What the ell is with Rock Auto?!?

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Bonnewagon

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Sep 18, 2009
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This is the second time I ordered from RA and used the US Mail for delivery. Again, they handed it off to DHL so they can spend a week slow-walking it to the PO. What the heck is this?!? It went from 3 days when I placed the order to 10 days on DHL tracking. And if you track it you see in the last 3 days they have not even picked it up yet!!! I don't get it. Why use a loser service like DHL? Back when I was a Parcel Post driver my buddy worked for DHL. We got big pallets of stuff from them for the final delivery. He said they don't send out a load until the truck is full. So stuff just sits there. DHL was an international courier trying to get into the parcel business. They bought Airbourne and did local deliveries until the recession of '08 when they tanked. Are they attempting a comeback? Because they still suck! I can't tell if this is a RockAuto policy or maybe a USPS nightmare dreamed up by NoJoy the idiot postmaster. I emailed RA's customer service and got a totally useless response that is convincing me they could not care less that they are sandbagging customers with this nonsense. So I needed some more parts, used Fleabay Motors, and have them in hand before DHL has even picked up my original order from RA. Shabby, shabby service.
 
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Built6spdMCSS

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Something also they have been doing for the last several years is sending people the wrong part, and then when the person wants to return it they charge a re-stocking fee. I know 6 people this has happened to.

From what I've heard they have come under new ownership and have been doing these shady tactics. I've avoided them.
 
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Tomeal

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Apr 17, 2016
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I've got burnt on this same thing from them. If I want it in a reasonable time, I pay for FedEx ground. It's usually not much more and shows up days faster.
 
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Streetbu

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May 22, 2011
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Just got an order from them Sunday. Took forever using FedEx, but that's because they shipped it from Arizona to NY 🤯 I specifically ordered powerstop brake parts because usually they have been shipped out of a local auto parts distributor. Like 15 miles from me and often times I have them the next day. Not so this time :(
 
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xylorex

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Aug 2, 2018
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I've only had a problem with them once, I remember them making it right. For the cost savings, convenience, and selection of manufacturers I'm pretty satisfied with rockauto.
 
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CopperNick

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Feb 20, 2018
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DHL isn't even North American. If memory serves they are owned by some German conglomerate whose initials are the "DH" in the name. The "L" is for Loomis, which was a courier company that the parent outfit absorbed several decades ago. They don't even deliver up here, it gets handed off to a regional that does the final drop.

USPS apparently had something of a meltdown just before Christmas. Can't speak to the details but the last PR release was yakking about longer delivery times and slower service; they blamed it all on the season but that was almost two months ago now. I'm waiting on parts to come from Ca and I finally got word that the stuff had been shipped; it got all the way from Los Angeles to San Francisco and only took two weeks to make the trip!!!! I figure that, maybe by the end of the month, it will have reached Dubuque.


Nick
 
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Bonnewagon

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DHL isn't even North American. If memory serves they are owned by some German conglomerate
That is true. As I said, they took over Airbourne Express. And Airbourne was originally Flying Tigers, that is how far back it goes. My buddy worked for Airbourne and he loved it. His boss was college educated, made a lot of money, and made sure the place ran smooth like a sewing machine. He then got taken over by DHL who promised them the world, but as soon as the recession hit, they dumped the whole parcel delivery business and went back to international courier service, at which they are justifiably famous for. And it was sudden too, like no warning. That is why I can't see why RA is handing off delivery to DHL when they really have no domestic fleet to speak of. Just give it to the US Mail and be done with it! That is what I paid for and I expect the delivery window that is shown at checkout. I do agree that RA is absolutely the best source of old car parts. But lately even Home Dupa and Wally World are carrying car parts, are competitivly priced, and offer FREE shipping. When I do a parts search, and I find the part number, I look for lowest cost and shipping. Lately RA is falling behind and the high shipping negates the low cost.
 

jiho

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Jul 26, 2013
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So I needed some more parts, used Fleabay Motors, and have them in hand before DHL has even picked up my original order from RA.
That's odd. I've never had any trouble with RockAuto. On the other hand, I recently encountered a really odd deal that's appeared on Ebay, called "Aquiline Tracking." It basically spoofs an order that comes from Amazon under their "Fulfilled by Amazon" program, which is being heavily used by outfits in China. Amazon boats the stuff over and holds it in a warehouse, then ships it out when ordered on their site. Only now the stuff can also appear on Ebay, and when ordered Amazon will still ship it, but it has "Aquiline Tracking" that doesn't show the actual carrier. And that's if it actually ships at all. My item did, some others have not fared so well. And there's no warning up front that this is what's going on.
 

ck80

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I rarely buy on ebay, and, it's always new old stock if I ever do.

As for rock auto, I just edit the links every few weeks or months for the closeouts on... well, anything I own. It works fairly well too because so many of the wear components interchange on my vehicles as I tend to own multiples of the same driveline. SBC? 4 of em. MB 320 and 430? 3 combined, with some overlap. The 8.1 is an oddball, but, I can interchange the oil filters and misc stuff with some of the other chubby engines. I also plan on buying 2 more when i find the right deals. The inline 6 never needs anything. Truck is 57 years old this year, original motor, original trans, original rear, never rebuilt. Got its first water pump 2 years ago, not because the old one totally failed but because the seal leaked and for $6 I put a new cast iron one on and swapped the $1.25 worth of gaskets on the old and boxed it back up. Buick 231s I've got 4 of, 5.0s and 3.7s a pair each. I'm leaving out a few, and, the '18 camaro is on its way out so we won't count it.

My 'smallest' order I ever made from them came in 4 of their oversized boxes. Usually it's 5-7 of the 3ftx3ftx12in types. So, it's only FedEx.

If something 'breaks' and I don't have the part, either it's a super generic, a wear item I can budget for already of time, or a major failure and the R&R time is measured in weeks to begin with so delivery time doesn't matter.
 

69hurstolds

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Jan 2, 2006
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I ordered a couple R4 compressor main shaft bearings from RA about 2 weeks ago. FINALLY got them the other day. USPS. Forgot I even ordered them. With the 5% discount and shipping charge of $3.88 for two of them, I couldn't go wrong. It was the cheapest I could find the Made in U.S.A., National brand (Federal Mogul) bearings anywhere total shipped. For the fun of it, I added ONE Delco orifice tube to the RA cart to see what it would do for shipping. Shipping jumped up by nearly $10 by adding that small, almost weightless part. WTF? Same warehouse. Ended up buying the same exact orifice tube on ebay for $7 shipped.

I used to love those "closeouts" when RA would unload them to my email when they had a bunch of ACDelco stuff for the G-bodies. That's how I ended up with 3 V8 Delco starters, a dozen 85-90 Olds VIN 9 only Delco fuel pumps and about 15 of the 1987-90 Olds V8 Delco oil caps, all the rear brake adjusters and installation "springs and things" Delco packs on the super-cheap. Sometimes ridiculously low prices, too.

To this day I can't figure out what the difference is between the VIN Y fuel pumps and the 85-up VIN 9 fuel pump. They look identical just looking at them. Must be something to do with either output volume or spring pressure. The VIN 9 engine fuel requirements aren't THAT much different than a regular Y engine best I can tell and the fuel inlet components for both Y and 9 carbs are the same part numbers. They usually over-engineered the fuel pumps to ensure they could feed those powerhouse 307s no matter which version you have. ;)

I call it strategic car parts shopping.
 
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