Road Bike, Cycling Forums banner

Flobikes scam

25K views 20 replies 17 participants last post by  BrianJay 
#1 ·
Jno , 09-01-20 06:46 AM
Member



Be warned! I am in Canada and one of the companies providing coverage of the Tour de France is Flobikes. They are referenced in lots of the bike mags and sites and their site had three inducements to subscribe: 7 day free trial; $12.50 per month rate; cancel anytime. When I subscribed, it asked for credit card info; once registration was complete, the confirmation email said I had a full year subscription - $150 came off my card.

A casual search online confirms that they’ve been running this scam for a while, and BBB has disgruntled subscribers who describe the same experience. Of course it is my fault that I did not take the necessary steps to safeguard myself. I hope I can spare one or more of you from falling into a year long subscription to Flobikes.

Scam, part one: no free trial, and no mention of it once you complete the basic registration info.

Scam, part two: Their reply to my email inquiry said $150 is $12.50/month but billed yearly and it’s a one yr subscription.

Scam part three: Their reply email invited me to take advantage of an additional 30% discount but, if I wished, I could cancel any time. I did cancel, 48 hrs after joining. Turns out, my cancellation is effective as of the one yr anniversary of my subscription which means I also missed out on the chance to lessen the impact of the scam by 30%
 
See less See more
#7 ·
My money was refunded in full. Promptly after my complaint.


Not sure it was a Scam, I was told there was a disagreement over USA broadcast+streaming rights. Perhaps, there were not enough USA subscriptions to Flobikes to pay the lawyers to defend against NBCSports claims of exclusive distribution.


Not everything that you dislike or goes against you is automatically a Scam.


Paying for streaming content in a media driven society may be the future for almost all entertainment. Just do away with ALL the ads if I must pay, please.
 
#8 ·
I'm not sure that it qualifies as a scam ... but, in reality, they want the annual fee up front. It initially suggests that you can pay monthly, but that's not the case. Also, it is not made clear that the TDF, for example, is ONLY available in Canada (I'm in the US); I have alternative access to The Tour so it was not an issue. Also, the Flobikes announcers are unwatchable. Thankfully, they mostly use other feeds. Will I renew next year? Not if I have options. I think Eurosport should offer subscriptions worldwide. They could make millions.
 
#9 ·
I would have been happy to sign up for a month to watch the TdF, maybe I would have liked the service and kept going or I would have quit in a month. At least they would have got a month from me.

No way I was signing up for a full year up front, so they got nothing, hopefully that's what most people did....
 
#10 ·
They scammed me too!

but

I am not sad they did. With the TDF, several classics, the Giro and Vuelta and tomorrow Paris Roubaix - that's worth the 150 Cdn to me right there. Rest of the year will be gravy ;)

though the announcers are total shgt on every race. truly amateur hour, but better than trying to decipher dutch or spanish commentary for me on Youtube uploads.

I heard it is possible to share the subscription with another couple guys across multiple devices to cut costs too.
 
#12 ·
Fark! I paid the yearly sub to Flobike, after getting sucked in by the $12 a month lie back in August. But oh well I enjoyed the Aug-Nov events on there. Now as of today they have locked me out unless I pay up another $150 now? I thought I paid for 12 months of events! scam for sure. Their 'contact us' is literally a dead end on the site.

I just want to see the cross world cups. These events come on Youtube after a couple days so no way I am paying into their scam again
 
#13 ·
Fark! I paid the yearly sub to Flobike, after getting sucked in by the $12 a month lie back in August. But oh well I enjoyed the Aug-Nov events on there. Now as of today they have locked me out unless I pay up another $150 now? I thought I paid for 12 months of events! scam for sure. Their 'contact us' is literally a dead end on the site.

I just want to see the cross world cups. These events come on Youtube after a couple days so no way I am paying into their scam again
The same thing just happened to me. I logged in and was told to sign up for a subscription, for which I had already paid $150 US($206 CAN!) back in July.
Have you contacted them and /or gotten your subscription reinstated?
 
#14 ·
FWIW...I didn't have any billing issues with Flo over the last year. BUT, there's basically no US video coverage for 2021, so ended my subscription. Moving to GCN
 
#15 ·
I had the same billing issue here in Canada. There is no phone support. Live chat is with a bot.
I emailed them and got a typical form letter. I then called the support number and left a voicemail threatening legal action and, suddenly, recieved an email offering to refund 11 months service to my credit card and downgrade me to the "discontinued" $29.99 ($37.44 CDN) monthly rate for the TdF.

It is absolutely unethical, if not a scam, to only offer that option after you complain or threaten them. But, when you're the only game in town, you can do whatever you want, I guess.

I get that they want to make money but, this practice is shady. I know at least a dozen people who only watch the TdF and would gladly pay $30 to watch it.

As for me, I'm also a Tiz Cycling viewer for the rest of the year and send them a donation to keep them running.
 
#16 ·
While I don't consider it a scam, I will say I got taken in , too.

I'm in the U.S. and wanted to watch the U.S. national road race. Flobikes was recommended by another forum. I signed up and had no problems watching the race.

When the TdF started, I figured I'd be able to watch it, too. Turns out I can't as NBC Sports has exclusive broadcast rights in the U.S. .

So I figure I'll just cancel my subscription and only pay for the 1 month. Wrong. I've already automatically set up cancellation upon my one-year expiration.

I'll let them have their year on me, and maybe I'll get my money back watching international cyclocross and European classics in 2022.

And it turns out the NBC Sports TdF recaps on youtube are really good.
 
#17 ·
ok 7 months later ... I am still with Flobike. I think it's the only option to view the Tour here in Canada. Also had the Giro, Dauphine and maybe 2/3 of the classics. And they cover a bunch of lesser US events I am not interested in. For me that is OK. I still have this problem of only being able to view on one of my Apple TV boxes though, and I have 2 of them with one not working with Flobike no matter what.
 
#19 ·
As Canadians we know we're low in priority when it comes to race licensing so we end up with the only option being a terribly produced and managed service from Flobikes. I have sent many emails to Flobikes to get them to at least do a reasonable job for their $150 a year and never seen progress. Our only real option is to encourage GCN to chase those licenses. If your a canuck World Tour fan send GCN an email and let them know how big the opportunity is.
 
#21 ·
As Canadians we know we're low in priority when it comes to race licensing so we end up with the only option being a terribly produced and managed service from Flobikes. I have sent many emails to Flobikes to get them to at least do a reasonable job for their $150 a year and never seen progress. Our only real option is to encourage GCN to chase those licenses. If your a canuck World Tour fan send GCN an email and let them know how big the opportunity is.

I have resorted to waiting a couple of days and catching the full stages and other races on tiz cycling, it is free and, I believe, out of Russia.

Coverage here in Canada usdo poor that it isn't difficult to avoid knowing the results before I get to watch
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top