Local parts stores

[redline1320]

Just a fair warning out there to the guys going to their local parts stores for minor parts and all.
Went to my local auto zone today to get spark plugs for my rb25 skyline and luckily I know what I'm doing but the idiot behind the counter asked what I needed and I told him NGK #6262 or 4045 if they carried the platinum laser plugs (4045). Well after a debate about what car they were going into which I told him was totally irrelivant and he tried to convince me that they were pregapped plug *blah blah blah* he looked for the plug and said they didn't have any nor did they even carry them.
Well he cross referrenced them to autolite double platinum plugs and began to try and convince me they were the same thing. After which I turned and walked out of the store.
Just a fair warning to be sure to have the exact part # you need before going to your local parts store and asking for a certain product for a swapped/ modded car.

[turbo-travis]

yep, it can be tuff

[R33E8]

Yeah.. Last time I had a similar experience at AutoZone the store manager bet his "ASE certification" that NGK plugs get hotter as the number goes up and tried to convince me to not buy bkr8 plugs..

[OBEEWON]

This one time I punched a guy at Autozone.

Sometimes I go in to Pepboys and try to order tires for a Buggatti Veyron. Everytime without fail they try to look out the window to see it. I just tell them I took my chopper and parked it on the roof, and the car is parked at home.

[94_240sx]

My local Autozone manager drives STi and he knows a lot about cars especially imports. He's helped me quiet a lot actually.

[tcg5014]

I manage an Advance and a lot of times people who have cars with swapped motors just come in with the wrong attitude. Yes, I, understand you have the part number you need, but remember not everyone working there is big into whatever type of car you are, and our systems are designed to work on year, make and model. I don't really ever get this from import cars, but the guys with 350 chevy motors are famous for it. They just walk in and say I need such and such for a 350 and when you ask them what car, because that will make it much faster, they get all pissed and say, well its a race car, it doesn't matter what car. Hahaha, just remember, yes all of our stores have a guy, "who has been working on cars for 30 years" that is a dumba$$, but some of us are there to help

[blueshark123]

Originally Posted by tcg5014

I manage an Advance and a lot of times people who have cars with swapped motors just come in with the wrong attitude. Yes, I, understand you have the part number you need, but remember not everyone working there is big into whatever type of car you are, and our systems are designed to work on year, make and model. I don't really ever get this from import cars, but the guys with 350 chevy motors are famous for it. They just walk in and say I need such and such for a 350 and when you ask them what car, because that will make it much faster, they get all pissed and say, well its a race car, it doesn't matter what car. Hahaha, just remember, yes all of our stores have a guy, "who has been working on cars for 30 years" that is a dumba$$, but some of us are there to help

OP had a part number, thats all u need to look up the part. I have gotten into lots of arguments with fucking dumbasses in aoutzone/pepboys. The last one was because some guy wanted to be a smart ass. I asked for some parts for a 03 ford mustang v6 i needed a oil filter for a friend of mine. He then made me repeat myself like 5 times to him cause he was fucking slow as shit to look up the car and kept forgetting what the fuck i said 2 seconds ago. Then he tried to get smart with me by telling that v6 are for f@@s and i should get a v8. I told him to shut the fuck up before i put him in his place. He then got scared when i got pissed off i went to the manager for help he got in trouble.The fucking kid drives a primered honda. Now every time i need something i just get on the computer myself and look it up

[dudermagee]

I don't even bother with those fuck sticks unless I'm really desperate
internet parts ftw

But last week I needed to get some rubber hose for a custom cover to protect my re-routed harness.
The dumbass kept asking me what car it was for, I kept telling him it doesn't matter just show me what size hoses you have.
Finally the manager came back from his smoke break and let me go into the back where they had them, took me 10 seconds to figure out what I wanted.

[zerodameaon]

I had one Autozone that I liked going to but 9 out of 10 people working there were import enthusiasts and most of them Nissan. Now that the store moved down the road its mostly (no offense) women working there now and while they may know stuff about cars its not about swaps.

[daryl337]

I used to work at one.

Quit once I found a better job. Sometimes you can find people who know what they are talking about. Most of the time, you can't.

My awesome (or not) experience to share is when I ordered some Prussian Blue and lapping compound from a local O'Reillys.

Spoke to a female who was really nice, and ran all the part #'s and placed the order to their local warehouse. Once I get off work to pick the parts up, drove my ass out there and asked for my parts at the counter. The idiot standing at the counter looks at me, then turns towards some guys in the back and yells "Hey! Did any of you fools take an order from a Daryl?" "No" "Yeah, not here bro. You must have the wrong store."

I then tell them, "well a female took my order, at around 2pm"


"Oh yeah bro, thats probably Cynthia"


"Okaaaay....... so did she order my parts?"

"Oh, Cynthias not here right now, she went home"

At this point in time, im starting to get a little pissed, because its almost as if I had to walk this asshole into the back room myself.
"Okaaayyy.... and when Cynthia goes home, is she in the habit of fucking throwing away every part she ordered for the day? Or does she put the order on a will-call shelf like any normal part store?"


One of the other guys gets off his ass and goes in back to check, and the original guy im talking to still had his ass planted in his seat. 10 minutes later the guy comes out from the back room with the Prussian blue. The package was opened. By him. The idiot had never seen blue dye apparently, and decided to open the package to take a close look.




My god, this makes me angry.

[Spencer dougherty]

next time walk in there and ask for a set of plugs for a 93 300zx turbo.. get NGK copper v powers.. then re gap them to .30 from .42 witch is stock.. i make over 400 on there plugs with out any problems.. just gotta change them every other oil change.. but there only $1.60 each.. also gained 28hp over stock plugs on the dyno

[Xplat]

more parts store horror stories please

[Rk3]

Originally Posted by Spencer dougherty

next time walk in there and ask for a set of plugs for a 93 300zx turbo.. get NGK copper v powers.. then re gap them to .30 from .42 witch is stock.. i make over 400 on there plugs with out any problems.. just gotta change them every other oil change.. but there only $1.60 each.. also gained 28hp over stock plugs on the dyno

Hahaha seriously because I just did my plugs on my 90 tt and spent fuckin 13 dollars a plug for those stupid ngk laser platinums, because everyone said if you buy anything different it will run like shit.

[blueshark123]

yea most parts stores around me have only women working that speak ghetto as fuck or speak English all gibberish with a accent

[piranhamatt]

I have an advance auto parts about a mile from my house. I am there often enough that I set up a commercial account and now get fantastic pricing. Honestly, I couldn't be happier with the situation.

[Flicktitty]

its funny most of the local parts stores i go to know me and know of my car, and usually ask me for help with other customer cars. lol.

[jontron5000]

I went into PepBoys just the other day. Let me tell you, I really hate going to the back and asking those idiots that work behind the counter for help. If you don't have a part number or having what you want directly in your hand, you are shit out of luck. The fools try to look useful by trying to find stuff in their computer and 9 times out of 10 they won't find what you are looking for.

So I am running dual electric fans on my aftermarket radiator. Of course, I'm going to need an electric fan controller to trigger the fans to come on. I ask the LADY behind the counter if they carry electric fan controllers or fan switches. She points to a several boxes that contain FAN ASSEMBLIES. I told her that's not what i'm looking for and I'll wait for someone else to help me. So some dude asks me if I need help and I ask him the same thing, "Do you guys have fan switches?" Once again these morons point me to the boxes of fans.

WTF do they not listen to the entire sentence? Do they just listen to you until they hear something they recognize then just point?

"Do you have Fan [controllers]?"
"Yeah we have fans"


In conclusion, I google fan controller and apparently AutoZone carries them and if I go in there and they have no idea what I need, I'll just show them the product on their website with my iPhone. One of many advantages this phone has...showing incompetent workers what you need with a nice fatty picture.

I'm just generalizing at this moment, I'm sure there are plenty of people who know their shit at these auto parts stores, I have yet to encounter one however.

[ymisoqt]

I had a guy ask me for my make and model when I asked him what isle the cotter pins were on.

I use the Oreilly's by my house and have been for 5 years. All of the guys there know me since I'm in there so much, they don't make me pay a core when I pick stuff up and let me borrow tools without a deposit because they know I'll bring everything back. And they know all of my cars are swapped so they don't question me when I'm ordering stuff. I've learned to just stick with the same store/dealer all the time and I don't have to deal with bs.




~Jen

[Mikey444]

I work at a autozone, usually the folks from the "project" car community come deal with me, because my co workers sometimes have no clue on certain stuff. Its quite sad because if they would hire people who knew what they were talking about, they could improve customer service for the "project" car community. The people who actually come in there knowing exactly what they need, but get the run around and 50 questions. Its a hassle, but they won't improve it, all they care about is getting the money by any means necessary.

[andisan]

"jontron5000"

That happened to me too, i saw that my local kragen had the fan controller that i needed in stock, so i went in and gave them the part number, which wasnt even a car part, its an universal part and they still asked me for year and model of the car
I just smiled(i wanted to laugh out loud) and it took me 20 minutes to explain to them that its an universal part, that i have a custom setup.

But after all that they still didnt know if they had it or not, so i just left (not mad but with a hugh smile on my face because they are idiots) so i had my buddy try for me because i guess he knew one of the worker and had better luck than i did.

[zerodameaon]

Most times I just make them turn the screen my way and tell them Ill find it. Don't really get any flack about that which is nice.

[s14fbs]

hey i walk in tell them i have a 95 240sx with a ka24de and get my parts and walk out

crazy right

[SinGarage]

I used to work for Pepboys many many moons ago. Kinda sad that the store manager and assitant manager knew nothing really about cars. Lets just say I got promoted to assistant manager within 3 months lol. This was like 97 or 98...damn I'm old.

I only deal with one Autozone close to my house that the staff actually knows what they're doing. It's usually a safe bet at least in my area (SFV) the Kragens/Oreilley and Kings Auto, half their staff actually knows somewhat about cars. Pepboys and Autozone, good luck.

I usually just walkin and turn around the screen and start typing or I have the part number on hand already.

[omgRWDgoodness!]

Hahah oh man I have one. I remember one time I went with my dad to my local PepBoys to get some spark plugs and other maintenance goodies for my '98 Civic (yeah yeah, it was my hand-me-down first car) and we ask the jackass behind the counter for spark plugs for a 1998 Honda Civic LX. Now this guy literally looked like some bum off the street dressed in PepBoys attire, about 60+ years old with his long grey mullet and beard. After about 10-15 minutes of "looking" on his computer and on the shelves in the back he returns to say that they don't have them. After this my dad gets annoyed and goes to ask another employee, which turns out to be some manager. He finds the spark plugs we needed in about 30 seconds and brings them up to the counter. Satisfied, he thanks the manager guy and then tells him (in a loud voice so the idiot nearby could hear) "it took that fucking retard 15 minutes and he didn't find shit!". The guy kinda just smiles and I walk away, trying not to bust out laughing. We get the rest of our stuff and leave.

The customer service in that store is pretty shitty. Every time my best friend and I go there for whatever reason, it's like they don't even acknowledge our presence. One time we went to dump like 4-5 quarts after an oil change there and we stood at the service counter for 15 minutes before anyone asked us if we needed help. It's still fun to go now and then though, especially if we need to get a "discount" of a certain variety We always joke that we could probably roll a set of tires out of there without a problem.

The local Advance isn't as bad, although I still have a story I'll save for later on if this thread continues for ZilviADD's sake.

[KiLLeR2001]

I remember one time at advanced auto the cashier was making idle conversation with me about my car and then he busted out with "Yeah, I plan on boosting my PT Cruiser, I think it'll be cool cause no ones done it." I seriously got my bag of goodies and got the hell out of there with the quickness.

[GarageMakS145]

Originally Posted by Flicktitty

its funny most of the local parts stores i go to know me and know of my car, and usually ask me for help with other customer cars. lol.

you know you live in a small town when....

[redline1320]

From now on I will just walk to one of the open computers and look up the part # myself to make sure they have it in stock and ask one of them to get it for me.
It was just a ridiculous experience and an obvious waste of time.
I just figure if you go in there with the part # already the computer should be irrelevant or to just check and see if they have it. Its honestly that simple IMO

[ManoNegra]

Being in the middle of a brake job
break dust all over, hands full of grime
then come to find out the idiots sold me the wrong pads
priceless

it's happened a couple of times

best experiences have come from Napa

[redline1320]

Oh I know what you mean about the brakes.
My skyline has a brembo break kit and its just difficult trying to get the right fitment and all w/ the rotors

[!Zar!]

Funny how you all think some guy/girl making minimum wage or something knows about everything there is in existence of the automotive universe.