RockAuto FAIL (Story Time with Uncle Dan)

[Charrlie_S]

I have never had a problem with parts from rockauto.
I once ordered some parts on a closeout special. After waiting about two weeks for the parts to arrive, I called them. Was told they were shipped by usps. Called post office, and was told they never recieved them. After numerous phone calls to Rockauto and the post office, I had to tell Rockauto to get with the PO themselves, and get it resolved or just give me a refund. Which they did.

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Cuda 170 nitrous
66 Valiant Signet 225 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170

[Jljde]

Dan,
Sorry about your hassle. I know about getting crap parts and having to find a way to get the vendor to do what you paid them to do.

Olaf,
I'm not sure what you do for a living. I'm not really sure that it matters. But, I'm about 99.5% sure that you don't work in any sort of manufacturing field. "Chinese" companies do not work strictly to design sheets. If you had any experience with Chinese manufacturers or raw material suppliers, you would know that. As a Quality Manager in the manufacturing industry, I deal with customers that write specifications with restrictions about the origin of material. They never specify, "No US material" or "No German material". It's Chinese Olaf. Chinese manufacturing is nowhere close to reliable, regulated or safe. I avoid using Chinese anything like the plague and I see no evidence whatsoever that the parts and materials manufactured there need to be used by me. Please don't talk about something that you don't know anything about. Thanks.

James

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65 4 dr. Valiant 200

[SlantSixDan]

Here are pics of the radiator—what's left of one, anyhow—I pulled out of the car. Yes, entire rows of fins have gone missing, crumbled to powdery oxide. It's a good thing I run waterless coolant that operates under no pressure and enables no corrosion; if I'd been running ordinary coolant operating under pressure, this rad would've finished corroding, gone BOOM, slicked down the roadway, and stranded me long ago. Without pressure, it gave me months of I-smell-coolant warning time to procrastinate, procure a new radiator, send it back because it was a pathetic piece of garbage from the People's Republic of Quality as described in this thread, procure a real radiator, procrastinate, and install it.

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一期一会

By birth & parentage: US citizen, 2nd class
By choice: Canadian citizen, 1st class

[supton]

I guess it's a 20 year old radiator. But wow...

[oneiros2001]

Hello, after reading this stories I'm a little afraid is rockauto a good source for parts or is it just a little of bad luck that can happen in any place?

I'm asking because I'm thinking in buying a new catalytic converter for my girlfriend's car(an old 94 thunderbird) because the old one was robbed after my gf's car was towed by mistake (here in mexico city every certain time the police goes to different neighbors and removes cars that have been parked for some time and are deemed to be abandoned and are taken to a certain place where all abandoned cars are stored for a couple of months and if nobody reclaims them they are destroyed) it took us a couple of days to get the papers they required to give us the car and we made the mistake of not making a complete check on the car and because 2 tires where flat we towed the car and never turned it on the result is that 2 of the 3 catalytic converters that the car uses where removed.

So now we are looking for new converters but here in mexico city you can only buy new cats from shops authorized by the government but when i asked if they can do the job they say that they couldn't do it and also they want to charge like 300 dollars or more for each converter without installation.

So i started looking in rockauto and i found the complete set(3 converters) ready to install and it only costs 328 dollars plus shipping (about 110 dollars) and any exhaust shop here can do the job of installing for about 50 dollars.

I was ready to buy it but with your stories I'm a little worried if rockauto is reliable enough because i don't want to order it bring it all the way to mexico and then having to fight with the customer service making international calls and trying to return it all the way to the US which will be a real pain

Sorry for this long post but i will appreciate any info or any other story you can share with me about the reliability of rockauto

thanks and sorry that this post wasn't exactly about any slantsix and by the way Happy new year

by the way this is the part that i'm interested in

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=1317875

[SlantSixDan]

This is really the first genuinely bad experience I've had with RockAuto. They've screwed up orders before (left out parts, sent wrong parts) but they've always made it right. You might also want to look at http://www.discountconverter.com ; that's a good online source for replacement catalytic converters.

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一期一会

By birth & parentage: US citizen, 2nd class
By choice: Canadian citizen, 1st class

[paul_sak]

I always had good experience with Rockauto until recently. I bought some close out brake pads (30 day return). I put them on the shelf because I did not need them right away. When I went to use them they did not fit. It was close but no cigar.

I called Rockauto, they said the catalog says the part fits. Therefore we are right and you are wrong. I said no, it doesn't fit the cross reference cacatalogust be wrong. They said sorry no but maybe if you sent more "proof" we could help you. So I sent "plaster tire tracks, foot prints, dog smelling prints, and twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was".

I called back and talked to a different guy. He said said we got everything you sent us but the catalog says that part fits so it must fit. I gave up but not before promising to bash them online.

I later learned from another source that the pads are indeed incorrect but if you grind them a little they will fit. Life's too short to be grinding on $20 brake pads. I gave them away to someone whose car they actually did fit and walked away.

[volaredon]

I have recently had 2 orders of parts from there; they fit and so far work, but I too have exchanged angry E mails about origin of parts;
My 1st order was 4 O2 sensors, both for a Durango and 1 each for my Dakota and Cherokee; (I wish I had gotten both for the Cherokee given diffence in price compared to local bought since I am now getting codes for the still original downstream one)

but order #2; parts for my son's 89 ramcharger my 94 Dakota and a couple things for the Cherokee.

I had bought but not yet installed a speed sensor for the Dakota; BWD brand old respected and used to be all American; but the one that I recently bought from Advance was made in Taiwan and $44; I saw ion Rockauto that they had 2 different price points available; both known brands but I went with the higher priced "STANDARD" at $22 thiking that spending more $$ would get me American or Canadian made. Nope, red box instead of BWD gray but it too was a Taiwan special.

On to the Ramcharger. The blower motor was starting to show signs of high draw and age (it was smelling "hot" like it was gonna burn up)
so being 23 years old I figured OK Rock has one from the "OE supplier" for $20-something. Cool. NOT! get it out of the USPS box and right away; VDO Company; MADE in CHINA!!!! W T F??? that isnt what I thought I was getting!

onto the Cherokee; I ordered a TPS and a crank sensor; again STANDARD brand and again chooising the highest cost choice thinking I was getting the "good stuff" It wound up being the TPS (long story for another day) and the new TPS? Mexico. Crap. the new crank sensor? I am not looking at iit at this very minute but it was either made in China or Taiwan; I specifically chose the higher priced choice looking for them to be American made. I guess it dont matter; i should have gotten the Standard "T Series (price competitive line) or I forget what the other brand I had to choose from for like half the price I paid

I find myself in the pic a part and U pulls more than ever buying used parts that 5 years ago i'd have said "no way, buy new" because of either the labor involved or relative price of a new one buying used wasn't worth it; the radiator and the water pump both currently on my Dakota came from the U pull; now granted they both looked like they were changed on the fly while on the tow truck taking them to the junkyard they were so shiney brand new looking but for $6 instead of $50 for a reman I feel that I have just as much chance of used parts lasting at least as long as some of this offshore garbage that I feel that we are being forced to buy.
I dont drive vehicles made in Taiwan. I don't live in Taiwan. My vehicles were made here Stateside, I live in the USA and always have.so there is no good reason taht the component parts that I need to replace cant likewise come from the USA. My Dad would be rollng over in his "6 foot under clubhouse" if he knew how many parts I now source "used" for my vehicles. He was the loudest critic of "half arse" work and of putting used parts that "weren't worth the time to pull" onto our cars.

and maintenance wise; I am finding it less worth doing certain maintenance functions that in the past I'd never let slide because of a feeling that the new replacement will do no better nor last any longer than the used one already in place.

[Danarchy]

This thread is Vendor Bashing. That being said, I have never had a problem with RockAuto.
Jeep Cherokee, Dodge Durango, Dakota, Ram Charger