Taxes and government rules don't explain a 232% markup on a $165 part. Sorry, but it sounds like gouging to me. If they need to keep their lights on then they need to stay competitive, or keep things above board and work out a higher labor rate and not just mark up parts to make up the deficit. Also, marking something up like that doesn't account for warranty issues down the road either, as I'd be more than willing to pay a reasonable markup of maybe 50%.

I just wish shops would be upfront and stop feeding the stereotypes...

My son had a 2010 Jeep Grand Cherokee that I had the water pump replaced on 18 months ago. When it messed up this last time (water pumped went out again) then place that fixed it 1st was closed for 2 weeks. I needed it fixed, so I took it to a place that came highly recommended from a bunch of people. Anyway they wanted $700.00 to replace water pump and new serpentine belt. All because they said they had to remove the AC. I passed, waited till other shop opened back up. They replaced the water pump free, and replaced serpentine belt, all for $200.00. Water pump would have added $150.00 more to bill. I asked about removing AC, they said nope, it's a tight squeeze but no reason to remove it.

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Why would you even think about writing them a bad review because if this?? Did they lie to you, NO. Did they cheat you, NO. Did they do anything illegal or unethical, NO. They gave you a quote for work with clear pricing. It's your job to see if that fits your budget or not.

As far as them not doing the work with customer supplied parts, that pretty normal. Welcome to America, it's a free country. They can make their own policies. If you don't agree with their policies then shop somewhere else but don't bash them because you are being petty.

Pricing: You can't compare Rock Autos pricing to a local RETAIL shop. Rock is a huge supplier and sells to the public at below wholesale pricing. They are not buying from Rock, they are buying from the local auto parts store down the road at discounted prices based off of retail. Example: I needed some stuff for my girls Equinox and checked out Rocks prices and they were almost half of what O'Reily quoted me. My nephew works at O'Reily so even with his employee discount prices were still higher. Now keep in mind Rock charges high shipping charges and sales taxes now too. After those were added in I was just a few dollars higher to buy from my nephew so that's what I did.

You come off sounding all butt hurt and want to give a shop a bad review for a BS reason. That's just my opinion though. Glad you found your problem.

How is price gouging a bs reason for a bad review?
You say that Rock Auto marks their prices below wholesale, so let's assume that's probably a 10% discount on wholesale and their $168 would be $185 at a distributor (no business with any sense is purchasing parts from an O'Reilly down the street, they have a distributor for parts sourcing).

A reasonable mark up would be $370 (that's called keystone in retail).
The mechanic is marking it up another $180 on top of that - even if my assumption about what a wholesale price is off by another 10%, that's an unreasonably high mark up. (I actually saw that MOOG LCA for <$150 after shipping but I'll stick with the OPs quote).

Seems like a perfectly legitimate reason to leave a review that alerts the next customer to question this company's parts pricing.

That's how shops make their money. They all do it.