Welcome to the world of our current aftermarket parts suppliers. They get the parts cheaper, sell them at a substantial mark up and it allows the CEO's and other management to draw exorbitant salaries while driving us nuts.
I can name a multitude of examples, but just from last week,
Three radiator drain petcocks from different sources that all did the same thing. The "wing" portion used to loosen or tighten the drain portion just spins. The last one was from Napa and appeared identical in every way except price which was twice as much @ ~ $12.00. I finally dug through my used parts bin and found a good used one.
Thermostat housing gaskets made from a black material. We have had several of these that very slowly dribble a very small drop or so every hour when under pressure. Swap in a felpro gasket and every time the leak goes away. I also found it interesting that the suppliers had plenty of the 'cheaper' black gaskets, but each only had 1 of the felpro's available. I will also mention this was not an odd ball application being a mid 70's small block chevy
Total time lost on above two issues probably exceeds 10 hours.
I proceeded to order 10 Felpro gaskets and made in the USA petcocks online. And yes with shipping they were cheaper than buying local. The key point for me is the products worked the 1st time.
I do not pay much attention when corporate america whines that online sales are killing their business. Their management or lack thereof and their salaries are at the root of the problem
