The craziest Rock Auto Shipping pricing yet

[LDM]

To add insult to injury, when my wife did that with chase, it was held against her by chase, and chase months later reinstated the charges (not the credit bureaus, this would be another thread). The fact that you threw the parts away implies RA didn’t respond, which they can do in the future…

RA refused to take them back or give me any option for returning them, other than wanting charging me a ridiculous amount of money via their website to print a label and ship them back. Since they refused to resolve the issue, my credit card company reversed the charges due to the fraud possibility of the situation.

My guess is whatever warehouse sent the parts just threw whatever they had lying around on the shelf into a box and sent it out. Not a single part was in its own box except for the sway links and they were just in a plain brown box with no part # anywhere on the parts or the box. They were probably hoping that RockAutos useless excuse for a return system would prevent them from having to worry about the issue. Well, they were wrong. No idea if they responded to the charge back or not but I provided plenty of info to my CC company, including pictures of the parts with no parts #s on them or any way to determine what parts they were.

This happened a couple years back so its not like its going to be reversed at this point anyway. Not that my CC company would, they do a good job of dealing with situations like this and as long as you provide the details of the transaction and the companies refusal to make it right, they always side with the consumer in my experience. After talking with the CC rep about the details on the charges this is apparently something they have had to deal with in regard to RockAuto in recent years. No surprise they sided with me even if RockAuto responded.

 

[researcher]

RA refused to take them back or give me any option for returning them, other than wanting charging me a ridiculous amount of money via their website to print a label and ship them back. Since they refused to resolve the issue, my credit card company reversed the charges due to the fraud possibility of the situation.

My guess is whatever warehouse sent the parts just threw whatever they had lying around on the shelf into a box and sent it out. Not a single part was in its own box except for the sway links and they were just in a plain brown box with no part # anywhere on the parts or the box. They were probably hoping that RockAutos useless excuse for a return system would prevent them from having to worry about the issue. Well, they were wrong. No idea if they responded to the charge back or not but I provided plenty of info to my CC company, including pictures of the parts with no parts #s on them or any way to determine what parts they were.

This happened a couple years back so its not like its going to be reversed at this point anyway. Not that my CC company would, they do a good job of dealing with situations like this and as long as you provide the details of the transaction and the companies refusal to make it right, they always side with the consumer in my experience. After talking with the CC rep about the details on the charges this is apparently something they have had to deal with in regard to RockAuto in recent years. No surprise they sided with me even if RockAuto responded.

I'm not surprised by your story at all. I had been working on a friend's F-150 getting parts together for their entire brake system (calipers, pads, etc). The parts that showed up were just destroyed, the calipers were scraped, had deep chisel marks on them, boxes were completed ripped apart and THAT was put in a shipping box to send to a customer, what a joke. This wasn't a shipping problem, that shipping box was in perfect shape.. And I took pictures to send to RA.. So.. I contacted RockAuto to return them but they wanted to blame me (the customer) for not wanting bad parts and how I was affecting their bottom line because they had to absorb the shipping cost back to the parts warehouse. Hilarious! They were not willing to refund but to give store credit and that in the future I should think twice about trying to return something. I replied back that is very funny that RockAuto is going to blame the customer for a shoddy parts warehouse who completely destroyed auto parts,. That somehow it's the customer's fault for the shady parts place RA chose?! I told them they can either refund the money or deal with the credit card company. They reluctantly did refund it and took the parts back but I was warned about making returns in the future!!

I'm warned?! Ya.. Ok.. I made sure not to ever buy anything from them again. Here.. save $30 from other retailers but don't you dare question RA about the terrible condition of damaged parts you receive.. I shop elsewhere now. RA has gotten so bad that shopping for parts at a flea market is a better idea!

I had shopped with them for many years, but it's just not worth it anymore.. Eventually this WILL catch up with them and they'll go out of business.. NO fault but their own.

 

[John105]

I'm not surprised by your story at all. I had been working on a friend's F-150 getting parts together for their entire brake system (calipers, pads, etc). The parts that showed up were just destroyed, the calipers were scraped, had deep chisel marks on them, boxes were completed ripped apart and THAT was put in a shipping box to send to a customer, what a joke. This wasn't a shipping problem, that shipping box was in perfect shape.. And I took pictures to send to RA.. So.. I contacted RockAuto to return them but they wanted to blame me (the customer) for not wanting bad parts and how I was affecting their bottom line because they had to absorb the shipping cost back to the parts warehouse. Hilarious! They were not willing to refund but to give store credit and that in the future I should think twice about trying to return something. I replied back that is very funny that RockAuto is going to blame the customer for a shoddy parts warehouse who completely destroyed auto parts,. That somehow it's the customer's fault for the shady parts place RA chose?! I told them they can either refund the money or deal with the credit card company. They reluctantly did refund it and took the parts back but I was warned about making returns in the future!!

I'm warned?! Ya.. Ok.. I made sure not to ever buy anything from them again. Here.. save $30 from other retailers but don't you dare question RA about the terrible condition of damaged parts you receive.. I shop elsewhere now. RA has gotten so bad that shopping for parts at a flea market is a better idea!

I had shopped with them for many years, but it's just not worth it anymore.. Eventually this WILL catch up with them and they'll go out of business.. NO fault but their own.

I did get a likely new but previously installed brake rotor. Had no issues getting a new one but if I needed it for the job it would have wasted a week. Based on these stories they need to take control. They own nothing and operate no DCs. Fat margins some of which passed on to customer as savings. Everyone is fat dumb and happy when things go right.

In your case, lousy suppliers cost their bottom line, not you.

 

[D60]

It would be nice to see a true competitor to RA. They've built an incredible distribution network which is key to a business like this, and probably not easy to replicate.

This isn't even RA hate -- just saying competition is good for us. I think I've placed an occasional order w Parts Geek or Carparts??? but typically their websites are more clunky and they seemed slow to ship.

Honestly I think someplace like NAPA could do it. My local store can get almost anything overnight on their daily truck, so with additional staff that same distribution center could just ship straight to me. Problem is, they'd effectively be telling all local franchisees to stick it. Presently NAPA's web business is horrendous -- they clearly don't care about selling parts at their website but they'll begrudgingly send you something if you can manage to order it.

If Amazon built a sister site with a catalog like RA's they could probably do even more damage than they already do.

 

[Kira]

RockAuto sent me a "frozen solid" belt tensioner as part of a kit.
The tray for said kit wasn't original to any kit.
It was as if they grabbed some packaging tray from the floor and plopped parts into it.
It was a very poor showing.
They responded within their "electronic/personless system", provided a shipping label and credited me fast.
I got no complaint aside from their assured association with at least a few garbage warehouses and the effort/delay involved with returning things.

However, I'm real thoughtful now when it comes time to order parts. Foreign car places (FCP, eEuroparts etc.) do their thing well.

Frankly, I can easily see disgruntled, uneducated, dead-end people throwing bad parts into boxes because they don't know how to care.
This is not a "kids today are crap" notion.
I've always thought lots of people throughout all demos have had the option to be crap. I know many exercise this option.
What really stinks is the possibility (increasing likelihood?) that garbage people can sometimes keep their jobs.

Has anyone read about RA ceasing dealing with bad players?

 

[LDM]

I'm warned?! Ya.. Ok.. I made sure not to ever buy anything from them again. Here.. save $30 from other retailers but don't you dare question RA about the terrible condition of damaged parts you receive.. I shop elsewhere now. RA has gotten so bad that shopping for parts at a flea market is a better idea!

I had shopped with them for many years, but it's just not worth it anymore.. Eventually this WILL catch up with them and they'll go out of business.. NO fault but their own.

Yep, thats essentially the same nonsense I got when I was trying to resolve the issue on their website. The order was not a small number of parts either, it had fully assembled struts, sway links, and the various other front suspension pieces I would need to fix this car. Too bad none of them were the parts that I ordered and were not for the car. It isn't my fault whatever warehouse these parts came from didn't do their job, it is your job to make it right. I was willing to send them the parts as long as they paid for the shipping label, I wasn't paying $45 to send back a bunch of incorrect parts. I don't have to do that with Amazon, NAPA, Advance, or any other parts company that I've bought from before.

My last return with Amazon I took it to the local Staples, which I already needed to go to the Menards next to it anyway. Dropped off the box, staples gives me a $10 credit on a $30 or more purchase there. Just so happened I needed a couple of MicroSD cards. I was more than willing to just drop the box off at Staples without anything like that being given to me. RockAuto apparently doesn't understand this concept and thinks that poor customer service for incorrect parts is ok these days. It isn't for me.

And yes, I have a ton of RA magnets around in my garage and on my fridge in the house. They used to be great and I ordered from them a lot. Then they got greedy and they aren't worth dealing with in the last few years.

 

[97prizm]

My local NAPA has this on spools. Check it out befoe ordering this.

My napa always has tubing and hoses available for purchase

 

[researcher]

I did get a likely new but previously installed brake rotor. Had no issues getting a new one but if I needed it for the job it would have wasted a week. Based on these stories they need to take control. They own nothing and operate no DCs. Fat margins some of which passed on to customer as savings. Everyone is fat dumb and happy when things go right.

In your case, lousy suppliers cost their bottom line, not you.

I agree John, RA picks lousy suppliers but when they defend their actions and blame the customer.. that's when they lose the customer!

 

[researcher]

Yep, thats essentially the same nonsense I got when I was trying to resolve the issue on their website. The order was not a small number of parts either, it had fully assembled struts, sway links, and the various other front suspension pieces I would need to fix this car. Too bad none of them were the parts that I ordered and were not for the car. It isn't my fault whatever warehouse these parts came from didn't do their job, it is your job to make it right. I was willing to send them the parts as long as they paid for the shipping label, I wasn't paying $45 to send back a bunch of incorrect parts. I don't have to do that with Amazon, NAPA, Advance, or any other parts company that I've bought from before.

My last return with Amazon I took it to the local Staples, which I already needed to go to the Menards next to it anyway. Dropped off the box, staples gives me a $10 credit on a $30 or more purchase there. Just so happened I needed a couple of MicroSD cards. I was more than willing to just drop the box off at Staples without anything like that being given to me. RockAuto apparently doesn't understand this concept and thinks that poor customer service for incorrect parts is ok these days. It isn't for me.

And yes, I have a ton of RA magnets around in my garage and on my fridge in the house. They used to be great and I ordered from them a lot. Then they got greedy and they aren't worth dealing with in the last few years.

Thanks for the rest of your story. Insane and incredible but if that's the way RA wants to go, then go out of business. People can say it's an isolated incident but it's not. Only a matter of time before they alienate enough customers that they fall on hard times. Not going to be surprised. But I'm glad to know it wasn't just me that experienced this.

And Staples offering that coupon is what happens to me at Kohls returning amazon orders too! I actually gave that coupon to a friend and they were going to use it. Looks like Amazon partnering with other retailers is a win for both.

 

[SC Maintenance]

RA doesn't do returns. Learned myself. Will save everyone the story.

I order 1 or 2 things at a time and hope for the best. Odds are in your favor, and if you end up with a mess its not that much money.

 

[Gus_Mahn]

I ordered 4 windshield wipers and all 4 rotors and two sets of pads for my ‘15 F150. I played with different options to get it down to two shipping charges. It seems wipers are cheap but different sized otherwise identical wipers are always two separate shipping charges. Anyhow, I payed double shipping, and all 80lbs came in one box. Of course the wipers were smashed. The delivery guy just left it in my driveway, and I don’t blame him.

I still use RA, but I usually price: Amazon, eBay, and RA. Sometimes Orelys or Advance. For junk cars, I’ll buy from Detroit Axle. Their brake kits are hard to beat price wise.

 

[Hall]

RA should be sued for not being able to talk to a human being

On what grounds ?

But twice in the past few months I’ve had an order made out with a shipping label created and the package just sits at the parts warehouse without being shipped. The first time, it was five business days, the last one was a calendar week. (The latest one should be delivered today, a full week after it was originally scheduled to be delivered)

This is pretty typical with a LOT of companies that ship on behalf of another company. When they "partner" up, no doubt one of the performance requirements is "ship with 48 hours" or something. Warehouse receives the order, they print a shipping label, and it's considered "shipped" and satisfies their requirement. The warehouse can claim plenty of excuses and ultimately blame the shipping company (UPS, Fedex, USPS, etc).

Since Amazon took over shipping in-house, I don't see it anymore, but when they used USPS I'd see it all the time where USPS would mark packages as "delivered" 1-2 days before they showed up. Amazon sees that USPS met their performance standards though.