I contacted Cip1 to get a quote on shipping approx $850 worth of parts to OZ, They quoted me $120-$170 to ship these items . I thought this was a fair price, so I went ahead with the order, I paid for the items including the shipping. A little while later that informed me that the actual shipping price was $370 & would not ship the items until I had paid the extra price. I tried to cancel the order , but they wound't let me . They had me over a barrel. Cip1 refused to acknowledge that they may have made a mistake in their initial shipping quote. All correspondence was ordinary . They really couldn't give a f**K . Customer service doesn't exist at Cip1. Beware when dealing with these guys

post your experiences on TheSamba.com website, and if they take the post down post it on ShopTalkForums, they never censor their posts..

I think some of the main US suppliers have started taking the p1$$ out of overseas buyers.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. I have bought over 3k worth of gear and never had an issue. Always had a smooth transaction and items to my door in 3-4 days.CIP1 have all my shipping details when I log in everytime and have never been over quoted. I have always been able to view all costs before committing to buy. You should try shipping charges from CB Performance..they make CIP1 look very affordable..lol

^^ yep, me too. Good and FAST

Never had an issue with Cip1..
$370 for shipping $850 is steep though.. What type of parts were they? what dimensions and weight?

had this happen with CB. Told them they could jam in where it fits and said I would go and buy it from CIP and they cam back to me saying that they miss packed it with far more packing than needed.
They re packed it and then sent it for the original price.
Heath

Used CIP1 never had a problem, still nearly half the price of buying local

Didn't have any issues with my first order which I just did two days ago.
So far so good, no extra shipping charges, and holy hell they are cheap compared to local!

I have always found them OK...

but they do charge more than other smaller companies selling VW parts etc.. for freight..
but their parts prices are very inexpensive..

CB Performance were very expensive..

aircooled.net were OK...

LEE

Don't forget that warranties don't really exist when You buy out of the USA...
plus if You get a wrong part... You own it.. lol

LEE

I,ve been buying stuff from the states for 20 years , I,ve never had such a misquote ever. Vee Dub Parts Unlimited quoted me $220 to deliver the same items. I guess I paid the price for shopping around, trying to get a cheaper quote

I did post this on TheSamba , but they deleted it.

I have orderd from cip1 too, and I was surprised how quick and affordable cip1 were.

Dubster

Can I ask how you recieved the initial quote for shipping?

As you can fill up a shopping trolley and get the shipping quote without going through with an order... and every time I've done this it hasn't been different when ordered.

I got my quote via email from Tascha (customer service representative), as a few of the items I was interested weren't in stock, hence I couldn't fill out my order online- & get the shipping quote online.

Just had 3 orders form this company, all 100% got here within a week!! All orders came with all correct parts and good quality.

So when you say they won't let you cancel your order, does that mean they've debited your credit card the initial amount and now won't reverse it?

I just got a quote for a set of 4 rims shipped from another US company - $275US. Is that reasonable?

* Freight carriers (all over the world) in general charge the greater of (a) the actual weight & (b) the volumetric weight. The general rule with Australian carriers shipping internationally is based on a cubic meter weighing 200kg's.
* So if you want to ship a cubic meter of feathers, they will charge you the greater of actual or volumetric weight, which will be volumetric in that example......given the cubic meter based on their rules weighs 200kgs, the actual will probably be 10kgs.

So when ordering parts from the US their shipping fees will follow the same principals. If you're ordering parts that are large but not neccessarily that heavy, you'll still get charged on the volumetric size of the package/s which could be huge, hence very expensive. If you're ordering something very small though, the freight will obviously be much cheaper even if it charged by volumetric weight.

hope that helps when considering shipping fees from overseas.

As a newbie to the Volkswagen game I was wondering why do we have to buy from the US of A to get parts at half the local price as our Dollar is the same value, are the local importers profiteering , or is it just a population thing, bigger market cheaper goods,seems unfair !!!

I though that greed plays a big part in it, i just bought all my earls fittings from anfittings.com which is the the retail side of Earls, all the fitting's were half the Australian price including speedpro.

Hmmm I just ordered about $750 of parts at cip1 today - postage was quoted at $205. Mostly small items but included a wiring harness and some dropped spindles... Will let you know of any change in the shipping costs and delivery time.

Fingers crossed eh!

I've only ever had a great experience with CIP1.com and all of the US-Based companies, having ordered nearly $10K worth of parts for my resto from CIP1.com. Sorry to hear about your problems - I've always gone via the site and ended paying very fair shipping and very quick. When i ordered 2 heater channels on Fri afternoon (Sydney time), i was stunned when they arrived on my door step the following Mon morning at 9am.

The only site which I have been ripped off for shipping has been vwparts.net, which is now called piersideparts.net - CRAZY shipping prices.

Airkewld's shipping can also very expensive, HOWEVER Pete has always refunded me the shipping difference a couple of month's later (more than slightly annoying that it takes quite a long time).

Just my experience, which has been lucky to date.

My advice would be to order online instead.

Psst
I am not picking hairs, but contrary to what their name suggests CIP is actually a Canadian company
They are based in Vancouver, British Columbia - so there are differences between their shipping and say Wolfsburg West.
Not saying good or bad, but there are differences.

Myself, never had a bad experience with any of the Australian, US, Canadian or UK firms I have dealt with - lucky so far I guess.

The freight they charge is pretty much what Fedex charges them.
You still haven't mentioned the size and weights of your items. Light but bulky items will still be expensive to ship. For what they charged you, your shipment would have to have been either heavy or bulky. Which was it?

I've bought from CIP1 many times, including sets of wheels. Example, to ship 4 wheels, the shipping was $422. It took 3 days for them to get to my door. Very fast service.

Quote:

Originally posted by penguin Psst I am not picking hairs, but contrary to what their name suggests CIP is actually a Canadian company They are based in Vancouver, British Columbia - so there are differences between their shipping and say Wolfsburg West. Not saying good or bad, but there are differences. Myself, never had a bad experience with any of the Australian, US, Canadian or UK firms I have dealt with - lucky so far I guess.

Ha its funny, mine left Cali went to Vancover then Hawaii - landed in NSW and delivered in Vic!! My part have had a better holiday than me!!

pick up the phone and call them, we had trouble with them at one point, called them and sorted it all out over the phone, very very helpful answered all my questions and saved me some on shipping costs, a phone call always seems the best talking to someone makes life easier