I did not strip the shaft genius.

 

I feel sorry for you guys because it will inevitably happen to you then you will be crying. This is not the first time I have installed a steering gear or pitman arm. I have also spent THOUSANDS of dollars with Rock Auto, if they once gave me the benefit of the doubt for a 175 dollar part and expedite the shipping to get my truck back on the road instead of waiting for a warranty claim I am sure it would not hurt them.

 

Another hater.....so if I have a bad experience should I not voice my opinion and let people know so they should be educated? And you know what, maybe you shouldn't shop at autozone, this is the beauty of living in the USA, the ability to make choice and express your opinion just like I am doing in this post here..

 

It was AC-Delco Professional, remaned stock unit as far as I can tell, it definitely was not new.

Exactly I took a chance and I can live with that, you are 150% right

I want to try to get them to adhere to a higher standard especially in the age of amazon

 

I knew this thread was going to be abrasive and hey, that's what forums are all about. I just wanted to educated people to think twice before ordering something from rock auto. If it is critical and they don't want to have to wait for a warranty claim to come through if the part fails, especially when the part is NEW, then get it from Amazon or local store, even if it's a few bucks more

Oh and also to the people blaming me for stripping it out, if I stripped it out then why are they offering to warranty it out? I never heard of a negligent install situation such as stripping out something falling under warranty. I had to send pictures and show them what happened before they agreed to even warranty it. So, yep, there you go! The issue really is why does my truck have to sit on jack stands for who knows how long before they get the part, evaluate it and then send me a new one. Not to mention they are making me pay return shipping which is absurd!!!! I don't think it is too much to ask for them to send me a new one asap and then they can wait for the whole warranty process, not me.

 

So you've spent thousands of dollars there in the past/over the years.This means likely,many,many different orders.Now due to one bad experience with one part out of several,all the sudden your now declaring that one should never shop there? That one bad part out of many,with all those great experiences are all now null and void because they will honor their warranty,it's just you don't want to wait?
Interesting thread but you'll likely not get any followers.Rock Auto is a great online source for auto parts and the masses here and according to you,including yourself have had many great experiences and will continue to do so.

I've personally never shopped anywhere,either in person or online where I've spent thousands and never received a bad part.If anything I find this most impressive and thank you for sharing your great success story that it took spending thousands before find a dud part,then when you finally did,they will honor a return.
It's hard to believe that there's a place that sells parts with such a low failure rate but I'll take your word for it!Awesome!

 

I am definitely not here for followers, could care less to be honest. Like I said I just wanted to educated people so they know. And yes, I feel that in this day and age it is not much to ask that a company send me a new one so I can get my truck up and running and not make me wait to ship it back, wait and then wait to get the new one. All of this like I said on top of them forcing me to pay return shipping.

Also, why don't you take my word on this, don't assume that spending thousands means that I spent 10 dollars each part and that means I have purchased a huge amount of parts and now one failed. Did you ever think that thousands of dollars could be 5 parts, 10 parts or even 20 parts? So, yes, 1 of 5 or 1 of 20 is bad.

I appreciate your response and welcome others as well! I know I am being a little defensive but like I said, you won't understand until you are in my shoes. The weather is nice, you need your truck to make money or just enjoy it and the damn thing is stuck on jack stands because the place you bought your part from wants you to wait to have a warranty claim executed.

 

Huh? Sounds to me like you stripped the shaft.

So, we can expect it was previously in service without any manufacturing faults. What happened can be defined as installation issues.

They do seem to be warrantying their part. What standard are you trying to apply?

I believe Rock Auto is a site sponser here. They do sell new parts as well as remans. Like most educated people, I check prices before I order and I find no fault with Rock Auto pricing. Same for returns

Perhaps I'm just in a bad mood here, but it is your entitled attitude that is the problem. Rock Auto is being quite generous to you in replacing a part that you clearly damaged through negligence, yet you complain?

You have been inconvenienced by your own actions. Take a little responsibility here. If you need that part ASAP, order another one and sort out the warranty later. Too many local stores are out of business because of the losses incurred trying to satisfy customers like you.

Sorry to be harsh, but I too feel a responsibility to educate.

I'm done.

 

Oh I understand fully.It's a juggle between online shopping to save a buck and between shopping locally for ease of replacements and returns.I run two classic '93 Ford trucks now for commercial use.I have to be very careful with timing and such parts and plan accordingly.I've dealt with Rock Auto myself a few times and all great experiences.I'm nowhere to the level of shopper there that you've been.That's pretty cool you've trusted them for major purchases then, with spending thousands just on a few parts.Good to know those went well for you and you've had fantastic experiences with buying such high end parts there too.I'll keep this in mind.Thanks for sharing your success with them.

 

Sometimes it just takes one straw to break the camel's back.

 

I hope this post helped anyone that viewed it, whether they agree with me or not, that's all I was going for here

 

Well, I'm new here, just in recent days.
Ray did a great post from what I read. But you, calling him dumb, thats a no-no in my book.
I'm on many forum, mainly woodworking. Calling someone dumb will get you banned on those forums.


Now, the way I see it, stripping a (3/4??) shaft just putting a pitman arm on, something is wrong. That pitman arm should just fall on for the most part, since it it a splined tapered shaft. And in the splines, there is one *special* spline, indicating the position that the arm goes on.

Is it possible that the splines *were not* aligned properly, so you beat the arm on, then used an air impact (or Battery) and proceeded to tighten it up and stripped the whole shazam????
I'm not accusing, I'm asking.
I worked on semi trucks for 25 years, so I kinda know about a lot of these oopsie's that the new guys pulled, including me.

Steve

 

Guess someone should have asked or READ the warranty process before purchasing especially if the truck needs to be on the road "right now"

also what did you toque the nut to and did it feel weird towards the end when the torque wrench clicked? I've had tapered shafts do weird things

 

[Any possibilities of incorrect install aside] For a warranty claim, I've been treated both the way Rock Auto is handling this and the way the OP would like to see it handled. The first never feels too good; "the defective part you sold me has to be shipped back on my dime??" is a low blow in my opinion. Yes, they are replacing the item, but not in a painless manner. It isn't "wrong" but it's not going to get you word of mouth recommendations, ever. The second, where they send you a shipping label, overnight or two day ship the replacement immediately, and let you send the defective item back when convenient, is excellent customer service, and doesn't go unnoticed. I go out of my way to recommend companies that have treated me this way. Discount outfits rarely have the margin for that kind of service though. I'm sure there's whole classes in business school on this stuff; sure seems like fundamentally different approaches.

I just had a small vacuum pump (likely a ~$4000 component) fail this morning on a 4 month old system (under warranty), bringing an $800k system to it's knees. These pumps should last several years of 24/7 365 use, with biannual oil changes only. This pump's electric motor locked up; overheated for one reason or another and cooked itself. 45 second call to the service engineer explaining the failure, and he had the replacement pump ordered to be here early next week. We will not be paying for anything except my time to install the replacement. The system was not a discount purchase by any means (best in the business, and they know it), so the margin is there to make sure the customers have utmost confidence in the support (helps future sales). In some situations (e.g., business) that confidence in support is worth a lot of money, especially if you have the operating margin to opt for premium suppliers: they exist for a reason.

The saying, "you get what you pay for" comes to mind.