What gives?

[135sohc]

Today I tried to order a fuel pump, fuel injector (TBI so theres only going to be 1), TBI overhaul kit and an oxygen sensor.

The fuel injector was shipping separate, fair enough given the heavily discounted closeout price for what is a reboxed OEM Mopar part I can justify that.

Then I changed vehicles and shopped for some head bolts for a chrysler minivan V6 since they use the same head bolts as our 4 cylinder engines that is forum is based around. Often enough they are on closeout and sometimes they are actually considerably cheaper for whatever reason, maybe the part number is more active and thus cheaper, who knows.

They were shipping with the fuel injector and the shipping charge went up slightly but still very worthwhile. Add a second set of head bolts to the order so I'll have two full sets and a couple extras. Shipping went berserk.

shipping went from two locations to five. The same fuel pump, sensor and overhaul kit that were shipping together from one location were now shipping from three different locations!. WTF? How is that even remotely explainable???

Deleted the extra head bolts and things went back to 'normal' just for fun I changed around the quantity of the other items in the cart and nothing crazy happened. Went back to the catalog for the car and tossed a few random items into the cart that were all indicating as shipping with the fuel pump and other parts. Shipping creeped up slighty but nothing crazy until I added additional quantity greater than 1 on my extra add on's and once again it went crazy. parts that were shipping together were now once again scattered over multiple locations mostly shipping by themselves.

At one point your F'ed up (and that is what it is) shipping program had parts coming from 9 locations. Add that extra fan belt or idler pulley and its like the straw that broke the camels back.

Off to Amazon, 5 minutes later and all was done.

Amazon KILLS you guys on shipping. Are they often more expensive per item, yes. Do they play the roundy, roundy game of guess how many different locations your order comes from based upon my most recent attempted order with your company. NO

Having the best price and selection of automotive parts does no good if the shipping more often then not kills the price and becomes a game of fighting the shipping calculator because it is broken. Nothing is free in this world, the 'free shipping' on Amazon comes in the form of slighty higher prices and meeting a minimum threshold of the purchase amount. Maybe you should consider the same and cut the BS of the shipping calculator out of the equation ?

Last time I gave you guys a pretty scathing review like this I got an invitation to talk with someone fairly high up in management. Nice conversation but it was really rather pointless since rock auto as company refuses to admit that your shipping methodology is flawed. Has it improved from before, yes. Could it be a lot better still ? without a doubt.

The scenario from my attempted order laid out above is not a new one. Google 'rock auto shipping' and there is no shortage of complaints about the same or extremely similar thing happening. Seemingly all without explanation and silence from you guys.

[HSKR]

I've rarely bought items from RockAuto for similar reasons. Unless you are ordering more than one item, or can group all your items from same warehouse the shipping kills the discounted prices. I've found myself ordering more from Amazon, or just saying ---- it and getting from local parts store who can have it next day.

[shackwrrr]

Last time I tried buying something from rock auto I was adding some parts to the cart being careful to select parts from the same wearhouse. Added 1 ball joint, 7 dollar shipping, changed the quantity to 2 and shipping went to 14 bucks, added 2 tie rods and shipping was at 28. Way too much.

[Frank]

They have been real reasonable everytime I contacted them. If you see something really wonky, take screenshots of the before and after and send it to them.

[turbovanman²]

Their shipping is nuts and has stopped me for the same reason. Amazon is getting creamed though due to their shipping, its affecting their profit line so there going to have to change it too.

[minigts]

They have been real reasonable everytime I contacted them. If you see something really wonky, take screenshots of the before and after and send it to them.

Agreed. I'm sure they would be willing to adjust shipping if it seemed egregious. I've asked vendors to adjust it based on common sense and they did. Would stink to have to do it, but may spur the necessary change in the end.

[horsinaround]

Same here with rock auto. I haven't been buying thru them lately because of the shipping setup. It ends up costing more because of stuff shipping from 3 or 4 different places.

[135sohc]

Just to reiterate: This thread is not a catch all complaint about their shipping charges and shipping from multiple locations practice. In some cases that is unavoidable and does make them un-competetive, that is their decision and your free to shop elsewhere.



It is the problem of having multiple parts already in the cart that are all shipping from the same location and then you go to add something else to your shopping cart. That something else that is openly disclosed as being shipped from a different location and once added to your cart it makes your other previously selected parts that were all shipping together. Are now all broken up and shipping from in some cases multiple locations.

Or you change the quantity of one part or parts and other parts that were all shipping together anyways are now all scattered across multiple locations and in most cases the part or parts that 'caused' the shipping location fiasco aren't even shipping with the rest of the order that was supposed to be together anyways.

[INVUJerry]

I bought 4 spark plug tubes from them, and they charged me $3.XX for shipping for each tube. It still came to cheaper than I could have got it from Autozone or Amazon by a few bucks but it's still BS since the boxes are SO SMALL and they lumped it into this huge box that had tons of room to spare.