The Decline Of Rock Auto

My issue with RA has always been shipping. If parts ship from two warehouses, you pay two shipping charges.

I look on RA, then see if I can get the same part from Amazon with free Prime shipping. Especially for heavy items like a brake rotor.
Except Prime shipping isn’t free, its just prepaid. And rather expensive now.
 
RockAuto sucks. It's all good until you have an issue with a part that you ordered or need to do a warranty return. I had a wheel speed sensor connector on a hub bearing assembly for a Grand am That was bad out of the box so it made all my dummy lights come on. Contact them and they wanted me to send the hub bearing back first in order to get an exchange. Or I would have to front the money. Same thing happened when they sent me a CV axle that had a machining error on the splines. Got the car apart up on Jack stands and they want their stuff back before they get a replacement. I'd rather just spend the extra money and go to O'Reilly's than deal with that crap. Yeah you pay a premium but if you have a part with lifetime warranty in 10 years later you need a replacement, you take it back and they give you a new one on the spot no questions asked.

And there's not even anyone you can talk to in order to get you a quicker or easier resolution. No thanks. Fronting the money is fine if you have it and you have spare time to kill but not everybody is fortunate enough to have the money on hand at the time that the replacement is needed and most people need their parts ASAP for their daily drivers
 
Had orders of brake pads/rotors, and 8 oil filters (separate orders) in the last year. No issues, very quick shipping.
Just bought a downstream O2 sensor of the correct brand... will see if that solves my issue. The part literally came two days earlier than they said it would.

Chose over Amazon because while I love from Amazon, sometimes you get the possibility of fake parts I read reviews there. RockAuto website is like File Explorer on Windows but it got the job done and I prefer it to the chains (suck. Advance, Autozone, O-O-O-O'Reilly, NAPA)
 
They are a great resource for my purposes. Got a set of Power Stop ceramic brake pads for my Corvette at a price nobody else could touch.

Anybody remember JC Whitney? You were never sent what you ordered. Always something fouled up in the order.
 
I read that a lot of responders are complaining of shipping costs.
That is a function of the shipping companies and entirely a result of C-19/Inflation, not RA...
 
No complaints from me. My most recent purchase was a starter. Good price on a rebuilt Bosch and an easy core return.
 
Did you pack & label the core yourself or did RA provive a prepaid label?
I'd assume you paid for the return shipping. I was just wondering if RA made it easier.

Once, with a mistaken order, RA sent a shipping label that they paid for.
 
Except Prime shipping isn’t free, its just prepaid. And rather expensive now.
Okay but of all the online stores, Amazon might be among the easiest to reach $25 cart for free shipping (without Prime), especially if talking about auto parts. There's always *something* else I'm going to end up buying in the near future anyway.

I've bought several things from Rock Auto and had a few gripes (missing small parts, generic brake hose priced higher as sold under Raybestos brand, generic suspension parts substitutions, etc) but overall would shop there again, EXCEPT that their shipping rates on a lot of items are now excessive.

Some items still have good/low rates but because of the shipping, I often find that even if Amazon base price is a little higher, the delivered price ends up same or lower.

Warranties can be the tricky part. I've had items I tried to get warranty fulfilled through amazon, who told me to go to the manufacturer, who then referred me back to amazon. On the other hand I don't recall anything I've bought from Rock Auto that failed within the warranty period so I don't know how much of a hassle it would be there.
 
I read that a lot of responders are complaining of shipping costs.
That is a function of the shipping companies and entirely a result of C-19/Inflation, not RA...

There are instances where I can ship FedEx, and no higher cost than Rock Auto which is wrong because I'm doing one-off shipments, not bulk rates.

Rock Auto is not the only one to blame on this shipping issue. I've also come across some dealer parts sites that are now charging absurd shipping on certain items. Example, a hood cowl which weighs maybe 4 lbs and fits in a box about 5ft long x 11", $300 shipping. Oversized dimensions maybe, but not remotely near enough to need a special freight delivery. Even if charged higher dimensional-weight rates, should cost under $60.
 
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Except Prime shipping isn’t free, its just prepaid. And rather expensive now.
We pay $59/year for Prime and have placed (130) Amazon orders in the past (5) months. That works out to $0.45 per order.
Since I got a notification about this comment of mine, I thought I'd update. I do need to clarify that we pay $59/year for Prime because of student pricing. I realize not everyone has that discount.

Anyway, we're at (242) orders so we're paying $0.24 in "shipping". We don't use much of the other offerings of Prime either.
 
Shipping is the issue I have with them. I ordered both front and rear rotors and pads from them, was half the shipping cost to order each set separately than together. Any more I get the part numbers from them, then price the parts on Amazon first. Whoever is cheaper with shipping included is where I order from.
 
Now I just ordered a matching (upstream) sensor (DENSO) from Rock Auto because the waveform on mine just doesn't look right to me. Could go into more detail but it doesn't appear do be doing much of anything. They had -one left- on "wholesaler closeout" so I got that one.

Shipping options were DHL or FedEx Ground. I chose DHL because it said "By November 22nd" and FedEx said "By November 28th" so since I can only get it installed weekends.... well I guess next weekend now. But okay.

I still use Amazon but for this specific part, I will choose Rock Auto to get the most "guaranteed" to actually be a Denso, finding it on Amazon can sometimes be a crapshoot with a lot of "universal" stuff that you don't want on your car.
 
Don't know where you live @schwinney but in my area, Fedex Ground delivers (7) days a week so arrival estimates are always off since Fedex's ETA system doesn't presume weekend deliveries are available (in all locations). DHL isn't a very prominent small-package carrier in the US when it comes to domestic shipping either. For international inbound or outbound, they're quite extensive though. Curious how it turns out for you.
 
Yah I'm beginning to wonder if i made the right choice as well. FedEx Ground sometimes gets ornery and won't deliver if nobody is there to sign also..

My product is shipping from Warehouse A.

Now if only I could update how emissions goes but that is next month. Still P0420 so. December we know..
Don't know where you live @schwinney but in my area, Fedex Ground delivers (7) days a week so arrival estimates are always off since Fedex's ETA system doesn't presume weekend deliveries are available (in all locations). DHL isn't a very prominent small-package carrier in the US when it comes to domestic shipping either. For international inbound or outbound, they're quite extensive though. Curious how it turns out for you.
 
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