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Core Exchange Program
First, in order to understand what a Core Exchange Program is, its first important to understand what a "core charge," and even better, what a "core" is.
What is a Core?
In the automotive industry, most products are manufactured from brand new materials. However, numerous products are also re-manufactured, meaning that the manufacturer of the product takes a used product, typically removed from a vehicle, disassembles, and replaces all worn components of the master product. A great example of this is in regards to automatic transmissions in which the manufacturer takes an existing transmission, replaces all of the inner working components, such as the torque converter, valve body, etc. and merely reuses the case.
What is a Core Charge?
Because aftermarket manufacturers require a steady stream of incoming cores to build, they charge a deposit on the core, known as a core charge, that is refunded upon receipt. In some cases, the core is not reusable, such as in the event of a cracked case, at which point the core deposit would not be credited as the core component is not reusable.
What is a Core Exchange Program?
After you’ve purchased and received your part, and replaced the old part with the new, you’re left with a core that needs to be returned back to the manufacturer so you can get your core deposit back. And here’s where we’ve created something unique in order to streamline this process. When it comes time to return the old part, you’ll log back into your account page on our website and access your order. From there, you will be prompted to start the return process. We will then generate the Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) Number that uniquely identifies your core versus all of the others that are returned to the manufacturer. Again, this is done to ensure that yours isn’t lost in the shuffle and you get your core deposit money returned as quickly as possible. Along with requesting the RMA, you will be given an opportunity to also pay for a return shipping label you can merely print out, instead of having to go somewhere and separately purchase a label. You may recall at the time of initial checkout, you were given the option to prepay for the return shipping there, as well. If you did, you can request that at no additional charge also within your order details page.
Once you get your core in the mail and its received and processed by the manufacturer, you will be given two options on getting your core deposit back. First, we can issue the applicable refund back to the original form of payment used, such as your credit card. Otherwise, we will offer you a 5% incentive for returning the core deposit to an account credit to be used for later purchases. As an example, lets say you purchased a turbo that had a $500 core charge. You would have the option to receive a $500 refund back to your payment method or receive a $525 in store credit to be used for future purposes. And of course, if at any time you have any questions, feel free to give us a call, send an e-mail, or start a chat, we‘d be more than happy to assist.