International shipment of parts

[richarde]

Living outside the shores of the USA and Canada, the cost implications and speed of parts delivery can be a real nightmare, sometimes effectively doubling the cost of buying parts for your Corvette. Some US parts suppliers now refuse to ship to addresses outside the US and Canada, whereas others just refuse the courtesy of replying to emails etc once they find out where you live.

However, one US parts supplier has really excelled over the past 3 orders that I have placed with them. I live in the UK and on Sunday Nov 8 I placed an order with Rockauto. The part was shipped Monday Nov 9 and delivered to me Thursday Nov 12. The delivery company that Rockauto used was FEDEX. The previous 2 orders with Rockauto were also delivered by FEDEX, again within one week of ordering. The most recent shipment was in a large box measuring 48"x10"x10".

I'm not sure what experience other 'international' ZR-1 owners have on shipments from the US? Could it be that US parts suppliers refusing to ship internationally should look more closely at the delivery company they use?

[spork2367]

Originally Posted by richarde

I'm not sure what experience other 'international' ZR-1 owners have on shipments from the US? Could it be that US parts suppliers refusing to ship internationally should look more closely at the delivery company they use?

Inevitably, there is a huge customer dissatisfaction risk with overseas sales/shipment. Long ship times, customs, quarantine, damage, lost shipments...etc. Then potential language barriers when trying to sort problems out.

Rock Auto has a customer service department and the parts they are dealing with are typically not specialty high value parts. They can afford to lose a couple parts in shipment, eat that cost and move on with life.

Small sellers with high value, and often difficult to find parts don't want to assume that risk. At the end of the day, one pissed off customer for Rock Auto with millions of customers is a drop in the bucket. One pissed off customer in a small circle (zr1 community) out of a population of maybe a couple thousand customers is much harder to deal with.

I've been surprised at the people willing to take the risk of buying or relocating a zr-1 to Europe or abroad elsewhere. Some parts are difficult to find here, let alone in a country where there are 5-10 ZR-1s.

[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?

[spork2367]

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?

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.

[Thomas ZR-1]

Yes Richard I it?s quite difficult with shipping outside USA at the moment but the election in the US is finished now and so USPS should be able to come to back to normal buisness (and re-install all the demounted postboxes!!!). Shipment from big companies such as Rockauto don`t have any problem in that Corona / election time for me because of FedEx shipping all the time (Covid delay at FedEx shipping to Germany = 0 days). For smaller companies (USPS shipping only) that are not able to ship with FedEx or UPS I have my "private courier". One of my friends is an international flight captain (cargo). He can pick up sendings for me all over the world within 2-3 weeks. So it?s no problem for me. An usual USPS sending from Jerry to my home address took regular 3-4 weeks (before Covid).

Nice weekend guys! Thomas