I agree with you on that! RA’s CS is playing stupid to get us off of their backs. I spent maybe $1200 within 2-3 days at RA when I bought my Camry a few weeks ago.. Maybe that will change now..
RockAuto slipping up on inventory control?
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I agree with you on that! RA’s CS is playing stupid to get us off of their backs. I spent maybe $1200 within 2-3 days at RA when I bought my Camry a few weeks ago.. Maybe that will change now..
I've had them send me worn out brake pads before with "return" written on them in red sharpie. Took me all of 3 seconds to notice it, check the box, and see someone's old brake pads in it.
I was a little annoyed, I have to imagine more than a few steps where skipped for this to happen. If they would have checked the return they could have seen it wasn't new, if they checked the box they grabbed to make sure it was correct they would have seen bright red sharpie all over the face of the box ...
They didn't offer me free return shipping, and for the price paid it wasn't worth the time to deal with it. Luckily the front set of brake pads they did ship where good, and I just bought the rear pads locally.
I wasn't going to wait in line for 20 mins, to pay the cost of pads to ship them back just to brake even. Most of my orders with them have been good however, I just don't need but a part or two ever so often it doesn't make a ton of sense for me to shop there given shipping is almost always $10-$15.
I was a little annoyed, I have to imagine more than a few steps where skipped for this to happen. If they would have checked the return they could have seen it wasn't new, if they checked the box they grabbed to make sure it was correct they would have seen bright red sharpie all over the face of the box ...
They didn't offer me free return shipping, and for the price paid it wasn't worth the time to deal with it. Luckily the front set of brake pads they did ship where good, and I just bought the rear pads locally.
I wasn't going to wait in line for 20 mins, to pay the cost of pads to ship them back just to brake even. Most of my orders with them have been good however, I just don't need but a part or two ever so often it doesn't make a ton of sense for me to shop there given shipping is almost always $10-$15.
And at that point you begin to think, are people just that lazy or ignorant to absolutely ignore giant red Sharpie writing or do they just not plain care? I believe in the latter.. I’ve been purchasing from RA for well over a decade but in the last few years is when I started having issues. Hopefully RA drops the Syracuse warehouse as one of their suppliers and remedies the little issues several of us had.
I also agree with you about the time it takes to re-box, stand in line to return, waste your time and gas to do all of that if the warehouse worker would’ve just taken 30 seconds to make a better decision. The worst is when the car is apart and that happens
..Edit: Forgot to add that they didn’t initially offer me free shipping back for the faulty KYB quick-struts until I emailed them back and told them that these units are faulty and not my fault nor error that they’re like that but that of the manufacturers. They adjusted the shipping label to reflect $0.00 then..
I'd love to see the total # of bad orders in this thread in the numerator and the # of correct orders received by the contributors to this thread in the denominator.
Then I'd like to see if the bad orders were more recent. (Goes to any of the "Now-a-days people are....." sentiments).
I'd like to think RA, and any similar company, does indeed tally their complaints and takes action against 'offending warehouses'.
However, I bet any such company would be loathe to dump a warehouse which ships millions of dollars worth of orders.
Ha-ha, just like us, they are offered to send an email to the offending warehouse and wait for a reply.
Stories above about these warehouses shipping worn parts which are boldly marked for return etc. makes me think that resentful warehouse workers are just "hitting back" in their limited way.
It's different from merely "not caring". They purposely mess things up to satisfy something in their damaged souls.
ps This excludes mentally afflicted people who are hired and not supervised.
EX: I ordered a FF sandwich without cheese and got one with cheese. The manager ceremoniously whipped it into the garbage and ordered up another one.
It too was wrong. His act was the same; violently slamming the errant order into the trash must've felt good.
I repeated the process multiple times. On the final attempt, I suggested he walk the 8 feet back to the prep zone and show the worker how to omit cheese.
The vacuous look I got said enough.
Stupid exists...careless exists....self-importance exists....brain damaged people exist....uninvolved managers who hire marginal people who'll accept a low wage exist.
I believe greed, ignorance, laziness and fulfillment of false joy (what advertising promises) leaves the masses resentful 24/7.
"Crabs in a barrel" is what large swathes of the population become.
Then I'd like to see if the bad orders were more recent. (Goes to any of the "Now-a-days people are....." sentiments).
I'd like to think RA, and any similar company, does indeed tally their complaints and takes action against 'offending warehouses'.
However, I bet any such company would be loathe to dump a warehouse which ships millions of dollars worth of orders.
Ha-ha, just like us, they are offered to send an email to the offending warehouse and wait for a reply.
Stories above about these warehouses shipping worn parts which are boldly marked for return etc. makes me think that resentful warehouse workers are just "hitting back" in their limited way.
It's different from merely "not caring". They purposely mess things up to satisfy something in their damaged souls.
ps This excludes mentally afflicted people who are hired and not supervised.
EX: I ordered a FF sandwich without cheese and got one with cheese. The manager ceremoniously whipped it into the garbage and ordered up another one.
It too was wrong. His act was the same; violently slamming the errant order into the trash must've felt good.
I repeated the process multiple times. On the final attempt, I suggested he walk the 8 feet back to the prep zone and show the worker how to omit cheese.
The vacuous look I got said enough.
Stupid exists...careless exists....self-importance exists....brain damaged people exist....uninvolved managers who hire marginal people who'll accept a low wage exist.
I believe greed, ignorance, laziness and fulfillment of false joy (what advertising promises) leaves the masses resentful 24/7.
"Crabs in a barrel" is what large swathes of the population become.
ya summit has drop shipped parts from the manufacturer's warehouse when they don't have it in stock. Just as fast if they shipped from Ohio to me in Michigan. Thought I'd mention it.
oh and glad you got them to cover the return shipping on those KYB's! It's amazing after the thing we cannot talk about, happened.. many companies went from "meh" to worse with their customer service. Oh well.. others didn't and I think as a consumer we do notice that!
Did you get the Toyota stuff yet? I know this isn't the thread, but thought I'd ask here..
I looked and rockauto had 10 orders on file, but I know I have a lot more than that. I think their list just showed the 10 most recent. Either way, in all the orders I have made I have had all of them arrive as ordered with zero problems.
Probably jinxed myself now, we will see.
NPD is a disorder that walks among us and is quite often not understood nor caught by the masses. I agree with your sentiments!
It is strange that bad luck in the endeavor's of life seem to direct themselves to the same folks over and over. How does RA know who to scroo over time and again while leaving 99.9% of their customers unscathed. That is one cool algorithm.
Yes Toyota hand delivered the parts to my house and when the parts guy got there he looked at the struts I initially got from them (through Fedex) and said “wow, did they play kickball with these things?” LOL. He told me that this is unfortunately a common occurrence with Toyota parts and that he sometimes has to re-order and redeliver parts sometimes up to 6-7 times until it’s right! The parts counter guy tried to play me for a fool and said that this was the first time they’ve encountered an issue like this but thanks for bringing it up as it will be something they can work on going forward. But here the parts delivery guy in front of me is going off on how Toyota wastes so much of their and the customers time by shipping things like idiots and not having half a brain to just double up on the packaging material i.e. bubble wrap, peanuts, double-walled cardboard boxes, etc.. I let him vent to me for almost 45 mins because the poor guy seemed like he had kept that in for a looooog time lol. But yes I got the parts. Toyota uses Sachs (Toyota specific valved) struts for the front and KYB (again Toyota specific valved) struts for the rear for my 2000 Camry.
You don’t have to play it out like that. Just sharing my experience here just in case it helps someone else in the future. After all, that’s what forums are for and what also makes forums and communities great isn’t it? The internet has 25 years of forum history now.
I am trying to bring some balance to the thread. I have used RA for many years and have been a satisfied customer. On the few occasions where there was a screw-up, they made it right. I use many sources for online ordering, most of them have been pretty good. In the rare times I have had a problem, most vendors have made it right. IF RA is spiraling down the toilet and most of its customers are being cheated you are correct in pointing that out. The sample size so far points to something more sporadic and not endemic. Good luck with another, IMO, excellent vendor with Summit.
Me too.
One messed up "tensioner kit", two incorrect hood lift cylinders, and a pair of dented oil filters is all that's in my RA 20 year gripe basket.
1 They remedied the tensioner fast.
2 I altered the hood lifts. "RL, TL, what's the difference", is what the worker must've said.
3 They included slips of paper in each stating that they knew of the dents and wouldn't return them.
3a I sent a complaint email to RA HQ, just to let 'em know.
There's a starter/alternator shop near me so there's no need to ship/core return those heavies.
Something like a steering rack or AC compressor is best sourced locally or through specialty houses (way less chance of error).
That leaves lots of stuff to buy at RA.....just play "warehouse solitaire" and take the 5%.
Can you say, "Four Denso oxygen sensors please"?
Top quality wiper blades......Amazon oil specials..........who could ask for anything more?
One messed up "tensioner kit", two incorrect hood lift cylinders, and a pair of dented oil filters is all that's in my RA 20 year gripe basket.
1 They remedied the tensioner fast.
2 I altered the hood lifts. "RL, TL, what's the difference", is what the worker must've said.
3 They included slips of paper in each stating that they knew of the dents and wouldn't return them.
3a I sent a complaint email to RA HQ, just to let 'em know.
There's a starter/alternator shop near me so there's no need to ship/core return those heavies.
Something like a steering rack or AC compressor is best sourced locally or through specialty houses (way less chance of error).
That leaves lots of stuff to buy at RA.....just play "warehouse solitaire" and take the 5%.
Can you say, "Four Denso oxygen sensors please"?
Top quality wiper blades......Amazon oil specials..........who could ask for anything more?
Warehouse solitaire is a good one!! Haha… as I get older my time means a lot to me.. I’m glad RA remedies the situation but here’s the gripe that I still have; parts at times take 7-10 days to get to me. Erroneous parts are one thing but shipping back and standing in lines to do so is not the best. If Napa Auto starts carrying better stuff I’ll pay the extra markup just to avoid this stuff.. But I agree with you that RA is still a heavy competitor as their inventory is plentiful.
Just received two Bosch QuietCast brake rotors from rockauto via the United Auto Supply Syracuse location.
They were brand new, and not some greasy returns.
With present month Bosch discount, pricing was good.
So not everything coming from that UAS distribution center is bad.
They were brand new, and not some greasy returns.
With present month Bosch discount, pricing was good.
So not everything coming from that UAS distribution center is bad.
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