The Downside of Buying Auto Parts Wholesale

What could be bad about buying auto parts for less? Why would we say anything negative about our process? I am so confused!?

I have found that being fairly blunt in my honesty tends to make my life a little more sane and simple. I live by the credo, "Under promise and Over deliver...". Rightnowautoparts is a wholesaler, pure and simple. We do not have retail locations. We do not sell parts "over the counter" to the public at any of our warehouses. Many of our parts are sold in multi pack quantities that don't really make sense,for example... Whenever I need tail light bulbs I don't buy them from my inventory! Our 1157 light bulbs are sold in packs of 10 and I typically only need one or two. Even with my savings it still makes better sense to just buy two at the local retail parts store. The same thing holds true for some gaskets, o-rings, hardware and even a few special bulk pack oil filters. These items are made for the main market we cater to; Dealerships, Jobber stores and garages. We also aren't always going to be the best option on low dollar items because our minimum freight cost of $9 added to a $5 part makes it $14 and not such a great deal anymore.

But ...

Many are finding that our prices are very worth the bare bones nature of our auto parts offering. By opening the door on the same inventory, from the same locations, at the same prices, to the general public we are making some of those budget breaking repair jobs actually do-able. Like I have always said; "If saving a few hundred dollars on the parts means the difference between fixing the air conditioning or using the 52 method (driving 50 with 2 windows down), then let's get that car fixed".

I am from Atlanta and can actually remember when the first Home Depot opened. Their idea of selling hardware and supplies from a bare bones warehouse at HUGE savings seems to have worked pretty well. We are just adding one extra cost savings invention (the internet) to do the same thing on a national basis. Hopefully we can help save you some money in the process.

Thanks for your business!! Tell Your Friends!
Brad

Write it down ...

We get tons of calls from happy customers (I LOVE that part of my job), but the e-mails aren't as numerous. I also have seen where people are saying good things about us on several forums (search> rightnowautoparts ). I wanted to share this one on the blog as reinforcement for what I wrote earlier in the entry "Retail customers are a pain". We really love our customers, especially when they take time from their busy day to reinforce what we are doing here at www.rightnowautoparts.com . Thanks Josh!!

Brad,

I just wanted to send a quick thank you along to you and all who were involved in seeing that I was taken care of. In a society where good customer service seems to take a back seat more and more it has been a pleasure doing business with an organization that obviously cares for their customers. Due to your swift action and initiative to resolve my issue, I was able to avoid a great hardship. I hope this letter of gratitude in some way can speak to the excellence in customer service your staff certainly practices.

Thank you highly and with much respect,


Josh

Retail Customers Can be a Pain...

I can't tell you how many times I heard that phrase from outsiders last year when I explained we were going to add a consumer direct auto parts web site... so much so that I was pretty apprehensive about beginning to take calls. For 86 years we had always been a business to business auto parts company. I have been working face to face with “customers” for years, but I was being told that “retail customers” are a different breed. Let me just say this; “They were wrong!” I have been pleasantly surprised by the genuine character of almost everyone I have had the pleasure of dealing with. Even those who had been wronged by some part of our procedure seemed more than patient with me as I did everything I could to make sure they were taken care of. I almost used the word happy there. People are basically understanding of issues that sometimes arise. As long as they feel that their problem is important and a solution is being worked on, I find they are appreciative and thankful amidst the issue. I (we) pledge to continue to repay our faithful customers with a higher level of service than they were expecting. I think that the combination of very low price, unexpected great service and continued wide availability really puts us at a different level than our competitors. That I believe is why we have such great customers!! As long as we continue to partner with their needs when their car breaks down, I think they will continue to be the best!!


P.S. Of course since we sell wholesale we really don't have any retail customers!