opinions on Team Performance membership?

On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:20:58 -0500, Matt Hoyle quoth:

Are there any Team Performance (the buying club at
www.performancebike.com) members out there? If so, would you mind
commenting on your impressions of the club? Worth it?

One thing you should be aware of is that there are actually TWO separate
kinds of Team Performance memberships. One is "retail" and the other is
"mail-order". A "retail" account is what you get in a Performance store,
and each time you accumulate $10 in points they will send you one or more
$10 coupons. These coupons can be used either in the store, or with
mail orders through the catalog. The "mail-order" kind of account will
give you points that show up on the web page, and can be used on the
web site or through phone orders. (Though it's called "mail-order", I'm
not sure if/how you could use these points mail-ordering through the
catalog.) You should make sure which of these accounts you want, since
they ARE different. You will want to get the one which best matches
the method you want to purchase with - store, mail, phone or website.
I just switched mine from "retail" to "mail-order" because the people
in the Performance store originally said the points would work on the
website, but I found out later that my "retail" points coupons do not
work on the website. Call their 800-number and ask if you are unsure.

From what I've seen Performance has the BEST sale prices, and you DO get
team points for sale price items, and can use them on top of sale prices.
Also, the 20% off coupon codes were mind-blowingly fantastic, but it looks
like Performance has shut those down for now. Team performance members also
get second-day shipping upgrades in the continental US. (Not Hawaii,
unfortunately) Performance has some quality control problems recently.
A lot of botched orders have been reported. They screwed up my last order
and gave me an $85 item I didn't order, and left out 3 items of about $20.
I managed to get lucky and come out ahead on that mistake. I will put up
with the weirdness because the prices are so good and I've saved a LOT of
money ordering from Performance this year. (Hundreds of $$$, literally)

bkr

Rich Clark wrote:
[snip]

I let my membership lapse when a) I eased off on the volume of my purchases,
b) I started finding other, cheaper sources for things I wanted (even with
the points), and c) Performance increasingly didn't have exactly what I was
looking for.

YMMV.

RichC

What other sources have you found, Rich, if you don't mind my asking?

And thanks to everyone for their replies to my original post.

Matt

--
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Matt Hoyle
(remove the Z's to reply)

On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:20:58 -0500, Matt Hoyle
wrote:

Greetings,

Are there any Team Performance (the buying club at
www.performancebike.com) members out there? If so, would you mind
commenting on your impressions of the club? Worth it?

I've been considering joining and was curious as to what others thought.

Thanks for reading,
Matt Hoyle

Hi, if you are going to buy a lot from Performance, it is worth it.
the upgraded shipping is a real plus.
The special Team prices vary, but are often quite good. An example,
SIDI Genius 4 on sale for around $190, Team sale price $170. I have
gotten some excellent deals using 20% off online coupons, then getting
the benefit of the 10% Team discount.
Performance has an excellent return policy and I like their house
brand clothes.
I say, do it. I plan on renewing, when the time comes.


Life is Good!
Jeff

"Matt Hoyle" wrote in message
...
Rich Clark wrote:
[snip]

I let my membership lapse when a) I eased off on the volume of my
purchases,
b) I started finding other, cheaper sources for things I wanted (even
with
the points), and c) Performance increasingly didn't have exactly what I
was
looking for.

YMMV.

RichC

What other sources have you found, Rich, if you don't mind my asking?

And thanks to everyone for their replies to my original post.

Matt

--
----------------------------------------------
Matt Hoyle
(remove the Z's to reply)


For tires and tubes, I haven't found prices better than
http://www.biketiresdirect.com

BTW - if you add some z's to the domain name in your sig (e.g., izezee.org),
it will take some of the spam load off of the ieee.org mail server. Don't
change the ".org" part otherwise the spammer's bots will know it's a bogus
email address.

--
~_-*
....G/ \G
http://www.CycliStats.com
CycliStats - Software for Cyclists

GaryG wrote:
[snip]
For tires and tubes, I haven't found prices better than
http://www.biketiresdirect.com

BTW - if you add some z's to the domain name in your sig (e.g.,
izezee.org),
it will take some of the spam load off of the ieee.org mail server.
Don't
change the ".org" part otherwise the spammer's bots will know it's a
bogus
email address.

Thanks for the info, Gary. They do look like they have some good deals.

And I changed my sig (and reply-to address) as you suggested. I hadn't
considered that before.

Thanks again,
Matt




--
----------------------------------------------
Matt Hoyle
(remove the Z's to reply)

"Matt Hoyle" wrote in message
...

What other sources have you found, Rich, if you don't mind my asking?

I shop for specific things - particular makes and models - and look for the
best individual deal on that one thing. So nowadays I do price comparisons
for every online purchase. Sometimes Performance wins; sometimes Nashbar, or
Pricepoint, or bicycletires.com. And sometimes I don't shop by price at all,
as when I ordered wheels from Peter White last summer.

Also, now that I have more bikes and spare parts than I really ought to,
it's rare that any purchase is really urgent. I can wait for a coupon or a
sale or a good deal on ebay.

RichC

On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:20:58 -0500, Matt Hoyle
wrote:

Greetings,

Are there any Team Performance (the buying club at
www.performancebike.com) members out there? If so, would you mind
commenting on your impressions of the club? Worth it?

I've been considering joining and was curious as to what others thought.

I was a member for three years, and let it lapse two years ago. I
"joined" Team Performance (hereinafter TP, for a reason!)
http://www.css.edu/users/tboone2/asep/Robergs2.pdftoo soon -- it took
Performance two years to get their web site working reliably with TP,
and I never got customer service satisfaction for points that weren't
credited, "discounts" that weren't given, not to mention when they
debited my TP account but charged my credit card for it anyway. The
last year everything was working, finally, but I finally figured out I
didn't spend much over $200 a year at Performance anyway.

All my gripes aside, it really depends on your spending habits. If
you're going to make a big purchase at Performance, get the
membership. If you're going to make many smaller (but not too small)
purchases, it may be worthwhile. Frankly, I renewed the last year
just for the shipping upgrade -- Performance's surface shipping option
is SLOW, and I don't usually mail-order things I need in a rush! So
if you're going to place 4 $50 orders per year, you can get upgraded
shipping for free by spending your TP vouchers on next year's
membership.

I found I like Voler's shorts better, and Nashbar has better prices on
most tools and components I would have ordered from Performance. The
only thing left is Performance's nice house brand jerseys, and I can
arrange to swing by one of their stores every year or so, so I don't
need the TP membership anymore.

Pat

Email address works as is.