The craziest Rock Auto Shipping pricing yet

[SC Maintenance]

Lots of threads on RA shipping policy, but this is just too funny to pass up.

Need 10 feet of vacuum hose. Check Rock Auto. Bonus - wholesaler closeout. However I have to pay for 2 shipments. I guess I need to also assume my 10 feet of hose will not be in one continuous piece?

I could get it friday for 50 bucks! If I go USPS I get 2 packages and shipping is only 11 bucks total. I could splice it I suppose.

I guess Jeff Bezos will get this order.

 

[CDX825]

Does it show two different shipping places when you select regular inventory?

 

[JMJNet]

This is something that I usually try to buy it locally.

 

[Oro_O]

You can go to Ace Hardware, get this cut to fit for dimes per foot. Fuel grade, whatever you need, on spools there cut-to-fit, pay just for what you need.

Why are you messing with RockAuto for this?

Or are you Gen Z or something? (Joke)

 

[Lubener]

For just ten feet, I would buy the hose locally. I always thought their freight charges were fair when you choose your parts from the same warehouse.

 

[FordSVTGuy]

I like to think that you found a glitch in the matrix that is Rock Auto

 

[Kira]

1) Since two (little trucks A + B) shipping locations come up with the product, it may be the case that the next item you'd select, if it comes from EITHER A or B, would come up as the same warehouse.
As a bonus, the remaining location might disappear.

2) Lots and lots of hardware and auto stores DO NOT have the rolls of tubing/hose mentioned by members above.

I l once saw a Jeep Cherokee which was maintained by an HVAC guy. Every inch of tubing/hose was replaced with modern, HVAC industrial products. It looked so cool.

 

[Urshurak776]

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

 

[TheOilWizard]

The key to Rock Auto is to use the same warehouse for your entire purchase. I just ordered 2x brake rotors, front brake pads, 8 oil filters, multiple cabin air filters, 2 quarts of transmission fluid and ground shipping was $23. The 5% discount code found here on BITOG helped as well.

Even with the shipping costs I came out way ahead compared to other online retailers. I agree with some of the other posts that sometimes items like this are better purchased in store.

 

[eljefino]

The master key to rock auto is getting it shipped to your work or another place of business for about half the price of home shipping.

 

[D60]

I've never even considered looking for vac hose at RA.

 

[incognito_2u]

Rock Auto is one of those places where the shipping Gods either work in your favor, or they don’t!

 

[Oro_O]

The master key to rock auto is getting it shipped to your work or another place of business for about half the price of home shipping.

Are the rates really that different? I have never checked.

Another option I’d like to share, for Euro cars I highly recommend RME (Rocky Mountain European). Great prices, fair shipping. They have five or more warehoues around the country they drop-ship from so you usually get it very fast no matter where you are. If one warehouse is out, they still ship it to you for the same reasonable flat rate, no upcharge. They carry solid parts brand and no junk.

I’ve been using them for Volvo parts for three to four years now and I’ve been really happy. They cover all Euro makes, and well, but nothing else really.

https://www.rmeuropean.com/

 

[dlundblad]

Parts stores will have fresh inventory and full spools. When I worked at Oreilly they carried Gates, which at the time was US made. This is obviously pieced together and is could be old inventory.

Heck, you could get (10) 1’ pieces and their system would likely assume it is fine. Lol

 

[John105]

I'm not understanding the disconnect. The screen shot shows qty 10. Then it shows warehouse A, and warehouse B. So there are two shipping charges.

Pretend they are WIX XP oil filters, the ones that changed the number of flutes and you'll need a new end cap wrench, not the one you've been using for 20 years.

If you wanted qty 10, and they need to come from 2 different locations, there will be 2 shipping charges. Unlike amazon, shipping is not free, and, Rock Auto doesn't own any warehouses nor any product.

What I do is to start with 1. Increment it by 1. Keep going. It may very well be that at 7, it's $9.99, and 8, $9.99 x 2. It's not a mystery nor is it a swindle. As a matter of fact, I don't order just oil filters. I order everything at once. I can order $300 worth of various items for $9.99. Maybe 14 different items, if they come from one warehouse. One time I couldn't do it--I wanted front hood struts and rear trunk struts for my car. There was no way to get them from one warehouse, yet I needed them. Well, they were $9 when amazon was $27, so I ate the shipping, but did what I suggested above--I added oil filters, cabin filters, wiper blades, all under the same shipping charge. But I did have to pay $9.99 x 2, not x1.

Alright, OK, let's just see if there are any other interesting topics to discover this morning. I think based on this thread, Rock Auto should be sued for negligence.

 

[Kruse]

I think based on this thread, Rock Auto should be sued for negligence.

I think my last email from RockAuto said I’ve been a customer of theirs for 14 years now and if I showed a photo of the stack of my “free” refrigerator magnets, you would know I’m not an RA rookie.
That being said, RA should be sued for not being able to talk to a human being. I know, they are now a huge company and customer service costs lots of money. 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)
Mistakes happen. But now, it’s impossible to contact a real human to fix the problem. About the only thing that’s close to fixing the problem is to completely cancel the order and reorder it again, something I’m not yet willing to do. I just don’t order anything from RA that I need soon.

 

[D60]

I think my last email from RockAuto said I’ve been a customer of theirs for 14 years now and if I showed a photo of the stack of my “free” refrigerator magnets, you would know I’m not an RA rookie.
That being said, RA should be sued for not being able to talk to a human being. I know, they are now a huge company and customer service costs lots of money. 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)
Mistakes happen. But now, it’s impossible to contact a real human to fix the problem. About the only thing that’s close to fixing the problem is to completely cancel the order and reorder it again, something I’m not yet willing to do. I just don’t order anything from RA that I need soon.

I agree here. I recently paid for overnight and UPS dropped the ball. RA won't do anything. Lesson learned: they just can't be relied upon.

On principle alone I returned the $7 part even though it cost me $4.50 to ship it back. They can take the time to inspect it and return it to inventory.

I didn't expect a full refund but something like half of the $30 shipping charge as store credit would have been what customer service is about.

 

[John105]

I agree here. I recently paid for overnight and UPS dropped the ball. RA won't do anything. Lesson learned: they just can't be relied upon.

On principle alone I returned the $7 part even though it cost me $4.50 to ship it back. They can take the time to inspect it and return it to inventory.

I didn't expect a full refund but something like half of the $30 shipping charge as store credit would have been what customer service is about.

In principle you are totally correct. But I'm not sure even amazon would do anything in such a case (they are pretty useless customer service wise, really--and I own the stock). Amazon does have inventory and they do have DCs and their own vehicles.

If we were to remove the shipping element from Rock Auto, some of their prices are nuts. A hood strut for my car for $9, when amazon is $27, this is nothing unusual.

A Valeo ultimate wiper for $7, when $17 on amazon. We could go on and on. And believe it or not there are select items cheaper on amazon than Rock, such as a GM OE steering rack.

Most places today are in fact a customer service fail. So we're just trying to get the best price and most of the time orders are fulfilled properly. jmoymmv

 

[LDM]

I agree here. I recently paid for overnight and UPS dropped the ball. RA won't do anything. Lesson learned: they just can't be relied upon.

On principle alone I returned the $7 part even though it cost me $4.50 to ship it back. They can take the time to inspect it and return it to inventory.

I didn't expect a full refund but something like half of the $30 shipping charge as store credit would have been what customer service is about.

My last experience with RockAuto ended up being my last one ever again. Ordered some parts for a friends car to fix the front suspension, get sent a bunch of parts with no parts #s on them and no way to verify what I even got due to this. Of course, they didn't fit the car, go to try to return them and RockAuto wants to charge me to return them. Since you can't get a person to help, ended up giving up and had to dispute the charge on my credit card to get a full refund. I'm not paying money to send back parts that aren't what I ordered and don't fit. After I got my money back I just threw the parts away as I had no idea what vehicle they even went to.

If you are going to run a company the size of Rock Auto, sometimes you are going to need more than a website to get things done right. I don't care how cheap RockAuto is, if I they can't fix issues like the above without me having to resort to filing a dispute with my CC company, they aren't getting my business ever again. It isn't worth the hassle. I'll buy from the local parts store or any other online place that has actually has the ability to do proper returns when something doesn't go correctly.

 

[John105]

My last experience with RockAuto ended up being my last one ever again. Ordered some parts for a friends car to fix the front suspension, get sent a bunch of parts with no parts #s on them and no way to verify what I even got due to this. Of course, they didn't fit the car, go to try to return them and RockAuto wants to charge me to return them. Since you can't get a person to help, ended up giving up and had to dispute the charge on my credit card to get a full refund. I'm not paying money to send back parts that aren't what I ordered and don't fit. After I got my money back I just threw the parts away as I had no idea what vehicle they even went to.

If you are going to run a company the size of Rock Auto, sometimes you are going to need more than a website to get things done right. I don't care how cheap RockAuto is, if I they can't fix issues like the above without me having to resort to filing a dispute with my CC company, they aren't getting my business ever again. It isn't worth the hassle. I'll buy from the local parts store or any other online place that has actually has the ability to do proper returns when something doesn't go correctly.

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…