Not you too, Summit

"MM54" (mm54mk2) 10/07/2018 at 11:19 • Filed to: RANTS

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Ordered a ton of brake parts for the 4Runner, which desperately needs brakes. With the weight of calipers and rotors, I opted to order them from Summit Racing and pick them up (30 minutes from where I live) , rather than pay shipping (and core return shipping). The overall price was about the same as from Rockauto. When I put in the order on the 1st, they said they would be ready to pick up on the 2nd.

Jump ahead to today (when I need the parts - this is my only free day for quite a while ). The rest of the parts came in the mail yesterday (good timing), but I realize I never got an email from Summit saying “come pick these up” - so I check the order status before heading down to their store. Surprise! They’re now listed as estimated arrival scattered between the 15th and 23rd.

So now I’ve got a car that desperately needs t he brakes overhauled , that I don’t have parts to do now , and most li ke ly won’t have time to do in the next few weeks. Great.

I cancelled the Summit order and ordered the parts from Rockauto, which I guess I should have done in the first place. They should be here in about a week. I’ve had a lot of problems from Rockauto (not to mention their shipping/warehouse scam) but at least they tend to send you the parts when they say they will.

No idea when I’ll have time to put them on, though.

atfsgeoff > MM54 10/07/2018 at 11:32

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I wouldn’t call RockAuto’s warehouse/shipping scheme a scam , per se, but it’s certainly inconvenient a lot of the time.

dogisbadob > MM54 10/07/2018 at 11:50

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Not necessarily Summit’s fault. Plus, they have free shipping over $99

Some items are not always in-stock at every store. If the parts you needed weren’t in-stock at your local Summit, they have to ship them from the warehouse.

Some parts are shipped directly from the manufacturer.

jimz > atfsgeoff 10/07/2018 at 11:52

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I’m confused, what is the shipping/warehouse thing? 

MM54 > atfsgeoff 10/07/2018 at 12:16

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It is, though. Here’s a fun experiment: Put some stuff in your cart. Add other items / change quantities, and watch as parts magically move between ‘warehouses’! My favorite was one time when I accidentally added 2 drum adjusters to the cart instead of 1, and it combined most of the cart into one (changing that adjuster quantity back to 1 split it back up). I bought an extra $4 adjuster and it saved me nearly $20 in shipping.

Just today ordering these calipers and rotors, they were all in one warehouse until I changed the rotor quantity to 2 - then the rotors were in another. If I added the brake pads (which I already have) and removed one of the calipers, hey everything was in the same place. It’s a scam - they pad their prices/margins with ‘shipping’ .

MM54 > dogisbadob 10/07/2018 at 12:18

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Less likely to be damaged if I pick it up (and a good excuse to look through their scratch & dent clearance aisle!) :)

These clearly were not in-stock at the local store, but when it says “Pick-up date: 10/2/2018" in the listing I’d imagine I could order it and pick it up. They shouldn’t be advertising “Yeah we can have this for you tomorrow!” then the next day saying “Actually that will be three weeks” - that’s bad business and terrible customer service.

A coworker had a similar issue not too long ago - they said it would be a week, took almost 3 months to get, but nobody else had the part so he was screwed until it finally showed up.

nj959 > dogisbadob 10/07/2018 at 12:19

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Well it depends on how often this happens. If they’re regularly losing sales because of stockouts, then it’s their fault and they need to keep a larger inventory. But no company is perfect so if this is a rare occasion then he just got unlucky with them.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > MM54 10/07/2018 at 14:49

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“ I’ve had a lot of problems from Rockauto (not to mention their shipping/warehouse scam)“

Are you referring to how they charge a separate shipping charge for each warehouse they ship from?

If so... yeah, that’s annoying. But they’re not nearly as bad as trying to order multiple things from Amazon.

One time when ordering stuff, I had $90 in parts and when reviewing the order, I saw $120 in shipping charges (!?!)

Had to go back, remove several items, order other equivalents which raised the part costs to around $120, but cut the shipping charge to something like $30-$40.   

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > MM54 10/07/2018 at 14:51

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I’ll have to do that experiment some time.

MM54 > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 10/07/2018 at 14:52

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The fact that the order you add things to your cart changes what warehouse things are in is why I call it the scam; otherwise it’s just very inconvenient. I left another reply here detailing it, but in short sometime try adding different stuff to your cart, changing quantities, etc. Things that were in one warehouse will suddenly be in another. I’ve ordered parts I don’t need because it cuts the shipping by more than the extra part (e.g. a $4 brake adjuster once saved me about $20 in shipping).

I don’t really have much issue with Amazon, but I do try to only order things fulfilled by them / with prime shipping.

BahamaTodd > MM54 10/07/2018 at 16:52

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Rock Auto doesn’t actually have any warehouses. They do “ drop shipping” meaning the manufacture or some other part supplier stores the parts in their own  warehouses. R ockauto just provides a single location/website to place orders then the parts ship out from wherever they are.