XC60 brake pads from ECP open and dirty
 

I ordered rear brake pads for my XC-60 today from Eurocarparts. They were delivered within 2 hours, which was great, but I then noticed the security seal was cut open, the contents clearly having been previously handled with very dirty hands. This included dirty fingerprints on the friction surfaces.

I called ECP to ask for a replacement (otherwise what is the point of ordering new, sealed parts). Fair enough to them, they will send new out without quibble, but surely this should have been checked when they were previously returned and put back on a shelf?

I dare say they'll just send them out again, a mechanic working on someone else's car won't mind.

Doubt most people would give a monkeys..Dirty brake pads in open box .
They must have had a right laugh at the factor's..

I dont know why you guys are being like that, he bought new and got second hand, thats not right at all, not to mention what contaminants may have been put on the pads. Buy new, expect new, end of....

Maybe I didn’t make it clear enough in the original post. By dirty, I mean filthy and greasy. It looks like the pads were greased up with dirty hands ready for fitting and then not fitted. There is black brake grime on them, the box, the springs and the bolts.

They were placed back in the box front-to-back, not friction surface to friction surface. Anyone who is prepared to fit contaminated pads should not be allowed to wield a spanner.

It seems you are luckier than I’ve been in terms of their ‘mistakes’.

I ordered 5 ltrs of fully synthetic Shell Ultra 5w 40 oil, from one of their subsidiaries, and received semi synthetic 10w 40.

OK, mistakes happen, but no doubt it can be quickly sorted! No it can’t.

Despite providing a photo of what they sent, I must return their incorrectly sent oil via. their courier, having first given them a clear 5 working days notice. On receipt, they will then correct their mistake (hopefully!) and send me the correct oil I ordered.

Company policy - and oh, by the way - ‘Apologies for any inconvenience’.!

Will I deal with then again??

So back to the OP’s issue - at least the different-in-your-case ‘Company policy’ is much more customer friendly.

As they have clearly supplied the wrong goods the company should pay for return of the goods not you and hopefully will make the necessary arrangements.

What would you do if they send the wrong oil again?

They do collect returns at their expense. But I've stopped using ECP (and their alter-ego Car Parts 4 Less) because either wrong items have been sent to me or their delivery agent has lied about attempting deliveries because I live out in the sticks

To be fair to them, I ordered with the free 3-4 day delivery option and had the original pads within a couple of hours. They didn’t have another box in stock, but offered to replace today (originals yesterday). They also didn’t quibble on the phone.

The issue is that they’ve sent safety critical parts that have been returned in an unacceptable condition. If an isolated mistake, fair enough. I suspect that returns may not be checked though, which is a bigger issue and would turn me away as a customer in the future.

It must be difficult for car part distributors with the amount of cross-manufacturer similarities and shared platforms etc (I should know with the amount of parts I've had turn up with 'Ford Focus' written on them. They must handle thousands of parts each week and sometimes it goes wrong, like any business.

Here though if the pads had been greased ready for install then in my view the 'installer' should pay for that mistake himself (should have carefully offered the pads up for comparison 'dry' and then raised the query).

Bad marks to the distributor for taking them back in and not inspecting the contents though.