This is true. The automation systems especially then they are at capacity are pretty good at demolishing packages. The boxes we use are pretty sturdy but if there isn't enough packing material inside the package to fill the void the void is the first thing that makes the package fall apart. It's all downhill from there unfortunately.
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I don't buy it. In fact I suspect the loaders are the big problem -- they're less experienced than the drivers and they're under pressure to do things quickly. Given how slow UPS ground service is compared to DHL and USPS I'd bet they apply more pressure on their employees than other carriers. Up until earlier this year I hadn't had much in the way of problems with United Package Smashers. The past few months have been nothing but problems with United Package Smashers. Every package (FCP or otherwise) has been damaged and then misrouted or misdelivered. Judging by the human interaction I've had with them recently they may as well have hired a whole family of glue sniffing narcoleptics.
My latest order from FCP arrived today via USPS (wish you guys would discount that!) without even a scratch on it. And, yes, there was more fill* and nothing appeared damaged inside -- although ideally the wheel center cap would've been bubble wrapped a little bit or something.
* Although, let's face it, not a ton of fill and paper isn't a great packing material in the first place. The boxes inside had nothing so you could hear the tensioner bits (lousy packaging from INA) rattling around inside. Not really a problem though unless you beat the hell out of the packages like United Package Smashers does.
Last edited by blarf; 09-19-2018 at 06:50 PM.
I dunno, I think the kraft paper is much better than those little plastic air bags. Ship something even somewhat heavy with them and you're not going to have to slice them before throwing them in the trash, they'll all be flat anyway. Plus I often reuse the paper for masking paper.
98 328is
02 525ita
80 528i
81 528ia
and decades of owning and driving BMWs
I miss the styrofoam peanuts. Yeah they're awful for the environment... but they work. I don't really care one way or another as long as there's enough material. INA though... wtf. They include a cotter pin presumably to keep the one pulley attached to the assembly, of course it never stays attached.
Three more things while I'm nitpicking about FCP: I'm getting shipping notifications with order numbers that don't match up with anything (nnnnnnn vs Rnnnnnnnnn), the order date doesn't show up on the invoice detail page on your site, and the emailed invoices don't list the shipping cost. Major issues, I'm sure.
Oh people throw stuff for sure but the conveyer systems are insane. Some systems run at 60 feet per second and your 5 lb. package is in with a couple thousand
50 to 70 lb. packages. Unless someone is hurt the conveyer belt won't be turned off for any reason. Fedex can sort over 2 million pkg's in 90 minutes at their Memphis hub nightly. Your little package gets stuffed in five to ten different trucks with several thousand other package's before you find it on your porch.
I noticed that too. I guess I just assumed that with the date selection of delivery the actual method might be shifted...
Personally I love the html receipt for the order showing parts and images followed by the html notification of shipment containing ascii text...
I miss the VIP program. I still wear the shirt but the various other benefits were even better: shipping, discount, priority, and that stamp. Never really understood why that program stopped. Of course all of us were probably VIP members...
2001 750iL DD74441
Stock
RIP: 2003 540iA Sport GS56111
H&R front springs, Ultimate Cup Holder, Euro Dash & Armrest, Grom, BavSound Stage1
Sure. And the USPS has pioneered a ton of automation, but they still manage to, you know, not beat the ever living snot out of every package headed my way. All of the package carriers need to move fast, but even when I ship to a different city to ensure things get routed through a different distribution center... UPS finds a way.
Meanwhile here's what the tensioner from FCP looked like when I pulled it out of the box.
IMG_8672.jpg
The starch peanuts seem pretty awesome. 98% as good as the styrene ones but you can melt 'em in the bathtub with some hot water. Of course dumping all that sugar/starch down the drain probably is terrible for the septic processing plant so if its not one thing its another... But I do like it when I get those...
Grrrrrrrrr. HATE the stupid airbags and all the time it takes to stab / slice holes in them so they don't take up a whole trashbag. We are "PAYT" with pay-bags you have to buy so volume is everything, if I don't do that it'll cost me a few bucks to throw away empty air that Amazon sent me.
Yeah I forgot about VIP! Seems like basically FCP said 'instead of having a loyalty program for our big customers lets just give everybody a killer warranty so even if they only buy occasionally they'll always want to use us...'
2003 M3CicM6 TiAg
2002 540iT Sport Vortech S/C 6MT LSD TiAg
2008 Audi A3 2.0T DSG (the daily beater)
2014 BMW X1 xDrive28i (wifemobile)
Former:
1985 MB Euro graymarket 300SL
1995.5 Audi S6 Avant (utility/winter billetturbobattlewagen)
Little from column A, little from column B. But Gareth already covered that.
Eh you can melt the plastic ones too with a little heat and petroleum... although in all fairness I like waiting until late night to deal with the air bags. Then it's just like supersized bubble wrap fun. Normal bubble wrap isn't loud enough to compete with my roommate's snoring.
I rather like making the benefits available to casual customers. It will, however, be interesting to see how the more "abusive" behavior like warrantying consumables will affect the price / inventory.
Somewhat related but probably more funny than anything...happened to catch the FedEx guy yesterday (my office is at my house) while he was dropping off FCP Euro boxes for my 530. He had already put them next to the garage, and I could hear him messing around in the back of the truck. I also noticed there was another package behind the truck. I wasn't sure if it was mine or not, as I didn't know how many boxes my shipment was. He came out, we chatted for a quick second, I stuck my head into the back of my 530 and I heard a loud crash. I thought he had hit another car in the driveway when he was backing up. Turns out he had just driven over the box that was behind the truck that I had seen. He got out, said "oh lawd, I done ran over one of my damn boxes", threw it in the back and headed on. The takeaway is this is why you get boxes all the time that look like they have been carried into battle by William Wallace.
Not sure of your method, but what I've wound up doing is rolling the long line of airbags into a roll then taking a sharp knife and plunging. I can usually kill all of the bags in about 5 sec or less. Of course, then there's the time to roll it up.....
Eventually I'll slice my hand....
Don't quote me, but I remember this being a discussion not too long ago in regards to bringing it back in some shape or form.
Eww, doesn't look pretty. I was out of the office in the afternoon. Will take a look and track down the email.
Update:
We're shipping out another tensioner assembly today. I spoke with a rep from Schaeffler and it turns out that the grease on the outside of the bearing is to protect the seal against the backing of the tensioner assembly. However, the other damage to the pulley such as the pitting seen is preventable from adding fill to the INA box. I made sure that void fill was added inside the box as well as the package itself. This one should show up nicely for you (pending no one runs it over with a truck).
Last edited by FCPEuro; 09-21-2018 at 10:07 AM.
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LOL. "Best use of an animated emojii award for September 21 2018".
I use a nice sharp pick tool out of my tool chest. Similarly I wad them up, then stab stab stab stab... goes pretty quick and I also tend to get multiple bags per stab. I used to use knives but, aside from the fear of ending up in a Jerry Garcia situation, I just found the pick pierced easier, while even sharp box knives preferred to be sliced, which was a little more time consuming and dangerous.
Ooops, I quoted you.
2003 M3CicM6 TiAg
2002 540iT Sport Vortech S/C 6MT LSD TiAg
2008 Audi A3 2.0T DSG (the daily beater)
2014 BMW X1 xDrive28i (wifemobile)
Former:
1985 MB Euro graymarket 300SL
1995.5 Audi S6 Avant (utility/winter billetturbobattlewagen)
Lifetime Replacement Guarantee, Free Shipping on $49+, and Hassle-Free Returns.
FCP Euro - OEM & Genuine European Auto Parts Online
Lifetime Replacement Guarantee, Free Shipping on $49+, and Hassle-Free Returns.
FCP Euro - OEM & Genuine European Auto Parts Online
Stay away from the heroin and my friend's morbidly obese mom and you stand a good chance of not ending up like Jerry Garcia. Also, seriously, get a few pair of reusable cut/abrasion resistant gloves. I get a pair of HyFlex ones every time Zoro sends out a coupon after stabbing myself a few times with picks and whatnot. Plus they make interior work a lot less bloody.
Oh god don't encourage them.
The grease thing is interesting as the very similar Continental branded unit was shipped dry. Obviously it's just a rebadged INA part... and it was the wrong damn part. But still.
Just throwing this out there...you guys have shipped heavy metal water pumps to me on top of the gaskets in the same box, as well as trans filters and gasket kits with stuff on top, resulting in damaged WP and trans pan gaskets and you guys ended up having to send me replacement gaskets 3x now.
Love fcp tho, wasnt a big deal any of the times.
Id love the VIP program to come back. I mean I buy from FCP anyways. But Danny has a cool FCP Euro shirt and I want a cool FCP Euro shirt
...got any old shirts laying around?
Going into my TENTH YEAR of providing high quality reproduction BMW fabrics!
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How DID you get a VIP shirt BITD? Was it like you bought at least $5k in parts in 45days or something? I was a VIP but never got nuttin like that.
2003 M3CicM6 TiAg
2002 540iT Sport Vortech S/C 6MT LSD TiAg
2008 Audi A3 2.0T DSG (the daily beater)
2014 BMW X1 xDrive28i (wifemobile)
Former:
1985 MB Euro graymarket 300SL
1995.5 Audi S6 Avant (utility/winter billetturbobattlewagen)
Back when I was invited to be the in the program it was just part of it. Iirc it took a long time... this was before they had their shirt design... and there were like 4 emails gathering various data points. It seemed complicated at the time...
As for the thresholds: they started the program and I qualified after the TCG on the 540. So probably less than $5k but then again with all the WYAT add ons ... Then, like a corner dealer they hooked me with shipping and the discount through VIP.
2001 750iL DD74441
Stock
RIP: 2003 540iA Sport GS56111
H&R front springs, Ultimate Cup Holder, Euro Dash & Armrest, Grom, BavSound Stage1
FWIW, I've never had a problem with a single box of parts from FCP, and I've ordered a lot. I also have used several different shipping options, so obviously, your mileage may vary.
Nate J.
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RIP, Seabiscuit. Black Sapphire/Schwarz 03-11-2003 530iA Sport (CK39185). T-boned 03-01-2017 at 155,861mi.
Take 2 "Otto" - Toledo Blue/Sandbeige 04-25-2002 530iA Sport (CH98032). Sold 11-10-2017 at 147,743mi.
Take 3 "Manuel" - Toledo Blue/Grau 10-29-2001 530i5 Sport (CE92358). Sold 02-01-2019 at 217,600mi. I regret that. Build Log
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I’ve never had any problems.... No, I did, Was a stupid mistake on my part, I sent them an email, they overnighted me the right part, before the weekend. Awesome service!!!
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