Parts On The Internet: I Give Up

[Strife]

When buying my '86 560SL, I looked into parts availability. I was pleased that there were so many suppliers of hard wear parts, and this, combined with Mercedes' own very expensive, but excellent, parts support, influenced my decision to buy one. Because of my last three experiences below, I think my next car will be a Ford. In the meantime, I will purchase some Vaseline for my trips to the Mercedes dealership.

I can deal with expensive, but not ridiculously priced parts. I can even deal with parts that need to be replaced a lot. I can't deal with an inability to obtain them at a reasonable price.

Company "T.B.B"

Ordered windshield wipers along with some other stuff. Got 21" wipers (for an 86 560SL). They also sent me the wrong part for my convertible top seals (what they sent was actually the felt for the door, and this was AFTER I called and thought that what I wanted was clear). I decided to keep this, mostly because it was going to be very expensive to ship back because of its size and I thought that I might need them someday.

This took about a month and a half to get refunded. Actually, I was still out 7.00 because I had to ship the pieces of crap blades back at MY expense (note that this, also, was NOT an ordering mistake). I asked for an explanation of how they could screw up something this easy. Got nothing. Definitely off my list.

Company "T.M.S."

I wanted to replace the top cowl header panel on my car - the stainless plate on the top of the windshield cowl with the holes for the hard/softtop pins to go through and lock. I described this in detail over the phone to this company, which touts itself as a "Mercedes specialist for hard to find parts". They looked the part up for me and called me back about 1/2 hour later with a price that I thought was suspiciously low and I asked that they check again. I got the part in. It was the piece of brightwork below the stainless item that I wanted. I described the part over the phone to my wife, who actually, literally does not know how to put air in tires and is so mechanically inept that I will not let her mow the lawn because I am genuinely afraid that she will cut her foot off. She came home and immediately pointed at the correct part that I'd described on my car.

Emailed via their web form for a refund. I Never heard from them again. **** em, I'm out $60, because I polished the one I had to like new status, as I thought I could (the part I actually needed replaced was dented and I couldn't buff out dents of that size). I've felt like auctioning the new part on eBay starting at $1.00 (10-day auction, naturally) and explaining the whole story with the company name in the body of the auction, which hundreds of parts buyers will read. That way, I can feel like I got my money's worth.

Company "G.S."

Ordered two tie rods on the same order. As you may know, the l/r are identical and have identical part numbers. What I got were two different parts, possibly they will work but they are from different manufacturers. They are from different forgings. The actual thickness of the rods is different. The tools required to install them are different. Hell, the LENGTHS of the tube parts of the rods are different. If you were handled them in the dark, you could feel the difference and one weighs more to boot. Now, I don't know if I can trust that either one is right. With safety-related items like these, I'm not going to experiment. I called them and asked what was going on (I had to leave a message). I called back again; I'm going to have to pay at my expense for shipping the items back because the best they could do is a call tag which would require me to be at home at all times. So, there goes my big savings AND my weekend project.

I'm now considering auctioning the mismatched set for $1.00 on eBay, 10 day auction, with the whole story and name of the supplier to in order to provide maximum embarassment. It will be especially amusing to link (if I can get away with it) to their home page, because the forwarding page will show up in their logs.

Note that NONE of these suppliers were from the often-maligned eBay (which I've done very well with, except in one case with an aftermarket convertible hatch gasket). I would guess that I've bought maybe $1000 of parts for my car so far, so if I could actually find a reliable, reasonable, and all-inclusive supplier, they could have had a good part or even all of this.

I will mention that K+K Mfg (slow, but I got it) EPS, The Tire Rack, and Discount Mercedes Parts have been great within their specialties - but they don't have everything you need or are not always very good on prices.

So, who _DO_ you have to **** to actually acquire good, quality, and actually correct and SAFE parts? Is their simply no alternative other than the dealer? At least they seem to care and actually have a handle on getting things right.

How many of you wound up "eating" parts you couldnt use because you couldn't (or wouldn't) send them back?

[kknudson]

First, I wouldn't isolate the "Internet" in your complaint, some were phone orders. And actually it's Customer Service in general, how many times have you ordered something face to face in a store and it gets messed up.

Personally, despite some technical difficulty with the order I was very impressed with Phil here at Fastlane. And plan over the winter to order again.

But Phil got everything taken care of, I was patient, probably more tjan most people would have been.

But in the end I was happy, Phil will get another order (He'll probably charge extra to make up for the losses on the first order :-}), and I will recommend heim anytime.

KlK, MCSE

[GermanStar]

Originally Posted by Strife

I'm now considering auctioning the mismatched set for $1.00 on eBay, 10 day auction, with the whole story and name of the supplier to in order to provide maximum embarassment. It will be especially amusing to link (if I can get away with it) to their home page, because the forwarding page will show up in their logs.

The name of the company is German Star. We admitted the error, apologized for the inconvenience and offered to make it right as quickly as possible at no expense to you. Do what you will -- we're not perfect and never claimed to be, but we're honest and try our best to resolve problems such as this. You could have provided an alternate address for the call tag and received the parts you should have received in the first place within a day or two, but you've apparently chosen a different course that you seem quite pleased with. Good luck with your auction.

[Strife]

Actually, I didn't really want to mention names, and I really wanted to get to the heart of the matter - that in two of these cases (and there were some I had experienced earlier, but not consecutively - I didn't mention my incorrect wheel bearings or gaskets), the people who took the order never actually saw and were in fact an entire country apart from the actual parts. This can work, if the people on the other end are actually competent.

Unfortunately, you happened to be the third in a string of three consecutive problems, and this set me off. I went overboard, and I apolgize.

I don't think that the sales and distribution structure of these parts is any secret - it's all basically the same stuff from the same supplier with individual companies basically taking orders at slightly different prices. If you take apart their web pages (and I give you some credit for actually doing your own, and you do appear to have a superset of the "standard parts") you can see that even the coding of the web pages is "very strangely similar".

The real problem probably lies with that supplier. You all, collectively, need to beat up on these people, hard. Their mistakes are costing you, and me, time and money. They take the money, leaving you with the bruised (and probably unjustifiably so) reputation.

[1984 280SL]

I have used them quite often and Mike has always been helpful and correctly shipped all my parts in the past.

[ctaylor738]

I have done well with TMC at 410.789.7896 and ATVM (atvm2@prodigy.net) for used.

For new stuff, German Star, ***************, and FastLane on this site.

[kip Foss]

Strife,

For reasonable genuine MB parts go to your local MB dealer and get registered with them as a shop of some sort. I am registered as a restoration shop. He never asked me for a tax number.

When I rebuilt my 1975 115/300d I got a list of the parts I needed and what I could get them for from various places on the net. I showed it to the parts man. He said he could meet most prices and even beat a few. Some he was a bit higher on but I got them quickly and was able to return those that were not right, (a parking brake cable instead of a hood release cable). Plus, you have a warm body to yell at if things aren't right.

[deanyel]

Warning - this telling the dealer that you're a shop of some sort, and then mumbling a tax ID number, may work only in South Texas.

[bwheitman]

Go to www.mbca.org and join. Get your parts from the dealer, they will give you a discount as an MBCA member. I pay less for parts at the dealer than I would if I bought them from anywhere on-line or any other parts stores. Don't let getting parts discourage you. MB's are wonderful cars and no matter how old you will always be able to get part for it. That is something no other manufacturer guarantees. My sister had an 83 Chevy with less than 30k on it, she had to junk it because she couldn't get parts for it. Good luck!
Brian

[Strife]

The local dealer gives discounts only on "accessories" (the junk they display in the glass cases, you know, keychains, etc) if you are a member.

[airedale]

I have had excellent results with:
http://www.**************.com/
http://www.adsitco.com/
Spent good money with both an they have delivered correctly and promptly.

[bwheitman]

Originally Posted by Strife

The local dealer gives discounts only on "accessories" (the junk they display in the glass cases, you know, keychains, etc) if you are a member.

That is pretty sad that your local dealer can't give you a discount on all parts. Are you in a particular section? If so get with your board of officers and directors, We have a close relationship with Park Place and we trade business both ways.
I am going to call Park Place today and ask them if they can ship to section members outside North Texas. If that is the case you will be able to order your part on the phone, get the discount and most important, get the right part that is genuine MB product.
Happy Benzing!
Regards,
Brian

[Steve Gutman]

Mr. Strife

I have a Euro model and part numbers can be a challenge. I couldn't help but be amused withy your problems. I have had my share. I got some parts that have the correct MB Part number (but not OEM) on the box but the wrong part inside. I have some parts that I have to sell too. I have gone to calling the Classic Center to get part numbers and asking for price and availability with a part number alone. I can't go with whatever fits the US model because it's not always right. My car has some Euro only parts that will never show up on the US parts lists. The classic center warns me when this is the case. My rear axle is off of a 1986 but my rear sway bar is off of a 1985. There are a lot of differences. I have actually gone to Genuine MB Parts whenever possible. I have had trouble with aftermarket. I bought aftermarket plug wires that, I discovered, were just stuffed into the plug caps, not terminated, crimped and screwed into the ends like they should be. You never seem to find out soon enough to return them. Phil (at this site) has been very helpful and I buy a lot of parts here.

It's costing me a small fortune. I have spent over $7000 in parts in the last 5 years. The big stuff was complete SS Exhaust and ignition and idle control but the smaller stuff adds up too. But it's a hobby and the rewards are worth it to me.

Sorry for the rant.

[TA250SL]

I bought many parts for my 250SL from a MB dealer, Caliber Motors, in Anaheim Hills, California from Tom Hanson. He's active in the vintage Benz community, knows his parts, and sells at 20% off list. 800-252-6877. You get excellent service and next day shipping for most parts.

Tom

[Eric Eliel]

You perhaps need to be more imformed about YOUR parts and the expectations. There are several sources mentioned above that offer OEM parts for your car (Bosch, Lemforder, VO) that are less than the dealer. There are parts that you most likely would be better off using factory parts.

Sorry to hear about your bad experiences.

You need to do your research and find which parts should be purchased aftermarket and which factory.

Further, you need to understand that the on-line catalog from FASTLANE and *************** (and some of the others) are all driven by a ONE big wholesaler, World Pac. World Pac is huge, is subject to mistakes and occasionally makes them. (and occassionally makes them in my favor, wsa shipped 2 air cleaner brackets for the price of one, happy day) Millers only ships off their floor because they want to inspect the part BEFORE it ships. That costs a little more money.

Phil from FASTLANE is very service oriented AND will always take care of you even if WorldPac direct ships you the wrong part.

Lastly Mr. Hansen is teriffic, great knowledge, great service, although Caliber is a little quick on the trigger to FEDEX overnight everything. You need to be very specific as to how fast or slow the part is needed.