Ok today is a little rant about buying online and more specifically for car parts. I know this may be a bit blokey, however I’m a bloke so it is important to me and possibly the other men out there. I’m also using this as the example because for me it is current. So, remove car parts and insert what ever it is that you are having issues with.
Buying online is meant to make life easier.
The joys of buying online are that you can browse what you want from the comfort of your armchair/sofa/office. Then the products are delivered to your front door.
This is all well and good until it isn’t.
I expect that most of us have used Amazon or such like on a “regular” basis. They don’t, however, have a good range for certain product groups and one of those is replacement car parts. So, you trawl through the search results for what you want. Then you place the order from the site that seems to give you what you want at a reasonable price.
Car Parts buying online
Now obviously there are millions of different cars out there and they all use parts which are specific to the model you drive.
When you reach a website, they ask you for details of your vehicle. Make, model, year of manufacture engine and transmission type, are the standard starters. This is allegedly so that they only show you bits that fit your car.
You choose the bits you require and place the order. Pay your money and a few days later the bits turn up.
Well that’s the theory anyway.
Unfortunately, that isn’t quite what happened to me. Everything went well (or so I thought) up to the “turning up” bit.
Why?
Firstly, there was the phone call from the company asking for a confirmation of our address. They also wanted to know what was at that address: house, office, garage… Easy enough.
Next, we get an email saying that they need our VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) to confirm that the car parts ordered will fit the car. Sounds good that they are being thorough.
The next email tells us that they don’t know if some of the parts will fit the car. They now want the OEN (Original Equipment Number) for the parts.
Now I don’t know about you but that is not something that falls readily to hand. Well not unless you are a dealership with the company database to hand.
They are also not sure if they have all the parts in stock!
I now have questions
Why does the ordering system require make, model, year and engine type?
If the ordering system asks for make, model, year and engine type why was I offered parts that might not be compatible?
Why bother asking for the information if the system doesn’t filter the results?
As I was only able to place orders for parts that were listed as “in stock” why are you now saying that some of the items ordered are out of stock?
Finally, why do I need multiple emails per day from different people? My email inbox now suspects these are SPAM so I have to search for the emails in junk mail.
Who said on-line is easy?
As my car needs the parts I have complied with their wishes.
After a couple of days of research I have now gone over my order and found that the parts I ordered do fit my model of car. I also found a great site for checking these things out. This site gives you the exploded engineering drawings and lists the OENs of all the bits. If you drill down further, it even goes through all the manufactures of those bits and what the part numbers are as well. Follow the link to this marvellous website here.
Just to add insult to injury, as it has taken me a few days to answer their emails, they have closed my order as it was taking too long to process. (See comment above about multiple emails ending up in Junk).
Which means that I have to order all over again. At least this time when they ask the questions, I can say yes they are the right parts.
While I am trying to create a (not so) new and beautiful car I have run into some hurdles that needed to be overcome. Of course, getting the bits is just the start, and possibly the easy bit, fitting them is a whole other hurdle/fence/mountain.
It is the same with everything we face. That is why CANBACE ends with Courageous Existence because it wouldn’t be courageous if it there weren’t obstacles to overcome.
Practice makes perfect
It’s all well and good writing about things in theory: however, we need to start applying what we learn. What has annoyed you about buying online and what have you learnt to overcome that annoyance.
Be kind to yourself …
In CANBACE friendship!
If anything I have written resonates I’d love to hear from you in the comments. I appreciate that this can be a difficult subject to speak openly about. If you don’t want me to publish your comment on the website, please let me know. I will keep your words private.
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