[nikijack]

Hi: Please be careful dealing with this company. They don't honour their warranty. I'm out over $500CAD because of their treachery.

Jack

[Resoelg]

Any details as to why?

[nikijack]

No, they just suddenly switched their policy, just as I needed a return. Apparently I have a credit with them, but with shipping and duty, I'm shafted.

[SpencerC_6MT]

From what I understand, they recently changed their blanket return policy to a store credit policy. For example, previously if you bought an oil change kit for $75, you could return the old filter and bottles to get a full refund. Now, if you do the same, you'll get $75 store credit, at the expense of your shipping. The store credit will also reflect the purchase price of the item; so, if the kit went up in value by $10, you'd still only get $75 in credit. However, if the value went down by $10, they will honor the original $75 purchase.

Personally, I have no qualms with this system, and I still think it's one of the best deals out their for maintenance supplies.

[freakystyly]

Between shipping and duty it rarely is worth shopping across the border, especially with the current exchange rates. If you can get things shipped to a PO box and pick it up physically that may help a bit.

I hope Canada gets some reliable German auto suppliers some day.

[aerobod]

Originally Posted by freakystyly

Between shipping and duty it rarely is worth shopping across the border, especially with the current exchange rates. If you can get things shipped to a PO box and pick it up physically that may help a bit.

I hope Canada gets some reliable German auto suppliers some day.

It is often cheaper and sometimes quicker to buy BMW parts from the EU compared with the US. For autoparts that are not too heavy, the duty and shipping are often no more than the VAT in the European sourced parts, most shippers geared up for international shipping will sell ex-VAT. We recently bought a reconditioned 335d turbo from Estonia for €500 compared with the typical USD$1500 and CAD$2500. Shipping was just over €100 and delivery via DHL took 3 days.

I've also bought a few BMW and VW parts from Schmiedmann.com in Denmark, also shipping for things like Euro mirror glass plus duty and GST is around the same as the 20% VAT saved.

For my Caterham I have to buy many parts from the UK, but things like brake pads will take a week to arrive and cost less overall than UK buyers will pay due to shipping, duty and GST being less than 20% of the part price. Of course I'm in Alberta, so HST in Ontario would almost certainly push the total price above the 20% VAT saved price.

[freakystyly]

Agreed, I had great success with wrecker or other parts from the EU (if you are patient and good at searching part #s). I haven't had to do that for this car thankfully. But the E90 I did order a lot of random parts from overseas.

FCP has a huge parts catalog that is hard to compare to tho. Even things like nuts and bolts you don't always want to run to a dealership for.

[aerobod]

Originally Posted by freakystyly

Agreed, I had great success with wrecker or other parts from the EU (if you are patient and good at searching part #s). I haven't had to do that for this car thankfully. But the E90 I did order a lot of random parts from overseas.

FCP has a huge parts catalog that is hard to compare to tho. Even things like nuts and bolts you don't always want to run to a dealership for.

I think Schmiedmann is certainly as expansive in parts inventory as FCPEuro, I haven't come across any BMW parts numbers that they haven't been able to source within a few weeks if it isn't in stock. They also have the European parts (such as mirror glass without the "Objects are closer than they appear" etching) that are typically not available through North American sources.

[Lingling]

I can help with shipping at a lower cost