Here is Why You Should Buy Your E-bike From a UK Warehouse

When I tell people I have purchased an e-bike from a UK seller, far too many people tell me that I was mugged, that I could have got that same e-bike from sites like aliexpress.com & wish.com. I talked to Mike from Miiebike about this and he not only told me why you shouldn’t buy from those sites, but he also showed me and what I saw was a shock even to me…

The thing is when you pick up your brand new e-bike from a UK seller you probably won’t give a moment’s thought about how it ended up in their UK warehouse at all. You are just happy that they have the e-bike you want in stock and it will take just a few days for it to be delivered to you, or even better you are picking it up yourself there and then.

But Mike told me that things are never that simple. He said “When people pick up their e-bike from me or we deliver it to them they are judging the quality of that e-bike and myself based on the quality it arrives to them in.” and I suppose he is right. Whenever I get a new e-bike the quality of the packaging is pretty essential. If the packaging is undamaged I automatically presume the e-bike inside of it works just fine and I won’t have any issues. But Mike explained to me that is NOT always the case and buying an e-bike from China, or from an EU warehouse in an unspecified country can result in your e-bike arriving like this…

I have to be honest with you, despite having brought several e-bikes via both delivery and pick-up-in-store I had never thought about the long journey it takes for them to get here. Yes, most of them are indeed from China, but even if they are from an EU warehouse somewhere they can still be pretty battered by the time they arrive at you. Mike then shared a few more images with me that shocked me even more. This is a whole truckload of e-bikes he had delivered…

Mike told me “When you get an e-bike from a UK seller the chances are good that they have had to send back at least 10% of what the total stock they receive. You can’t deliver an e-bike to someone when the box is broken, soiled or damaged in any way. People expect a small amount of knocks and bumps to any package they receive, but often when they arrive from countries like China they can look like it was dragged there behind the truck instead of on it.”

So the lesson I learned that day is that it is all well and good trying to get your e-bike cheaper elsewhere, but you really need to consider what state it might arrive in. It is clear to me that Mike and indeed all other UK e-bike sellers often lose money and have to jump through a lot of hoops just to get our e-bikes into the UK and in a state where they can be sold on to the customer. I certainly won’t be risking damaged goods, import fees and other issues just to save myself a few quid, I will spend the extra and get it from somewhere I can trust.

To make things worse I haven’t even touched on the issues about repairs if the e-bike is damaged and the costly returns! If you have any horror stories yourself do let us know in the comments below!