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Dear local auto parts stores:

mlambert

mlambert

New member
[rant]
Dear local auto parts stores:

I hate you. No, I take that back. I hate most of you.

Why, you ask, do I hate you?

One. I cannot find what I'm looking for 80% of the time. What I do find are off brand, not-even-close to what I'm looking for, probably won't fit correctly type replacements for the thing that I want.

Two. Most of your staff should be shot. How hard is it to look up a part? It's not like you don't have thirty catalogs laying around, clearly labeled and indexed.

Three. Even after I help your staff person find the freakin' part #, the staff person still can't find the SKU number to tell me if you have it, carry it, or even can get it. Which is retarded in itself because I got the original item from your store to begin with.

Four. Even after your staff person calls your home office, I am completely and utterly dismayed to find out the base price is at least $10 more than what JEGS says. Then I have to pay you another $10 to ship it. And if I want it this week another $20.

Completely and utterly ridiculous.

So, in short, I hate you. I love me some JEGS almost like I love me some fresh coffee. But I hate YOU.

[/rant]
 


I'm fairly partial to my local Autozone. They usually have or can get the part I need. They never charge shipping on ordered parts and they usually arrive in 4 days or less. Aaaannnndd many of their hard parts come with a lifetime warranty.
 
well my only choices are murrays or autozone and autozone will take back open products ive gone to autozone and THEY gave me the wrong part when i tried using the part it didnt fit so i went to bring it back and they admitted they were wrong but no returns so autozone all the way
 


Our local Autozone is decent. They have a couple older guys in there that know a few things (one of them is a storm chaser that I have run into in the field), they know me fairly well and I have a good rapport with them. Our local O'Reilly's is a decent store as well and they dont seem to go through employees quite as much and are usually older people and seem to have a genuine desire to help out. We also have a Bumper to Bumper. Now THOSE guys I really like but they are not open as long and hardly any at all on weekends. But when I can get in there I get the distinct impression that they either have huge car projects in their garage, race or something and come into work and are applying what they learn elsewhere to their work there. They have a complete paint mixing set up, so I can go in there and get any color auto paint I want and the prices arent all that bad.

We also have an Advanced Auto. Now I like that store and always have, but the employees usually leave something to be desired. They are nice and always try to help but its not a store I would go to for any type of expertise. You can tell that they are just working there as a job and dont have any real connection to any type of auto hobby or interest.
 
I go to AutoZone around here, they are the best "quick" option I have. What kills me is when I walk to the counter of a parts store with a part number in hand, yet they still want to know what year, make, and model. I sent the wife for a custom length belt once and it got so heated that I had to go to the store myself and damn near yanked the kid over the counter. I ended up marching behind the counter to the back wall, pointing out the belt with matching part number I needed, and handing it to another sales person.

The whole AutoZone/Advanced/O-Reilly/NAPA/PepBoys hate fest really should just be put in perspective of location. It is not the chain that screws you, it is the employees and mentality at one particular location.
 
Yea, I remember back in the day when I had my 72 Chevelle, went to advance auto to get a filter kit for my tranny. Told the guy that I had a turbo 400 tranny and he kept arguing with me that my car didn't come with that, it came with a turbo 350. Kept telling him, it's not the original tranny. Kept arguing with me. I was like how are you going to tell me what I have in my car when I say it's not original. He got all bent out of shape and went and got the kit. When I got home, the retard still gave me the one for the 350. Had to go all the way back and get it exchanged. When I got there, the manager was there, which had helped me quite a few times. Told him that what the retard had done, not only got the right kit, but also got my money back for my troubles. A couple days later, didn't see the retard working there anymore. Thanks to him, I got a free tranny kit that probably came out his paycheck.
 
here I have had problems with oreilleys, (have gotten the right part less than tech wrong one) autozone can't find anything without help, and Napa the people won't even look you in the eye, and still get it wrong. Advance here has a couple of mechanics, a painter, and some guys who race circle track, only time the part has been wrong was when the catalog even had it wrong (helped them double check it) I also know that the shops around here tend to use advance, no one uses autozone
 


Advance is great if they would hire people that knew what they were doing. KNew this one guy that worked at Advance back in the day. Had been a gearhead his whole life. Give him a desription of what you wanted and he could tell you the part number, price, and if they could even get it without looking at the computer. Dude was awsome. Finally got his big break to go work at a high end shop. Funny thing was he looked just like Hank JR.
 
good ol hank JR. haha anyways i might be getting a job at advanced in a week possibly im so excited but i dont wanna let anybody down and give people the wrong stuff but i guess we gotta learn and start somewhere right?
 
screw both of them advance and autozone is the wal mart of auto parts...i prefer to shop at places that actually know what im talking about and have trained staff to assist me in what im looking for.not give me a dumb look when i ask for something and call his manager to help me!!!
 
gtpinsc said:
screw both of them advance and autozone is the wal mart of auto parts...i prefer to shop at places that actually know what im talking about and have trained staff to assist me in what im looking for.not give me a dumb look when i ask for something and call his manager to help me!!!
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yea, round here we call em the aldis of auto parts....and I too miss the days of privately owned independantly ran auto parts stores...when I started driving there was a place named M+L auto parts....the guys there could tell you what was wrong with your car and how to fix it just by a brief description of what it was doing, point being they knew their stuff... nowadays with the chains taking over and putting the ma and pas out of business, it's a whole new world....which requires a lot more aspirin.
 


beastin1 said:
yea, round here we call em the aldis of auto parts....and I too miss the days of privately owned independantly ran auto parts stores...when I started driving there was a place named M+L auto parts....the guys there could tell you what was wrong with your car and how to fix it just by a brief description of what it was doing, point being they knew their stuff... nowadays with the chains taking over and putting the ma and pas out of business, it's a whole new world....which requires a lot more aspirin.
Click to expand...

And would call you by name when you walked in. AHHHH!! The good ol' days.
 
gtpinsc said:
screw both of them advance and autozone is the wal mart of auto parts...i prefer to shop at places that actually know what im talking about and have trained staff to assist me in what im looking for.not give me a dumb look when i ask for something and call his manager to help me!!!
Click to expand...

lol our local mom and pop place has a guy that was fired from advance running the place, he couldn't tell you a thing about a car. There is no parts place that trains any of their people, they have to either know it, or learn by mistakes
 
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