Annoyed with Autopia's store

langod · 05-21-08, 06:28

Ok, I have to vent.

I'm annoyed. I just went and spent roughly $100 on Autopia's store for my various detailing products. I had received emails through the winter from David with all sorts of specials. One of which was "free shipping" on orders over $75. When I looked at my shopping cart, it wasn't applying the discount, so I went back to the newsletters I'd gotten, and noticed that mention of the free shipping went away in May. So I assumed I missed out.

Then, after I submitted my order, I noticed that buried in the "Contact Us" page, the free shipping is still valid -- but you have to enter a code. It's certainly not listed on the main page, or as a "hot offer". It only seems to be mentioned on the contact page.

Granted, it's not a lot of money (about $10), but if a company is going to offer free shipping on orders over $75, how difficult would it be to build that into the shopping cart itself? Every other online vendor I've ever bought from applies free shipping (if available) automatically.

Anyway -- Autopia's products are great, and I will continue to buy here. But I just wanted to mention this and encourage Autopia to rethink how they apply shipping discounts.

Mindflux · 05-21-08, 06:44

I'm sure they'll take care of you if you ask nicely. For what it's worth Autogeek doesn't automatically give you free shipping on 75 or more. You have to 'know' the code.

Chris223 · 05-21-08, 06:56

I had a similar problem in December. They sent me my birthday $10 off coupon code, or w/e the discount is, can't remember. Well you have 30 days to use it, I went like 2 weeks after my birthday, I didn't really NEED anything but there are 1 or 2 products I like to use from their store, so I figured with $10 off I'd pick up an extra bottle, and oh hey that's cool, my coupon code in the email sent to me isn't working. I was going to email about it, but just said f it.

Setec Astronomy · 05-21-08, 07:03

It's always nice when web stores automatically apply discounts or special offers, but I think there is something you are overlooking in this case. ACC limits the number of discounts to one per order. In addition to free shipping, there might be specific percentage discounts applied to specific products. Let's say that they are running a 15% Ultima coupon code, that discount might be more than your free shipping, so you would want to use that instead; therefore, the force you to enter a code to tell them which one you want to use.

Yes, you could argue that they could just automatically apply the discount code that would be most beneficial to you, but perhaps that is complicated software-wise, or perhaps they have marketing/business reasons for not doing that (like you'll still be a happy customer since you got to use your discount, even if you don't realize you could have gotten a larger discount by doing it another way).

Banacheq · 05-21-08, 10:13

I'm not that familiar with the Yahoo shopping cart, but it could very well be that it's simply not an option to automatically modify shipping rates based on the order total.

bill57 · 05-22-08, 03:32

It seems I never know the code or where to find it.

Tusin · 05-22-08, 04:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by langod

Ok, I have to vent.

I'm annoyed. I just went and spent roughly $100 on Autopia's store for my various detailing products. I had received emails through the winter from David with all sorts of specials. One of which was "free shipping" on orders over $75. When I looked at my shopping cart, it wasn't applying the discount, so I went back to the newsletters I'd gotten, and noticed that mention of the free shipping went away in May. So I assumed I missed out.

Then, after I submitted my order, I noticed that buried in the "Contact Us" page, the free shipping is still valid -- but you have to enter a code. It's certainly not listed on the main page, or as a "hot offer". It only seems to be mentioned on the contact page.

Granted, it's not a lot of money (about $10), but if a company is going to offer free shipping on orders over $75, how difficult would it be to build that into the shopping cart itself? Every other online vendor I've ever bought from applies free shipping (if available) automatically.

Anyway -- Autopia's products are great, and I will continue to buy here. But I just wanted to mention this and encourage Autopia to rethink how they apply shipping discounts.

Instead of posting a rant, did you think about calling them first and seeing if they'll take care of you?

mini viper · 05-22-08, 05:45

At least you alerted others to the discount code available for Autopia. I might have missed the coupon code if I hadn't seen this thread. Much appreciated

.

BlackElantraGT · 05-22-08, 07:20

I can understand why you're frustrated, but the way they do business isn't any different than any other retailer. Sometimes you just have to do a little more research if you want to save a few bucks.

Think of it this way: When you placed your order you did it under the presumption that free shipping was over. If you had a problem with shipping being too expensive or the products being too expensive, you wouldn't have went through with your order. So had you not found out about free shipping still being available and you received your items in a timely manner, you probably would have been happy with your order, right?

In any case, Autopia-carcare's customer service is pretty good. I wouldn't be surprised if they are reading this and do what it takes to please their customer.