My latest experience with Atkins is not a major thing at all I just thought I'd share it so everyone else could get a laugh. Ordered a FD washer bottle and about 5 days later they decided I should pay $37 extra for shipping to NC. LOL. Called and cancelled. Should've just used Ray like I normally do.

 

geez, they're out of control. $55 is what it'll cost me to ship a gauge cluster to Canada with the ridiculous international shipping rates. They're roughly the same size. I'm a basic consumer and ship a few dozen packages a year, but it's enough for UPS and FedEx to give me discounted rates. For the volume Atkins presumably sells, there's no doubt they're gouging the price for the actual cost of shipping. One company I do business with gets a 90% discount. Atkins trying to extract more money is probably due to them trying to make up for the money they had to refund another member recently. Shortly after my own debacle with them, another member messaged me when Atkins tried to pass off a non-OEM front hub as OEM. The member referenced my thread, called them out on their pricing and Atkins refunded the difference of the OEM part vs cost of the non-OEM part they sent. It was over $100.

 

I've always sucked up Atkins' shipping prices when I order from them, just because I don't usually have a choice. They do buy out a lot of NLA or not readily available parts, and I appreciate that.

However, coupled with everything that's been going on lately (it's no secret that for years random little o-rings and gaskets were not OEM) it really is not a good look for them. They have supported the community for a long time, I would really like to see things change and them turn it around.

 

Given all of these recent events that have come to light, I don't know why you wouldn't hit up Ray Crowe first to see what he can do for you.

Crowe.Ray@aol.com for all Mazda OEM parts needs, end of story.

 

Purely out of convenience (read laziness). I was aware and have seen the other ugly/fugly threads about atkins, but damn, ordering after hours through a website is so easy. Didn't think they'd go so far as to change a shipping price and refuse to ship! Rest assured I have Ray on speed dial and use him 90% of the time for new OEM.

 

Not sure if it would actually belong in the bad and fugly, but to me their shipping is ridiculous also. I try and use Ray for anything non aftermarket related.
Ray's service and knowledge is incomparable between these 2. Sorry Atkins, I have ordered a lot of parts, but your shipping is insane and hard for me to justify the added cost any longer.

 

Quoted for Truth.