It’s too long to type out all the details, but they no longer have a customer service phone#, or a published email address(that I could find on their site), and it’s really a situation I need to discuss with a human.
Sad, I was a fan of theirs...
It’s too long to type out all the details, but they no longer have a customer service phone#, or a published email address(that I could find on their site), and it’s really a situation I need to discuss with a human.
Sad, I was a fan of theirs...
That’s unfortunate.
can you try posting on their thread in the vendor section of this forum?
Looks like they list a phone number here:
http://www.rockauto.com/help/?page=6
but if it is a problem with an order you may be better off filling out their online form with details in the comments box (I don't have any recent orders otherwise i'd do a quick check to see if it is the same as I'm remembering).
Stay tuned......I've reached out to them.
1-608-661-1376
While I've never had an issue with them, my dad recently did, and I was also shocked to learn that they refused to talk over the phone with him and referred him to email. That's not great. 
I was on the phone with them today over a issue.... I had no problem finding a phone number.
I called that #, but it gives a message stating they no longer have telephone customer service. I did receive an email reply telling my to go do it on their website, which doesn’t work.
Ive been done with them for years. 99% of anything you need can be sourced locally or from Amazon cheaper (my time and frustration is worth something and their stupid shipping costs are stupid) with much better customer service.
Amazon prime for the win. Rock Auto lost me as a customer years ago. I have covered the details it in at least two other threads so I won’t cover it here.
I'm typically pretty happy but the fact that they charge me a $5.00 core charge on a brake caliper and then want to charge me $5.88 for a return label to send it back to them is pretty crappy. I have something else that I need to return, but their whole inability to transfer things between their own warehouses means that until I wind up needing to send something back to McCook, IL, I'm basically just out five bucks. And the rebuilder is out a core to rebuild (which, when taken in aggregate, probably means that the price of a rebuilt caliper will continue to rise as the supply dries up, but that's a pretty macro view). Honestly, I would actually feel a lot better if they would have charged me a $50 core charge and I would have gotten $44.12 back.
Pro tip, though: I usually save a bit of money with them by having my stuff shipped to a commercial address instead of my home. I'm buying a(nother) set of brake pads and it's a literal 10% savings on the whole deal because it's $6 to ship to the workshop and $8 to ship to my house.
Although I'm certainly no rockauto I got rid of my business number years ago. It took up way too much time and 100% of my customer service can be done via email. I get the occasional customer who thinks I'm a jerk for not wanting to speak with them but I consider myself fortunate that I found out what they were like before we do business.
Its becoming more common all the time and I think it's only a matter of time until nobody does customer service by phone
Well after a round of emails this morning, they sent me a return label. Unfortunately the size of the box with both calipers in it is too large for the FedEx dropbox in town, so I’ll be driving over to Gulfport shortly to drop it off.
The only upside to that is I’ll be around the corner from the welding gas place so I can finally get gas for my new welder I’ve had for 6-months.
What really irritates me about the whole situation is rather than resolving this with a 5-minute phone call, it took several hours and emails back & forth. Plus the fact their site no longer has contact information that’s easily found is a real business-killer to me: if you don’t want to make it easy for your customers to contact you, then I don’t want to be your customer.
I have ordered a few things from RA. The first order was several items and they came in three boxes. I thought that was odd at the time. I have recently checked prices on the raybestos super duper brake rotors and RA was a good bit cheaper than Amazon. And I believe Amazon is raising their Prime fee again.
Don’t care about the raised Amazon prime price. We use it so much it saves me many many hours of time. I even get groceries from them now. Best thing ever. I also use it for all my business supplies. That alone pays for it. Auto parts are a small part of my Amazon purchases.
Oh. And friendly no hassle returns and customer service that you can reach by phone. Amazon gets it and I will gladly pay a few bucks more for that service.
I've used RockAuto for years and have never had problems until this year:
I've been reluctant to move to Amazon/Ebay but the total cost is often cheaper and shipping is faster. I think RockAuto dropping the customer service line has pushed me over the edge.
I usually use rock auto to get a part number...and then check to see if I can find that number on Amazon and get the free shipping.
dean1484 said:Don’t care about the raised Amazon prime price. We use it so much it saves me many many hours of time. I even get groceries from them now. Best thing ever. I also use it for all my business supplies. That alone pays for it. Auto parts are a small part of my Amazon purchases.
I have taken quite the shine to German mustand and Dominican coffee, all sourced from Amazon. The mustard is $5 or less, free ship, and I dont even have to get out of my PJs to order it. Amazing how the world works.
Just ordered Akebono pads and Centric front rotors for the TSX from Rock Auto - total shipped price $132.35. That was pennies cheaper than identical items on Amazon with free shipping.
RA promised 1-2 business days for delivery; Amazon was 5-7 business days. No brainer.
Admittedly, I had to ditch the bag of crush washers and the set of retainer screws from the RA order because they would have generated more shipping from a separate location. But if I can do the brakes some night next week instead of the week after that, I'm fine with it.
Daylan C said:I usually use rock auto to get a part number...and then check to see if I can find that number on Amazon and get the free shipping.
I try, but lately, WHEN Amazon actually had the real part number and not something "close enough" which is pretty rare for me, it's triple the cost or is from some bizarre Chinese company at such a low price that doesn't make any sense at all.
Example: centric front hubs for the ranger are $55 each on rock auto. Punch in the OE part number to Amazon and the only result was "gorilla magic" or some equally strange name, $60 for BOTH. Meanwhile timken and moog are around $130 per side.
NGK spark plugs $1.99 each on rock auto, $4 and change each from Amazon.
Now that rock auto has their little shipping cost reducing algorithm I think they're getting better price wise.
I also have a very very love hate relationship with Amazon, I love the selection, free shipping, and availability, I HATE several other major aspects of the company including the owner and his friends, so while I have Prime and do use it, I try to find things elsewhere first and only buy if it's an emergency or a significant savings.
I’ve used them once, about a month ago. My takeaway was they are ok for large items if you shop around for the shipping, and if you can wait a few days for the parts. In my case I saved about 1/3 on a radiator, but ordering a cap as well berked the shipping to the point of getting it from autozone.
In reply to RevRico :
My full process is usually comparing RA's price with shipping with Amazon if i can find the same part, and then I check that against the price with employee discount from the parts house I happen to be employed by. Amazon usually only wins if their price is really close or lower than RA's and I can get free 2 day shipping on the same part. Usually if I can get it from work for similar cost it's even quicker to go that route so that's what I do.
The shipping algorithm sucks. My last order I had to buy more than what I wanted to AVOID shipping out of more warehouses... wtf?
Not saying I won’t use them in the long run but really????
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