Originally Posted By: eljefino
Worked at a parts/tire shop as a tech but was loitering at the checkout desk. Customer wanted antifreeze for "X". I started explaining how the generic all-makes stuff was like dexcool but without the dye. Waaay over her head. (I should have kept my mouth shut.) Manager/ checkout guy says, it reads on the label it's for all makes. Click. Sale.
Unfortunately, playing dumb is usually the best course of action in these situations. Keep your BITOG stuff to yourself unless you want a headache. In a retail chain this is hard, because people want to know about this or that "head gasket in a bottle" or "thick stuff for the oil."
A lot of people don't even have enough of an idea of what they are doing to know when they are in over their head, or need to do more research.
The problem is, when they ask for or demand help, what they really want is for you to diagnose the car, and guarantee that diagnosis, for free, because "that $90 the shop wants to charge is crazy." Yes, I guess it is crazy to pay someone else to do something that they themselves obviously cannot do. And of course the person selling the parts should guarantee their diagnosis, for free, and take back the mangled parts the customer attempted to install if they were "wrong." I do not go out on a limb with customers looking for a free diagnosis for this reason.
Another growing issue is people using backyard "mechanics," parking lot "mechanics," etc. to do repairs to their cars. Often these "mechanics" send their customer to go chase down parts, but they have no idea what they are getting. I can't really help them when the best description they can come up with is "he said I need like a hose thing that go on the motor." A couple weeks ago a guy came in wanting a knob for the HVAC control head on a Colorado. The fan would only work on high, and the backyard/parking lot mechanic he was using told him it needed a knob. How he came to that diagnostic conclusion was beyond me. I couldn't take it, and broke my own rule. I told him that the truck probably needed the blower motor resistor and harness, which he ended up getting, and which ended up fixing the problem (he thanked me a couple days later).
Sourcing parts is really a technical task if you want to get the right parts. There's a lot more to it than "need the hose piece on the motor," but people actually think that tells me something about what they are looking for. People just expect me to know everything about their car, even though they can't tell me the model or year...forget a VIN. I am not physic, nor do I have millions of parts cataloged in my head.
But I can understand the frustration many here face with people who can't competently look up things in their own catalog no matter how much information you provide. Believe me, I know it is frustrating, especially since I buy from Napa and O'Reilly daily. Total lack of competency is a growing problem in the industry. The same people who have no business trying to source parts for their own car somehow end up behind the counter at the various chains. Paying counter staff $8 an hour probably has a lot to do with this. And they are everywhere. Going to Napa is no longer a guarantee of competency. If you want to cause chaos and panic in a Napa store, just go in and ask for the Zerex G-05, that they probably have. And it gets worse than that. I posted in another thread about a Napa employee telling me they did not have a battery for a Toyota Highlander...I checked online, and sure enough the very store I called had a lot of batteries for a Toyota Highlander. It has gotten so bad at the Napa we use at work, that I just immediately ask for one of two people. I hate to be "that jerk" who won't even give the less experienced people a shot, but the Highlander battery incident was the last straw with that. I get part numbers ahead of time when possible, but with some things like bulk items, universal items, etc, the item may not be listed online.
Too many idiots on both sides of the counter.