Rockauto shipping issues

I have always ordered my parts from Rockauto. Good prices, good warranty service, and generally easy to do business with.
Recently, I have issues with them shipping parts USPS. I've had parts take 2 weeks to get here. The last order I placed, I selected FedEx Ground. Well, they shipped USPS.

Is anyone else having similar issues? I emailed their customer service and have not heard back yet. If they can't stop using USPS, I'll have to find somewhere else to get parts from. Any suggestions?

Dave

 

[CDW6212R]

FYI, Fedex, UPS, and DHL do not deliver to all addresses. They all make daily stops at post offices around the country. They have learned to reduce their work load by drop shipping to USPS delivery offices, and pay a minor fee for that last mile deliver by the PO. That may not be the issue for you and RA, but it's a practice that is growing. DHL began it when they ended all service to the USA other than large business deliveries.

There was a Christmas about 5-7 years ago when a huge online season resulted in UPS and Fedex being unable to deliver all of the packages they received just before Christmas. From then on, they have learned to gauge their shipping load, and divert anything they cannot handle, to the USPS.

So the USPS handles a bunch of packages every day that come from UPS and Fedex. Look at the parcels you receive, every one. Notice those from the USPS will often have shipping labels on them from UPS or Fedex also. Those were drop shipped to your local PO most likely.

I comment here because a new issue has begun, Amazon has now created a large shipping network too. I believe it began this past Fall fully. They now ship a large amount of the parcels from various sellers, through private contractors, truckers etc. I don't know any details, but watch your tracking information. It's almost happening enough now, that most don't get received by the USPS until the day before they arrive.

I had that happen to me at Christmas this past year. I bought something on eBay and the tracking showed it shipped the next day, and Amazon was the shipping partner. The item got to Nashville by the 3rd day(Dec 27th), but never left there ever. There was a bomb set off in Nashville on Christmas, so most likely the Amazon shipping facility was affected. The tracking number was a USPS #, as normal it showed as shipped, but never received by the USPS.

So watch your tracking information, that's your best knowledge to figure out what's going on. Good luck,

 

[Dave K 58]

FYI, Fedex, UPS, and DHL do not deliver to all addresses. They all make daily stops at post offices around the country. They have learned to reduce their work load by drop shipping to USPS delivery offices, and pay a minor fee for that last mile deliver by the PO. That may not be the issue for you and RA, but it's a practice that is growing. DHL began it when they ended all service to the USA other than large business deliveries.

There was a Christmas about 5-7 years ago when a huge online season resulted in UPS and Fedex being unable to deliver all of the packages they received just before Christmas. From then on, they have learned to gauge their shipping load, and divert anything they cannot handle, to the USPS.

So the USPS handles a bunch of packages every day that come from UPS and Fedex. Look at the parcels you receive, every one. Notice those from the USPS will often have shipping labels on them from UPS or Fedex also. Those were drop shipped to your local PO most likely.

I comment here because a new issue has begun, Amazon has now created a large shipping network too. I believe it began this past Fall fully. They now ship a large amount of the parcels from various sellers, through private contractors, truckers etc. I don't know any details, but watch your tracking information. It's almost happening enough now, that most don't get received by the USPS until the day before they arrive.

I had that happen to me at Christmas this past year. I bought something on eBay and the tracking showed it shipped the next day, and Amazon was the shipping partner. The item got to Nashville by the 3rd day(Dec 27th), but never left there ever. There was a bomb set off in Nashville on Christmas, so most likely the Amazon shipping facility was affected. The tracking number was a USPS #, as normal it showed as shipped, but never received by the USPS.

So watch your tracking information, that's your best knowledge to figure out what's going on. Good luck,

Thanks for that.
But....I routinely get FedEx packages delivered to my home address - I even have a FedEx account.
My specific beef with Rockauto is that when I checked out, I selected "FedEx ground". I had parts on my order come from two different warehouses. They shipped one FedEx but the other one USPS. I emailed customer service and their statement was "You selected the least expensive shipping method which was a combination of FedEx and USPS". But I contend that my selection only indicated FedEx.

USPS just sucks and it has nothing to do with holidays, Covid, or other excuses. A few years ago, they consolidated a bunch of midwest package handling operations into the St. Louis facility even though St. Louis had one of the worst performing statistics. When I track my packages, they generally get all the way across the country to St. Louis in a day or two, then sit there for 2 weeks or more before they forward on to my local post office ( about 100 miles away). It's total BS.

 

[CDW6212R]

I feel you on that. The performance is not uniform around the country in the USPS, likely the others have issues that affect various areas too. Here we virtually never hear about any back logs, but some times we hear the rumors of other centers that have regular issues like that. I have no clue what the issue would be in St. Louis, but I know well that almost all problems are related to management, bad management. The higher up levels have the worst organization, really it's the priorities. But in the end, the people at the bottom have zero choice but to obey all the various rules. The real problem is that the upper management is constantly busy trying to change something(anything), supposedly to make things better. They fail miserably, because most of their changes make working conditions worse, and do not improve customer service.

The bottom line is this, some people high up are busy making up things to do, for themselves(to look good), and to appear to produce changes at the working levels. Their priorities are not greatly improving performance, or customer satisfaction. We the carriers are the best people to come up with helpful changes, but they have too many people who think they know better, they don't bother working with us on any new ideas. We're busy trying to follow their new MOU's, which are regular, and often reverse themselves after a short time. They make a rule, tell us how critical it is, then two months later something else has changed, and the last rule is minor(forget that, do this instead).

I'm sorry I can't help you, but I do suggest if it aggravates you a lot, do the same to them. Call the supervisors each time, and give them an earful. Eventually(long time), they may mention the issues in the regular conference calls, enough times, that somebody up the chain might get the hint that there's a worthy problem to work on there. The upper management assumes they are infalable, and everything works great because they created the new method(monthly changes etc).

 

[nosdakota]

I've had RockAuto change my shipping preference post-order several times. The latest time they changed an very large order to next day. I saw the order confirmation about an hour later and contacted them immediately. They said that's what I picked and they couldn't change it at that point.
Long story short, they charged me several hundred dollars to ship a part I wasn't even going to be home to receive. I ultimately had to dispute it through my credit card. It's a shame because I believe they have a great site and tons of choices but I can no longer order from them.

 

[JaviM-BCN]

I ordered some parts in RockAuto some months ago, around 110$ + 50$ express shipping to Europe with DHL. I never received it!

Checked on RockAuto and the status is "shipped". Checked on DHL with the provided tracking number, and what a surprise, they say the sender never delivered the parcel to them...

I've been trying to contact RockAuto trough their customer service and even Twitter account, but they never reply back.

What a scam!!

 

[Dave K 58]

They'

I ordered some parts in RockAuto some months ago, around 110$ + 50$ express shipping to Europe with DHL. I never received it!

Checked on RockAuto and the status is "shipped". Checked on DHL with the provided tracking number, and what a surprise, they say the sender never delivered the parcel to them...

I've been trying to contact RockAuto trough their customer service and even Twitter account, but they never reply back.

What a scam!!

They've always replied to my emails.

 

[boominXplorer]

Getting ahold of someone at rockauto.com in a timely manner never happens. I've learned if something isn't right with the order I'm screwed. Proving you didn't get something or something is wrong is near impossible. Damage claims arnt bad as long as you haven't opened the part box and new returns are cut and dry, no issue there.

But...... they are the cheapest. They probably have very thin profit margins to price parts like they do which in turn they don't have the overhead help response

 

[Bazz270]

Ive fully rebuilt Gen4 Explorer with rockauto,with shipped ( internationally) via DHL,Fedex and Usps items

Instead of reman bad alternator from rockauto,no any shipping,customs or quality issues for OEM parts.


For example i have terrible experience with shipped internationally Summit Racing and Carid parts.it tooks almost forever for items to arrive.
Customer service do nothing to help

 

[Kasabar]

USPS are known for slow deliveries, didn't you know? I ordered some parts from Korea last year and it took a month. One freaking month for some small parts, can you believe that? I mean, I understand that international deliveries always take longer, but serious 30 days? Besides, they also didn't exactly inform me about how do I track my package. I was just sitting ducks for a whole month, worrying sick that my stuffs were lost. Can you believe it?

 

[Bazz270]

They are actually much faster than ebay global shipping couriers (internationally)

Ebay parts stucks for almost forever

 

[Dave K 58]

USPS are known for slow deliveries, didn't you know?

Yes! This was the reason for my starting this thread. When I placed my order, the standard shipping method was listed as "FedEx Ground", but they shipped USPS and it took 3 weeks to get my parts.

 

[Devo55]

I ordered some parts in RockAuto some months ago, around 110$ + 50$ express shipping to Europe with DHL. I never received it!

Checked on RockAuto and the status is "shipped". Checked on DHL with the provided tracking number, and what a surprise, they say the sender never delivered the parcel to them...

I've been trying to contact RockAuto trough their customer service and even Twitter account, but they never reply back.

What a scam!!

I will never buy from them again.

 

[Felsysta]

I’ve had the same problem before with shipping companies switching things up last minute. It’s super annoying when that happens.

 

[mountaineer2004]

I don't recall bad shipping experiences from RA, but what annoys me about them is they're randomly not accepting my credit card, even though it's always the same one...something about "bank authorization" being denied. Then I go to amazon, which I've never had a problem with.