buycarparts.co.uk - yay or nay?

[Motorhole]

Anyone used these guys before?

Place an order a couple of days ago. Now they want me to email them a scan of the credit card used to pay (hiding all but last 4 digits of card no.) and some ID - driving licence or passport. 'Fraud prevention checks' so they say. Sounds dodgy as hell to me, but they do have some positive reviews.

Thought I'd check....

[Jesus325iTouring]

Sounds reasonable, lets face it, the car parts world is full of undesirables.

[mcspike]

I bought a couple hundred quid worth of bearings, coils and such for a good price.

I had the same treatment with asking for scans of the card. I was very suspicious but it all checked out after some googling.

[KW355]

I brought some bearings off them. They phoned and asked security questions.
The bearings arrived ok.
Be warned though. Their return system for faulty goods is designed to be as difficult as possible. ( buy a replacement, send the faulty one to Germany at your expense and wait three months for an answer)

[Motorhole]

Yes, their prices are very good...£140-odd for OEM-spec crank & cam sensors and aux belt tensioner (Siemens/Febi).

Thanks for the feedback. Hopefully they won't be faulty!

[DanThe]

I wouldn't be emailing photo id to anybody

[Motorhole]

I wouldn't be emailing photo id to anybody

I blanked out all information that they didn't have already - pretty much everything except name and address - before I sent it. Just to be safe...

[BMG]

They asked the same from me the other day, despite having used them before. The difference this time was time using a credit card rather than PayPal.
The other problem I've had is in that 4 orders with them this is the second time they substituted parts for different brands that I wanted, the latest being a new set of Bosch headlights for Hella parts.

[Z3I]

So, for all the worry of you supplying far too many details in the first place, (all of which could be used as a scam further down the line by a disgruntled ex worker), the parts being after market chinese spec/fake/substitute anyway, a traumatic returns system where you'll be chasing it, whats the eventual saving over buying from, say, Cotswold on here, or your local BMW dealer? Needs to be a fair chunk!

[Motorhole]

Well, this time the parts arrived when they said they would and they are the brands I requested. So thumbs up, for now. As for the savings...well for cam/crank sensors, it's nearly £70 each over dealer prices for same Siemens VDO part. I think that constitutes a fair chunk!

On the other hand, an order for an intake manifold gasket from Mister Auto recently arrived on my doorstep. The size and weight of the package aroused my suspicions. Turns out it was a pair of front control arms, a set of brake pads and a fan belt for a Peugeot.

Thankfully, their returns process seems pretty hassle free

[BMG]

So, for all the worry of you supplying far too many details in the first place, (all of which could be used as a scam further down the line by a disgruntled ex worker), the parts being after market chinese spec/fake/substitute anyway, a traumatic returns system where you'll be chasing it, whats the eventual saving over buying from, say, Cotswold on here, or your local BMW dealer? Needs to be a fair chunk!

The first return was simple and quick. In the case of the headlights ( only arrived yesterday and opened this morning ) I'll hope that its the same.

On price, either the Bosch or Hella complete headlamps would be about a third to half the price from BMW.
They were quoting £310 all in and posted for a pair of Bosch or Hella units, BMW from what I can see is around £365 for a single unit.
When you are doing a nut and bolt rebuild on an M3, you need must have money to burn to buy via BMW UK on items like these when you know BMW are simply supplying you a Bosch part at a 100% premium in many cases.
Its annoying, but for be the savings on something like that mean I can spend in other areas and do more.