When you place an order, some sites will give you the shipping company's tracking number so you can trace your order's progress as it moves from the warehouse to your door. Other sites will do this tracking for you as part of their customer service.
Who do you call if you have problems with your order's shipment? According to Landspeed Racing's Dunshie, the place to start is with him, not FedEx, UPS, or the Post Office. "If your box is missing items, call us, since it was probably due to a problem in the shipping department. If your box arrives with a big hole in it and stuff is missing, call us then, too. We'll contact the carrier and get information as to what happened from the driver. If the box just doesn't arrive during the time frame it was promised, we can probably help you there, also. The carriers will e-mail us if there are major problems with delivery areas, like really bad weather."
What You Can DoHow can you make the online buying process go smoother? The number-one answer we got was a simple one: To make sure you get the right part the first time, know your vehicle when you order. Year, make, and model, certainly, and trim level, too. "Those HX, DX, and EX designations can be important," noted NOPI's Evans. "And don't take for granted that a part for a '00 model will fit a '02." Vehicle manufacturers can make lots of changes from one model year to the next that aren't obvious until you tried to modify the changed part with one that fit the previous year's car.
Also, don't think just about the part you want but "everything it touches," said JCW's Hiell. "For example, if you're ordering a car cover, does your car have one outside mirror or two? If you're ordering a carpet kit, does your car have bucket seats or a bench?"
A Shopping Tip: There are usually several ways to find a part for your car on any given Web site. Most sites ask you for info about your car and then direct you to parts they have that fit. But you can also browse sites by product category, or look for a "search" box where you can type in keywords that the site will then look for. If you can't find what you're looking for using any of those methods, then pick up the phone and call. Because no matter how good the Internet gets, sometimes you just gotta talk to a live person to find the parts you need.
Where Should I Go?
Who are all these good guys we've been boasting about? Well, we decided to be really nice and delve into the pits of filth on the Web to bring you the most reputable retailers out there. Trust us, it isn't easy trying to avoid things you never wanted to see on the porn superhighway, but we managed to escape the barrage of pop-up windows advertising the latest man-versus-donkey techniques to show you the best. So here are companies you can believe in, from A to Z.