Ordering parts from RockAuto - A/B/C/etc warehouses aren't fixed?

[y_p_w]

I just canceled an order getting some Anco wiper refills. When I combined it with another part from a different warehouse they showed up as warehouse B, but of course the warehouse info goes away when there's a single warehouse they ship from. Then I was looking around for some H1 bulbs and filters, where the filters shipped as "A" and the bulbs shipped as "B". So that's when I researched how to cancel my previous order to try and combine them, which I did.

I wasn't going to make another order unless I got the confirmation that the last order was cancelled. However, when I tried combining the bulbs with the wipers, the wipers were from "B" while the bulbs were from "A".

Is this right? So A/B/C aren't really indicators of which warehouse - just placeholders? So if two warehouse are involved, it was always be one that's A and the other that's B?

 

[The_Nuke]

The best I can tell, the warehouses are not assigned the A/B/C labels permanently or anything, their label can be different in each order depending upon the order in which they are referenced in that order. So a warehouse can be A in an order, but it could be B in the next order, or it could be C in the following order, and so on.

 

[MNgopher]

The warehouses are always relative. Ie: The first warehouse will be "A". Add another item from a different warehouse and that comes from "B". Do a completely different transaction and "A" and "B" can be (and likely are) completely different than the first transaction.

In other words, they are not showing you unique warehouse ID codes, only telling you they come from different warehouses in that order. I don't think they make any representations otherwise...

 

[demarpaint]

I've passed on many RA orders because of how items are shipped and their shipping fees. While they might occasionally have the best prices, paying shipping from more than one location often puts the bottom line higher than their competition. When I shop online from reputable suppliers for the same item, all that matters is cost. The cheapest wins. Long gone are the days of customer loyalty for me.

 

[exranger06]

I've found that Rockauto also sometimes switches which parts come from which warehouse. I wanted to place an order with 3 different parts. The first two parts were coming from the same warehouse A, and the third part was coming from warehouse B. Then I decided to delete the third item from warehouse B. Now all of a sudden the first two parts are coming from different warehouses! It's like any time you buy at least 2 parts, they make it ship from at least 2 separate warehouses, even when the same warehouse has all of the parts in stock. I ended up not ordering anything; the shipping killed all the savings and it was cheaper to buy the parts locally.

 

[Hall]

Originally Posted by exranger06
It's like any time you buy at least 2 parts, they make it ship from at least 2 separate warehouses, even when the same warehouse has all of the parts in stock. I ended up not ordering anything; the shipping killed all the savings and it was cheaper to buy the parts locally.


Have seen the same thing, even if it's something like front and rear brake pads (same brand, same 'line', etc) or front brake pads plus front rotors. Their doubled-up shipping rates almost always offset any price advantage that the parts alone had.

I've started to think that they definitely do this on purpose to "spread the wealth" between their different partners. If they show favoritism to any particular supplier, the others will see a decrease in volume and not offer as good of rates to RA anymore.

 

[JMJNet]

I usually looks at the total price of the part with shipping when ordering multiple part at the same time.
If it is still cheaper than local store and Amazon, which mostly do, then I order it by paying the shipping.

Sometimes, Amazon is cheaper for small part but for more expensive part, the tax usually is higher than the shipment cost.

Unfortunately, company needs to make money.
Shipping is just part of doing business and it goes to the shipping company.

 

[badtlc]

Utilize the pick-for-me feature on the RA website. When looking at a part, click on "choose for me" or whatever.. Select all the acceptable parts you would be willing to use for that part (check the alternate checkbox). Do that for each part you are wanting to buy. It will select one choice from each part type to minimize cost. This normally results in getting all the parts from the same warehouse to reduce shipping costs.

 

[Hall]

Originally Posted by JMJNet
Shipping is just part of doing business and it goes to the shipping company.

I have a commercial UPS account with discounts. A company like Rockauto will get much, much bigger discounts than I do and I can assure you, they are padding their shipping costs for add'l profit. On top of this, they use Fedex Ground as their preferred shipper and they are extremely aggressive on rates.

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted by demarpaint
I've passed on many RA orders because of how items are shipped and their shipping fees. While they might occasionally have the best prices, paying shipping from more than one location often puts the bottom line higher than their competition. When I shop online from reputable suppliers for the same item, all that matters is cost. The cheapest wins. Long gone are the days of customer loyalty for me.

This ^^

 

[CharlieBauer]

Their algorithm needs a but of work because as has been mentioned, sometimes adding a product changes the warehouse for an existing product making the overall shipping cost higher than it would be if two separate orders were put in.

I just put an order in and played around a little and saved quite a bit. I needed a couple of small items that even with $7 shipping was cheaper than anyone else. I added in several other things that were priced way below anywhere else and it only increased the shipping by $2.

Also, on some small orders, I've found that rockauto is cheaper than getting locally or ebay or amazon. Some items get sent by USPS for very reasonable shipping rates.

 

[benjy]

as always its the DELIVERED cost that determines where i buy!! even E-Bay can be sneaky with lower cost shown + CRAZY $$$ shipping, BUYER BEWARE before you CLICK on any site!

 

[CKN]

Rock Auto's shipping makes buying form them not cost effective 90% of the time-at least in the things I have tried to purchase. Ironically on one item I was looking at-the shipping choice showed FEDX cheaper than the post office. It was still too expensive even considering shipping.

 

[PandaBear]

They run an algorithm to check the minimum number of warehouse they can ship from, So if you add an item you don't add another warehouse to ship from, but rather they switch to different warehouses so they don't have to add another package.

 

[atikovi]

On the flip side, I had brake pads and a pair of rotors ship for $7.99. Go figure. Under $50 total. Less than one rotor at Advance.

 

[Whimsey]

Over the years I've ordered a fair amount of items from RA and the only time I ran into extra shipping from another warehouse was when I added a closeout oil filter for $1.74 and the EXTRA shipping was $8.00+ for that filter

. RA did let me know what the extra shipping was so needless to say I removed that oil filter from the order

.

Whimsey

 

[Garak]

Semi off topic, but one of our Canadian online parts places has started the Warehouse A and B bit. Free shipping is available for orders over $100 fulfilled from the same warehouse. Before, it didn't matter. The shipping is still reasonable if it's from different warehouses and still over $100, but they picked up on the Rock Auto model.

 

[Piston_slap]

Originally Posted by CKN
Rock Auto's shipping makes buying form them not cost effective 90% of the time-at least in the things I have tried to purchase. Ironically on one item I was looking at-the shipping choice showed FEDX cheaper than the post office. It was still too expensive even considering shipping.


Many of those arrangements start with FEDEX and the USPS finishing the job in your city. I don't see how anyone makes more than a few pennies on those.