Racepages=Autopartswarehouse=carpartswholesale... and they all are sub-par
Wow.
I must admit this came as a surprise.
I last used APW back in 2004 (didn't realize it had been that long) and since then, particularly in the last year or so, have heard lots of bad things about them, mostly relating to bad service, shipping wrong parts, etc.
And ohlord has touted the great and amazing racepages.com, so when I started shopping for replacement cats they both were a source for the OBDII-CARB approved Magnaflows (53005CA)...curiously they had the same price, $66.13 each.
As luck would have it I just got a coupon for $7 off at Auto Parts Warehouse, so I was going to do the transaction there, although I'd been looking forward to trying this (allegedly) new source. As I started into the checkout process APW added sales tax, which obliterated the coupon, so I figured I'd use racepages and save a couple bucks (of course I always pay this when I file my state return anyway as required by law). However, when I tried to create an account, racepages told me my chosen username was not available. So on a hunch I used my APW credentials and boom, there I was, logged into racepages' site and looking at my APW order history. Very interesting.
Well, long story short, the cats are on their way from the same source, which in this case turned out to be APW.
So, for those of you who may have been avoiding APW because of some of the bad press, I guess it must be hit or miss. I'll keep you posted as to the results of the transaction.
Take care and enjoy the ride,
Greg
__________________ If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, that would suffice. Meister Eckhart
When you learn from your own mistakes, that's experience.
When you learn from the mistakes of others, that's wisdom.
When you fail to learn from any mistakes, that's government.
So this morning I get an Email from APW with the subject: Your Credit Has Been Approved!
The body of the email proceeds to inform me that they have canceled my order and refunded my credit card as the parts are out-of-stock.
Fine, I says to myself, but why did you already CHARGE my card so that you have to issue a CREDIT?
On a whim, I log into to Racepages.com. The same cats are now cheaper by almost $5, so even without the coupon code it's cheaper. Order processes flawlessly, then in the confirming email I note this:
In case anyone cares, last Thursday they delivered one cat, in the OEM box, packing list stuck on it. Since I only had one tracking number, I emailed them to find out when the other would show up. They replied their records show the warehouse shipped two, so I responded it would be a neat trick, because only one would fit in the OEM box. So they're shipping another one. Sheesh. Whoda thunk it would be this difficult. Of course once I figured out they were affiliated with APW I was thinking there would be issues.
Kind of a pain in the butt to deal with, but the price was right. I'm just glad I wasn't in a hurry.
More reason to buy from Autohausaz or germanstar, but if they don't have the part, what else ya gonna do?
Haven't received a tracking number or anything for the other cat, so I emailed again. This time another person replies they are "working with the supplier" to get it shipped and will let me know.
Curiously, this email contains a reference to "carpartswholesale".
Looks like the proper thread title is "Racepages=Autopartswarehouse=carpartswholesale... and they all are sub-par"
Thread title would be too long to include them all...
So...I get an email from Race Pages saying "congrats, your credit has been approved" (same *$&(^$ thing I got from Autopartswarehouse). I wrote back telling them that was unacceptable, they entered a contract when they charged my card, they only sent me one of a matched pair, the other is a doorstop, etc. I suggest they find me one or pay my cover losses when I order elsewhere.
So I search for the part number and guess what?
ALL OF THE BELOW SITES ARE THE SAME ROTTEN PLACE!!
So do what you like, in the future I'll avoid all of those sellers.
It's also possible there are others of this ilk; they have a similar look and feel to their sites and of course return the same search results for parts, at least for the things I checked.
(If you want further confirmation, if you have ever bought from any of these, log in to any of the others using your site credentials from the first.)
Back when I had OEM Tail lights in (the white/red circleS lol) I was going to order my right side tail light as it had a crack in it, later I just decided to purchase smoked/red tails but before that I had ordered the tail lamp assembly just the outside right part from car parts whole sale, they charged my card, i canceled the order because i decided on the smoked/reds; it took them two and a half months to refund my bank account of the $64 since then its been autohaus and careful ebaying to get me what I had needed for my car
__________________
97 E420
18" AMG Monoblocks
Chrome Door Pillars
Chrome LED Blinker Door Mirror Covers
8000K Low Beams, 10000K Fog Lights
Smoked/Red Tail Lamps
Kenwood KVT-617DVD with G510NAV and IPod Integration
So we do have the "stealership" for dealers.
What's the name for those suppliers?
Mostly I am using my AE for Internet shopping. Supposable you need some kind of seniority with them for privilege, but each time I see wrong charge I call AE directly. On one call they reverse the charge and start investigation. From this point on, the problem is between the seller and AE. I get only the letter with final result confirmation.
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