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About 12 months ago I ordered a pair of front Timken 512118 Hubs from RockAuto. When they arrived they were Timken boxed, but inside they were NTN HUB066 identical to your's supplied from Mazda - $56.99.
This isn't THAT unusual. Lots of manufacturers want to offer a "complete" catalog and will even buy competitors items and sell them in their own box in order to fill the blanks.
For example, EXEDY owns a HUGE portion of the 1990s-2000s OEM clutch market for Japanese vehicles. But, they aren't an OEM supplier for many American / Germans vehicles. So in order to fill those gaps in their catalog, they will buy OEM clutches from LUK or Valeo and throw them in an EXEDY box, with their own part number, instructions, etc. That way, when they want to sell to PepBoys or Advanced Auto, they can present a catalog with everything rather then get pigeonholed holed as just the "Japanese clutch guys".
As for whatever Atkins is doing, I have no comment on that.
Not too many resources left for odd little parts for the RX-7. Shipping costs suck, but imagine having to find those o-rings and hubs with no Atkins around.
Ray Crowe is one guy at one dealership on the east coast. How old is he again? Is he even working during the lockdown?
My other car was a Mazdaspeed Protege that I had to sell it because there are straight-up NO resources for parts, at any cost. Endlessly trying to figure out what parts for other cars work on the MSP. Mazda 6 brakes, Tribute clutch, etc. All a big ******* headache that would be alleviated in one shop sold parts for that car. That MAZDA.
its not a matter of being ungrateful because we all are. we're very grateful. the issue is the crooked and deceptive practices to take advantage of people. i think its important that the line is drawn with what this is all actually about. no one is being ungrateful about atkins being a resource, its just the way they treat customers and the way they operate. like i mentioned before, just because there are shop out there catering to a niche market it doesnt give them the right to treat the customer base however they want. there is still an expected level of professionalism and customer service that comes along with it.
the "shut up and color" approach that some members are trying to defend is a little unsettling. we need these sellers just as much as they need us. we're not out of line to demand and expect more respect as a customer than we've been getting.
Yeah here is a pic hope it's still worth using seems okay...
mine worked just fine. chances are that atkins non oem parts are just fine but the issue is that they are selling them with the implication that they are oem. honestly they should just come out and say these are not OEM but are high quality and most of this would go away.
with regard to the timken bearing chances are high that the bearing itself has multiple applications and timken buys that bearing then makes the flanges and presses it all together for the application. this is common and OEMs do this as well. it is far cheaper to go to someone who does nothing but make bearings all day and buy theirs than make bespoke bearings in house.
Yeah its just stupid.
Nothing wrong with selling non-oem parts. Very good to have a shop dedicated for the RX-7 / Rotary with both OEM and nonOEM. Only thing it serves is to **** your reputation.
Seems the general agreement here is that the issue is them selling non-oem parts under the guise of being OEM parts. Theres no problem with selling them, its just when your advertised part numbers "just so happen" to be the same as OEM and the price "just so happens" to be in line with OEM and the image is of an OEM part, then you receive something that isnt OEM, there in lies the problem. Its deceptive any way you look at it. Intentional or not.
to rectify the situation, just making it clear the parts being sold are not OEM would silence all the commotion
Atkins has always been pretty up front about their o-rings being 3rd party sourced, some of which they claim) outperform stock such as the inner o-rings and may be reusable and will be testing their proprietary inners pretty soon, I also decided to pick up another full o-ring kit from them but with (what I'm hoping is true) factory inners. Because I'm a masochist i figured I'd go all out and also get one of Pineapple's HD kits, as well as a 'new stock' o-ring kit straight from Mazda (currently on some sort of slow boat from Japan, it's literally been 2.5ish months). I'll probably start some sort of thread but so far I'm pretty happy with most things, including most of Atkins' known 3rd party seals however the outter o-rings they've supplied in both kits are very thin compared to some other stockers I had on hand. Like 12a or thinner thin. Also they're white on sides like the stockers however it seems very sloppy so I am suspect if they're actually Mazda (which they don't advertise mind you) or if they're made up to look like Mazda.
Ray Crowe is one guy at one dealership on the east coast. How old is he again? Is he even working during the lockdown?
I spoke to Ray the other day and he's working his ***** off, shipping FD parts all over the damn country...... don't sleep on Ray! He also wanted me to let everyone know he's not retiring anytime soon
My point is the more resources the better. We need a west coast Ray and maybe a Canadian one too. There's no need to work the one guy we have to the bone during a global pandemic...or any time for that matter.
Atkins is a good resource, in a niche market.
They stock a massive inventory, and need to make a profit.
They gave you a refund when you asked for it, I think they did all I would expect.
I have always been happy with the parts I got from Atkins, they answer emails, they aren't the cheapest, but as you said you can shop around.
I rebuilt an engine. I used 10 corner seal plugs from Atkins and 2 from Mazda (yes I can be strange like that sometimes).
The engine ran for 3 minutes, then I opened it again. The 10 plugs from Atkins were completely destroyed and 2 from Mazda were completely new.
I placed another order from Atkins and I clearly wrote (at least 4 times) that I want:
OEM water seal jackets
OEM corner seal plugs
OEM rear main seal
They charged me an extra $20 to get these parts OEM. That's pretty good so I placed the order.
I received everything last week. The parts came in bags with blue and white Mazda tags. Wonderful!
I just discovered that one of my corner seals had to be changed, so I went to the local dealership and ordered one. It came with the corner seal plug.
I could compare directly the OEM plug from the local dealership with the Atkins OEM plug.
I don't wanna complain here about the bad quality of corner seal plugs. My concern is the fact that I paid extra money to get OEM plugs and they sent me "their OEM" plugs but with the Mazda tag in the Ziploc bag.
That is pure FRAUD and I don't understand how they can get away with this.
Just came across another response from 2014, where Atkin's is pulling something similar, reply #40, on selling a 929 brake master as an OEM, and the person receiving a centric. Seems like they've been doing this for awhile now.
@MuRCieLaGo That's unreal.
Also, I could be wrong about this(someone please correct me if I am) but I don't think anything from Mazda comes in a zip-lock style baggy(I've never ordered corner seals but I've never received any parts in a zip-lock style baggy). Which, if correct, arguably demonstrates a premeditated and deliberate attempt to deceive.
@MuRCieLaGo That's unreal.
Also, I could be wrong about this(someone please correct me if I am) but I don't think anything from Mazda comes in a zip-lock style baggy(I've never ordered corner seals but I've never received any parts in a zip-lock style baggy). Which, if correct, arguably demonstrates a premeditated and deliberate attempt to deceive.
That's exactly my point! Usually, stuff from Mazda comes in a Mazda box (Mazda in blue, in a white background) or in a stapled plastic bag.
I know the plugs I have received from them are not OEM but they still joined a Mazda OEM tag (and I paid $20 extra for that tag too).
By joining the Mazda tag they just confirmed that they are deliberately frauding. This is criminal and I am sad that they are not in Canada. They would deserve an easy lawsuit.
I compared their Mazda tag with a "real" tag and it seems to be the same material, it doesn't seem to be a copy. Their tag seem genuine, and I don't understand that part.
This isn't THAT unusual. Lots of manufacturers want to offer a "complete" catalog and will even buy competitors items and sell them in their own box in order to fill the blanks.
For example, EXEDY owns a HUGE portion of the 1990s-2000s OEM clutch market for Japanese vehicles. But, they aren't an OEM supplier for many American / Germans vehicles. So in order to fill those gaps in their catalog, they will buy OEM clutches from LUK or Valeo and throw them in an EXEDY box, with their own part number, instructions, etc. That way, when they want to sell to PepBoys or Advanced Auto, they can present a catalog with everything rather then get pigeonholed holed as just the "Japanese clutch guys".
As for whatever Atkins is doing, I have no comment on that.
The aftermarket down here does the same thing, and I agree that the substituted parts are usually of equal or better quality (nothing wrong with LuK, Valeo, Exedy, NTN or Timken)! The point of my post was to bring to the readers attention that you can buy the identical hub as supplied OEM by Mazda, for well under half the price by buying Timken(NTN) from RockAuto .
I think the moral of the story is to not give this vendor a second thought.
I recently ordered an exhaust gasket Atkins site said ‘a few left’. When nothing arrived I sent an email. No response. I then called. Guy said ‘Well I have a lot of buildings to look thru, no idea where those gaskets are’.
I then asked for a refund. He said sure I’ll do it today. A week later no refund.
Filed PayPal dispute, received refund.
Will no longer use Atkins as parts supplier.
Not sure how I missed this thread on here until now. I've had a few really bad experiences with Atkins over their false-OEM-part advertising. I'm not sure if anyone on here remembers the ridiculous fake gasket order that blew up on facebook a few years ago, but that was me. I've still got the emails where I politely asked some questions after I received a low grade home cut out crap gasket that had been marketed as the OEM part using the OEM part number and image where they rudely blew me off and basically told me to just eat **** and get over it.
What was worse was when it blew up on facebook they updated their website and played it like I missed the ball and that it had been that way the whole time. Not only was this a LIE, but THEY KNEW IT WAS A LIE and went out of their way to try and spin some credibility to their LIE. I can't stand a liar.
Wow, sad to hear about this. I've had pretty decent luck with them, but I think it's because I've only ordered things they couldn't replace with generic. Taking my business elsewhere
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Ships to europe in about 10 days
