Parts Store Comedy of Errors (Long Rant)

[010752]

This will be a little long, funny and sad.
Discovered I had 3 leaking calipers yesterday, replaced one a year ago.
Stopped by the closest Autozone #1 on the way to the shop to check the stock and lead time and the clerk from his terminal said they could be here in 4 days. Bought them many times there before and knew that was bogus, so I left, deciding to go to Autozone #2 on the way home.
Took off the 3 calipers and was planning to give them the cores at the time of order (since you pay in advance) and save the 3 x 32 bucks core charge and later credit hassle.

Picked up my 11 year old daughter from school and got to Autozone #2, figured it would take 15 minutes tops, since she had a Halloween todo later tonight.
Pick up a new battery, took it to the counter and an African American clerk who you could tell was sort of new, but eager to help started looking up the calipers.
I told him I had all the cores, including the bad battery in the truck outside.
He had to go thru each caliper separately on the computer and printed out “core vouchers” for each core.
They did have one caliper in stock, so he asked a Caucasian clerk about the core vouchers, who immediately said that I couldn’t return the cores ahead of physically receiving the new calipers, so I would have to be charged for the cores anyway.
Then they got the Caucasian store manager and he confirmed that I couldn’t do the cores at this time. I don’t know how but it then got into a discussion amongst the three, as to whether I really had the cores, because no one had seen them.
I suggested that since the computer software had already accepted the core credits that they should be able to do it with no problem. If it couldn’t, the software just wouldn’t have accepted it. They didn’t understand that and besides, who am I to tell them how their stuff works, right.

So my daughter and I head out the door to get the cores. I was going to give her a 20 second speech on studying hard at school to prevent a certain mentality and no sooner did we exit the door, she pipes up and says, “Boy, those people are idiots!” I still gave her a short speech.
Seeing the actual cores didn’t help a bit, so I conceded and went to the cash register and paid the bill.
Well the receipt only showed one caliper and the battery and they still charged the core anyway, even for the caliper I was taking. I was worried about the other two calipers not even having been ordered.

So I went back to the first clerk and asked him if he had really ordered the other two calipers. He was lost by what the 2nd clerk did at the cash register terminal, and couldn’t find him anywhere, so he got the manager again. The manager looked at it briefly and said he didn’t know anything about it so he’ll have to get the 2nd clerk that rang it up. I reminded him that he infact was in on the earlier discussion.
Before I know it, all three are helping other customers. They already had my money.
I looked at the manager and getting a little loud said, ”I’ve been here long enough, let’s do something”
He then get’s the 2nd clerk again whose face is beet red by this time staring at the receipt and still doesn’t have a clue passes it off back to the manager.
The manager is even more clueless at this point and wants to go thru the parts at the terminal again.
So I then just said, “We have to leave, let’s cancel everything and just credit my card back the charge”
Had to repeat that three times.

So instead of doing this at the cash register terminal, the manager goes to a counter terminal and after a few minutes prints out this thing called a return receipt.
I asked him what this was and he said it was it was my credit receipt.
I told him “No, it isn’t and I want a real one showing my card number and a negative transaction”.
He gets clerk # 2 to help him, I get a real credit receipt.
Being a credit card transaction, I don’t know how, but he gave me a credit for $ 3.00 less than the original charge and then handed me $ 12.00 and change in cash.
I guess the extra 9 bucks cash was for wasting 55 minutes at the store.

Went home, did some homework with my daughter and drive her to the Halloween gig. Now she’s happy.

Around 8:30 pm, went back to Autozone #1, different crew this time of day.

Got a car battery off the shelf placed it on the counter and a younger African American girl helps me. I told her I had the cores in the truck and asked her if she wanted me to bring them in for the core charge credit, so I did. She had no problems with that, they also had one caliper in stock, she printed up the core vouchers, applied all of them to my bill and I cashed out in 12 minutes.
I can pick up the remaining calipers tomorrow at 9am.

Sorry this was so long, but it seems that this kind of thing is becoming the norm these days.
The world wasn’t like this years ago, people were generally educated, at least at their job, cared and were generally efficient and responsible.

I’m considering sending a copy of this to someone at Autozone HQ, not that they’ll give a rat’s ass.

I really feel sad for my daughter, I’m afraid this is a sample what’s in store for her in this changing new world.


BTW, always make copies of your receipts for lifetime waranties, the ink seems to disappear in 6 months and the computer records also magically are purged.

 

[MYBAD79]

BTW, always make copies of your receipts for lifetime waranties, the ink seems to disappear in 6 months and the computer records also magically are purged.

the educated dude at my local Auto Zone always tells me to make copies of the receipts - it's almost like he knows the crap is fading and not readable by the time the pos fails....LOL

 

[mrvette]

BTW, always make copies of your receipts for lifetime waranties, the ink seems to disappear in 6 months and the computer records also magically are purged.

the educated dude at my local Auto Zone always tells me to make copies of the receipts - it's almost like he knows the crap is fading and not readable by the time the pos fails....LOL

It is getting to be that way everywhere, more than one occasion through the years have I done taxes and had to get a mag glass to read receipts from all sorts of supply houses....go back 3 years and find them gone, disappeared fades out.....lovely for a tax audit, dunno WTF happens then...another brainiac move by some jerk outfit making cash registers.....

Some years ago, I knew the local AZ store manager, drove a later shark, name was Vic, he was kicked upstairs as a local area manager, ran into him again at the store, asked how it was going, he got whimsical and said I wish I had this store back again,I was much happier then.....

probably for just the sort of reasons as what the OP posted about....

should hear the old crusty coastie across the street from me, seems that 4X/week he cussing up a storm over the idiocy he witnesses on display....mostly in stores now, as he is age 75 and long since retired.....his favorite rant is that these college kids can't add 2+2 and more in their head, and have to have some computer tell them the correct change, without it, they go nutz and stand there wide eyed and ready for shooting....

:flash:

 

[BBShark]

I hate the local Autozone. I think they have tried to set the store up with software that allows a moron to process a transaction. Throw a wildcard (like a core return) in there and they lockup. Usually the "manager" is a kid that has been there for more than a month.

I have a longstanding bitch with all parts places. Every parts place will answer the phone while you are standing there waiting at the counter. This drives me nuts, seems like you should get preferential treatment for actually getting up off your ass and driving to the store.

 

[69427]

I hate the local Autozone. I think they have tried to set the store up with software that allows a moron to process a transaction. Throw a wildcard (like a core return) in there and they lockup. Usually the "manager" is a kid that has been there for more than a month.

I have a longstanding bitch with all parts places. Every parts place will answer the phone while you are standing there waiting at the counter. This drives me nuts, seems like you should get preferential treatment for actually getting up off your ass and driving to the store.

I agree. I've actually tapped the clerk on the shoulder while he's talking on the phone and reminded him that I'm actually here in the store, not sitting on my lazy ass calling from home. I try to be polite in most exchanges in life, but I also believe there's a bit of protocol that should be observed: Walk-ins have higher priority than call-ins.

 

[big_G]

This is a perfect example of Liberalism. Pass the kids through school, whether they learn anything or not. The businesses have no choice but to hire them and dumb down their whole business model to accommodate their lack of education.:bonkers:

 

[mrvette]

This is a perfect example of Liberalism. Pass the kids through school, whether they learn anything or not. The businesses have no choice but to hire them and dumb down their whole business model to accommodate their lack of education.:bonkers:

BULLFICKINGSHIT!!! I run more than one kid off some job sites because they were dicking around with their head up their ass.....

even with the Ex primarily training him, I do have to say my son Tom was pretty decent back in grade school.....he could wack and tack from framing though kitchen trim, pretty decent, course alls he had to do was look over my shoulder....:trumpet:

I have a nephew who STILL at age 56 or so, lives with his MOMMY, my sister, who is 13 years older than me age 79......seriously, the kid is stone clueless and stone useless, untrainable....deer in headlights look.....

Pot laced with whatEVER back in the early 70's.....:gurney::ill:

 

[BBShark]

I hate the local Autozone. I think they have tried to set the store up with software that allows a moron to process a transaction. Throw a wildcard (like a core return) in there and they lockup. Usually the "manager" is a kid that has been there for more than a month.

I have a longstanding bitch with all parts places. Every parts place will answer the phone while you are standing there waiting at the counter. This drives me nuts, seems like you should get preferential treatment for actually getting up off your ass and driving to the store.

I agree. I've actually tapped the clerk on the shoulder while he's talking on the phone and reminded him that I'm actually here in the store, not sitting on my lazy ass calling from home. I try to be polite in most exchanges in life, but I also believe there's a bit of protocol that should be observed: Walk-ins have higher priority than call-ins.

I have been tempted to call the store on my cellphone while standing at the counter to see if I could make a point. Unfortunately, I don't think the moron behind the counter would get it.

 

[mrvette]

I hate the local Autozone. I think they have tried to set the store up with software that allows a moron to process a transaction. Throw a wildcard (like a core return) in there and they lockup. Usually the "manager" is a kid that has been there for more than a month.

I have a longstanding bitch with all parts places. Every parts place will answer the phone while you are standing there waiting at the counter. This drives me nuts, seems like you should get preferential treatment for actually getting up off your ass and driving to the store.

I agree. I've actually tapped the clerk on the shoulder while he's talking on the phone and reminded him that I'm actually here in the store, not sitting on my lazy ass calling from home. I try to be polite in most exchanges in life, but I also believe there's a bit of protocol that should be observed: Walk-ins have higher priority than call-ins.

I have been tempted to call the store on my cellphone while standing at the counter to see if I could make a point. Unfortunately, I don't think the moron behind the counter would get it.

VS, back in the day, when we went to the counter types that actually knew something.....they ARE around, but need be picky....

:bonkers:

 

[68/70Vette]

I have a longstanding bitch with all parts places. Every parts place will answer the phone while you are standing there waiting at the counter. This drives me nuts, seems like you should get preferential treatment for actually getting up off your ass and driving to the store.

Nothing much frosts me more also. I can't understand why walkin customers have less priority. Especially considering the hassle of actually driving through traffic to get to the store.

Probably in the early 80's I walked into a performance parts store to buy some GM Big Block aluminum rectangular port heads (I thought the parts store would give me a little discount of GM retail prices.) These were big buck items. Soon into the discussion with the clerk, the phone rang. It was someone who wanted to buy a carb rebuild kit. The caller and the clerk then got into a long converstaion because the caller wanted a couple dollars off the quoted price. I walked out of the store and bought my heads elsewhere.

I try not to buy anything from the local Autozone (or similar stores) because of the inexperience of the clerks and also because I suspect the quality of the stuff they sell. I like the service and expertise I find at a local NAPA store. I buy almost all of my parts over the internet. If I call Summit before noon, the part will be on my doorstep late the next afternooon. And that's for a part shipped from Reno NV to Los Angeles.

 

[DC3]

Might try NAPA if you have one available. Around here they are franchised and so locally owned rather than corporate owned and they are much better than the competition. I've been dealing with the same guys at my NAPA for 20 years.

DC

 

[Red]

I understand that patronizing a store with inept employees can be very frustrating, but every store is not the same. Here is my Autozone story.

Back about 1991, on a late Sunday afternoon, I was leaving a show in the Meadowlands, NJ to return upstate NY. The alternator bearing froze in my Chevy van as I left and smoked the serpentine belt. I decided to drive off with no ps, pb, wp etc. I fought heavy traffic, with an overheated engine, to find shops were closed. One shop just closing wanted me to leave the van at his shop overnight, stay at a $150 motel overnight and he would try and have it running the next day. Yeah-right! I forged on and asked the next service station attendee if he had a serpentine belt in stock. He said no, but there was a new Autozone that opened up on the hill a few miles away. After stopping a few times to let the engine cool down, I made it to the store. They had the alternator, serpentine belt and whatever else I replaced at the time. I did not have any tools, so they loaned me what tools I needed. When I needed a hand slipping the belt on with pressure on the tensioner, they gave me a hand. It was a bad neighborhood in NJ and the local hoods started circling me while I was under the car. The manager saw this happening and came out to watch my back. I fixed the car in the Autozone parking lot and the guys refused to take my $20 tip for the help. After I arrived home, I wrote a letter to the Autozone district manager of my experience. My one big mistake was not buying any shares of the stock back then. If I had, I'd be driving a new Z06 on the profit. Autozone doesn't have an exclusive on good or bad employees, but each store had to be judged on its own performance. IMO A different experience from the unfortunate one had by the thread starter.

 

[BBShark]

I understand that patronizing a store with inept employees can be very frustrating, but every store is not the same. Here is my Autozone story.

Back about 1991, on a late Sunday afternoon, I was leaving a show in the Meadowlands, NJ to return upstate NY. The alternator bearing froze in my Chevy van as I left and smoked the serpentine belt. I decided to drive off with no ps, pb, wp etc. I fought heavy traffic, with an overheated engine, to find shops were closed. One shop just closing wanted me to leave the van at his shop overnight, stay at a $150 motel overnight and he would try and have it running the next day. Yeah-right! I forged on and asked the next service station attendee if he had a serpentine belt in stock. He said no, but there was a new Autozone that opened up on the hill a few miles away. After stopping a few times to let the engine cool down, I made it to the store. They had the alternator, serpentine belt and whatever else I replaced at the time. I did not have any tools, so they loaned me what tools I needed. When I needed a hand slipping the belt on with pressure on the tensioner, they gave me a hand. It was a bad neighborhood in NJ and the local hoods started circling me while I was under the car. The manager saw this happening and came out to watch my back. I fixed the car in the Autozone parking lot and the guys refused to take my $20 tip for the help. After I arrived home, I wrote a letter to the Autozone district manager of my experience. My one big mistake was not buying any shares of the stock back then. If I had, I'd be driving a new Z06 on the profit. Autozone doesn't have an exclusive on good or bad employees, but each store had to be judged on its own performance. IMO A different experience from the unfortunate one had by the thread starter.

"Back about 1991" I don't think bad service was a problem. Most of the parts counter guys back then were familiar with cars. I don't think that is the case now.

Like said above, I do go to NAPA if I can. One of the counter guys there has worked there since the 70's. I don't know anyone who knows parts like that guy. I also go to a local parts place that is not a chain and probably looks exactly like it did in the 50's, even has barstool's in front of the counter.

When these guys retire or die, they will have to replace them with kids that have no interest in cars and no work ethic.

 

[mrvette]

Up north in Monkey Co. Faryland, an old friend went into the parts business, opened up his store with his father's backing, and so had some of the best parts guys around, maybe age 50 group today.....
all in their 20's back then....hotrodders of one description or other....
he named it Auto Parts Plus + this was maybe 5 years before some operation outta the midwest opened up, and stole his Maryland licensed business name/corporate name.....they opened up under damn nearly the same name, then the lawyers got involved....well we know how THAT turned out.....

dunno if he survived those shots or not, I suspect not.....I have to remember to ask around in the old crew.....

HERE, the various chains raid each other's operations for qualified help....truck guys from one house to another, promises and deals, chains hiring away, then not following through on the deal....
my favorite head shop, not OWNED but basically operated by Ralph Pisciotta (sp?) just next door, knew Ralph as the basic great counter guy who new more about heads then a MD.....so the owner sells, FIRST guy to go.....you got it...Ralph....some of my friends say they think he now across the river at another machine shop I know of, they built the vette engine and 2 others I connected with....

so it all sums up to be about like my TV repair shop experiences in the 60-70's....only a damn few of us, over the years I found out that out of maybe 500 TV guys in the Wash DC region back then....there were less than a DOZEN that knew shit....actually could tell you chapter and verse how a color TV worked, and why, and what the basic differences were between them and b/w tv.....:goodnight: