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Questions and answers about our policies
Why are some items "in store sales only"?
Do you charge sales tax?
What about shipping charges?
Can I return my order? How?
What is this "in stock, 4 days, 2 weeks" stock status?
Are the prices firm? Do you ever have sales?
What about orders outside the U.S.?
Q: Why are some items “in store sales only”
A: The Touring Cyclist is a chain of four bike stores in St. Louis, Missouri, as well as a web retailer with customers all over the Internet. Most of the manufacturers we buy from have established nationwide or worldwide networks of bike shops to sell their products. Some of these companies have decided that the best way to keep their dealer network happy and healthy is to disallow mail-order and Internet sales of their products. We have to abide by this policy when we take on one of these lines (as does every other dealer for that given brand).
The “no Internet sales” policy varies from company to company. In some cases the policy applies to one category of merchandise (such as bikes) but not another category (such as clothing or repair parts). In some cases the policy applies to “current” merchandise but not discontinued models that the manufacturer is anxious to sell quickly.
We know that this situation makes life more difficult for people whose local dealers don’t carry a particular product, and especially for those who don’t live near a bike shop at all. But the “no Internet sales” policies don’t allow flexibility for conditions like this, and to be honest we wouldn’t be able to make those judgement calls even if the policies allowed us to. Sorry.
A: We have retail locations in Missouri and Illinois. We collect sales tax on orders shipped to addresses in those states. The tax rate is 6.48%. We do not charge tax on orders shipped to other parts of the U.S.; for those shipments it is your responsibility to pay the sales tax if your state requires it.
Q: What about shipping charges?
A: We charge you what the freight company charges us; we do not add a “handling charge” to the freight bill. We do insure the shipment, and include this in the freight cost.
The actual freight charge is a calculation based on our estimate of the total packed weight of your order. It’s an estimate because we are giving you the cost at the time you place the order, not when we actually pack the order and have a chance to weigh it. Our estimations are usually accurate.
If we badly underestimate the freight charge, we reserve the right to requote your order at the new, higher price. However, if that happens we will ask your approval before shipping the order, and we will not charge your credit card for any portion of the order until you have given us that approval. You will have the option to cancel the order at no expense to you if that new freight quote is unacceptable.
We occasionally ship your order in multiple parts, so as not to delay the entire order when a portion of it is temporarily out of stock. In that case, we will charge you at most our original quoted freight charge, even if the actual total freight charges are higher.
Q: Can I return my order? How?
A: You can return your order or some portion of it. We will refund your purchase price less a 15% restocking charge. We do not refund the freight cost of the original shipment, and you pay the freight and insurance costs to return the order to us. You must ship the return within 10 days of the day you received the order.
The returned merchandise must not be used, and must be in its original packaging.
If you need to exchange an item because it is the wrong size or is defective, we will waive the 15% restocking fee.
Write returns@touringcyclist.com to get a “Return Authorization” number before sending anything back, and be sure to put that number on the outside of the returned package. That number helps us figure out who we owe money to, so it is in your interest. We reserve the right to refuse returned shipments that don’t have the “RA” number on the box.
Q: What is this “in stock, 4 days, 2 weeks” stock status?
A: We ship web orders from our warehouse in Bridgeton, Missouri, using the inventory in that warehouse, as well as the merchandise in our four St. Louis stores, and of course the products in our suppliers’ warehouses all over the country. If the item you are looking at has an “in stock” status, that means it is available at the warehouse. If its status is “4 days” that means it is not in stock at the warehouse, but is available at one of the other four stores. Four days is an estimate of how long it will take to get that item from that other store to the warehouse, boxed up and on the road to you. If the status is “2 weeks” that means the product is not in stock anywhere in our company. Two weeks is a (usually conservative) estimate of how long it will take to get that item from the vendor’s warehouse to ours, boxed up and on its way to you.
There is one problem with the stock status information. It can happen that our company will be out of stock on an item, and the supplier will also be out of stock. Depending on the item and the supplier, it might take several weeks or more for that item to be available again. Unfortunately, there is no organized way for the vendors to tell us when they are out of stock of any given item. (The bicycle industry is very primitive in a lot of ways.) So there is no way for our website to consistently pass that information on to you. If an item you order turns out to be unavailable for a period of time, we will tell you as soon as we find out. You will have the option of waiting for that item or cancelling that part of your order.
The bottom line: the stock status is usually a good indication, but is not a guarantee.
Q: Are the prices firm? Do you ever have sales?
A: The prices are firm. If you want to negotiate, go right ahead and write us with an offer. But past experience shows that roughly 99.6% of the time our reply is “Thanks for your offer, but our original price is a good one, and we are sticking with it. Do you want one or two?”
We do occasionally have sales or other types of discounts. If you purchase something from us and within 30 days of the date we reduce the price of that item, we will refund the difference to you. You will need to write us to request that refund. Include some documentation about your original purchase. The order number wouldn’t hurt.
Q: What about orders outside the U.S.?
We do not accept international orders at the present time. We ship only to customers in the United States. They must have both shipping and billing addresses in the United States.