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Originally posted by bubafett
Story from a friend

Has a brand new Mercedes. goes to grocery store in strip mall next to Pep Boys.

Pep Boys Customer picks up his car after tire replacement. Wheels roll off car runs into new Mercedes.

Pep Boys says its not their fault.

Friend asks to speak to the manager. Manager says I am the manager. Friend says that anyone as dumb as you has to have a boss. Let me see him.

Legal action taken to get car fixed.
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Thats like saying the manufacturer of guns is responsible for people getting shot...



Well when Pep boys does not tighten the lug nut and a wheel runs off and causes damage I would say it is their fault.


Not the fault of the driver.

 

From the stories I have heard about Pep Boys,I woudnt let them check my f**ckin air pressure in my tires ! :nono:

 

lol soudns like this what this one guy (now fired) did at work (i work at pepboys in the service/garage). suposivly he didnt tighten the lug nuts right and this was on a dually pick up truck and the wheel came off down the road. he was fired and his buddy that was suposed to check the lug nuts were fired that day. and im sure both are being sued right now for that screw up. but so far after that there hasnt been a single screw up at the pepboys i work at like that. besides the incedent were one of the mechanic's burnt a customers car with the oxy/acytalene torch. it was either the car or the lines to the torch. big problem if he caught those lines on fire.

also now in our garge we use these things called torque sticks that are set to the factory specs for the lug nut and how tight it should be. nd then once the car is on the ground we check the lug nuts with a tourqe wrench set to the tourqe of the stick.

and now a store that i wont get my car worked on at is a place called R&S Sturess and thats where the one guy that didnt tourqe the lug nuts down is now workin.

 

They couldnt even getting rotating the tires of me car right.
Never ever going there again.
Jiffy Lube seems to have lots of "kids" working there too. Ended up getting a scratch in the front when he tried to throw the pipe around the car.
Guess they just dont understand how valuable our cars are to us!!!

 

DONT GET ME STARTED ON PEP BOYS!!! THEYRE THE WORST! All thier inventory is opened and re-taped together, service sucks. They dont know what theyre talkin about. They have every size air filter you could need except a K&N 14x3! The guy didnt know what kind of rear main seal my 87 350 had. As far as I think, thats a basic. Man did I love showin up there open pipes.....

 

the pep boys around my way the people are rude and dont really know that much.. i stick with Advance Auto Parts..

 

I work at the Pepboys over here, in store. I shop at O'Reilly Autoparts most of the time. Service has had their share of problems over here as well. I have a question though for those who go into other Pepboys stores around the country. When the truck shipment comes in, how long does it sit around by the back?

 

Pepboys blows...

They skip out of town like a dead beat dads. quick fast and before you knew it. screwing everyone on parts under warranty. Cause whos gonna drive 75 miles and 1 state away to replace a part.

My dumbass went back twice and they kept giving me the wrong belt each time, the next week they were gone like a theif in the night.

Murrays has the best service, allways someone just waiting to check you out but they have high prices unless you make them price match.

autozone is cheap but rude and slow, advanced auto is cheap rude and slow. both of them you cannot run in and grab something and leave. you must wait n wait n wait as the only two people working [you hear others in the back but they never come out] find people parts and answer the phone and ignor you waiting to pay. both of them I have walk out of and just drop the parts right there on the floor.

 

Judging from all of the states in this "Pep Boys Sucks" thread, there must be some kind of international conspiracy to undermine the Automotive industry through crappy service going on at Pep Boys. I'm in Nashville, Tennessee and they suck here too. I'd WALK across town to go to an Advanced Auto Parts before I'd shop there again! I guess "Friends don't let friends shop at Pep Boys!"

 

hey around my area its either go to pepboys or go to a garage u trust becuz the other places like STS and Sturass auto all suck. my brother took his work van to STS to get the brakes checked and an oil change well 100 feet down the road the van died. makes me think about STS. and plus my friend works there and i wouldnt trust him even puttin a screw in a piece of plastic or anything.

and it really depends on which one u go to. the new pepboys im working at that opend in may, we are gettin a good amount of customers comeing for service or parts or just to shop. and the only problems ive seen with people coming in and gettin pisssed off is becuz they are the type that dont like to wait if we are busy or they throw a hissy fit becuz they got the wrong part the first time. and what we do is kick them out and ask them never to come back.

 

" with people coming in and gettin pisssed off is becuz they are the type that dont like to wait if we are busy or they throw a hissy fit becuz they got the wrong part the first time. "

If you cant findthe right part the first time, you are the one who needs help. to work in an auto parts store you should know something.

thats the problem with pepboyz and all of these new warehouse auto parts places. first off they hire woman that dont know anything about cars. long as the computer works. now if it a woman who changes her own oil, does her own tune ups and drives a kick *** nova, sure hire her.

I remember back in the day when we had forestcity and you had to know cars to get a job there. You could ask a question about what your doing or whats wrong and one of them knew right off the batt how to fix your car. even just call them over the pone and get great adivce. I will looked around and wait for a man to get free before I walk up to the counter and have a woman help me.

one place has an 80 year old woman working there and she thinks spark plugs are in the light bulb section of the computer.

 

also some time when people come to get parts and there wrong is becuz they dont give us every little tidbit of info on the vehicle becuz there are different kinda of certain parts. i know that becuz when i was looklin up a ignition module for my car there was 3 to 4 different ones, so most of the time its not us its the customer not givein spacific info.

and also we have women emplyees but there basiclly cashiers so i dont care much. some of them try to help people but normally they ask a parts emplyee to help them with the computer becuz they cant find the part.

but when i was in parts i had no troble finding people parts, there were times when people didnt even know what tsize engine they had or what model they had. and those people tend to leave becuz of there stupidity. i even had people come in or call asking for me becuz i could find exzactly what they were lookin for.

we do have guys at the parts counter that arent as good as me but there still good and are able to find u the part u need. so not all pepboys suck. i know of at least 3 pepboys that do suck. becuz of the people they hired but thats a hole other story.

 

We don't have pep boys in Hawaii, but we have Checker Auto (like Kragen and Shucks) and they really SUCK. I shop at Carquest.

 

Here in Georgia Pepboys are trying to measure up to the high quality of service every other store in the nation attain but they fail big time. Autozone works for me.

 

Ok people im sorry but i have to defend Pep Boys since i work in there parts department. Now I'll admit in my aera they have problems hireing people who know what they are talking about. But At every store there is at least a few guys or girls in parts that know what there doing. (wich was me having restored 3 cars) People have to relize if we dont have a part in stock we cant make it appear out of thin air. the sotres have an automatic inverntory system that needs to be adjusted, which managers are supposed to take care of.
Women are just as good as guys behind the parts counter. They sometimes know more than some of the stupid guys they sometimes hire do. If you walk into the store with an attitude like were an idiot i damn sure aint going to take care of you. Wereas if your polite ill go out of my way to help you out.

The service department with the wheel bit...yeah that is there fault if it came off. They hire alot of new tech kids out there. When newbies put lugs back on they just throw em into the impact socket n fire away..there supposed to start them by hand firt so ther dont get stripped out.

And boxes are open cause we open them to show customers the part inside or match them up with the old part to make sure its the right one.

Heres antoher goodie....Hi i need a part for my car...i have a chevy camaro.....What year is it sir?.....i dunno........ok What size engine is it........i dunno just find the part i need.......well i will once you figure out what kinda car you drive.

Dont complain about bad serivce if you dont help us find the part for you. Ive had people throw parts on the counter n say...i need one of thease......ok whats it for.......oh it dosent matter just freakin find it for me.........

Again if your nice to us and patient we'll take care of you, but if your a jerk im oging to go out of my way to make your day that much more misrible....just because of your attitude

If anyone needs help in the philidelphia aera stop by the street road store in bensalem Pa Store33 right off 95 ask for matt (me), chris, or scott...we'll take care of you. Im currently away at penn state berks and having check out the reading store yet. but ill be back to work over christmas break...and if you really have been treated unfairly and arent just whining and complaining cause your a jerk by all means contact a manager or the local district manager. As long as you are polite and not rude youll get taken care of.


P.S. the cancellation of lifetime warrenties on brakes was done by raybestous....our supplier......not us. Our store still does exchanges if you bought them before the warrenty was up. Each store does it there own way but we felt it was more fair to the customer by doing this....since raybestous basically screwed us over royally.

 

u coouldnt have said it better 90rs3.1

 

yeah car auto places like pepboys, or STS or R@S strauss arent at fault its the people running them dont diss the stores mistakes are inevitable, some stores make more than others but then again that all gets traced back to the ones making the mistakes

 

We dont have a pepboys around here But i like advance auto parts sure all the people that work there are 17 to 23 years old but the people that work there are my friends and would you hire a 18 kid with a 69 chevelle with a 454 and yes he did the work and built and bought it himself and i no a guy that works there with a 70 mustang with a 351 so i think they no something but just my 2 cents

 

I went to pepboys and bought two calipers for my formula. I go to bleed the brakes, and the drivers side has a bleeder valve that was all the way tight, and was spitting out brake fluid. I brought it back and after a half hour of the guy looking at it like an ape with a wrench, they said that the closest pepboys that had one for my car was an hour drive away. Idiots. So i headed to autozone and bought one. I also picked up a wheel cylinder, because my other one had the piston pop out. After i got the clip on that holds it in, and the brakes back together, I go to screw the brake line in. And to my surprize, they gave me the wrong size for the brake line fitting. But I even gave them the old one to match it up. Are they that stupid? Alright I'm done now.
Jeremy

 

again it dependso n who you deal with. Every store in every parts chain has at least one or two idiots working behind the counter. you have to talk to the person that knows what there doing. every retail store of every where, everykind is like that

 

Well, I used to work at AutoZone, and before they would hire me, I had to pass a test on how much car knowldge I had. I was hired on part-time, and I always asked my more knowldgeable co-workers if a customer had a question that I could not answer, and I always stuck around to learn more. In fact, I was passed over for promotion to a full-time position 'cause the other guy had more knowldge than I did.

 

i work at strauss... the wheel thing happend twice... because the mech's dont comunitcate well... but other then that... dont expect all start service... and if anyone is gunnabe in the cent. NJ area from mid dec. to mid jan... ill be workin at the strauss in neptune.. just ask for al

 

"Again if your nice to us and patient we'll take care of you, but if your a jerk im oging to go out of my way to make your day that much more misrible....just because of your attitude"



Sometimes when a custumer comes in with an attitude, it is most likley that he is already having a bad day(for whatever reason) like ALL of us do from time to time. Most customers will realize that they are wrong in having that attitude and taking it out on you(the counter help), MOST of the time. But if you respond back to a customer with an attitude, it will not end and you will lose that customer. Politenes is a first. No matter what ! The customer is ALWAYS right ! Or did you never learn that. I too have gone in with a tude and quickly corrected it, because the counter guy did his job right. He greeted me with respect and curtisy, through-out the course of our bus. I very quickly relized, he did not deserve my attitude, and I or anyone else does NOT deserve yours. The customer is ALWAYS right. If you worked for me and treated a customer like you say you do, if they have a tude, you can bet your a$$ you would be GONE. The days of respect obviously are gone with this "new" generation. Your job is also dependent on your attitude, and with-out the customer, you have no job. Come on young one and get it together.
If you think I am being disrespectful to you, well think again, no disrespect intended. Just a reminder that you are employed to SERVE the customer with a smile(or is that a thing of the past) and help them as much as possible, regaurdles of his or her tude.
I have no doubt that you know your job and do it well, now do it better and treat the bad customers better than they treat you. You WILL gain thier respect. Try it and see.
I now appoigize for the long post, and will end it here.

 

well since ive been in the service department at pepboys i dont really deal with customers that much but even when the store is dead and im out woundering the counter becuz either im bored or no one is there, i still help customers just like i did when i was in the parts deparment. i would ask them if they needed any help and if so id help the best i could. also if the customer came in with an tude i would still help them the best i could becuz i would want them out as fast as possible and withthe right part and if i cant help them to the best of there standards then i guess there screwed.

we had this one guy come in for sevice for his car and when he was checking out (this was at like 9pm and the store is basiclly closed) he couldnt pay for his service becuz his credit card was retarded or something and he gives his wife a call and she gets the biggest friken tude and even talks to the store manager and she said she was coming down to hurt one of the employees and well once she arrived there was 3 local cops waitting at the door for her and she didnt say anything and paid for the service and the cops stayed right next to her until she left. so it really comes down to is if u have a bad tude about something stuipd or silly like a wrong part just think of the out come that could happen if ur tude gets worse.

we have told customers to leave and never enter the store again becuz of there tude that they came in with and we dont care if the person ever came back becuz we will make new customers everyday.

 

THANK-YOU, at least you did your best.:hail:

 

9 FIREBIRD,

I totally see where your comming from. Am i there to serve the customer yes. And ill happily do so. Is the customer always right....no and when you try to tell them so to help them and they flip on you there in the wrong.

Im not saying that i come right back at a guy with an attitude......i of course try to be nice first no matter what. but if im being nice to you and triyng to help and your going to give me an attitude and treat me like dirt no matter what im commin back at ya.(not reffering to you but a customer)

for Example......

a customer comes in with one of our batteris. an elderly woman in her 70s aobut and her father. wich was actually quite scary to see her father still driving a car when his daught was that old....
but anyways they came back with a battery saying ti was bad...a pep boys pro start......no im not going to defend pep boys batteries, there pro start brand sucks..i try to steer customers away from it to the engerizer brand we sell...more expensive but much better.
Anyways shes says "my father keeps gettin stuck wiht this battery bla bla bla.....so as company policy i test the battery....the machine load tests it n such come out perfect with full voltage.

She starts yellin at me tellin me her son is a truck driver and he tested it and its bad. so i asked the older gentelman what it was doing he said he hits the key and nothing happens then finally it will start.

This problem 99.9% of the time is the starter. i think he had an 80s olds delta so there really isnt much complicated stuff to it. So i try and explain nicl how its prolly the starter. i get "Oh your just some dumb kid.....he just trying to sell you a starter dont listen to him he dostn know what hes talkin about my sons a truck driver hes know better than him"

Now that is a perfect example of the customer being wrong. At wich point in my book one you insult me for trying to help you its officially open season on you.

Now i am one of or try to be the nicest person possible in the store....i can put up with an attitude....but people dont relize im only trying to help them...and treatin me like dirt aint gettin you know where. ya gotta cut the person some slack.

 

yea the pro start batteries do sux, we try to sell the energizer batteries but hey if someone wants the cheapest one becuz there gettin rid of the car or something, sure ill get them the right one.

 

I understand both points in this situation,

The lady was scared that she was going to be taken advantage of. The Pep Boys that I USED to go to tried to tell me that I had a lifter down in my Cutlass when I was 16. I didn't know for sure at that time, so I took it to a local mechanic in town. All that was wrong was a bad spark plug, and spark plug wire. I take it back to Pep Boys and ask them how much a plug change would cost. The manager tells me that I would be throwing money away on the car. I tell him that I already had the plugs changed, and that the car runs fine. He walks away. Now I will admit that not all customers are correct in there assumptions; however, I can relate with the woman. It seems that Pep Boys in general tries to screw uninformed people.

 

Well, yes I can see your point. In fact, both sides of the coin are laid out here. The elderly people are probably pretty used to getting ripped off right about now as most of them do in this day and age. Thier truck driven son is more than likely one of those know it alls, and convinced them that what he said wass the word.(unfourtunatly) In a case like yours, its hard to say what is right and what is wrong. BUT, Especially them being our seniors, They do deserve all the respect WE can give them. Being that they are as old as you say they were, They have seen more than you or I will ever see. On the other hand they too had no right coming in there with the attitude that no matter what you said, you would just be trying to get more money from them. (most likely due to the driven over protective son) In any case, when all else fails, call the manager, that is what he is there for. Let him take the grief of an (lets call them) unrully(spelling) customer.This will always put you in the right. Yea I know managers can be a pain in the a$$ somtimes and don't want to be botherd most of the time, but just explain to him what the problem is. If you have a good manager, he will back you and MAYBE the elderly folks would have seen the light. I comend you on trying to be paitent with them, but it is not always as easy to do as it is to say. And I guess it goes without saying that experiance comes with trial and error. You will not always encounter the easy sale or the Mr. nice guy. They are few and far inbetween these days. That is unfourtuneate. It's ashame we do live in a more polite sociaty. Just keep trying, and one day you WILL see, it was worth the extra bit of paitentce and that last kind word.

 

i've never been to pep boys so i dunno about their service. i don't care as much about customer service as i do about the quality of the parts the store carries, which is why i buy all my parts at adance auto and napa. i've never got bad parts from either place. i work at a dealership parts dept. (toyota ) and yes it does almost always come down to how much info you get from the customer. when i first started doing parts i had a real hard time findin the right parts when i didn;t have enough info. i knew automotive stuff pretty well but i was unfamiliar with toyota. the more info the customer gave me the easier it was to find the part. with so many makes, models, engine/tranny combo's and other options on the car......the parts guy needs to milk every last bit of info he can out of the customer. one of my beliefes is that if the parts guy doesn't ask the right questions....it is his fault for not getting the right part.

 

I have had bad experiences at just about every chain, no one has been particularly a standout..

The best key for success, know everything about what you want,
and bring in the old part if possible.

New example while getting silverstar headlights..

High beam or low beam?

me:the light is combined..

it says right here high or low!

me:they are combined, I promise you.

No they aren't!

me:Yes they are here it is.

You sure thats from the right car?!

me:Yes.

Oh.

 

I guess you are getting screwed over!
my brother in law is a service manager at tire kingdom and they still get the life time warranty on brake parts from Raybestos

 

I'm gonna throw my .02 in here as well. I work at an Advance Auto store, and from what i've read on this thread so far, it would seem that some customers are the same no matter where you are.

Now, I'm the first to admit that I don't know every single little detail about cars - I know enough, but when someone comes in with a really technical question about something I'm unfamiliar with, I ask one of the other guys who knows more about it, rather than try to BS my way out of it to "save face". If the customer thinks I'm an idiot b/c I don't know off the top of my head what diameter brake drums came stock on a 1968 Mercury Montego, then fine. And yes, this has happened. People don't realize that we can't be expected to know every part of every automobile ever constructed. People will come in with some random part, and sthe conversation goes something like:
Customer: "I need this".
Us: "What is it?"
Customer: "You work at the auto parts store, you're supposed to know. What the hell kind of place is this?"
Us: Well, what kind of car is it?
Customer: "Uhh, it's like an 87 Dodge Spirit...or is that an 89...?"
Us: Well, what engine is in it?
Customer: "Well, uhhh, I don't know for sure - it's my sister's/brother's/best friend's car.....Does the engine really matter?"
...And so on. People come in with no idea of the car they're buying parts for, so they get the wrong parts. Without information about the car, we can't find what you need. Plain and simple. And then they come back the next day, calling us morons cause we gave them the wrong thing.


And about the comment where "there's 2 guys working behind the counter, and more in the back" - this is not the fault of the people working there. They have no say over how many people are going to be working at any one time. And, more often than not, there is NOT "more people in the back." What you see is usually who's there.

And when there's 20 customers in the store, each of whom thinks their particular problem is the most important, and 3 phone lines ringing off the hook at the same time, all with 2 people to take care of all of it, coming in there with an attitude is the WORST thing you can do as a customer. Now, if someone comes at me and starts throwing a fit, calling me an idiot, this place sucks, etc. cause he had to wait in line for 15 minutes - I'll be as polite as I can, but you can bet your azz I'm not going out of my way for you AT ALL. Whereas, if someone waited patiently, and was nice to me when it was their turn, I'm going to do everything I can to make them happy. That's just human nature.

Sorry bout the long post, but this kind of thing pisses me off to no end at work, and I just had to vent. Hopefully this post will serve as kind of an "eye opener" to some people, and something to keep in mind next time you go to the parts store....

 

Touching nerves here now..

I think the obvious thing is that there are smart customers annoyed at dumb autoparts workers, and there are smart autoparts workers annoyed at dumb customers..

The store I go to now I look for a particular group of people working, if not I walk right out. Looks like Black88GTA would be one of the workers I would be looking for.

 

Black88GTA,

I couldnt agree with you more. I know exactly where your comming from cause as i said ive been there sooooooo many times

 

Pepboys sucks. I had them put an alternator in my escort. They didn't even ask anything about the car except what kind of car it was. They call me up and tell me that they "didn't know it was the 1.8l which has to have the passenger side cv shaft or whatever removed and it's gonna be $400." I tell them to not bother since they originally quoted me $190. They call back an hour or so later "Uhh...the tech already removed the alternator, we'll only charge you $240 and the car will be done today." I call back at like 5 - 5:30 to see if it's done and "Oh it won't be done till tomorrow." Call back at noon the next day and "The tech that is working on your car did not come into work today, your car won't be done till tomorrow." I call back yet again and the car is finally done at like 3pm. I go and pick it up they've charged me to remove the belt from the power steering and a/c which there wasn't even a belt there because I had to cut it off months before due to a slipped alternator/water pump belt. I ask to speak to the manager and some punk kid is like "Well that's me" so I tell him "I'm pissed because I was told I'd have my car back Saturday and it would be $190, it's now $240 and Monday and I'm finally getting my car back" and he basically says tough crap. I emailed the 'corporate office" which I think the email just goes to the store that you had gone to since you have to put what store number. The manager offers to give me a free oil change and I told him "Uhh...no." This was mid august, from then till the end of November the alternator loosened a few times, releasing pressure on the belt, which took a few mins to figure out the first time cause I"ve always had the tensioner on my firebird so I've never had to check belt tension. It's now the begining of December the voltage reg which is on the alt in this car has died, alt is charging at 18.5 volts at idle. I bring it back and they replace the alt for free but it costs $200 in labor to have it replaced cause the labor was only covered for 3 months. It blew my new silverstar head lights and my stock ones that I had kept. If it dies again I'll figure a way to pull the friggin motor out with my bare hands before I'll bring it back there.

 

i work as a parts sales manager at autozone

you could consider me a manager, i'm supposed to diffuse heated situations, account for all money, and lock up the store when the day is over

my autozone, does about $9000 a day
we have about 150 customers per hour, on average

we have between 2-4 people working, in the entire store at a time

for those of you working at pep boys or strauss, u know how tough this is, for those of you who have never worked a retail job in your life, this is hell

i always have little help, i'm not in charge of hiring people, the store is assigned hours to give to employees, so we utilize it as best as we can,

which means if you see two people working
theres either only two people in the store
or the other guys are cleaning up the rest of the store

next thing
if you come in to my store with an attitude, i'm giving u an attitude right back,, with 9grand a day and 150plus customers an hour, i dont need you

next, we dont get paid on commission, we could care less if you actually bought something, and we have no interest in selling you the wrong part, we dont get anything out of it except grief

"i need an axle for a 93 g20"

seems like a simple enough request

is that a chevy g20 (van) or an infinit g20 (sedan)
BIG difference


i'd love to keep going but i have class
(full time student and part time manager working 33.5 hrs a week, hell)

 

I've worked retail, I've worked at National Tire and Battery, I know how annoying customers can be. I never have an attitude when I go into any store except for when I have to keep going back again and again because I'm given the wrong part again and again. Not caring about that 1 pissed off customer, you turn them away still mad and they go tell all their friends, and they tell their friends...anytime anyone mentions your store to that person they have the same response "They suck." Something to remember with all your not caring.

 

Well, I might as join this topic as well,lol.
I personally have been in the automotive industry for over 20 years and I have seen "ALOT" . I worked for Pep Boys from 95-2000 and I was a parts manager and an assistant store manager as well as a asst service manager. I have been in all aspects of the auto world except the car sales end( I refuse to do that end of it). I can tell you mor war stories than a war vet and I am here to tell you that the one's who say that customer are always right, are wrong. More time than I care to remember have I had to educate a customer on how wrong they were. ie; no a 87 Toyota Celica DID NOT come from the factory with a SBC, it just didnt happen and there is more than one white car in the parkin lot and yes if I am wearin a company uniform and I am pullin parts and answerin phones that means I work there so you dont have to ask if I do or not,lol. And yes those are tires you and your family are steppin over and am leanin on when you ask me if we seel tires, if you want the truth, then no and to quote Bill Engvall: "Here's Your Sign" LOL. And yes, if you do 140 mph on a H-rated tire and tell me NO I am NOT gonna warranty it for abuse or neglect. And yes the mechanic is taking a 5 min lunch break to eat, so he can finish your car, in time before we close, sinbce he didnt have to volenteer to fix it in the first place, we didnt tear it up it was your "MECHANIC" that did up under his shade tree. So dont get po'ed when he is sittin down for 5 min to eat a sandwich. Ok. And yeah I have more and I have heard alot of them.
Oh and for the record if they are human then they can make mistakes and time is precious and we do the best we can, so give us a break and be courteous and we will be courteous back be a !@#$% and we will just ignore you wont be helpful abd give you advice instead we hand you what ou ask for even if we know its wrong.
Oh no flame intended and it is a good thread, I like it.
Sorry it was long.

 

And what about the ****** that work in the service that are just ****** to the customer no matter how nice they are? I never walk into a store with an attitude except when I'm quoted times that are incorrect, the salesperson has no interest in trying to help anyone out, has no remorse about screwing up and wasting more of my time and my money. You blame the customer, which a lot of the time it is the customer but it's not always the customers fault.

 

Your right, but I was just pointin out it goes both ways. You are gonna have deadbeats in every field out there and they make it a bad rap for everyone else. Since I have been in the auto world I have helped out alot of people, and have been offered $$$, lunch and I was even propositioned once( my wife didnt take to well to that), so like it has been said before, you cant judge a book by its cover. If that were the case then that means all Toyota;s a worthless(the reason I say that is my wife's 04 Camry lives at the Toyota dealership), and we know thats not true, so in each case its different. Here is a true story that happened at an Advance Auto Parts Store:

Years ago, me and a friend decided to take my car to the drag strip and see what it would run. He lived about 50 miles from me. At that time I drove a 78 Buick Skylark w/ a 406 sbc, th350 w/ a 3500 stall, 4.10 gears, blah,blah,blah. Well, I get to his house we load up and we start to leave the car picks up a skip out of the blue so we stop at an Advance store down the road. We figure its a bad plug by the way it was runnin. Well, it turns out the heads on this car were different years one early with the bog plug and one late withthe small plug. So wego in and I ask for 4 A/C Delco R45's and 4 R45ts spark plugs. Simple right, NOPE, the guy behind the counter says whats it for? I told it doesnt matter you wont find it in you computer. He says I have to know what its for! So, we argue back and forth for a minute or 2 and finally he ticks me off so I said(sorry for the caps), LOOK!!! D/A!!! ITS A 1978 BUICK SKYLARK, WITH A 406 SBC AND EALY HEADS ON ONE SIDE AND LATE MODEL HEADS ON THE OTHER WITH A TUNNEL RAM AND 2 600 CFM CARB'S NOW GIVE ME THE !@#$%^ PLUGS!!!! And he said uuuuuuhhh, your right its not in the computer,and I said DUH!!!
So ,that just goes to show ya idiots are every where. I hope this makes it clearer of waht I was talkin about. Again no flame intended.

 

i got a oil change and a free tire roatation there..... but i specificly asked for NOOOO tire rotation because of the off set wheels are differnt on front and back on the gta..... so what do i get one rear front and vice versa! starting pulling out of the parking lot and turned and heard weird noises brought it back and they gave me a free oil change voucher.... i threw it away.

 

Well, your not the only one. I had it happen to me and not just there. I ahve had it happen at several places. I would say lack of knowledge is the answer to that.

 

Yeah, Brake Parts Inc. (Raybestos) sure made a lot of friends with that move....
I sell them too, and it's fairly entertaining to try and explain to the customer
that the pads they bought that came with a lifetime warranty sheet inside the
box only have a one year warranty!

 

I use to work at a pepboys doing tires and what not. I only screwd up once with a hubcap that fell off. But after I left there it all went down hill. They hired a guy I know and he had a few tires fall off. Even my best friend had a few problems. He forgot to check to make sure the old o-ring for the oil fiter was off before putting on the new one. The way I see it. Everyone makes mistakes, even working on your own car. Heck I made a mistake puting on my intake today. But then there's some people that should not be allowed to touch a car unless it's there's. And even that's a streach.

Anyways. My best friend is a manager at the pepboys now. And he is the ONLY reson I will step inside a pepboys. I won't go to any other one. Even tough I have to drive 30 minutes away. I go to his store because he WILL fix what ever problem I had. I went and got the tranny flushed in my moms honda before she left on a trip at pepboys. Well I waited there all day. No biggy. Then about a 3 weeks later. I had a buddy of mine that works at cadillac and is a gm world class michanic replace the c.v. axles on the car before she would leave town that weekend. I was sitting there on the couch watching him work on the car(I'm to slow to help at his pace. I just get in the way. lol.) and he said it's time to get a tranny flush done. I was like I just did a few weeks ago. he said it looks like 50k mile oil to him. So I called my friend at work and tolded him what happend. So he looked at the papers and sure enough all they did was add some tranny additive. I was so pissed when he told me that. I was like I just paid $100 and waited allday to have some one put a bottle of tranny additive in the car! He did get it fixed the next day. But if it wasn't for my friend doing the c.v. axles. We would of never of nown that. The only work we get done there now is tires and oil if I don't fill like doing it myself. Adam :-)

 

I work at pep boys in the parts counter here in ca, we get alot of customers that are angry because some times we dont carry thier part.... either because the computer doesnt show it or its an OP or SRC or PBY basically its not in the store you are in... Im nice to customers who are nice.. and rude to the customers who come in and try to show you up or be rude to you as well, I do not like that when people try to ruin my day just because we dont have thier WATER OUTLET gasket.... if an auto part store doesnt have your part.. go to another store.. its just that simple. And most of the time we rely on the computer... after all our ages at most pep boys are from 18-25.

 

and most of the my co workers only know more about thier favorite cars, the cars they like and have worked on... not your peice of **** 1987 toyota celica or 1979 honda accord... and no I dont know what kind of tire chains those ****ty cars need.. or what seat covers or mats they use.. I could careless.

 

Ah yes, to be a parts counterman, where everyone thinks your screwing them before they even get to the counter.

Unfortunately, your examples are the norm these days, not the exception. As cars have become more complicated, people's knowledge has decreased and their frustration increased.
As a GM parts guy, I'm accosted daily by people who don't even know what they drive outside of the brand, let alone the model it is. When I worked at a small town dealership, it was common to have people ask me for parts for their chevy. As cited above, you could ask what year, model, and engine size and get the response "It doesn't matter, they're all the same."
At which point I'd pull a fuel sender for a diesel and ask them if that was okay.

Also, don't expect your counterman/woman to diagnose your car over the phone. Frankly its unfair to them because they simply can't get all the facts they need to do it correctly. I used to get people who were irate because they would force me to guess what was wrong, and then when it didn't pan out they'd hold you to it as if you should know every possible reason a problem could occur. Most problems on cars have multiple causes--this is especially true on most current model cars. That slight hesitation you feel could be caused by a clogged fuel filter, EGR failure, O2 sensor malfunction, ECM codes, clogged injectors, and several other issues.

Most people on these boards work on their own stuff so you know your car intimately. Counter guys at Pep Boys, Napa, Schucks, etc have to know EVERY car of every car line. If they are newbies to the parts biz, it will simply take them some time figure all that crap out. Yes, there is certainly a reasonable level of expertise that should be there. But don't expect them to know your car as well as you. There are now ASE certifications for Parts people, so check and see if yours has one. This is true at dealerships too.

Finally, come prepared when you want parts. Know your exact make, model, trim level, specific engine and trans. Know what part of what system the part you need is tied into (i.e. brakes, trans, suspension, emissions). If you have a part number or casting number, bring it: they don't always cross, but many times they do saving time and hassle. The more info you have, the easier it is for the parts person to get you the right part the first time out.

 

You know what, this true most of the time, but there comes a time to put your foot down and say enough. I ALWAYS try to do what is right, and help out ANYONE who comes to my counter. BUT, I refuse to be abused.

There are customers who come to the counter who frankly don't want to be helped but just want to bust you down a notch or two. Now, if I screwed up, then I sit there and take it like a man and apologize and make it right as best I can. Most situations can be defused in one manner or another, but there are always exceptions. You could give then the part for free and they still wouldn't be happy.

As a counterman, I am there to serve, but I am not there to be abused. after a while you can tell the difference in customers--those who are simply frustrated and having a bad day, and those who are just there to pick a fight (and hopefully get something free out of you). I'm more than willing to help the former, even if they just need to vent for a while. But, the customer is NOT always right--we just need to make him feel like he is.

 

I'd never buy silverstars again. Mine lasted less than 6 months, and were not visibly brighter than the standard oem style. At $25 per x4, they were a complete loser in my book.