GetBMWParts.com----Kinda annoyed

[Nighthawk399]

I ordered a shipment of nuts and bolts literally....find out that they are ordering stuff and wont ship until its all together!

If i had known they would sell something that wasn't in stock and also not tell me it was being ordered, I would have gone to some place else; The 6 dollars saved on a 300$ order was not worth it.

I had a time slot reserved with a mechanic on Saturday so I ordered 8 days before...... At this rate, Im going to have to miss this appointment and wait another week aswell as request time off......

Just had to vent.....

[Yellow14150]

Yeah they are weird. They have good prices, but no free shipping. I remember mine took a long time to get the CA too...

[skipv]

Same issue. Started sending emails stating if order not complete at time of purchsse then kindly cancel. Don't like misleading info.

[rf900rkw]

Welcome to TradeMotion. Most of the dealers with an online presence are using it. There is no inventory check until after the order is placed, meaning you never know if you will get the order in three days, three months, or have part of it cancelled. I no longer deal with TradeMotion hosted dealers.

[robb1887]

... man it must suck when you're expecting parts to arrive in a few days and they don't show up for over a month...

[spidertri]

Unless it is one of those parts that commonly breaks, I assume whatever I'm ordering will not be in stock. GetBMWParts is Tischer BMW in Silver Spring, MD. It seems a little unrealistic to expect them to have every nut and bolt for every BMW made in the last 25 years. Even going in person to a dealer it takes them a few days to get most parts from their warehouse.

The trademotion system isn't great but there is usually a pretty decent savings on genuine bmw parts.

[rf900rkw]

... man it must suck when you're expecting parts to arrive in a few days and they don't show up for over a month...

The final straw for me, Tischer, and TradeMotion was when I was due to replace the windshield on the coupe. I wanted to replace the front dash cover while the glass was out, so I ordered it from Tischer. A week later I get an email saying the part had to come from Germany and would be three months. I couldn't wait three months on the windshield, so I scheduled it in and had it replaced the next week. Guess what showed up on my doorstep unannounced a few days after having the glass done.

Pissed doesn't come close to it.

I now get most all of my BMW dealer specific parts from Bimerzone. Comparable prices, and a real human.

[MarcMacZ3]

I too have had annoyances with their shipping and times in general.

Last thing I purchased was the 3rd brake light lens and gasket. Well the lens was in stock and it took another 2 weeks for the gasket to make it to them from Germany and 3 weeks total for my order to be shipped.

I thought I would give them the shot after using ECS for most of my purchases but it looks like I will stick to ECS for now on.

[Scarceas]

Bimmerzone and Pelican have been good to me.

[Kenn]

I don't think one dealer can get BMW parts out of Germany faster than another dealer. I've read in several places that a few months ago BMW changed their system for getting parts out of Germany, and the changes greatly lengthened times for getting parts. A month or two is no longer unusual. Of course, this is terrible for customers, and I don't have any insight on why BMW would do this or not rectify it quickly.

Also, what BMW dealer or parts supplier can afford to warehouse every single part for every BMW made? They try to keep the fast moving stuff in stock. I would assume that places like Tischer with big parts departments due to internet business would have larger inventories than average. The parts they don't stock have to be ordered from BMW, and with luck that means it's in a BMW warehouse in the U.S. and will take only a few days to get to the dealer. Otherwise it's a long wait, and it doesn't much matter where you order from. As the Z3 cars get older, it will probably only get worse, with more and more parts not even being available.

[rf900rkw]

You are missing the point. Whether the part has to come from Germany or New Jersey, tell me UP FRONT. I need to make decisions and plans. Don't just tell me it's available, take my money, and then tell me a week later it will be three months. That is the big problem with TradeMotion.

[Kenn]

Don't just tell me it's available, take my money, and then tell me a week later it will be three months. That is the big problem with TradeMotion.

Unfortunately, the mail order places don't/can't even do that successfully, as they'll let you order parts that have been "NLA" for years, and then you'll get an email a week or two later saying it's no longer available. The parts databases seem to show every part and accessory ever made as available, forever. It seems like that would be very annoying to the dealers as well as customers, and they'd want it fixed. The databases do seem to generally do OK with superseded part numbers, leading to the correct part.

I do agree, of course, that it would be much better if they'd show where a part is in stock (dealer, USA warehouse, or Germany), so delivery time could be estimated.

[robb1887]

You are missing the point. Whether the part has to come from Germany or New Jersey, tell me UP FRONT. I need to make decisions and plans. Don't just tell me it's available, take my money, and then tell me a week later it will be three months. That is the big problem with TradeMotion.

I dont know about all TradeMotion sites, but with Tischer they dont charge you till everything is in stock and shipping once they find out that something is coming from Germany. So when you aren't expecting a big order 3weeks later it just shows up on your creditcard. It's a double edge sword.

[rf900rkw]

One of the more fun things of my job is I get to shop for autoparts online with the company cards, several thousand dollars worth a week. Whether it's the local jobber like Advance up the street, the national distributors, or even the occasional manufacture direct, I know how many of a given item are in stock, at what location, how much they will be, how much for shipping, and a reasonable expected transport time,before I click the buy button. It's not that hard to do... unless you have subletted your entire online presence to some disconnected third party such as TradeMotion.

[Kyle Anderson]

I gave up on Tischer after a few orders as well. Their shipping prices are insane, and the service is spotty.

thebmwpartstore.com (Cincinnati BMW) has since earned my repeated business, even ahead of Bimmerzone. Cheaper prices, actual shipping cost (you're not charged until they ship), and very personal customer service. Like all parts sites, they'll allow you to order any part, but they very quickly let you know if something is going to cause a delay. My experience has been that they have an incredible number of parts in stock, most ordered parts come next day, and the one time I ordered a Euro-only part (which they notified would be delayed), my order still arrived in under a week... I was blown away. I have nothing but great things to say about that place.

And Nighthawk, being in IL, they would probably also save you a day in shipping time over Tischer. I'm near Detroit, and my orders usually come next day after they ship.

[KeysCoupe]

I am also frustrated with thebmwpartstore (Cincinnati) at least compared to the way they used to be. You used to call Mike on the phone with your part numbers, he would give the status of each part as you read it off to him as in stock or how long to expect, total your order, bill to your card, and finished, usually under 90 seconds total. Adam took over and was nearly as efficient, then when they stopped taking phone orders, everything went south.
My last order a couple weeks back was for a mix of BMW and Mini parts. The page where you put part numbers "in your basket" changes the OEM part numbers to some other stock number, which in my case, was 3 different items with the exact same number. I had to use the price of each part to sort out which was which. I got everything I ordered in a few days, but I spent nearly an hour on-line trying to make sense of what I was trying to get.
I also am on GetBMWParts (Tischer) mailing list where they email their "specials" to me. Twice, they have had floor mat specials for the Z3, including specifically listed Moss Green speckled mats. I ordered the first time and waited for my mats to show up, only a month later, getting a notification they are out of stock. The second time, they specifically featured the same Moss Green mats in their email special so I ordered again. A few days later, I get an email NLA. Why do they keep sending a "special offer" that doesn't exist?
Both of these parts houses have genuine BMW parts at good prices, but immediate feedback as to whats available, and when, would make a huge difference. I wish the Cincinnati store would go back to a phone order system. I sure do miss Mike and Adam. They went above and beyond, calling you back if you left a message. Mike found parts for me that were not otherwise available, and even got me a replacement VIN sticker for my color change repaint of my Coupe-no easy feat!
-Donny

[Nighthawk399]

The worst part is they have no phone number to call and you can leave an email and no one will read it!