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Believe it or not, some really bonified Motor factors have outlets on ebay. They usually list clearance stock on ebay. Even Euro car parts and ace car parts have ebay outlets.
Autodoc customer service
- Thread starter ChrisEdu
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I would use a UK based company, can you link to one that has as good an on line presence as ECP and Autodoc.
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One i use is Mercedes Benz of Newcastle . They have a shop on Ebay . Then i send a message via ebay to the seller, and he will list the item for you, and send to you a listing number to find the item.. .Pay by PayPal .
Petrol Pete
Hardcore MB Enthusiast
Is now probably the worst time to be ordering anything that might have to cross the channel to get here ? I guess its OK if you are in no hurry for it , but it's not going to be 'paperwork' that will hold up delivery. It will be French/Belgian and Dutch trawlermen.
Please don't mention the British Navy . Any blockade they put in place will be in their own waters. I have personally been affected (twice !) by French port blockades and with just a few rusty hulls they wreak havoc.
Apologies for thread hijack.
Please don't mention the British Navy . Any blockade they put in place will be in their own waters. I have personally been affected (twice !) by French port blockades and with just a few rusty hulls they wreak havoc.
Apologies for thread hijack.
Hi Ashlee,
I’ll answer you last point first:
Of course there’s plenty of genuine stuff on eBay. Even Mercedes-Benz main dealers sell on there (genuine parts)
But in terms of counterfeit parts, you’re far more likely to come across suspect parts from (usually smaller sellers) on global/anonymous marketplace sites like there or AliExpress etc than an established large organisation (that have a good reputation and too much to lose - and would be much easier to catch and prosecute etc)
I would suggest similar would apply to Eurocarparts and the like - they’re just too big to get into dealing counterfeit parts. They know what they’re doing and like Autodoc have been supplying huge quantities of parts for years, and I suspect are very careful how/where they source their stock. They wouldn’t rely on one or two random end users to detect counterfeit goods.
Regards your first point - I’ve never heard of ‘Icer Brakes’ - certainly have never used them so I can’t comment on the quality or where they are made etc. But if they were counterfeit I doubt they would have ‘made in PRC’ proudly marked on the packaging if they are known to only ever be made in Spain - would kind of defeat the point.
Of course some small local car parts places are fine every now and then, but much of the time stuff needs to be ordered in anyway such is the market for car parts today, and many people prefer to shop online. No British snobbery or anything but when the vast majority of parts for say German cars come from Europe why would you want to pay more for those parts from a British supplier for that reason alone? You’re just funding a middleman. There needs to be some added value/reason other than supporting jobs or it won’t continue for very long. It’s not much different to the change in shopping habits and the high street.
Times change, and businesses need to adapt or they don’t succeed. Nothing to do with British or otherwise, but you need to offer a good balance of quality and value to customers. We’ve had a couple of threads on here recently (one about Curry’s and one about a London based MB main dealer) both with examples of poor customer service from UK located businesses.
Customers have a choice.
I tend to use suppliers that offer good quality and value. For me Autodoc have always been excellent price wise, and I’ve never had an issue with quality of parts - but then you tend to know what you’re buying in advance, they are just a supplier (not a manufacturer - and neither are your local motor factor either!)
D
Deleted member 159235
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GSF Car Parts
They're truly independent and not governed by any buying groups who have weird rules.
You'll hear about things like the tec alliance and the Auto Alliance. It's almost like a freemasons hall for the automotive aftermarket.
Vertu Motors bought ace car parts online, however they now only have an ebay outlet.
I get on well with ABM Motor Factors. I usually send them a label for parts I need so then my own courier collects and delivers the part for me.
You actually made me think about building my own website now.
Their is certainly a gap in the market for a humble national UK based online Motor Factors.
Even one that just supplies discs and pads.
GSF were good back in the day, but they’re not competitive these days and aren’t doing very well from what I can tell.
In other words, they don’t offer any of the following over their competitors:
Better range of products
Better quality of products
Better value for money
I don’t really see much of a customer service aspect to these suppliers. They just hand over boxes and take payment - very very few will be able to offer technical advice or know much about the parts they’re selling (there’s just too many at the end of the day!)
Why does this need to be a humble/national/UK thing? There’s no real pride involved here.
D
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It's more than that. What job would I do once all the British businesses take over?
I may as well quit now and move into London and just become a bus driver.
That's the thing with the automotive world. if you attended Automechanika once or twice in Birmingham. You'll get to talk to people who know what they are on about.
Much like when you take a car to a specialist who just specializes in one vehicle. He'll most likely know more about it than the main dealer.
I can hold my hands up and tell you I know nothing about a gearbox. When I took a car of a friends to Mercedes, three hours later a neighbour rang us who is a independent gearbox specialist (we never knew what he did for a living specifically until that point).
Mercedes themselves could not do the work on the car. So they sent it off to a company who does gearboxes and nothing else.
os even someone like Autodoc wont have great knowledge all round.
If you go to Automechanika, they have talks and trade consortiums where you can sign for free and listen about it all.
But it is very important we keep our pounds among each other (if and where we can). I'm not anti about buying abroad.
With auto parts, you don't want them travelling from a far. That's when you end up buying batteries that were made 8 months ago and never been through a charge cycle.
Some batteries are made in Brazil, then they end up in Europe, then a factors or a warehouse buys them... then they all filter into various stores and factors.
Then you do that and I dont know how big autodoc warehouse is. However, when I was just a forklift driver. I would see no stock rotation at times from the staff.
Even an Oil filter, you don't want one that has been hanging around for a few years, the rubber perishes and they may not seal right.
I could talk about that for a long time. Thats why some manufacturers now control how much you can buy in bulk. As it gives a bad brand image if the customer thinks the brand is not good quality. However, they are good quality, they just sat in a warehouse too long.
I could go on and on and be more boring than I already am. lol
I ordered a Blue Print wheel hub for my car but the shop sent me a part made by Stark instead. The shop is Autodoc, they have at least 20 different domains (for example https://www.onlinecarparts.co.uk/), you recognize them by the "discount" that they are giving every day from 10-31% and there is a countdown timer for the discount.
I asked them why they sent a wrong brand and they answered something that "it was faster to ship". The brand that I ordered was in the stock so this was not true. I had to replace the part because I needed the car to be passed for the inspection so I didn't have time to wait 1 more week again for the good brand. The hub worked well for only 800km! Then it started to keep a loud humming noise. First I thought that the other side wore out with 2 years old hub but no. It was the new Stark hub that broke out so fast!
After this I red a lot of reviews and experiences of Stark. It is always the same story. This web shop (with multiple different domains) is the only shop that "sells" Stark. The scam is clever. You pay let's say 150$ for a quality brand. Instead they send you Stark without any notice and hope that you don't realize the wrong brand or don't want to start the replace process bring the wrong part to the post office, pay the shipment and wait for the new part. As I red on the internet, a lot of people have had very bad experiences with Stark and this shop. If you make an accident and order something from this shop and they send you Stark, never install that part to your car, it is cheaply made and might be even dangerous.
I asked them why they sent a wrong brand and they answered something that "it was faster to ship". The brand that I ordered was in the stock so this was not true. I had to replace the part because I needed the car to be passed for the inspection so I didn't have time to wait 1 more week again for the good brand. The hub worked well for only 800km! Then it started to keep a loud humming noise. First I thought that the other side wore out with 2 years old hub but no. It was the new Stark hub that broke out so fast!
After this I red a lot of reviews and experiences of Stark. It is always the same story. This web shop (with multiple different domains) is the only shop that "sells" Stark. The scam is clever. You pay let's say 150$ for a quality brand. Instead they send you Stark without any notice and hope that you don't realize the wrong brand or don't want to start the replace process bring the wrong part to the post office, pay the shipment and wait for the new part. As I red on the internet, a lot of people have had very bad experiences with Stark and this shop. If you make an accident and order something from this shop and they send you Stark, never install that part to your car, it is cheaply made and might be even dangerous.
I have used them several times and never had a problem. I tend to order stuff well before I need it, so delivery time is not an issue for me. Recent order has been Lemforder drop links, just ordered Eibach springs from the Eibach shop and they have no UK stock so its three weeks delivery. Bilstein want 3-4 weeks for top strut mounts and bearings, neither of which I need urgently.
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I ordered from autodoc.fi but my friend in London got Stark from autodoc.co.uk, he ordered Bosch and got Stark instead.
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This?
www.stark-automotive.com
The STARK – AUTOMOTIVE company
STARK AUTOMOTIVE is a German company – since 2013 STARK AUTOMOTIVE has been a manufacturer for car components for the aftermarket.
This is one of the reasons I buy mostly from ECP, they have shops so I normally order online and collect in store, recently I spent £550 on suspension parts for my Panda, when I went in to collect on collection day, which was 2 days after ordering, they had replaced one of the rear shocks with a different brand, saying "they are similar quality" not really the point though, I had ordered all Sachs springs and shocks and that is what I'm having, they got me the correct one later that day, it's a lot easier to sort things out if they are in the same country.
Yes exactly. I am pretty sure Stark is just a nice looking carboard box, the parts inside the box are non labeled soft metal made in China.This?
The STARK – AUTOMOTIVE company
STARK AUTOMOTIVE is a German company – since 2013 STARK AUTOMOTIVE has been a manufacturer for car components for the aftermarket.
