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Parts.com phone #

mistermiata

mistermiata

E500E Guru
Member
Well I finally found the source of my squeaky steering wheel. It wasnt actually coming from the steering wheel as I had thought....

My latest attempt at fixing the squeak (removing some material from the back of the steering wheel with a dremel....didnt help), led me to investigate further. I removed the dreaded contact spiral (which promptly unwound), then the column stalks in hopes of finding something that would cause the damn squeak, but no luck! I started to reinstall the column stalks, and one of the screws dropped down into the abyss......very fortouitus! This forced me to remove the lower bolster, which led my eyes to the area where the steering column goes through the firewall.....lightbulbs go off, could this be it????

I squirt some silicone spray, start the car, turn the wheel, and THE SQUEAK IS GONE! Success at last!

I also found out why my horn isnt working....the contact spiral has frayed from the repeated unwounding/winding.

This leads to this threads title.....I ordered a contact spiral from parts.com (on 1/3/12), and clicked the freight option for shipping, and have not heard back from them regarding shipping costs, or when my part will actually ship. They do not list a phone # on their website, and I recall Gerry posting a phone # for them recently. Can you please repost that for me Gerry?
ks!

Andy
Than
 
Andy, check your emails from parts.com, also check your spam folder. And, log into your parts.com account and find the "Messages" section. For the couple orders I placed, they send you the ship quote via their message system, and you respond via the same message system... *not* via email or phone. At least, that's been my experience. GVZ can probably provide more details as he has ordered from them multiple times.


:rugby:
 
If you created an account with parts.com, you should be able to log into their web site to your account and see the status of it. Also, did you check your bank records to see if your account was charged? Generally, you will receive an email from MB of Naperville (often Jerry Mannino) with the FedEx tracking number and estimated date of arrival of the package(s). Parts.com is the money handler, but MB of Naperville actually fulfills the order.

If you have the order number you received via e-mail from parts.com immediately after you entered the order, then you can call either Stacy or Jerry and they ought to be able to tell you the status.

You can also use the parts.com message system as Dave says, and I've used that before with fine success. But why not just go right to the source, directly? Stacy is extremely pleasant to talk to and we've corresponded via e-mail numerous times, as well. Jerry too, though it often takes him a day or two to get back to you after an enquiry. Stacy usually picks up the phone if she's around, and she's always responded to my emails within 24 hours. I have found (very recently) that both of them are customer-oriented and have followed up to ensure I was happy (the parts.com card processing system had a failure, which double-charged my bank account - it wasn't their fault, but rather the card processing company itself). They were very responsive to help get it fixed.

Cheers,
Gerry
 
Thanks for the info guys.....I have ordered several times before from parts.com with no problems, so this is unusual. I have done all the things you both have recommended, my credit card has not been charged, and my order status is "processing".....gonna give Stacy a call.
 
Yeah, sounds like the same issue I had -- credit card processor failure in the middle of the ordering process. Evidently their system was down/wonky for about 3 days, and this affected a lot of parts orders.

Tell Stacy you know Gerry Van Zandt in Houston (she's in Austin, TX ... about 2.5 hours drive away) who she worked with last week on this issue, on an MB parts order. It may be that you have her cancel the whole order and re-submit the whole thing. That's what I ended up doing, after I confirmed that my bank let hold of the funds they'd reserved (duplicated) in my account. Again this wasn't really a parts.com issue or an MB issue, it was a problem with the credit card processing service that parts.com uses.

As you can see I had nice correspondence with both firms.
 

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Gerry,

Did you try to get something for your troubles, say free shipping or 5% off your next order?

BTW, I am familiar with the Houston area, I went to UTMB in Galveston many moons ago.

Thanks!

Andy
 
No, I usually don't (in any life situation) try to seek compensation for those types of things. However in the past I have had shipping upgraded to FedEx overnight, and expedited, and even waived, when things weren't as originally planned. I've probably made 50 orders through parts.com over the past 2.5 years. I have never felt wronged yet. This recent foul-up with the credit-card processing was the first time I've ever had a glitch in the process.

I like Galveston a lot, but it sure became a different place now after Hurricane Ike came in right across downtown Galveston in September, 2008.....
 

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Gerry...I called and emailed Stacy, and lo and behold my contact spiral showed up at my door the next day!

Funny, I never actually spoke to her(just left a message on her machine), and never got a return email. I did mention your name which I'm sure was the decisive factor in getting my part the next day. ;)

On a related note, after I put the interior back together, my left side instrument cluster light bulb is out(I pulled the cluster for an unrelated issue while the wheel was off). I want to buy a new bulb...what bulb do I need and is it available at Autozone or Pep Boys?

Thanks!

Andy
 
I generally call Naperville to correct order/change etc. Also, they can be helpful in finding the correct p/n's. Jeff in parts does all the parts.com orders @MB Naperville.

I dealt with him this past week. I ordered a bunch of little parts for my trans B1 project. Anyway, I talked to Mark Langston the next day(after placing an order) and he told me if you order XXX, you'll get the cover, teflon seal, etc as it's an assy or kit. So, the $92 cover comes with the $60 piston assy? Yep. So a quick call and message to Jeff and we quickly adjusted my order. We were also able to get a claim through Fedex when a headlight assy arrived broken.



Michael
 
I spoke at length with Stacy / Parts.com / Trademotion this morning, and will post the results of my conversation tonight when I have more time to detail it. The bottom line is that there are technical issues with the servers at parts.com. No functionality or pricing or parts availability is going away, and they are working on restoring full functionality and parts search capability by part number.

More soon.

Cheers,
Gerry
 
jeff@parts.com is what I have in my notes.

IF you need help with parts lookup- anyone in their parts department can be very helpful.

I noticed as of this year, their min shipping is now $10.99.
 
I called Stacy last week and she patched me through to Jeff @ MB Naperville. The number she gave me was (800)676-2909. no longer valid. Call Naperville directly now at 630-537-0312.

I placed an order for ~$100 and after the order was verified, shipping came up as $33 for a few small parts. I have never seen shipping go over $15-$20 when using parts.com, even when placing larger ~$1000 orders or when ordering bigger, heavier parts. Jeff was very kind and helpful. "Oh JUSTIN, I know you who are! There's only two of us here filling these orders and your name pops up all the time." There was apparently a mistake made and shipping should have only been $10.99, but it was too late to correct it. He offered to credit me on my next order, and that was plenty good for me. Good to know they care about their online customers as much as (or more than) some of our local dealers. :D
 
Last edited:
That is indeed heartening to hear, and consistent with my past experiences and conversations with the Naperville folks. Thanks for sharing.
 
When your parts supplier recognizes your first name from the previously made orders, you know you're a real Mercedes fanatic :D

I wish we had a parts.com-like-thing here in the Netherlands or the EU ...
 
The good old days of Speed Autoteile in Germany .... until MB cut the aftermarket OE parts dealers off at the knees....
 
Update: Jeff/Steve @ MB of Naperville made good on their promise last week and shipped my order free of charge. Included in the order was a driver-side hella light (and one misc. screw) that are coming from the Motherland. I think I actually got out ahead! Many of you were paying nearly $50 to ship your headlights, yes?
 
proxy.php
 
I ordered my mono valve last Monday. They called on FRIDAY to get the CC information again.. still no part. Maybe it's my fault for not insisting on overnight as it's a stocked part and ...well I NEED it.


Michael
 
J-Sauce said:
Does your name hold any weight @ Naperville? Maybe they would've paid me.
Click to expand...
I ordered two C126/W126 accumulators (nitrogen spheres) for my SEC yesterday via parts.com, at 3:30 PM Central time. Cost was about $105 each for OE ... AutohauZ was selling Febi units (crap) for more than that; OEM Corteco units (which I have installed now, but only lasted 3.5 years / 35K miles) were selling anywhere from $85-120 each on the aftermarket.

The parts.com MB accumulators will be delivered to my house on Thursday of this week, according to FedEx.

Total shipping cost was $12.99, or 6.2% of the order total. The quoted "standard" shipping price on the web site was more than $30.

Cheers,
Gerry
:thought:



proxy.php
 
Only 3.5 years to an accumulator? Man- how long do they last in the 500e?

I think our aftermarket guys are just making too high a percentage on the markup. Back in ... 90's I can tell you looking at wholesale cost- it was very little compared to retail. I remember replacing my W123 hood cable which was $1.72 wholesale(97 or so). Lots of stuff was like that... but not all. With the consolidation has come less competition as you genenerally only deal with the local wholesaler for most stuff as it comes next day to your door.
 
Accumulators arrived today. The boxes had MB Naperville labels on them, so obviously that dealership already had them in stock, and was able to fulfill the order straightaway out of its own inventory.

Accumulators did have the MB star and part number. There is another mark/number that I am investigating; hopefully that will lead to the manufacturer.
 
Re: New & "Improved" Parts.com?

:flush: The recently released "new look" parts.com certainly still needs to flush some of the turds out of its system. Search by part number is a total PITA to use. Performing today like a buggy "beta" version that still needs work.
 
Re: New & "Improved" Parts.com?

You are right. It is terrible. I cannot find any part number search.

Gerry? Where art thou??

:runexe:
 
Re: New & "Improved" Parts.com?

Indeed, it appears that the new parts.com web site is a work in progress.....with many errors and incomplete functions. As an example, while I can pull up my previous orders, I cannot pull up their details of exactly WHAT I ordered in each order.

I will contact them next week and find out what is going on. In an attempt to modernize and upgrade the site, it appears that adequate quality testing and assurance has not been done.

In the meantime, here's how you can do a parts search, by part number. It is not working with many parts at this time, however.

First. go to the main screen. At the top of the screen, enter the part number. Then select "Search Part Number" from the drop-down menu.
Screenshot 2014-05-04 07.36.48.jpg


Screenshot 2014-05-04 07.49.49.jpg


A new screen will pop up with the manufacturer and part number you just entered. Click the "Show Results" button.
Screenshot 2014-05-04 07.50.03.jpg


IF ... and that's currently a big if ... the search is working for that part number that you enter, the results will pop up.
Screenshot 2014-05-04 07.50.13.jpg

The price indicated is 25% off of the part's indicated list price. It appears that parts.com's prices have gone up approximately 10-15% over the past year or two.

As much as I hate to say it, it appears that the days of parts.com as a great source of factory parts is coming to a close. I am going to begin purchasing parts through alternative sources per Clarkz Vader and the MB Classic Center, and seeing how they compare to the service I have received over the past 5+ years through parts.com.

Cheers,
Gerry
 
Re: New & "Improved" Parts.com?

I just placed an order with Lionel from MB Gainesville and it was a great transaction, spoke with him personally(call him on his cell, 205-229-9987) and through email, and he was very responsive, matched parts.com pricing and no shipping charges as per Clarks recommendation, so I highly recommend him as well.

Good timing considering the issues with parts.com.

Thanks again Clark for hooking this up!
 
Re: New & "Improved" Parts.com?

FYI on the "new improved" parts.com... when entering a part number, make sure to remove dashes OR spaces between numbers. The site is too stupid to deal with those. Example: A search for "119-180-00-09" or "119 180 00 09" returns no results, but a search for "1191800009" does work. As previously, the preceding letter must be removed (search for A1191800009 will not work).

Further annoyance: The part number does not remain in the URL, so you cannot copy/paste an URL to a specific part number, for posting in a forum thread.

New direct link - you must choose "Mercedes" every time:
https://www.parts.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=store.PartNumberOEMSearchResults


:thumbsdown:
 
Re: New & "Improved" Parts.com?

I tried to check prices on about 9-10 items today and only 1 came back as available. So much for having a reliable source to at least compare OE MSR prices against.
 
unbelieveable

J-Sauce said:
I tried to check prices on about 9-10 items today and only 1 came back as available. So much for having a reliable source to at least compare OE MSR prices against.
Click to expand...

I tried the same on a few small items today actually ...just for laughs. And laugh I did; at all the business they are surely losing with this suck-ass site. Didn't anyone test it before making it live?

I think Lionel just got a whole lot busier !
 
Re: unbelieveable

Jimbo said:
I tried the same on a few small items today actually ...just for laughs. And laugh I did; at all the business they are surely losing with this suck-ass site. Didn't anyone test it before making it live?
Click to expand...
You are too kind, Jim, it's worse than you say. And nope, I don't think they did ANY testing. I'd love to see the revenue drop numbers before/after the new site launched. Someone hosed up bigtime.


You can use the MB Ft Lauderdale site for pricing, they are a few percent higher priced than parts.com, but their website still WORKS. Oh, and it can deal with dashes and spaces, too:
http://www.trademotion.com/parts/?action=oePartSearch&siteid=214089&make=&model=


:matrix:
 
Re: unbelieveable

I just tried to find M119 oil filters (with the new #119 180 16 10) and it came back with an oil filter housing for over $240. I even omitted the spaces between the numbers. When I used their catalog, the oil filters showed up under 001 184 94 25. The front brake pads, contact cement (000 989 92 71) and some other items were not even found. Did they hire the same company that was responsible for Obamacare's website? Maybe they are intentionally trying to destroy their business. If so, they are doing a great job.
 
Re: unbelieveable

I sent them an email message stating: "new site really, REALLY stinks; hope you get the bugs worked out soon, thx".

That oughta do it........ :o
 
Re: unbelieveable

I put a call into management at Trademotion / Parts.com this afternoon. I hope to hear something back from them soon.
 
Re: unbelieveable

Thanks. That looks like the old parts.com website. The prices are the same as parts.com for the parts that I could actually price from parts.com's new website. I might use these guys from now on. I sent a request to Lionel at Gainseville MB last night for a quote on about $400 worth of parts and I haven't even heard back with an acknowledgment.

What was nice about parts.com is that you didn't have to screw around shooting emails back and forth or making phone calls to get prices and availability. You just ordered and they shipped. It's a shame they are destroying their business with their new website. Maybe they just don't want to be bothered by anyone other than people in the business.
 
Re: unbelieveable

For God's sake, don't reinvent the wheel guys.
Call MB of Naperville and ask for Jeff or Jerry in parts. They have always been accessible to me, sometimes within a few but never more than 24 hours.
Jeff actually enters the orders off the site. They are then delivered from the MB warehouse in Carol Stream or sent from the NJ Warehouse to N'ville for packaging and/or shipping. Some items are drop shipped from the other warehouses to the end user.
Parts.com is a subsidiary of Auto Nation, one of the, if not the largest conglomerates of auto dealers in the country.
Kind Regards,

Ron
 
Re: unbelieveable

Ron500E said:
For God's sake, don't reinvent the wheel guys.
Call MB of Naperville and ask for Jeff or Jerry in parts. They have always been accessible to me, sometimes within a few but never more than 24 hours.
Jeff actually enters the orders off the site. They are then delivered from the MB warehouse in Carol Stream or sent from the NJ Warehouse to N'ville for packaging and/or shipping. Some items are drop shipped from the other warehouses to the end user.
Parts.com is a subsidiary of Auto Nation, one of the, if not the largest conglomerates of auto dealers in the country.
Kind Regards,

Ron
Click to expand...
That is incorrect. Parts.com is a subsidiary of Trademotion, which is an online car parts catalog purveyor / e-commerce engine company. Trademotion owns and operates the online catalogs that parts.com and MBFL and dozens of other online web sites use.

MB Naperville, which is the dealership that FULFILLS the orders taken through the parts.com e-commerce engine, is indeed owned by AutoNation. As are two or three of the Houston area MB dealerships, including MB of Houston North (closest to me) as well as MB Greenway (near downtown Houston).

MB Naperville will not, in my experience, sell parts to the general public at the same price they sell them through the parts.com e-commerce engine. Perhaps if you are local they might, but I have called Naperville direct and they would NOT sell me the parts at the same price that they would sell them to me through parts.com.
 
Re: unbelieveable

emerydc8 said:
What was nice about parts.com is that you didn't have to screw around shooting emails back and forth or making phone calls to get prices and availability.
Click to expand...
Gentle reminder: None, and I repeat NONE, of the online MB dealer part vendors (parts.com, MB Ft. Lauderdale, OEdiscountparts, or any other TradeMotion site) will show availability. They simply show every item that is on their most recent MBNA price sheet. The MBNA price list includes many, MANY parts which are NLA, some of which have been NLA for over a decade!! I can't explain why, but that's the way it is. Just because a price is shown does not mean you can actually obtain the part. The only way to validate availability is to call or email a dealership, where the part counter guy can check stock in both USA warehouses and Germany.

If you place an order online for an item that has been superceded, you will receive the replacement item. Example: Striped vacuum tube 000-158-89-35 has been superceded to plain clear tube 000-158-14-35 which is functionally equivalent. Trademotion shows a price for the striped tube, but does NOT indicate a supercession. If you order 000-158-89-35, you will receive the plain clear item (000-158-14-35) instead. This will never appear on the website. You only find out after you place the order (sometimes, after you RECEIVE the order).

If you place an order online for an item which is NLA and has no supercession, that item will be removed from your order. Example: Engine bracket 119-159-04-40 is NLA with no supercession. Trademotion shows a price and it appears you can order this bracket. The item will be removed from the order, you won't get it, no matter what the website says.


:grouphug:
 
Re: unbelieveable

I left a very strong message with Trademotion that their new web site is not able to pull up many if not MOST MB parts (I don't know about their other parts catalogs) and that they are probably already seeing a drop-off on their Mercedes business as a result. I will not use them going forward and am going to divert all of my business to the MB Classic Center until I confirm that their site is again, functional.

emerydc8 said:
What was nice about parts.com is that you didn't have to screw around shooting emails back and forth or making phone calls to get prices and availability. You just ordered and they shipped. It's a shame they are destroying their business with their new website. Maybe they just don't want to be bothered by anyone other than people in the business.
Click to expand...
I agree 100%. I like to pull up my list of parts I needed (or enter it onto a wish list over the course of a month) via parts.com and then pull the trigger on the order the last day of the month, so I could beat any price increases. Usually I made my online orders very late at night, and the whole fact that I could do it at any time WITHOUT having to interact with anyone, during business hours, was a huge selling point for me. It was the convenience of doing business when I wanted to that I liked.

I knew parts.com would eventually fail and/or raise prices. It looks like that prophecy may be coming true.
 
Re: unbelieveable

Gentle reminder: None, and I repeat NONE, of the online MB dealer part vendors (parts.com, MB Ft. Lauderdale, OEdiscountparts, or any other TradeMotion site) will show availability.
Click to expand...

I guess I should have said that I would at least see an NLA next to the part if it wasn't available. Even with parts that were not in stock, I would get an email the next morning that it was coming from somewhere else and might take longer.

So, is the general consensus to burn the bridge with parts.com at this point?
 
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