Apparently K-Tuned has had a lot of issues with fraud (I am confused by this) and therefore are very hesitant about shipping parts to addresses that are different than the billing address. On my previous order they made an exception and shipped directly to P&L Motorsports, the shop doing the work for us. (I live near Boston, MA and P&L is located near Chicago, IL; shipping to my home address is not very helpful.) And there were no issues, everything was great. So, on February 6th, 2019 I got in contact with Sean at K-Tuned and told him which parts I was ordering next and if based on the prior order being issue free if they could ship to P&L again. Sean said sure and that when I order to place that we had this conversation in the comment section along with the address I wanted it shipped to.
Sounds great!
I get around to placing the order on Sunday, 03/31/2019, it processes, and everything is fine. I put in the comments to contact me if there are any issues.
On Wednesday, 04/03/2019 I get a notification that my order is on hold and I need to call them. Person I speak to not so helpful, claims Sean does not remember the prior call but is in a meeting. I am mildly annoyed but figure if Sean and I talk we can sort this out.
I finally get a hold of Sean and apparently between February and now the shipping policy has changed, no exceptions, because there have been more fraud issues. It does not matter that our last shipment had no problems. They can ship it to my billing address or cancel the order.
They recommend a few places including HPT Auto Sport. The order is cancelled (as of this writing no refund has been issued yet).
All right, fine, so I go to HPT Auto Sport. I look at their About page, nothing about shipping. I look at their Shipping page, nothing about limits on credit card usage and address shipping. At this point I thought I had done my due diligence and placed the following order around 12:30 AM on Thursday, 04/04/2019:
HPT AutoSport:
1) K-Tuned Race-Spec Billet Shifter Box / K series engine swapped EG EK DC2 EF
Part No. KTD-RSX-PRO
List Price: $494.99
2) K Tuned Race-Spec Shifter Cables and Trans Bracket RSX EG EK K Swap K20 K24 H22 H22A
Part No. R-SFT-CAB
List Price: $359.99
3) K-Tuned Billet Shifter Stops
Part No. KTD-SFT-STPS
List Price: $57.99
4) K-Tuned Purple Billet Shift Knob
Part No. KTD-SFT-KNP
List Price: $71.99
5) K-Tuned Honda 4-1 Race Header (True Merge Collector)
Part No. KRH-41-500
List Price: $462.08
6) K-Tuned Header Flange
Part No. KBH-FL-502
List Price: $24.89
7) K-Tuned Universal AC/PS Eliminator Delete Kit K20 K20a K20z1 K20z3 K24 K24a2
Part No. KP-UNV-385
List Price: $197.99
Good, my order is in, I went to bed.
3:43 PM on Thursday, 04/04/2019 I get the following email:
Wonderful. I call them. Apparently they have a policy where they will only ship to addresses that do not match the billing address so long as PayPal is used.
We are contacting you in regards to your order. It appears that your shipping and billing addresses are different. When you pay with a credit card we can only ship to the billing address associated with that credit card.
If you’d like us to ship to your billing address we can do that, if not we will have to cancel this order.
You will have to repurchase either using a different card or Paypal. If you decide to use Paypal we can ship to any shipping address you link to your account.
Please get back to us ASAP so we can get this issue resolved in a timely fashion.
Thank you.
For certain reasons I am not thrilled with PayPal.
No exceptions to HPT Auto Sport's policy. Granted I filled out an order form using credit card with billing and shipping address different from one another and no warning or flags were raised.
Apparently the web page is a work in progress and will be updated soon. The policy is on their web page (not that the person on the phone told me where) and I found it under Orders and Returns. It also contains the following gem:
The above contradicts what I was told on the phone. Their policy is regardless of PayPal the billing / shipping address is supposed to be the same, so not sure how PayPal would have made a difference. Still keep in mind their checkout has space for separate billing and shipping addresses...Billing/Shipping InfoPlease make sure your Billing address and Shipping address match. We will not process or ship an order where the billing and shipping information does not match and a refund will be processed.
So... my second K-Tuned parts order of the week got canceled (currently listed as pending on my credit card).
After this ordeal I call up K Series Parts. I have a rather candid conversation about my K-Tuned parts order problems. I ask if they have a similar policy.
They tell me they do a two step fraud analysis. Step one is whether or not the credit card company outright refuses to ship to addresses different than the billing address (apparently this is a thing). I let them know that to the best of my knowledge this is not the case with my card because other vendors have had no issues with my billing address and P&L as the shipping address. I resolve to check with my credit card issuer just in case.
The second step is they look at the address and see if it is suspicious. I tell them the order will be to P&L Motorsports (whom they have heard of) and that if there are any issues at this stage I hope we can reach an amicable solution.
They also express that PayPal can have a mismatched address but they also know people do credit card orders to shops and they will evaluate it when I submit the order.
I called my credit card issuer and told them about the upcoming purchase and the headache this has been. They said there should be no issue.
I place my order at 10:40 PM on Thursday, 04/04/2019.
Hopefully this third order goes through and I can put this K-Tuned parts ordering saga to an end (even if I still have to follow up on two refunds, hopefully not three).
Sometimes it is pretty damn hard to give someone money in exchange for goods.
Good grief. I guess another alternat would be to have P&L order and then bill you?
ReplyDeleteThe problems with P&L Motorsports ordering the parts are as follows:
Delete1) For P&L Motorsports to have an account and act as a vendor they need to set up an account which has paperwork implications (time and money). P&L also does not do a lot of work on Honda vehicles and therefore not really worth it to them to have K-Tuned as a vendor.
2) There are also tax implications for P&L because it would be a vendor to another vendor, which (at least when I worked for the bonsai shop) was tax free. But then P&L needs to charge me tax.
3) P&L would likely need to / want to add a markup which of course means more charge to me.
So this is why P&L has not been an appealing option to buy from K-Tuned.
Still, this has not been easy.