Quote:
Originally Posted by richarde
Thanks for your reply.
I think that there are more than 5 - 10 ZR-1's in Europe. There's probably about 30 in the UK alone.
My point was not related to Rockauto. Rather, it was related to the excellent performance of their carrier, in this instance FEDEX.
Over the past year, including the ongoing COVID period, I have ordered and received many parts from the US, so far all without problems. Many have been ordered through ebay, where the supplier is not a big business, rather a medium or small size operation. None of the parts have been damaged, short shipped or quarantined and I have received them within the time span quoted.
Your reply implied there were 'huge risks' in sending shipments from the US overseas! Reliable international parcel delivery organizations do exist. Could it be that some of the problems of damage, delays etc that you have experienced are down to the carrier used?
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I didn't say 5-10 in Europe, I said 5-10 in a country. Which is of course an average, some have quite a few, some probably have none.
This isn't just about the shipper, it's about volume and risk. You've ordered from RockAuto and had a good experience. There are also people who have not. RockAuto has determined that due to their overall volume they can risk some unhappy customers due to shipping issues. They have no control over FedEx.
Again, with other Ebay retailers, they are assessing their own risk. Would I assess risk differently if I was sending a bag of bolts vs. a bag of diamonds? Would I assess it differently if it was one bag of bolts vs. 10,000 bags of bolts?
I know Jerry recently posted on his website that he wasn't directly shipping international orders. Keep in mind, many of the products for our cars aren't replaceable. There is a finite number of parts and they can't just be ordered from a manufacturer. If one gets lost or damaged in shipping a replacement part has to be pulled from a finite supply.
I work for a manufacturer of aircraft engines that ships engines worth anywhere from 40k-130k dollars world wide. I can tell you that we often have damage and file claims that we don't get paid out. That's a company that is part of Textron with a 13.6 billion dollar net worth. If we can't get a shipping damage claim paid on a 60k dollar engine, how do you think small business fares on 150 dollar parts? Guys like Jerry have small margins on a small number of sales and it doesn't take many lost/damaged items to eat into profit.
I've dealt with this in the other direction as well. I have a small collection of Japanese motorcycles and the majority of the parts I need are in Europe and Japan. I've had to purchase through third party companies who specialize in buying within a country then shipping internationally. Just part of the hobby.
Here's a picture of my last Fedex shipment from Japan.