, which suggests that they knowingly shipped crap.

 

Quite a few bad sellers on the internet. Pays to check reviews with different search engines. No phone number is always a red flag for me, I won't deal with them.

The CC company will no doubt take care of it, time consuming but that protection is still there. Good luck, and lesson learned. We've all experienced this one time or another.

 

Sometimes when you think you scored a deal - you find out you got screwed by the pooch....