Beware of on-line parts supplier

[Steveml63]

Well it differed from my experience - they contacted me personally by phone (and spoke very good English!) and also a follow up email too. The part was the one I wanted and they didn't need to offer me a partial refund either - but they did.

I think when you run tight margins and deal in high volumes of parts to a worldwide audience it's inevitable stock levels will sometimes cause hiccups.

I don't think there's anything dishonest or untoward on their part though.

I've had similar experiences with other European suppliers (Mister Auto etc). Usually good service and keen pricing. Have had more hassles with some of the well known UK suppliers to be fair!

You pay your money and take your choice. If you're buying at the very cheapest possible price (and from abroad) you can't expect the same level of service as say a main dealer.

IMHO of course

Hi,
Except their margins are not tight - the markup on parts is very healthy indeed.
I used to work for a tier 1 automotive components manufacturer and we could buy parts for ourselves and family at cost plus 10%.
I could get a set of brake pads for around £3 and discs for £8 for my BMW!
Cheers
Steve

 

[Will]

Hi,
Except their margins are not tight - the markup on parts is very healthy indeed.
I used to work for a tier 1 automotive components manufacturer and we could buy parts for ourselves and family at cost plus 10%.
I could get a set of brake pads for around £3 and discs for £8 for my BMW!
Cheers
Steve

Autodoc aren't a manufacturing company though, and I doubt manufacturing companies sell their parts at cost + 10% to retailers like Autodoc. The general public can't buy any of those parts at those prices either.

So whatever their margin is, it's clearly tighter than most other suppliers. I've just checked the price of the part I purchased and even with their phoney discount UK based 'Euro Car Parts' are 2.5 times the price...

People have used them because they are cheaper than elsewhere, myself included. I haven't found the part I bought cheaper anywhere else, and for a number of other parts I've checked they're very competitive on price

 

[Steveml63]

Autodoc aren't a manufacturing company though, and I doubt manufacturing companies sell their parts at cost + 10% to retailers like Autodoc. The general public can't buy any of those parts at those prices either.

So whatever their margin is, it's clearly tighter than most other suppliers. I've just checked the price of the part I purchased and even with their phoney discount UK based 'Euro Car Parts' are 2.5 times the price...

People have used them because they are cheaper than elsewhere, myself included. I haven't found the part I bought cheaper anywhere else, and for a number of other parts I've checked they're very competitive on price

Hi,
I would be very cautious buying parts from companies that are 2.5 times cheaper than ECP.
Whilst working for the previously mentioned tier 1 company - part of my role included being on an anti-counterfeit team that worked jointly with other manufacturers (including Bosch, Siemens etc.) to research, raid, shutdown and prosecute counterfeiters - most of whom were in China.
We designed new anti-counterfeit packaging that had 8 different security features as well as anti-tamper (to prevent original parts from being sold and then the packaging reused for fake parts - also very common in India, Pakistan etc.)
Within two weeks of launch, I had a meeting in London with one of our biggest Pakistani customers over from Lahore. He brought with him a set of our parts in the new packaging - except they were good Chinese fakes!
They had managed to include 6 of the 8 security features - but missed two off their packaging.
Had they included all 8 - it would have been difficult for us to tell the difference!
Products are often very cheap for a reason!
Cheers
Steve

 

[horatio]

In fairness, the parts they sell are legit but they pull some dodgy sales tactics.

If you see a "Stark" part listed as the most expensive option and an OEM part as the cheapest you know what you're gonna get and you don't have much of a say!

I've used them not so much because of their prices but because Euro's & GSF only list own brand junk for certain things (e.g. Circoli water pumps which don't last 5 mins). This makes it doubly annoying!

Mister Auto are totally unrelated and in my experience brilliant.

 

[Will]

Hi,
I would be very cautious buying parts from companies that are 2.5 times cheaper than ECP.
Whilst working for the previously mentioned tier 1 company - part of my role included being on an anti-counterfeit team that worked jointly with other manufacturers (including Bosch, Siemens etc.) to research, raid, shutdown and prosecute counterfeiters - most of whom were in China.
We designed new anti-counterfeit packaging that had 8 different security features as well as anti-tamper (to prevent original parts from being sold and then the packaging reused for fake parts - also very common in India, Pakistan etc.)
Within two weeks of launch, I had a meeting in London with one of our biggest Pakistani customers over from Lahore. He brought with him a set of our parts in the new packaging - except they were good Chinese fakes!
They had managed to include 6 of the 8 security features - but missed two off their packaging.
Had they included all 8 - it would have been difficult for us to tell the difference!
Products are often very cheap for a reason!
Cheers
Steve

Come on Steve, this is a big German parts company - not some dodgy seller on AliExpress or eBay etc. There's absolutely no reason to doubt the authenticity of their goods and it's unfair of you to suggest so with absolutely no evidence to support that. No one else has suggested this either - only you.

One minute you suggest vast margins and that they're making a huge markup, and when I point out that their margins must be lower than others you suggest they may be selling fake goods

Euro Car Parts rely on artificially inflated prices and constant huge discounting ('sales') with naive customers thinking that they're getting a bargain. They also price to UK market conditions and have UK overheads to cover (including lots of premises)

Autodoc seem like a decent no-nonsense efficient business, online only (to the UK customer of course) with lower overheads. They still run promotions but nothing as ridiculous as the ones you get in the UK.

Unless you've used them and have genuine experience of dealing with them I don't see why you're trying to run them down (?)

 

[Steveml63]

Come on Steve, this is a big German parts company - not some dodgy seller on AliExpress or eBay etc. There's absolutely no reason to doubt the authenticity of their goods and it's unfair of you to suggest so with absolutely no evidence to support that. No one else has suggested this either - only you.

One minute you suggest vast margins and that they're making a huge markup, and when I point out that their margins must be lower than others you suggest they may be selling fake goods

Euro Car Parts rely on artificially inflated prices and constant huge discounting ('sales') with naive customers thinking that they're getting a bargain. They also price to UK market conditions and have UK overheads to cover (including lots of premises)

Autodoc seem like a decent no-nonsense efficient business, online only (to the UK customer of course) with lower overheads. They still run promotions but nothing as ridiculous as the ones you get in the UK.

Unless you've used them and have genuine experience of dealing with them I don't see why you're trying to run them down (?)

Hi,
I never once mentioned this company's name - I used the term companies!
We often received parts for inspection from very large parts suppliers - like the ones mentioned in this thread - to check whether the parts they were buying on the open market were genuine or counterfeit - as they could easily get caught out themselves.
I will give you one example of how it happens.
We were selling a particular part to our distributor in South Korea for £10 each (and would sell them around 100,000 of this one part number, per year).
This part cost us around £7 and was made in our own factory in Mexico.
Our South Korean customer told us that he could buy them from a distributor in Turkey for £6 each and accused us of overcharging him.
He was sent a few samples from the Turkish company as an example of what they could supply.
He sent one to us for checking - and it was one of our genuine parts.
We also had factories in Turkey and we asked them if they knew about this supplier. In fact, our Turkish company had sold this supplier about 50 of these products.
The manufacturer and date codes matched those supplied as samples to our Korean customer.
Our Turkish manager visited their offices and it was a very small "back street" operation - he sent us photos.
The Turkish parts supply company was using these samples as a bait to potential customers but if they ordered them in volume - they would receive Chinese copies (a typical bait and switch operation).
It took some convincing to our Korean customer that this was what they were doing - he still suspected we were ripping him off - until we got him to take the next steps.
We asked our Korean customer to order a few thousand "as a trial" and then used this order trail to get the Turkish company shut down - after the order was fulfilled with counterfeit parts.
The above is happening on a daily basis around the world - as companies are constantly trying to source cheaper products to increase their sales volume and/or margins.
No accusations - just a bit of information of what happens in the real world of automotive parts!
Cheers
Steve

 

[markjay]

Some factories are contracted to make OE parts for car manufacturers, then over-produce and sell the surplus production as genuine parts for a fraction of the trade price.

I am aware of at least one such case that ended-up in a criminal trial and the jury were unable to decide whether these should be considered as counterfeit parts as the prosecution claimed.

This is because the parts were 100% genuine and made by the same manufacturer to the same specification. The defence claimed that this was a civil/commercial matter between the car manufacturer and the factory, because they had permission to manufacture them, just not to sell them.

Long story this ended up with a hung jury and Trading Standards decided not to go for a re-trial.

But the phenomena does exist. I.e. it is not just knock-offs made in China... that Gucci bag offered for cheap on eBay may have been manufactured in the leather factory in the South of Italy that Gucci contracted to make 3,000 bags, so they made 4,000 instead... etc.

 

[Steveml63]

Some factories are contracted to make OE parts for car manufacturers, then over-produce and sell the surplus production as genuine parts for a fraction of the trade price.

I am aware of at least one such case that ended-up in a criminal trial and the jury were unable to decide whether these should be considered as counterfeit parts as the prosecution claimed.

This is because the parts were 100% genuine and made by the same manufacturer to the same specification. The defence claimed that this was a civil/commercial matter between the car manufacturer and the factory, because hey had permission to manufacture them, but not to sell them.

Long story this ended up with a hung jury and Trading Standards decided not to go for a re-trial.

But the phenomena does exist. I.e. it is not just knock-offs made in China... that Gucci bag offered for cheap on eBay may have been manufactured in the leather factory in the South of Italy that Gucci contacted to make 3,000 bags, so they made 4,000 instead... etc.

Hi,
For that reason, many tier 1 companies will get parts made in sub-contract factories - and then get them bulk packed and sent to their central warehouse.
The central warehouse then packs them in the manufacturers retail packaging (that includes the security features, manufacturing date codes etc.) - all done to prevent the over production of manufacturer parts and selling them out the back door!
The sub-contract factories were always keen to supply us fully packed parts - but we resisted for the reasons you highlighted!!
Cheers
Steve

 

[rorf]

Quality always comes at a price - there are no real bargains out there.

Buyer beware

 

[wu56Shoozz]

Update Part 3:

So I had to order alternative parts from GSF & Bilstien Shockers for my van all were obtained on the same day.
Back to "BuyCrapartists" on line. So I've raised it with Paypal & my credit card as an issue. My order was placed on the 17th of May and not dispatched until the 22nd of May despite the adverts saying "Dispatched within 24 hours" My strut tops went amiss - and no communications entered into on this, instead they arrived last Thursday but left with a neighbour and no card left to advise.
Fast Forward to today and... my springs have arrived! Only to be sent back as I no longer need them.. remember, my mates at GSF solved the problem. "BuyCrapArtists" are arguing the toss that the had provided an on time delivery and have issued a fake UPS Tracking number as it doesn't match the one I have on an email provided by their "Sales Manager". I have just bullet pointed my response into 4 categories : Non conformance, Poor Delivery, Poor Communications, and of course "False Advertising".. we'll see what they have to say...

 

[Steveml63]

Update Part 3:

So I had to order alternative parts from GSF & Bilstien Shockers for my van all were obtained on the same day.
Back to "BuyCrapartists" on line. So I've raised it with Paypal & my credit card as an issue. My order was placed on the 17th of May and not dispatched until the 22nd of May despite the adverts saying "Dispatched within 24 hours" My strut tops went amiss - and no communications entered into on this, instead they arrived last Thursday but left with a neighbour and no card left to advise.
Fast Forward to today and... my springs have arrived! Only to be sent back as I no longer need them.. remember, my mates at GSF solved the problem. "BuyCrapArtists" are arguing the toss that the had provided an on time delivery and have issued a fake UPS Tracking number as it doesn't match the one I have on an email provided by their "Sales Manager". I have just bullet pointed my response into 4 categories : Non conformance, Poor Delivery, Poor Communications, and of course "False Advertising".. we'll see what they have to say...

Hi,
Don't forget - if you ordered online then distance selling regulations apply.
This gives you very strong rights (as you don't have the opportunity to inspect the goods before purchase) and even if there is nothing wrong with the goods - you have the right to return them for a full refund, without having to give any reason.
Cheers
Steve

 

[Will]

To update this thread again with a bit more balance:

Needed some parts for the 911. One of the parts in particular (a Bosch crank Sensor aka CPS/pulse sensor) two of the 'usual' UK suppliers couldn't even locate (I gave them both the correct Bosch part number, the Porsche part number and vehicle reg to look up)

Ordered from Autodoc in Germany, a quarter of the price of Porsche. Parts turned up within a few days as expected. One of the three items was not immediately available when ordered and they emailed me within hours of placing the order - with three options:

1) An alternative part they suggested
2) They'd look for another alternative if I didn't want the suggested part, asking for vehicle details to check options available
3) If not urgently required they'd contact the manufacturer to check for lead time and give an exact delivery date

I wasn't in a rush for this part so they ordered the part in and delivered via UPS within a week. Kept informed throughout with tracking details etc - no drama.

I find it hard to believe that they just sent a different part to what the OP ordered. In both of my experiences they didn't do anything until they'd heard back from me, and all contact was very prompt (both phone and email). How many UK suppliers are as efficient as that?

Will definitely use again.

Regards returns - they give details of how to return items inside the delivery note. Don't see how/why they'd not accept returns as per most suppliers online?

Perhaps I've been lucky but I doubt it

 

[Doodle]

I've had similar experience to Will - a phone call later that day to let me know they were expecting stock from the manufacturer, and asking whether I was ok to wait a couple of days or if I would prefer a refund.

Unfortunately after the glowing report above, they've rather blotted their copybook.

It's been a week since ordering and they've still not sent the goods, had to chase them but two promises of dispatch dates have been broken. Their T&C would seem to be on somewhat shaky ground, I'm not sure how they can accept payment for goods and then only claim the contract is formed once they send them.

Monday morning may be interesting, the price going up by nearly 20% the following day smacks of a bait and switch.