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Rock auto shipping cost scam?
Topic Started: Aug 21 2014, 02:28 AM (3,539 Views)
Horn


I sure hope others have seen this too.

So today I was going to order parts for 2 cars. I somehow managed to find 5 items that were all going to ship from location B. I then just needed 1 more item (water pump). The first 2 I picked had had shipping location of A and C. obviously I'm trying to get a location B. I then try the third cheapest one and the location is B....I then look to see my 5 previous items location changed to A...WTF!!! To me it seems like BS just to get a few extra dollars.

Here is an easier exlanation.
Item. Location.
1. B
2. B
3. B
4. B
5. B
......THEN I TRY 2 WATER PUMP 6wp
6wp. A
6wp. C

at this point I add the 3rd wp to get location B and here is what happens...
1. A
2. A
3. A
4. A
5. A
....water pumps
6wp. D
6wp. C
6wp. B

So I don't understand why the location of the first 5 changed. This is not the first time it has happened. Am I missimg something? I took some screenshots and plan on contacting rock auto.



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ChuckBrush
Member
[ *  *  * ]
I've had this happen too. I ask Rockauto about it and as i remember they said something along the lines of "the letter of the location is arbitrary". Just ordered from them the other day and noticed there were little trucks next to parts that would ship from a location I already had something ordered from. It can be a real pain I know, especially when it's a closeout that always seems to come from some other warehouse. You wonder why they just don't get one warehouse and be done with it. I cut them some slack because they are usually nice to deal with, the prices are good, and they are from Madison WI. Go Badgers!

Chuck
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Horn


I still don't understand how the location of an item can just change based on a different item. They are in no way connected.

I deal some with RA, but this shipping thing makes it cheaper to go with ebay.
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Cubey
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For very large orders they are cost effective even with 2 or even 3 shipping costs. One order I placed for rebuilding the front end of my motorhome was over $500. It saved me at least $200 over retail. I was replacing almost everything and I went with higher quality stuff, not the cheaper stuff. And that wasn't even all of it, I ordered more I forgot. A few other things were in the order too. (Wish I had returned the timing set, I've never used it. I also bought a water pump I haven't used either). Shopping around on many sites is not always best since you may end up paying even higher shipping than from 2 or 3 warehouses over on RA.

CLOYES C3028 Timing Set $31.89 - 1 - $31.89
FEL-PRO TCS65631 (TCS6563-1) Timing Cover Gasket Set - $15.79 - 1 - $15.79
STANT 10231 Radiator Cap $2.53 - 1 - $2.53
STANT 10075 Crankcase Breather Cap $3.84 - 1 - $3.84
MOOG DS789 Center Link $68.79 - 1 - $68.79
MOOG DS788 Center Link $89.79 - 1 - $89.79
MOOG ES2075R Tie Rod End $27.79 - 2 - $55.58
MOOG ES2076L Tie Rod End $27.79 - 2 - $55.58
MOOG K7051 Idler Arm $36.79 - 1 - $36.79
MOOG K778 Ball Joint $34.79 - 2 - $69.58
MOOG K727 Ball Joint $41.79 - 2 - $83.58
Discount $ -25.69
Shipping Ground $38.19
Order Total $526.24

The discount was the 5% coupon code so it offset almost all of the shipping cost on that large order.

Overall I spent probably $900 if not more on the front, including shocks and control arm bushing and ball joint installation done by a machine shop (I carried in removed the control arms). It would have probably been $2,000 if I had paid a mechanic to do it all.
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Horn


I'm not arguing prices. Often times they are on par with ebay and advance auto (w 40% discount)

It just sucks paying another $10 shipping for a $20 part.

Its not the prices, its just how parts magically change locations. I've bought quite a bit from them lately
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Freeman
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The Family Man

What gets me is the $80 bumper cover cost $125 to ship :(

I wish the items were just priced and shipping was free. Safe me the hassle of having to go through the shipping calculator and let me shop~
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Metromightymouse
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Powdercoat Wizard

I will attempt to make some of this make sense. Part of this is a very educated guess based on several factors.

So lets assume 4 warehouses, CA, TX, MN, ME (just making this up).
I have noticed that you can order the same part from different warehouses with a different shipping cost that doesn't appear to be related to distance.
I have also noticed that some orders come with a magnet and others don't. It's easy to assume it was forgotten or they ran out, but I believe that isn't the case.
Warehouse closeouts almost always seem to come from some funky warehouse that is different from the ones that most of the parts you order are coming from, frequently one that is "outlying, shipping may be delayed".

The educated guess is that RA does not own all these "warehouses", some of them are actually other parts sellers who are drop shipping the parts for RA. I also believe that a good number of the closeouts are also drop shipped but the difference is that it isn't one of their normal partners, just a parts seller that has some product to close out. The delay is that the system isn't linked to RA's ordering system, in fact someone at RA may have to enter the order into the actual sellers system. :fon
This is why RA's shipping costs are all over the map, the drop ship stuff shipping cost is determined by the company shipping it.

Now for the warehouse letters. A couple of things are going on. One is a feature that tries to arrange lower cost for your order by shuffling where things are coming from. It's supposed to be optional and it appears that it asks you each time you place your order if you want to use it but I suspect it remembers if you said you wanted to use it at some time or some portion of the system stays active.
So say you have an order, plugs, cap, rotor, wires, 2 half shafts, water pump, a set of shocks and clearance wiper blades.
As you do your order you get plugs, cap and rotor listed at warehouse A and behind the scenes this is CA.
The wires, half shafts, and water pump are coming from warehouse B, it's in TX.
The shocks are coming from warehouse C. You ordered them from there because any other warehouse has a much higher price. This is ME.
The closeout wiper blades are coming from warehouse D and it's MN.

The warehouses in CA and TX are RA warehouses and you will receive a magnet with at least one of the boxes (it shows up as a line item on some orders and then you receive one, I have received 2 from different boxes at times).
The warehouse in ME has the cheapest prices on the shocks because it is actually the shock manufacturer's warehouse and they have a drop shipment agreement with RA.
The first possibility for the warehouse in MN is it's another large parts seller with a drop shipment agreement. It has some items to closeout that were boxed for a parts store, say Carquest, that have been discontinued there so the seller decided to discount those items. Other stuff could be added to the order from that warehouse because they dropship for RA. The 2nd option for ME is that it is a company that just has a quantity of wiper blades to sell cheap and has chosen RA to handle that for them. You will never find another item you can add to that order as they are only dropshipping closeout wiperblades for RA. This arrangement is the one that gets the shipping delayed notification.

You now decide you want to add an alternator to the order. The first option has a good price but it's not an existing warehouse on your order so shipping makes it too expensive. The 2nd and 3rd choices have the truck symbol indicating it ships from a warehouse you already are ordering from. Ordering the 2nd option shuffles all your shipping around. Now your wires, half shafts, water pump, and the alternator are coming from warehouse A and the stuff that was originally from warehouse A is now coming from warehouse B. What happened? Actually very little. Warehouse A is now TX and warehouse B is now CA. The letter is just a priority indicator inside their system and will move when things are going to process in a different order. It may have to do with when each individual warehouse closes or something like that, but every time you add something to your order it may change the letter of the warehouse the items are coming from, but not the actual warehouse. If you watch the shipping cost and it doesn't change for the warehouse where something wasn't added to it then it is still the same warehouse.
The 3rd choice actually changes the letters and changes the groupings of the parts so the plugs, cap, rotor and wires are now at one warehouse and the alternator is with the half shafts and water pump. This is a case where their system is trying to organize for the lowest overall cost. Of course I don't trust it and end up going through all the options to determine which way is cheapest anyway and it takes some time to go through all the possibilities.

The reason why RA won't come out and discuss this with us is the dropship companies want to remain anonymous so they don't affect their other business relationships and RA agrees to not narc them out for selling so low.

Hopefully that helps clear the situation up some.
:cheers
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Metromightymouse
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Powdercoat Wizard

TurboEF
Aug 21 2014, 05:38 AM
What gets me is the $80 bumper cover cost $125 to ship :(

I wish the items were just priced and shipping was free. Safe me the hassle of having to go through the shipping calculator and let me shop~
If it was all coming from RA they might be able to do that if the set a shipping cost for where ever it was being shipped. The problem arises when a dropship company is determining shipping price based on distance, which is very common with large parts. RA can't add it up and charge a flat rate because of the different shipping costs depending on where you are compared to the shippers location.
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nickb803
NickB803

Usually I take the part number to ebay and find the part about half price with free shipping
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razr769
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Got boost?

I also emailed them about this when I would add an item and it would switch the warehouse for half the parts in my cart. I suggested having a selection box for each item in your cart where you can choose from all the warehouses it's available at.

They gave me a BS excuse that adding an item might have put it over their size/weight limit for shipping. I tried it again with small parts and it still changed warehouses on me :shake
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Old Man


I always compare Amazon. Most times that is the cheapest parts/rates/service
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Cubey
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TurboEF
Aug 21 2014, 05:38 AM
What gets me is the $80 bumper cover cost $125 to ship :(

I wish the items were just priced and shipping was free. Safe me the hassle of having to go through the shipping calculator and let me shop~
Once you have an item in your cart, they have little markers on the items that say A, B, C, D so you can shop the catalog and select items to match the warehouse of the item in the cart already.

Very large items DO cost a lot of money to ship. Shipping is never really "free". If they offered "free" shipping, the prices wold have to up substantially to offset the cost of shipping THEY pay instead of the customers. It's like how I sell on ebay and offer free shipping. I often have to remind people that "free" shipping isn't free to me and so I price things accordingly.
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Tim Keith


I had the same thing happen with me. Three items from 1 warehouse, attempt to add another item and the three items in the cart moved to a different warehouse.
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Cubey
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Tim Keith
Aug 22 2014, 12:25 AM
I had the same thing happen with me. Three items from 1 warehouse, attempt to add another item and the three items in the cart moved to a different warehouse.
Weird. I haven't seen that but maybe that's a newer thing they do since it's been over a year since I placed a RA order.
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Freeman
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The Family Man

Cubey
Aug 21 2014, 11:52 AM
TurboEF
Aug 21 2014, 05:38 AM
What gets me is the $80 bumper cover cost $125 to ship :(

I wish the items were just priced and shipping was free. Safe me the hassle of having to go through the shipping calculator and let me shop~
Once you have an item in your cart, they have little markers on the items that say A, B, C, D so you can shop the catalog and select items to match the warehouse of the item in the cart already.

Very large items DO cost a lot of money to ship. Shipping is never really "free". If they offered "free" shipping, the prices wold have to up substantially to offset the cost of shipping THEY pay instead of the customers. It's like how I sell on ebay and offer free shipping. I often have to remind people that "free" shipping isn't free to me and so I price things accordingly.
I know free shipping isn't free. But my point was in the simplicity. Just price it and include free shipping. That's what I said. I just wanted to avoid using a shipping calculator.

Also, I do understand how the system works. I was just complaining to complain. It's who I am! I can't fault them.

I deal with shipping companies on a very regular basis. I know freight isn't cheap. There is a lot of man power that goes into getting a piece of plastic from Cali to Florida.
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