Parts store stoopidity

I buy a reasonable amount of batteries at CarQuest, if they come with the AUTOCRAFT label, I peel it off to reveal the CARQUEST logo, same sticker, just CQ instead of The other one. Double layer sticker, try it.

Yes, Advance Auto bought out CarQuest 2 years ago, been in the works 2-3 years prior to that. Advance is currently monitoring store performance to see what goes and stays in the same market, some of the CQ stores may become regional mini warehouses, not focused on walk in retail but more commercial and shop delivery as well as supplying other stores ( delivered to store you're buying from same day)

The couple of CQs I deal with have been very helpful, not totally knowledgable, but willing to learn and help find stuff. I go out of my way to shop these stores, it's tough to find folks willing and interested to help.
 
i have all of the parts stores on the computer, i look everything up before i call.(actually connie) when i call the parts stores they hate me. dealerships have to have a vin to even get into the parts look-up anymore.
you should have to do this 25 times a day to really feel the pain of unknowledgeable parts people.
 
I've had pretty good luck with the people at the local parts stores letting me go back behind the counter to find what I need. When I put the radiator in the back of my Ranger, I needed all sorts of funky radiator hoses to make all the connections. I drew some of them out on paper with dimensions, and bent up a coat hanger into the shape for one really funky one. The guy at O'Rielly's in Kernersville was cool and said have at it and let me find them myself (which is what I preferred to do) from all the options hanging up in the back.
 
drkelly said:
I've had pretty good luck with the people at the local parts stores letting me go back behind the counter to find what I need. When I put the radiator in the back of my Ranger, I needed all sorts of funky radiator hoses to make all the connections. I drew some of them out on paper with dimensions, and bent up a coat hanger into the shape for one really funky one. The guy at O'Rielly's in Kernersville was cool and said have at it and let me find them myself (which is what I preferred to do) from all the options hanging up in the back.
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That is how it was when I lived in Boone. Flawless. I did tend to get tasked with frustrating the new people though.

Advance Auto: What can I help you find?
Me: An alternator for a 85 Monte Carlo SS
Advance Auto: Ok. But didn't you drive up in a F250
Me: Yeah, but this is for my 85 Toyota Xtra Cab
Advance Auto: Uhhhh. Then I need to get you an alternator for an 85 Toyota.
Me: Look kid, its an 85 Toyota with 86 Chevy axles, its getting an 85 Chevy alternator and it runs on propane. Oh and the V belt I need is from an 83 Celica.
Advance Auto: (Head explodes)

Best I have found since moving to Charlotte has been either the Advance Auto on 521S just past Ballantyne before Indian Land or the Napa on 49/Westinghouse intersection. The people there don't breathe COMPLETELY through their mouths.
 
ManglerYJ said:
I used to live in a small town with only one parts store and the dudes behind the counter sounded exactly like your Advance employee. I was building my jeep with a 305 tpi motor from a 92 firebird formula, tranny and t case from a 70 blazer, axles out of a scout 2, steering column from a fiero, etc. I go in one day to get 5 quarts of oil, 4 sets of scout 2 brake pads, oil filter from a firebird, reverse switch from a 70 blazer and injectors for a 5.0 mustang. Parts store dude asks how many vehicles I have? Just one.....

And he argues with me about needing 4 sets of pads. I tell him mine has 4 wheel discs. This didn't end well.
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I have an 87 Samurai with 95 sidekick engine and 79 J10 axles. That's always fun...

The thing that pisses me off most is how differently I'm treated depending on how I'm dressed and what I'm driving. If i come in in greasy clothes driving the jeep or my old truck its completely different than stopping on the way home from work in slacks and a button up in a nice car.
 
I miss the old days when you could just walk into the parts store and say "yeah I have an old ford with a 302 and it's blah blah blah" and the dude behind the counter says "oh I know what you need" and walks over to a shelf and pulls one down. No books, no computers but folks behind the counters that knew cars.
 
LBarr2002 said:
The thing that pisses me off most is how differently I'm treated depending on how I'm dressed and what I'm driving. If i come in in greasy clothes driving the jeep or my old truck its completely different than stopping on the way home from work in slacks and a button up in a nice car.
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NAPA excepted, I get treated like I'm stupid and that I don't know what I need if I show nicely dressed. I get the impression that people who dress nicely don't usually know anything about cars?
 
StretchASU said:
That is how it was when I lived in Boone. Flawless. I did tend to get tasked with frustrating the new people though.

Advance Auto: What can I help you find?
Me: An alternator for a 85 Monte Carlo SS
Advance Auto: Ok. But didn't you drive up in a F250
Me: Yeah, but this is for my 85 Toyota Xtra Cab
Advance Auto: Uhhhh. Then I need to get you an alternator for an 85 Toyota.
Me: Look kid, its an 85 Toyota with 86 Chevy axles, its getting an 85 Chevy alternator and it runs on propane. Oh and the V belt I need is from an 83 Celica.
Advance Auto: (Head explodes)

Best I have found since moving to Charlotte has been either the Advance Auto on 521S just past Ballantyne before Indian Land or the Napa on 49/Westinghouse intersection. The people there don't breathe COMPLETELY through their mouths.
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You should see the list of vehicles that show up in my Autozone warranty log.

I own 5 actual vehicles but the TJ is composed of a 97 TJ, 2005 TJ, two different engine models of 2005 Ram 1500, 2008 Dakota, 86 CJ, 98 Ford Explorer. Then add on all the other parts I've bought helping friends fix their junk.
 
StretchASU said:
Best I have found since moving to Charlotte has been either the Advance Auto on 521S just past Ballantyne before Indian Land or the Napa on 49/Westinghouse intersection. The people there don't breathe COMPLETELY through their mouths.
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Depending on where you live, the NAPA on 74/Wilkinson BLVD, in the Hood just off 485 is the best I've ever been in. They also are the SE regional NAPA warehouse so rarely do they not have it.
 
NAPA seems to have better qualified people , but again you get what you pay for. Being a shop I rarely buy from them because they are high compared to a lot of other parts stores. I don't really buy anything from parts stores unless it's shop supply type stuff.
 
I HATE the NAPA on 68/Gallimore Dairy Rd in North High Point. They have about 8-10 stations there to help people, but only about 1-2 people ever manning them who are slow as shit and seem to act surprised that people are in the store wanting to buy stuff.
 
drkelly said:
I HATE the NAPA on 68/Gallimore Dairy Rd in North High Point. They have about 8-10 stations there to help people, but only about 1-2 people ever manning them who are slow as shit and seem to act surprised that people are in the store wanting to buy stuff.
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When this happens, I spin a computer around and start looking up my own parts. It blows their minds when you can find stuff quicker than they can.

Napa, carquest and oreilly still have books that you can find anything and everything in, stuff that's not listed in the computers.

Advance and vatozone don't even have the books.

When I ask for them at oreilly and the kids are dumbfounded I teach them how to look something up. They're blown away by finding useful info not on google or by application.

Get in good with them, and they will give you the old books when they get new ones every year.

These are valuable for looking up and crossing part numbers at home super fast.
 
know whats cool.
Use rock auto. Its really a decent search. The take the part number and enter into advance or autozones website.
Itll come up most times with their part number. Then walk in and ask for that number or better yet buy online pick up in store..
 
I use rockauto or amazon, I can do my own research and get it delivered fast and cheap, and don't have to deal with some schmuck that doesn't even know he can type a part number into the computer.
 
Some stuff from rockauto has been bad out of the box.

2 jeep internal ax15 slave cylinders

Several suburban Delphi fuel pumps and sending units. Correct sending unit with wrong pump already installed.

Advance auto will price match rock auto also.

Oreillys, autozone, and advance will all price match or beat one another
 
Advance auto parts is a joke. As an repair actual shop, working with advance auto is a joke. Wrong parts, part failures new out of the box 10 times in a row, on virtually every line they have. Poor customer support and a massive headache when it comes to commercial account mistakes on their part. Napa may carry some of the same lines but much better to deal with!
 
I'm just surprised the parts store girl didn't ask you if the genset in question had air conditioning. That seems to always be the required question whenever I buy brake pads. Because they obviously put different brake pads on cars with air conditioning.
 
I'm Oreillys all they way. Still get shotty service at times. But me and a buddy had a boat broke down at 5pm on a Friday, trailer bearings went out. Took what was left of the race to AA, blew their minds, AZ, guy kind of tried but didn't help. Went to Oreillys and the guy broke out the book, a micrometer, and a Mountain Dew for me and him and had me on my way. Really went out of his way to help when most people wanted to blow me off cause the my couldn't look up 'Ski Nautiuqe' in the computer.

I got good service out of the old school Napa in Harlan when I need a Chevy D60 axle u joint.
 
Yes advance auto bought out carquest, the buy out really has nothing to do with parts prices being more or less, they bought carquest for the name, that's it.

Now I am an advance auto employee part time just for the discount and extra play money. The biggest reason you get idiot people behind the counter is that these parts houses don't want to pay a decent wage nor take care of their employees. I'll bet that all you people that think you know more than people that work there wouldn't work at advance for $8 or $9 an hour so why would you expect a knowledgeable person to do the same? Would you deal with the idiot assholes that know everything yet know nothing, on that wage knowing your family had to live off that. It's actually just as much the consumers fault as the employee because the consumer doesn't care how the company is to employees, yet complains that service wasn't right. I'm not saying that you shouldn't have a good and easy experience I'm just letting you know the simple reason why the parts stores are like this. Btw when you sit a battery on the table and the person asks you what you wanted, that means they don't know if you want it checked, charged, or replaced. It helps to be a little more informative rather than to expect someone to just read your mind.
 
It also gets on my nerves that people get mad when you ask them questions about their vehicle. Does a/c have anything to do with brake pads, NO but as an employee I'm going to ask you every bit of info needed so that when you as a consumer get the wrong part, the guy behind the counter has covered his ass by getting all the info given from you correct. You wouldn't believe how many people don't know what their vehicle is, get the wrong part because they are an idiot, then get mad because you gave them the wrong part based on their wrong information.
 
My last run in wit vatozone was I needed an alternator for my Cherokee, took it off took it to them told them what it was from but they said they had to test the old one first.... Umm ok test away.... They tried testing it but realized they didn't have the plug for it. Ok so just sell me my new one and I'll be on my way. Guy said they couldn't sell me a new one unless the old one tested bad..... Wtf just sell me the damn alternator... I wound up driving 10 miles out of my way to go to Napa.

Now they built a new Napa down here on 160. Still further drive but worth not having to deal with the idiots that work at auto zone...
 
I had to give year make and model to get the cheap lug nuts. Dude didnt know how to go back to the bin and read 1/2 x 20 and grab 5 of them.

They also dont know what fittings they have / dont have. I had to convince the guy to let me go back and look in their bins for a 1/4 flared tube to 1/8NPT adapter.


Car quest used to be the best. They would really go out of their way to make sure you found what you were looking for but its declined in recent years.
 
Ron said:
know whats cool.
Use rock auto. Its really a decent search. The take the part number and enter into advance or autozones website.
Itll come up most times with their part number. Then walk in and ask for that number or better yet buy online pick up in store..
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Or even better - just order it online from AA or AZ and walk in to pick it up. In fact most of teh time there is a discount code to get you 15% or more off.

Nowaways I pretty much always just do my own research online first - similar to above. Find the part via RockAuto or other source, then search for that at the local store inventory. Or just start w/ teh store. But the point is I know exactly what part # I want, and if I didn't already do the transaction online, I just walk in w/ that part # on a piece of paper and say, I need this.
It makes life soooo much easier. The 90 seconds spent on the PC at home first saves minutes of frustration later.
 
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