Advance Auto Rant

Ron

Ron

Dum Spiro Spero
Moderator
Joined
Apr 16, 2005
Location
Sharon, SC
So I buy a 5 Year Platinum AGM battery from Advance Auto in December of 2019 for my son's truck.
It takes a dump and leaves the truck stranded. Gets a friend to come jump him off and gets it home.

Now for the fun part.

Since we bought it online all they will do is fully refund the battery purchase to me not swap it out.

However we bought it with a 20% off coupon. The new "diehard" battery doesnt allow coupons and the price has increased $25.
How is this a 5 year warranty when I have to pay them $72 to get the same battery....but of course if Id like to just drop down to the non AGM, its miraculously coincidentally the exact price I paid for my battery.
 
If they're anything like Auto Zone, find the number for the Regional Manager and raise hell to them and I bet you get it swapped out for free.
 
Sounds about right.

I tried to buy a starter for my 4runner on their website the other day. I could use the 20% off coupon but it would only allow me to apply one of the four gift cards I had.

I could go in the store and use all my cards at once, but of course the 20% off was online only. :rolleyes:
 
I stood in the store and bought a battery on my phone for the 20% discount while I looked at the dude behind the register. I told him that this situation was pretty dumb. Their markup is crazy from online to in store. Looked online for a power steering hose and a mass airflow sensor. They were more than double the price in store vs online.
 
And they want us to go to electric vehicles when companies can't even make a decent 12v battery :rolleyes:
 
Well after a little polite but pointed conversation the manager dropped the price of the new battery to match the old and swapped them out...so the end result is in whole but unhappy it took an argument.

The winning argument was-ā€¢it says 5 years full replacement on the front. It you buy a new car with a bumper to bumper warranty and the factory rebate is over and the new model costs more...do they charge you the difference when your transmission dies in warranty. She agreed that sounded dumb but ā€œthis is differentā€ ...I said yeah because you work here...she agreed ā€œyou are probably right -it isnā€™t my money Iā€™ll just discount the new to match the old. But we canā€™t install the battery at this price. ā€œ
No worries it wonā€™t fit the 65 mustang in the parking lot anyway....
 
I ordered some parts from them a couple weeks ago. After seeing my packages tracking stall in Charlotte for a week I contact Advance online. With very little wait a new fuel pump and two carb kits were being reshipped
 
rockcity said:
All the AGM batteries I have absolutely suck. And both were overpriced Odyssey.
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Don't tell me that! After my factory AC/Delco battery died, in 3 years, & Chevrolet would not do anything for me, I bought a Larger AGM Interstate, at a decent price, & the dude even installed it! Yea, 2016 [& others] with half the battery under the fenderwell & surrounded by braces & electrical connections! Damn! I also have a AGM Diehard, in my CJ. It's barely used, but was already 40 mo old when I installed it. So, so good on Both.
 
GotWood said:
Lesson #1: AGM batteries from Advance/Zone are no better than the standard
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The only battery I have around here that outlasted the warranty is an Odyssey that's like eight years old.

The Walmart batteries have either two year or three year free replacement (depending on how much you pay). They won't replace them once you're past the original warranty (regardless of the date on the battery), and they die shortly outside of warranty if not replaced immediately before, but they cost damn near half of what a battery anywhere else will run.
 
Ron said:
The winning argument was-ā€¢it says 5 years full replacement on the front.
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Just to be clear: they no longer sell the battery that needed warranty replacement, right?
 
shawn said:
Just to be clear: they no longer sell the battery that needed warranty replacement, right?
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They do. Identical case markings and everything down to the same sku number.
However they now brand them as diehard instead of autocraft.
Magnuson Moss is pretty clear on this.
Itā€™s why ā€œRamā€ had to honor ā€œDodgeā€warranties...Imagine if an auto manufacturer could just change trade names and no longer warranty their product. Iā€™m betting around the middle of 6.0 lawsuit hell Ford would have loved to produce the all new F251...sorry F250 no longer made no warranty on those
 
Ron said:
Identical case markings and everything down to the same sku number.
However they now brand them as diehard instead of autocraft.
Magnuson Moss is pretty clear on this.
Click to expand...
The SKU makes it a moot point, but this is basically what Craftsman, Kobalt, etc have done. Lowe's and Sears won't warranty your "lifetime" stuff - your beef is with a separate company. You can box it up and mail it to them, and they'll honor the warranty, but the hassle and cost makes it a losing prospect. OtterBox is the same thing. For what it costs to get warranty coverage, you can buy a new one faster and cheaper. Sounds like this is a different story, though.
 
A lot of this stems from their corporate structure. Every store is an independent franchise. Its also common that the warranty records are tied to the store. You might be able to do a swap elsewhere but you better have the original receipt.
I ran into this exact same thing with a Platinum AGM a couple years ago, bought online wit ha discount, they didn't want to do a direct swap at the same price b/c I didn't have a store receipt. I raised a stink and the conversation with teh manager went exactly as ron's (except he did at least try to explain the store independence thing).

Basically what I've learned is, the online deals are great for stuff you're not likely to need a warranty on. If you do, just go to Autozone or elsewhere.
 
shawn said:
The SKU makes it a moot point, but this is basically what Craftsman, Kobalt, etc have done. Lowe's and Sears won't warranty your "lifetime" stuff - your beef is with a separate company. You can box it up and mail it to them, and they'll honor the warranty, but the hassle and cost makes it a losing prospect. OtterBox is the same thing. For what it costs to get warranty coverage, you can buy a new one faster and cheaper. Sounds like this is a different story, though.
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This is actually not true. And I appreciate the reminder because I forgot to post about it :laughing:
 
shawn said:
Got denied at Lowes because the ratchets weren't *identical*.
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Same here. Brand new 1/2" ratchet, selector was knocked off the back first time I used it. Lowes would not replace it because it was not identical. The thing came in a set I got my son for Christmas a couple years ago so it's different from any single item off the shelf. I miss the old Sears days when they would throw the old, broken one in a bin under the counter and just tell you to grab a new one and that was it.
 
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