RA shipping.. very interesting

[dlundblad]

I ordered 2 items from RA that were from different warehouses. Both weigh a few ounces a piece.

I added item 1 into the cart. Item 2 didnt have the orange box truck logo, but others did. Oh well, I wanted OE parts. The shipping price also reflected this. No big deal.

I received my tracking email this morning.. 1 tracking number for both items. Very very interesting.

 

[Donald]

RA needs to have an option "minimize shipping costs" that ships multiple items from a warehouse that has all the items even if its not the closest. Or at least attempts that.

RA put the issues with shipping and multiple warehouses on you rather than something they handle.

 

[dlundblad]

I know they do and that's fine by me. After all, I continue to and will continue to use them.

I just find my observation odd.

 

[Hall]

Originally Posted by Donald
RA needs to have an option "minimize shipping costs" that ships multiple items from a warehouse that has all the items even if its not the closest.

They used to have that option or may still have, it just didn't work as nicely as people wanted. If you weren't picky about the brand or the 'quality' level of the part, I'm sure it works.

I still believe it goes back to the agreements they have with the auto parts distributors they work with. They promise to "share the love" amongst all of them, at least regionally. The bulk of parts I order come from Syracuse NY. In fact, when they pull their garbage with shipping from multiple locations, I quite often end up getting one part from them and another part from Amazon, etc. Only other location I recall and it's only been maybe once, is somewhere in WI. Anyway, if you order (2) parts, RA tries to split it between (2) distributors. If not, they'll end up tending to favor one over another, lose pricing advantages with reduced volume, get slower shipping times, and so on.

 

[Snagglefoot]

A lot of my stuff for me in Western Canada originates in Sugarland, Texas and travels to Memphis, Calgary via Fedex, from Calgary to Cranbrook BC via Fexdex by truck, then a local courier called Dakota Transport to my house.

 

[Wolf359]

I just tried to order a set of struts from them. For both cars, shipping was $31, I got rid of one set and then it dropped to $10.99. I did a separate order for the other set, $10.99. So about $22 for two separate orders or together for $30.99. They really do need to work on minimizing shipping. But to be fair, the Bilstein struts were about $30 cheaper than Amazon and about $45 cheaper than what everyone else charged so even paying the extra $11 is worth it.

 

[SeaJay]

Logistics is still a cost of doing business, especially one that offers many, many thousands of different parts stored in different locations.

 

[c502cid]

I wish I could get RA to ship to me. They quit selling to anyone in Colorado due to the crazy sales tax rules here.

 

[The_Nuke]

Originally Posted by c502cid
I wish I could get RA to ship to me. They quit selling to anyone in Colorado due to the crazy sales tax rules here.


How crazy are we talking, Dennis Rodman crazy or Ted Kazinsky crazy?

 

[Snagglefoot]

David Berkowitz crazy.

 

[Dave9]

Yeah that is a little fishy, as is something else I've noticed. Every now and then, I make extra effort to order parts that come from the same warehouse, but depending on the combination of parts I select, what warehouse some come from, changes so there is no way to pick the combo they indicate they have at the same warehouse, to all ship from it. I've tried it multiple ways and it still toggles to coming from different warehouses no matter which "letter" it was. Granted, this doesn't happen all the time.

 

[sloinker]

I kind of wonder if RA mixes up the shippers to spread the orders around to their suppliers. I also wonder if RA actually sees any of the shipping money at all? Maybe it's a fixed percentage of the order and does/doesn't include the shipping charges. Only they know for sure. I like and use RA, I always shop for price to my door and sometimes they get the order and sometimes they don't. I'm glad they are there if for nothing else than part number comparison with a picture usually.

 

[Nick1994]

Type in the tracking number online and you can see where it came from.

I ship stuff daily out for work with UPS. 1 tracking number for multiple items but when you view online you can see the other items.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted by sloinker
I kind of wonder if RA mixes up the shippers to spread the orders around to their suppliers. I also wonder if RA actually sees any of the shipping money at all? Maybe it's a fixed percentage of the order and does/doesn't include the shipping charges. Only they know for sure. I like and use RA, I always shop for price to my door and sometimes they get the order and sometimes they don't. I'm glad they are there if for nothing else than part number comparison with a picture usually.


Prices are all over the place. I finally placed that order and shipping was $12.99 now instead of $10.99 earlier. Changed to my business address and the shipping dropped to $9.99.

 

[Hall]

Originally Posted by The_Nuke
Originally Posted by c502cid
I wish I could get RA to ship to me. They quit selling to anyone in Colorado due to the crazy sales tax rules here.


How crazy are we talking, Dennis Rodman crazy or Ted Kazinsky crazy?

If I'm not mistaken, sales tax in CO is specific down to the city. In other places, it may be a fixed rate for the state while in Ohio, each county sets their own tax rate (on top of the states). Ohio has a sales tax of 5.25% and then counties add a smaller amount on top of that (varies between 0 and 2.5%) and there's 88 counties.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Originally Posted by c502cid
I wish I could get RA to ship to me. They quit selling to anyone in Colorado due to the crazy sales tax rules here.


I tried this out by putting in 80107 for the zip code at the RA checkout and didn't get any problems

I found this in Rock Auto's FAQ:
Originally Posted by Rock Auto
Do you ship to my location? 7
We ship everywhere in the world, including APO and PO Boxes, unless prohibited by law. To see shipping options, add parts to the cart, then select your country and enter your postal code (zip code). If any restrictions apply, you'll see an explanation message.


No explanation appeared when trying to ship parts to the CO zip code

I then tried ordering a non-CARB catalytic converter to 90210, a CA zip code, and sure enough, I got this message, along with a link to the same page I linked earlier::
Originally Posted by Rock Auto
BOSAL Part # 099229 cannot ship to your location. Please change the destination or choose a different part. For more information, refer to the Shipping section of our Help page.


Originally Posted by hallstevenson
If I'm not mistaken, sales tax in CO is specific down to the city. In other places, it may be a fixed rate for the state while in Ohio, each county sets their own tax rate (on top of the states). Ohio has a sales tax of 5.25% and then counties add a smaller amount on top of that (varies between 0 and 2.5%) and there's 88 counties.


Plenty of other states do this, including NY and PA, and every site ships to those states with no problem, albeit at the highest sales tax rate for the state (8.825% for NYC vs 5% for upstate, for example; or 7% for Philadelphia rather than the 6% in the rest of the state). That is, people upstate ordering online are charged the NYC sales tax rate when ordering online.

As far as CO goes, they probably started selling there again after the supreme court decision requiring them to collect sales tax on every order shipped to every state that has sales tax. They probably have software that figures out the correct tax rate automatically

 

[Kruse]

I was looking at a few replacement battery clamps from RA about a week ago.
I put DORMAN 926882 (a battery clamp) into the shopping cart for $14.94 and there is a $2.99 USPS shipping charge on this small item.
I put DORMAN 926879 (a smaller battery clamp) into the shopping cart for $11.45 and there is a $13.99 shipping charge FOR THIS ITEM ONLY, the shipping charge is FedEx only and much higher than the product.
I sent them an email about it and they just told me that some warehouses will not ship by USPS.
I guess there are some RA warehouses that I will not buy parts from.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Originally Posted by Kruse
I was looking at a few replacement battery clamps from RA about a week ago.
I put DORMAN 926882 (a battery clamp) into the shopping cart for $14.94 and there is a $2.99 USPS shipping charge on this small item.
I put DORMAN 926879 (a smaller battery clamp) into the shopping cart for $11.45 and there is a $13.99 shipping charge FOR THIS ITEM ONLY, the shipping charge is FedEx only and much higher than the product.
I sent them an email about it and they just told me that some warehouses will not ship by USPS.
I guess there are some RA warehouses that I will not buy parts from.


Remember that Rock Auto doesn't own any warehouses or inventory. They are a drop shipper.

Nobody directly employed by Rock Auto handles your parts. They just send the warehouse a Rock Auto-generated shipping label and packing slip, and the warehouse does the rest.

 

[Hall]

Originally Posted by slacktide_bitog
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
If I'm not mistaken, sales tax in CO is specific down to the city. In other places, it may be a fixed rate for the state while in Ohio, each county sets their own tax rate (on top of the states). Ohio has a sales tax of 5.25% and then counties add a smaller amount on top of that (varies between 0 and 2.5%) and there's 88 counties.


Plenty of other states do this, including NY and PA, and every site ships to those states with no problem, albeit at the highest sales tax rate for the state (8.825% for NYC vs 5% for upstate, for example; or 7% for Philadelphia rather than the 6% in the rest of the state). That is, people upstate ordering online are charged the NYC sales tax rate when ordering online.

No, as I said, it's city-specific. The retailer has to calculate (the easy part) sales tax specific to the jurisdiction and then file and pay directly to each city. In Ohio, for example, you (the retailer) file and pay through the State of OH. One filing, one payment. Ohio distributes it to the appropriate counties once rec'd.

 

[1978elcamino]

Personally, I have always thought RA's shipping to be a scam. I have never been able to get multiple items to ship from less than three places making the shipping cost increase.