autopartswarehouse.com BEWARE!
 

Just got some parts from AutoPartswarehouse.com AKA Auto Parts Warehouse AKA US Auto Parts Virginia AKA OEM/PARTSBIN.

Their customer dis-service is handled out of India.

They sent me the wrong part. I ordered a part for a Mercury - they sent me one for a Honda. Now they are charging me 20% restocking fee plus I'm to pay the return shipping. I will send it back and dispute the charge on my VISA.

Just a "heads-up." Don't buy anything from these, um, whatevers....

Tom

Thanks for the heads up Tom. Sorry you're taking one for the team.

Steve

Thanks Tom,

I have looked at their web site before but your experience changed my mind about going through them.

C

FYI for future online ordering....I have found that Rock Auto has some great prices and their service is second to none...

www.rockauto.com

I order speed parts on line. Summit or Jegs, great customer service and return policy. As far as regular parts, I have a great relationship with my local NAPA dealer. If he doesen't have the part he will bend over backwards to get it. Maybe the price is a little higher, but the quality and customer service.

John,

Thanks - I buy stuff from Rockauto frequently. No problems so far.

SnakeBit,

These are things like A/C driers that Jegmits don't seem to have.

Thank goodness it was a small amount - it PO'd me because of their poor attitude.

Tom

oh, by the way never, never use Auto Parts Warehouse. They ate my lunch several times. Stick with the best and you can't go wrong.

Bill

When this type of thing happens to me, I tell them that they have sent a non-conforming good which I am rejecting the acceptance of. When they try to say send it back at your own expense and pay a restocking fee BS, I tell them that their non-conforming good is accumulating storage charges at the rate of "X" dollars per day. That usually does the trick. This was one of the things I actually remember from Law School...LOL!

Tom, if you would like any help with this please feel free to PM me.

Since the subject is up, I would stay away from USA Tools Inc. Website is www.usatoolsinc.com. I fell for a little lower price, like alot of us do. Product didn't ship, they never called back, I raised hell, still nothing, stopped payment, THEN they called and said they found the product and I would have it next day. It was a rolling oil-drain canister with the big funnel. I got it next day allright. Crushed, broken, and obviously something they found in the back of a warehouse in the "do not inventory" area. That was a month ago, and still no return calls. They are out of Florida and the one gentleman I did speak to somewhere in this mess spoke Cuban much better than he spoke English.
I'm with Jegs, Summit, NAPA and, YOU guys of course.:D

I also recommend that they not be used. They sent me an incorrect part, which they acknowledged when I contacted them. By the time I sent it back they had charged my credit card 3 times for the same item.

Eventually all charges were credited back to my card, but because of the effort and aggravation I decided to take my business elsewhere.

David

UPDATE:

After four lengthy phone calls and more e-mails, they issued a Fedex return ticket. The package is on its way. We'll see what happens from here!

Tom

If you need some oddball parts, this site is great. Sometimes they are cheaper, sometimes they are not, but they seem to have everything.

www.partstrain.com

I've ordered from them several times. If you don't see it on their site, so not waste your time calling. The tech line is worthless. Sent me the wrong stuff 2 times, but I didn't have to pay a dime for anything including shipping.

Well, the story continues. Another e-mail arrived today in response to a call which I firmly ended after they started in on "bark bark bark bark..."

This e-mail promised a full refund and reiterated the Fedex label was provided which both of us already knew.

Here's a rant I posted on some other web sites which might help explain why I have a problem.

QUOTE:

Actually I think it is simple in one way and complex in another.

Simple: they (AutoPartsWarehouse = APW) wanted to save money. They outsourced all their customer calls to India.

Complex: what they don't realize is that there are serious cultural and knowledge differences they apparently were not aware of. The most severe one explains why it took four calls for the Indians to realize they sent the wrong part. Someone who knows something about auto parts and American English would have realized that fact in the first 30 seconds. The Indians I talked to were intelligent, well spoken and totally ignorant of auto parts, both the parts themselves and the terminology. Not their fault directly....

So in saving money, the APW folks drive customers away. Not their plan, but if they had given it any thought it would have been obvious. It isn't possible to satisfactorily service an internet auto parts operation with script-readers, no matter how smart.

Another cultural difference is in the way the calls are handled. If you call in with a problem it cannot be solved in one call. It is not the Indian way of doing business. Example: I'm familiar with a (now defunct) magazine which sold subscriptions worldwide. They would get a letter from an Indian saying they would like to subscribe, requiring the recipient to respond with specific rates (which were already known) and submit the answers in duplicate or triplicate. The next letter from India would state that in some timeframe a check would be forthcoming and require acknowledgement. Then the check would arrive, requiring yet more written acknowledgements. And so it would continue until the magazine's potential profit was entirely eaten with what appeared to the American eyes as unnecessary and redundant communications.

That same process was at work with the APW's folks. The correct part could not be ordered from the first person I talked to. It had to be done as a separate transaction on a separate call. When APW found that they did not stock or even list the correct part, their system broke down even further in my view. They didn't seem to have a scripted way to handle that problem.

I don't think there's necessarily any malice involved. Mostly ignorance and maybe greed.

This is really why I wouldn't order any more parts from APW. If there's another problem, it would cost me more time and effort to get it straightened out than the difference of a significant price increase by buying from another vendor. I'll gladly pay extra to avoid this time-eating stress test

Dunno if that explains it, but I feel better now.

Tom

ENDQUOTE and rant off.

I'll post if/when the refund is posted to my credit card.

Tom

i also can contest to these folks...ordered injectors for my truck, and only half were right. When i identified the problem to them via phone (yea CS sucks), they sent four replacements, two of which were wrong again. Boy did that person on the phone have a bad day. Told them i wanted a full refund including shipping, not paying restocking, nor to ship back. Took a few weeks, but got it all...

They flat out suck.

Forgot to say what happened: I got a refund all right, less the cost of return shipping. They said they'd pay the return, then reneged. Predictable. They ship parts for a Honda - when I ordered Ford parts. Still, I get to pay for their mistake...

Oh yes, they promised a "big" discount on my next order. I hope they're not holding their breath :mad:

BTW, they do get dinged by a bad report to www.resellerratings.com so if you are PO'd enough, go there and give'em some of what they so richly deserve :3DSMILE: I did.

Sorry they got you, too!

Tom

Summitracing.com rockauto.com are good. -- and some boutique vendors

ditto rockauto

x2 RockAuto. I've had good experience with them, getting what I ordered, and no-sweat return/exchange on one defective part.

Tom