It's a business. They have concerns for their bottom line. A profit margin as wide as possible is of more importance than our satisfaction. (We don't have to be satisfied to need parts, and most of us go in these places half-cocked based on our last bad experience. But, we still NEED parts so we return...) If you're experienced and knowledgeable the cost of your services is going to take away from the bottom line. Also, consider that theft is rampant these days (possibly from being habitually underpaid?) and a guy with "knowledge" could potentially be stocking parts for his own projects. Why would any business want that? I'll bitch about the parts store/counter help when there is no place for me to get parts anymore. At least they are there for now.
This summer was in Burbank, CA and needed some rear end bearings and seals for my 98 Grand Cherokee 5900. I had printed the VIN on a piece of paper, so when I went to the Pep Boys I gave the vin to a clerk and told him what I wanted. He spent 1 1/4 hours looking in the computer, with someone else helping him out. Some stuff was in the shop, but soething else had to be sourced out. So had to come back the following afternoon. Went to the same guy, and he spent another hour looking for the parts that had arrived, but could not remember where had been left. After another hour and 3 guys looking for them, I was finally lout of the shop. Went back home, and brought the GC to the mechanics. Not a single part would be ok, not one. They gave me parts for the small Cherokee.....why did they ask for the VIN if they gave me wrong parts for another car? It's the Pep Boys on Oliver ave....near the Safari Inn.... For me only Rockauto has good service and good price, and never a mistake...
two things l'v run into,, 1. on my dwarf car almost EVERYTHING is custom or fabbed to work, had 4 master cyclinders b4 l got the one l wanted, first one was junk right outta the box and the other 2 had the outlets one the wrong side, when the clerks ya asks what year,some times l tell 'em it's a 31 chevy dwarf car and they go, HUH??,, l know that computer game so l have researched what l need and tell the clerk the car and year l need ,, cuts the bull and speeds up the process. real tired of most place l deal with going "if its not in the computer l don't know if we can help you"..... 2. plug wires on my 78 chevy truck,, told the clerk and he quoted me 32 bucks..so l had time and asked how much for 74 camaro and he said 17 bucks.,WHAT?, so l asked to look in the box and compared the sets, the differance was one camaro wire is 3" shorter and thats IT! got the lower price set and worked fine.. thanks,, later
I think AutoZone's computers lock up when I tell them I have a 56 Mercury with a small block Chevy..........As does the clerk !
Damn, I got laid off a year ago and tried to get into one of these places part time with no luck. I even applied for just delivering parts. Hell, driving to the store to apply should qualify me for that. I have an '77 Jeep Cherokee. I went to AZ and asked for a TH400 filter and gasket set. He said what year yadda yadda. I know the game so I say 77 Jeep Cherokee. The guy goes on a rant about how hard guys like me make things when we start changing stuff around. "It's stock asshole!" I shouldn't have been there at all because a few months before that he told me they didn't make those plastic emergency heater hose bypass kits anymore. I said they're right behind you and pointed. That guy was a douche!
Thanks to computers, I take my own responsibility at home to look up, compare prices and availability of the part. Then, I make a call to the parts store to verify everything as correct. So, I just hop in the car and ride over for pick up. The only thing, with my luck, is sometimes waiting in line as some yuhtz customer that has no clue about anything is holding up the counter and the extra employees are nowhere around (probably they're taking a smoke break or texting somewhere hidden in a dark corners). The only way to kill time is imagining knifes being thrown out of my eyes to throwing in grenades and seeing bodyparts of that yuhtz being thrown all over the store.
Shop NAPA, death to Pep Boys, Auto-Zoo, O'reilly's, Advance, etc. etc Worked NAPA going on 5 years pay is not great but make it up on parts and job security
i work at an O'Reilly part time and i can honestly say that i and the other guys i work with try to get the correct part the first time..and we usually do. most of the time we have it in stock , or can get it later that day or the next day i believe what service you get depends on the management...how they choose and train the employees and what they give them to work with. if the manager has a don't give a shit attitude, so will the employees. my manager says to try everything possible to find the correct parts and insists on that from us. O'Reilly also has a service line that the counter guy can call if he/she has problems or questions...that can be a big help and i've used it many times it also depends on an individual employee's past experiences , which can vary a lot.....i use that every day trying to figure out what the customer wants. if a customer comes in and has a engine code i'm more than willing to help , but a couple of the guys are service technicians at a local Ford dealership and let them take the lead. maybe i can learn something too. i've even called them at their home to get some input on a customers problem. but if a customer needs a power valve for a Holley carb or wheel bearing for a 9" rear i'm right there. just last week a guy asked for spark plug anti-foulers and NO ONE had any idea , i walked over to the shelf and grabbed them
I have my wife drop off a "512" 427 Corvette block for a .030 overbore at a mom & pop parts store / machine shop that I'd used before because they knew their shit. The owner had a top gas BBC dragster. I go in a couple weeks later to pick up the block and the guy trys to give me a 2 bolt 396. I looked at it and said "it's not mine". He tells me "that's it, they're tagged when they come in and you just gave me the other half of the tag". I tell him "then somebody must've erased my Social Security number stamped into the bellhousing flange and I do have have pictures". He says "just a minute" and goes into the back room. Comes back with "somehow the tags must've gotten mixed up during machining because it's back there" Yea, thanks you jerk-off.
You are right! Try to get a polished aluminum water pump for a small block Chevy [ long ] or find out the right spark plugs for a 427 Ford side oiler at Pep Boys. But they do have a great display of candy and vitamin water and the cashier was so hot.
My local Autozone and O'Reilly's normally let me behind the counter. My O'Reilly's has the usual spotty teenager behind the counter but he goes out of his way to help. I do go prepared with part numbers. Great source for early brake parts for 40's Fords.
Oi Vey, If I had a nickel for every time................. I'm an asst. mgr. at one of these places and I'm the guy that uses the books and keeps folks happy when they need something that isn't in the computer. I'm in no way an "expert" but between being a parts jockey for Jegs, NAPA, and now Advance, I know why they hire these guys that have never even heard of shinola let alone what it may differ from. They're cheap and expendable. I know there isn't alot of money in what I do, and almost constant frustration. But, somehow, I like the abuse. Now I digress. A guy comes into Jegs in the mid 90's and wants a full rotating assembly for his Olds Rocket 350. I ask the obligatory questions and when it sounds like he may be mistaken on the engine, I get " BOY! Its a GODDAM 83 Hurst Cutlass and they ONLY CAME WITH ROCKET 350's!!!!!". So I get him everything but the crank out of the warehouse, all the while bowing to his superior knowledge. So....a week later hes back up from Kentucky with 4 of his biggest inbred buddies and they storm into the store like the fucking Stasi. " Boy, are you fuckin dumb, you sold me the wrong parts" and proceeded to throw a computer monitor at me. While police were in route, we determined that his car was a v-6, and he was a wanted man for can you guess? Sttrong arm robbery. I Love Retail!
That goes for most "managers"; idiots sitting around waiting for something good to happen so they can claim credit for it.
Went into Auto Zone for a 57 Chevy rear wheel bearing. When he could't pull it up on the computer he scratched his head, opened up a book, scratched some more then told me that a 57 doesn't use rear wheel bearings.
Went into an Auto Zone parts store and asked for a group 51R battery. Spent 10 minutes arguing that it doesn't matter, what it's for. But he has to look it up. So I tell him 61 Corvair Rampside pickup. not in the computer, guy wastes about 20 minutes trying to look it up in the book. Only 2 guys behind the counter, store is real busy, and I'm tying one guy up. Finally he finds the application for a Corvair Rampside, book says group 53. He says, aren't you glad I looked it up? You would have bought the wrong battery. I say, do you have a group 53? No Can you get one? No. So why don't you just sell me the one I already know will fit? Then he gets the manager over there. Manager is poised at the computer and asks, what's it for? By this time I'm about ready to piss my pants laughing............walk out. Got my battery at NAPA instead
THAT is my pet peeve.... One day in O'Rs I was #2 in line... taking FOREVER because the parts man kept interupting the guy infront of me and answering the phone... Then its my turn, and YEP the phone rings... While he is talking on the phone I notice the guy infront of me left his ticket on the counter with their phone number on it... I dialed it with my cell phone and held the phone beneath the counter. As soon as he hung up, I started talking again while hitting the send button... he says "just a sec" and answers the phone, I lifted mine to my ear and continued talking.... He hung up and didnt answer the phone again until I left....
The problem with these big name auto parts stores ( I worked for 2 in college) is that they don't want to pay people what they are worth. The idea is that they can take someone off the street, have them read some material, take some tests and make them a parts "pro". I've been on both sides of the counter... no pun intended... I don't want the counterman's help, I look up my parts at home on the PC, and if they are not listed, I'll go to the company's site and get a part number and go from there... I know that If it's wrong it's my fault. The one thing that was the worst was spring and fall. Planting and harvesting. It seems that the local folk thought auto parts store, actually referred to tractor/heavy truck store. They were mad because we didn't stock carb kits for a 1010 JD, or their international grain truck. I usually could get the stuff, and sometimes we were able to piece together something from one or two kits. The other was someone was getting cranky because I was asking specifics about a 350... I got the "They're all the same" BS... like I didn't know what I was doing. He wanted an oil pan gasket. So who was I to argue, I grabbed one of the more common one piece felpro gaskets and sent him on his way... he was pissed when he came back... didnt' even look at me, but he gave my coworker the specifics for the engine... OS34509T= Thin gasket OS34510T= Thick gasket
I have to agree. I have worked parts for years and have changed jobs because they wouldn't part with a 25 cent an hour raise. For the assistant manager yet. The corporate stores (especially NAPA) are so busy hiring kids who have no idea what a flathead is. Or how to adapt a 3/16" line to a 1/4" line. Watch the look on a customers face when "the new kid" stops waiting on him to text his girlfriend. Or when the GIRL can't make a hydraulic hose because "they won't pay her any more so she won't do anything else". Take some of that money spent on a TOYOTA race car and give it where it will do the most good. Paying the REAL counterpeople. Good service is not only your job, it's your responsibility. I've seen better service at the McDonald's.
I work at Auto Zone part time now for 4 years. Most of the workers or either young or NOT auto smart. The managers that stick around can because they do brown nose abit. Some of the newer cars it does matter what options the car has (rediculous). But it helps for me and afew of the other guys that are car smart to figure out the older stuff. As for looking in catalogs that is roughly what I use daily in my full time job. But yes some of those people at them stores do suck!
Burbank Auto Parts, Napa on Sherman Way and CarQuest in Newhall. All are about 5-20 miles away but worth every drop of gas I have burned.
There is an Autozone near me, or Advance, idk, really dont care, I just know how to drive there and Im cool with that. Tried Norwood a few weeks ago, needed some flexible trim, describing it over the phone to make sure the guy knows what Im talking about and I guess I hadn't been informed that I was speaking to "Head Parts Wizard". He quickly copped an attitude and told me that he "knows what I'm talking about, no need to go on about it." So I go to the store to match it up to what he had and it was a shock. It was wrong. I couldnt have BEEN more specific over the phone, but I guess being a dick was more important. I wont go there anymore.
try tires.went to the auto parts desk at Canadian tire nearest to us, for winter tires for my Dad's new 300 (sorry o/t but story is relevant )...car comes factory stock with 17's but his upgrade rolls 18"alloys...we got some factory plain 17" steel wheels for the winter rims we want a rough height of the new snow skins to help insure the speedo will be fairly accurate.the guy behind the counter (mid 30's...does not strike me as a car guy ) who sells ladies brake pads for their cavaliers all day pulls out books upon books, opens up webpages.....i expected this ( brought some light reading material )but just maybe take the easy route if after 10 minutes you can find it roll a tire out and lets measure it.older dude who was away helping a customer in the aisles grabs the book, flips to the right page and says "oh yeah, your within 5%, no speedo issues" and that was that cool.... and you know when you try to politely guide them, they get that snotty attitude................ not all, but most. I worked in a old school parts house in high school and after for a while running parts and serving the counter, learned alot....had an old guy come in and ask for a wire loom for his caddy, I say thats a dealer item, he says no he gets them every year for a tune up, I ask him if he means spark plug wires, he says " yea, spark plug looms " that was over twenty years ago, never head that term used before or after that day...
I grew up in a parts store cause my dad worked at one starting in 1958..He was "let go" from the store 3 months ago after a Canadian company bought the store...Now here is a guy that has 50 years of experience,knows by sight bearings, seals,etc, and knows how to give great customer service. We are in a small town of under 10k, and they fire the guy that taught every other parts guy in town, to save his part time salary..Never mind that the store's business is based on, in this town, WHO waits on them, not whose name is on the front door...most parts stores now sell cheap imported parts with cheap disposable employees.and its going to get worse. ....
Not sure if anyone really cares to hear what is like on the other side of the counter but... I am 21 years old, i work for advance auto parts, i got the normal part time job for the "discount" when i was almost turning 19, I unlike the rest of my store have something Pre-fuel injection, i bought a 1985 dodge D100, I know it's not a hot rod or custom, i spent many hours under the hood for the truck I bought for $500, cut the computer out of the fender and went back to a ballast resistor and an ECU and put in the Vacuum advance distributor. over the last year i have spent more time with Catalogs and listening to the old school guys walk through the door for parts for something below 1980, i barely use the computer or ask "year make model" i have learned more to ask "is it pre-fuel injector or did you swap in "such and such" most are shocked when i walk out back grab a book or part and walk back to the counter, I will tell you this, they pay us like crap most kids will stay less then 6 months and go on, you will find more and more catalogs are a dying art, those Catalogs you see now are more filled with add on crap or something above 1988, i spent 2 weeks calling other stores for old catalogs that were being tossed out, i have my OWN pre-1980's catalogs shock books etc, if you come in and do not give me some kid of Attitude i will go above and beyond my job to get you the parts you asked for, most of the time i will even give you a good deal on them or stock a few extra's for you for next time, my managers how ever would rather hire someone off the street to work the commercial counter or be a manger, if that was happening to you it would make you a bit upset and not want to apply yourself to the job more, wouldn't it? I am trying very hard to keep busting my ass to keep the old school crowd happy with parts they normally would not get, i'm not trying to rant or complain just thought I would share, I really enjoy this site, it's full of good info that I can use at the store, sorry for the long post, -Ryan
It must have been last months issue and nobody had pulled it from shelves yet. When AZ has "obsolete" stock, they set price at .01
Well, it sounds like we did the same job for the same company. When the store I was working in was closed, instead of moving me to another store to take over the commercial sales, they hired a person who had no automotive experience whatsoever and worked for 30% less on the hour than I was making. Believe me, 30 years of experience means nothing to the big chain auto parts stores, it's all about "making the numbers" or else!
The big chains DO pay decent money for GOOD help. I have been in the parts biz over 20 years. I went to work for Autozone last year in their Commercial Dept. They hired me away from OReillys by bidding higher per hourly wage. I`m not making Donald Trump type money, but OK for what I do.
If you want to get the right parts the first time, you might as well answer the questions... Most people don't think there are differences, but the size of engine can make a difference and so can other details. I know on some newer Jeeps they come with two different calipers ATE or Akebono. The 6 cylinder models have 2 different possibilities which may need you to check and see which you have. Most V8 models have only one possibility which narrows it down. Jeeps aren't the only ones like that, I've seen lots of others the same way. Brake systems aren't the only thing like that either... A lot of different parts vary depending on what your car was built with.
The Jalopy Journal
