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Rock auto shipping cost scam?
Topic Started: Aug 21 2014, 02:28 AM (3,542 Views)
Coche Blanco
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I don't hardly bother with RA. They are nice if you need EVERYTHING from one place, but I can usually piece something together from eBay, Amazon and AA without much work...and save a good % when I do.
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Cubey
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I guess I just don't see sitting at a computer moving a mouse as "a lot of work". Try searching a few parts from that $526 order I listed the items from.

Sure, you can find the parts scattered around the web for a little bit less money but they usually have paid shipping attached. I'd either have to pay more a lot more money for the part with "free" shipping or pay $10+ shipping per website for a or 2 parts.

Also, Amazon pricing is wild, all over the map. Two tie rods I bought a long time back on RA were $27 each... amazon *right now* has them for $10.xx each but that's an odd price. Amazon also has the brake rotors for $20 which is insanely cheap. They are $124 from O'Reilly, which is how Amazon used to have them priced.

Seeing as how I paid about $10-15 shipping on $526 worth of parts after the 5% discount, there's no way I could have gotten the parts that cheap AND paid so little shipping. The parts were heavy too. One ton chassis idler arms, ball joints, a 4-5ft long center link, drag link, timing set, tie rod ends plus some light stuff. Keep in mind also it was 2 years ago I placed that order. It's impossible to say how parts were priced them vs now. At that time, I found RA to be the best and easiest to deal with for prices and customer service. I just knew it was cheaper than retail and they delivered it all to my door.
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Horn


Don't get too fixed on whether shipping is free or added. I worry about total price. All that matters.

I did buy some items from them but they did lose on a few sales. Oh well
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Tim Keith


I think the way that the warehouse flips for a part already in the shopping cart is probably a web software defect.
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Metro94
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I have been having problems with RA too. I ordered the front two parking / turn signal lights that go in the lower front bumper. They said that they were for a Jap Geo.
Well I got the fixtures and the right one had the wrong connection fitting and the left one fit like a glove. I checked the packages that they came in and the left that fit came from "Sherman & Accociates", not RA.
The next email to them was showing them my research, they stopped replying to my emails. Then they said that they made up these numbers
GM2530115 & GM2531115.

I was going to order a Stant thermostat but the gasket was going to cost $5.00 ++ to ship as it came from another location.
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Cubey
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You have to do many items before RA is worth it usually, unless you buy a single higher priced item that might come out less money with shipping vs someplace else. Otherwise, Amazon might be better if you have Prime.
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HelterSkelter
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the location of the first 5 didn't change, they are all still in the same warehouse, they just changed which letter they were using to identify that warehouse.
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Cobb
BANNED

Ive never had a problem with RA. They seem to have or can get hard to find or discontinued parts.

Now Amazon monkeys around with shipping on me. Ive accidently went there to buy something and left to go to ebay as I get screwed on shipping. Either shipping is as much as the item, I need to spend 35 bucks in qualified items to get free shipping for those qualified items or join prime.

Once Ive shopped elsewhere like ebay, I get a note the items in my cart doubled or trippled in prices. :rasp
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Cubey
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HelterSkelter
Aug 24 2014, 03:05 PM
the location of the first 5 didn't change, they are all still in the same warehouse, they just changed which letter they were using to identify that warehouse.
Yeah I was thinking that was the case the other day...
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Cobb
BANNED

Rockauto screwed me over in a similar way, plus they forgot the magnets. :rasp I was trying to order drums, lugs, springs and shoes for my sidekick. I couldnt get everything from the same warehouse. The shoes were sent next day by fedex for 10 bucks, the shoes were 16 bucks. I get the rest of my :shit a week later. Why not hold the shoes or send them 3rd class mail as they arent going to do me any good til I get the springs, drums and lugs? :banghead
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gbreadman
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Tinkerer

I still like Rock Auto but watch out for the core returns; there's no return label included. You pay for shipping the item across country, even if it's an 11 lb '96 starter motor.

They don't tell you up-front where the core-return address is located. I live in NJ and had to return the motor to San Bernardino California. Luckily I'm working part-time for a shipping company so I get a discount on ground shipments, but it still cost $15 to send back a $35 core. If the core return address was only a state or two away it would've only cost $7.
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DTM GTi
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I don't really care what the reasons are , it's BS that lost them a customer of 10 years who was spending a lot of money rebuilding Suzuki stuff. When they loose enough customers like me, they will fix that BS, till then I'm shopping elsewhere
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Cobb
BANNED

I dont understand why they didnt include or sold you a discounted shipping label. I bought some shocks for a civic for my insight. Yes, I know its not the same car, but close enough the rear fit. The front lacked the eyelet for the sway bar link, so I called and returned them. They charged me 7 bucks to send the front struts by fed ex to some place in NJ. 7 bucks??????? Thats a steal for the big heavy box. If the cores are really worth much they should of sent a shipping label. :rocker
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John Doe
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Metromightymouse
Aug 21 2014, 06:26 AM
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
Here is the interesting thing. I ordered 10 wheel nuts for a particular car and they only come in 10. They come from warehouse A then I added another 10 of the exact same wheel nuts. Now I have warehouse A and B in the same line. So I'm wondering what the deal is with that. Do they only keep 10 wheel nuts in each warehouse. Seems to be rigged to profit mostly off of shipping.
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Horn


I still think it's rigged. Especially when the items change warehouse locations due to adding another item. I don't buy as much from them. Sometimes their shipping makes the item too much. You could buy something really small and the shipping will be double what it should be
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