Just to confirm had my 2nd AUTODOC delivery arrive today. 9 days after ordering. No issues with customs and no additional charges added.
Tracking only goes as far as leaving Europe, but Once the shipment arrives in uk the final delivery is taken on by parcel force 48 and an email gives you further tracking info and a hour delivery slot.
Last time was the majority of a full service coming it at £93 saving a good £60+ Over ECP.
This time just a single item, a brake bias valve at £35 delivered... compared with £50 being the best price I could find elsewhere.
So pretty positive feedback so far. If you’re not in a rush for parts I’d say it’s worth a shot. But take some time researching part numbers for correct fit. I gather returns are a costly PITA if you get it wrong.
Glad you said that, I've just ordered Paulinas Z4 service kit from them.
I can't believe a 2.5l engine take 6.5l of oil!!!
its a bit hit and miss with customs charges, ive been building hose kits and the like with autodoc, but until items arrive i cannot put price on anything... as its still unknown. Had things from latvia come import charge free. then stuff germany import charges on them.
best bet is to add 20% to purchase price as emergency cash to release from postal/customs,use if you need it.
As long as the saving is more than 20% over what you can get more locally it's worth a punt.
I've probably misunderstood and am over simplifying things too but I got the impression if the final value of something being brought into the UK from the EU was £135.00 or less (and I believe that includes the total cost inc. postage etc.) the current 20% UK VAT rate was applied at source by the seller who in turn had to pay it to the UK Govt. on your behalf... that's why the likes of eBay are adding it to the final value if you bid on a non-UK based small purchase, means it's definitely collected and doesn't risk dodgy sellers trying to work around it.
If the final total value exceeds £135 then the UK VAT is not included in the purchase price and must be paid to HM Customs by the recipient when it enters the UK. If you're exceeding £135 you'll have to factor 20% VAT on top of the price you pay the seller.
You're also relying on the seller doing the paperwork correctly, but that's another story.
That just takes care of the VAT, there's the import tariffs on top of that which is where it gets even more cloudy for me.
I think as far as car part tariffs go, at the moment we're still in a grace period to the end of 2021, otherwise that too will be collected at the point of entering the UK.
Tarffs seem to vary widely, some car parts are as low as 2% and others have 22% added.
Another cost is when whomever delivers your package has to process the import for you - they will charge for their time and rates vary company by company. An example is RM who charge an additional £8.00 fee on top of whatever they deem your tariff cost will be (they pay that tariff to HM on your behalf).
My daughter is into Kpop and it's virtually unobtainable in the UK so for years she's been getting it at source, importing it from Korea.
Buying from an EU source will now be little different than what she was doing, may even be more expensive if Korean import tariffs turn out to be less than EU ones!
Occasionally a package will slip through with no VAT or duty to be paid but that's probably down to them not being able to check every single item. Generally it's taken and can double the cost of the package once DHL or UPS add VAT, customs tariffs and their own admin. fee - Their fees can be 4 or 5 times what RM would charge, they seem to be able to ask what they want.
Look at the Govt. sites... it's Greek to me, I can see why importers / exporters are so frustrated.
Well if anyone wants to give it a go, this should get you £5 off if you use the phone app.
AC11779033
Z4 Stuff turned up on Monday, so not too bad a turnaround.
Now I just need to get the mk2 out the workshop to service it!
Autodoc have regularly either had what I'm after when others didn't, plus with a few exceptions have also been considerably cheaper too, even when you factor in postage.
Made my first order over 2 x weeks ago, then a second a day or so afterwards.
The second arrived yesterday (14 days) but the first has gone AWOL - according to the tracking it was picked up by the courier then seems to have evaporated.
I've since read there's no tariffs on the importing of car parts from (but must also be made in) an EU state which would explain the apparent lack of customs charges.
If your parts originated outside the EU, even they're sold from with, there's a 4.5% tariff added... worth checking before you buy.
I noticed on my package there was a 'customs declaration', similar to the invoice inside, sealed to the outside which should do away with any doubt that you've already paid the VAT if someones checking.
Autodoc also seem to be taking the 20% UK VAT even an order is over the £135 threshold, so again making life easier.
Got to say I find their site and app. very user friendly. When I was after 205 parts last year you could never trust any of the other main sites to supply the correct info. on what was for my particular model. No issue on that score so far with Autodoc, everything has corresponded with my own checks.
I've the luxury of time though would still prefer not to wait several weeks for something, but apart from that a good experience todate.
Hmmm... going to add a caveat to the above in light of what's happened with the first order.
At 17 days from the date of ordering I queried why the tracking had gone unchanged from supposedly being picked up by the courier (recorded as two days after the order was made).
Miraculously, that night it changed to having arrived at the couriers German depot.
That was two days ago, and it's still showing as being there.
Assuming it'll now take what appears to be their standard two weeks delivery time that'll bring this order up to over a full calendar month to arrive.
If what you're after is time dependant, it should be something to consider... quite a few other on-line reviews seem to suggest this is unfortunately not an uncommon problem.
Yes I’ve seen a few comments about length of time on social media... so I certainly wouldn’t order anything with a time dependency I.e. required parts for an MOT retest. I’d say I’ve been lucky with my 2 orders so far.
Unfortunately I can't update you with anything good.
Probably foolishly last month I made 5 x different orders over a two week period.
In retrospect it would have been wiser to have made just the one and seen how things progressed before commiting further.
Of those 5 orders only the second, as reported above has arrived and after 14 days.
The first order (now 23 days at time of writing) was only dispatched after 2 weeks and my getting in touch with them. It then sat at the couriers depot for a further week to two days ago and it's current whereabouts are unknown other than to say it's yet to enter the UK.
Of the remaining three orders one has been split into two separate packages... all four are shown as being static in various EU courier depots. One in particular hasn't moved for 8 x days.
Make your own minds up... read the trustpilot reviews, they seem to be exclusively bad this last while.
I usually take things like that with a pince of salt, but in this case they unfortunately mirror all my own experiences - just hoping I don't end up shafted like some claim and have to wait months for either the items or a refund!
That's a bummer. I'll think twice before ordering again. I think it'll either have to be seriously cheap or not available from anywhere else to make it worth taking the gamble.
Am I right in thinking you're in Northern Ireland? I wonder if it comes into the South and has to travel up or into England and across and how much difference that might mean to shipping. I gather you get a rough deal generally with Royal Mail, and the like. My 2 orders were both taken on by Royal Mail once they'd left the German courier.
Autodoc seem to exclusively use GLS when shipping to the UK and I believe they're a wholly owned subsidiary of Parcelforce... check out GLS on Trustpilot if you really want to see bad reviews!
Some of the tracking does suggest it's coming in via the Republic of Ireland, but I would've thought that'd be a bonus... in theory no GB hold ups because of Brexit.
They are without doubt generally the cheapest and also by some margin on alot of things, just a shame it's such a lottery when it comes to getting it and when.
I've got into the habit of always checking Amazon now, before finally clicking elsewhere.
They often have just one or two of something, presumably the end of stock and marked way down to get rid of it... got an oil cooler and a Hella / Mahle water pump (bought two they were so cheap - one for the MK1 when the time comes) for small money, worth trying.
Autodoc seem to exclusively use GLS when shipping to the UK and I believe they're a wholly owned subsidiary of Parcelforce... check out GLS on Trustpilot if you really want to see bad reviews!
Some of the tracking does suggest it's coming in via the Republic of Ireland, but I would've thought that'd be a bonus... in theory no GB hold ups because of Brexit.
They are without doubt generally the cheapest and also by some margin on alot of things, just a shame it's such a lottery when it comes to getting it and when.
I've got into the habit of always checking Amazon now, before finally clicking elsewhere.
They often have just one or two of something, presumably the end of stock and marked way down to get rid of it... got an oil cooler and a Hella / Mahle water pump (bought two they were so cheap - one for the MK1 when the time comes) for small money, worth trying.
if coming in via republic of Ireland then yes its subject to Eurozone rules... As only Northern Ireland is Uk...
As for hold ups and delivery it depends on how much you're ordering and how many deliveries you're expecting. 1 in 3 of my deliveries have taken 3 weeks or more, so unless youre planning to do a job in say MAY then still better at autofactors locally.
Plus dont forget prices dont inc shipping, until check out. was getting cheapo alternator that came with VAT invoice that made it 5£ dearer than same unit at Alliance motor parts, and took 2 weeks rather than 3 hrs
To save you reading through all the above -
Take it as a given your order will at the very minium a 2 x week wait and factor in that it may often be much longer.
(The longest I've waited was 6 x weeks.)
Apart from the first few orders, all the remainder were made with that taken into account so I'm not complaining.
I've also received everything exactly as ordered.
Some of the boxes must've been over 30Kg and despite that if you spend over £140 the postage is free - must cost them a fortune and might explain the slow delivery if they're using the cheapest option to cut costs.
A few pointers if you are considering using them -
You can use both their website and the app to purchase. They're linked so if you 'save' an item for later on one it'll show on the other.
Only buy by using the app... any discount shown on the website is always greater on the app... don't know why, but it always is.
The discounts seem to be on the whole genuine, not marked up a week before just to make any deduction seem greater... obviously still shop around - it's usually true, but not a given they'll be the cheapest.
Discounts seem to peak at 40%, if you see that one it's unlikely a better offer'll come along by waiting.
The largest discounts are around the beginning of the week and slowly reduce as the days roll by. Offers seem to last 24 hours (there's a coundown timer) but can be lesser periods.
Put everything you're interested in, into your 'wish list' at your leisure - you can move them across to the 'basket' en masse (or singularly) from there when the time comes.
If you do commit to buying, keep an eye on the order via the 'my orders' tab - It's only happened once to me, that they subsituted one brand for another (they'll do it without asking / notifying you)
If you pick up on it before the order is packed (which isn't usually that quick in my experience so you should be able to) they'll delete the item or adjust it as you want.
The online chat facility works very well for me and there's a button at the end of the conversation that lets you email a transcript of what was said to yourself for future reference.
If practicable save up your purchases to exceed the £140 free postage threshold otherwise it's expensive enough to have smaller items sent.
You can put the GLS tracking number into Parcelforce tracking from the get go and it'll convert it to the UK tracking number for you, even before it enters the UK (tracking only commences then however).
If you want to see progress through the EU, use GLS's own site and it can be translated into English, unlike the Autodoc link that's German only.
Put your car including it's chassis number into 'your garage' - Not infallible, so always double check, but it's still mostly accurate and seems to be tied into the 'TecAlliance' system to give accurate compatibility of parts.
42% off at the moment, if using the App - ends in about 1 hour 30 mins!
Something they've either started doing, or maybe I just didn't notice before -
Discounts periods seem to mainly commence around 12 midnight (European time if applicable) but from around early evening, as it's drawing to an end they may go up even further.
I took advantage of a 41% off last week. Had been saving up a list of things in my wishlist for just such a time and saved a small fortune.
Like I was advocating above, checked the order periodically incase any substitutions were being made and the discount had gone up to 42%.
Not much on a smaller order, but would've saved a worth while amount on this bigger one.
Noticed it happening again, so not a one off.
Not sure why, maybe their algorithms are picking up not enough orders are being made?
Haven't seen it going the otherway yet and the discount lessening throughout the day - suppose it's a risk you'll have to take by waiting to the last minute.
My third AutoDoc package has just been delivered.
Looks like I have some brand substitutions, but only on the ARB bushes and drop-links, the important stuff is still all Febi.
Ordered Febi got sent Stark.
(https://www.looper.com/img/gallery/the-untold-truth-of-stark-industries/intro-1586465377.jpg)
Ordered on 23rd July, arrived 2nd August. Not a hideous wait.
I've seen it written that 'Stark' is their own brand - have to stress, I don't know if that is true.
It's not necessarily the cheapest option either even if it were your first choice.
The cynical out there would say they deliberately price it up so when used as a substitute it gives the impression you've received a better item at no extra cost.
I've only ever had one substitution and received a 'Stark' brake splash guard (ordered a pair of some other brand that were cheaper but one was substituted) and have to say it was perfectly good quality.
Infact if I'd seen them both in the flesh before chosing I'd have taken the 'Stark'... just seemed better made and had a heavier / separate fixing plate were as the other was just one piece of thin pressed tin.
Delivery times seem to have tightened up massively this last while, I'm finding stuff from them is taking no longer than any other package.
40% discount at the moment (to 11pm) if using the app.
Had a look at the reviews just now and taking a tumble again in the wrong direction - make your own mind up before ordering
Ok, so my mind is blow.
At 7am on Monday I placed an order with Autodoc. I've just received the package before 9am today, Wednesday.
Under 50 hours from placing the order to arriving at my door! 8)
Meanwhile some button batteries I ordered for the mk5 keyfob, from Amazon on Prime (next day) I'm still waiting for a week later :(
Ok, so my mind is blow.
(https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.c8ee6fd08fa7f50a5f2a4e1e82122c5c?rik=v1maKirbKBldmQ&riu=http%3a%2f%2fimages.complex.com%2fcomplex%2fimage%2fupload%2fc_limit%2cw_680%2ff_auto%2cfl_lossy%2cpg_1%2cq_auto%2ftuc0dqtik5ldgp87ydke.jpg&ehk=%2fp9kzrPtDhESKOt8%2bRYUN7l9HYMNYQMBZhOYmLcEwGc%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0)
I've never used them but B&B on ebay is like Amazon Prime. 😀
(edit after reading Tim's comment above)
on a good day!
B&B on eBay are great, and the bonus for me they've started doing motorbike parts too.