Impressed with Autozone

[fisher83]

I almost always buy parts at Advance Auto. Did some price shopping and found my brakes for about $5 cheaper at Autozone, plus they had a $10 mail in rebate so I decided to give them a try. The guy at the counter rang me up and I asked about the rebate. For some reason it didn't print out on the receipt like it was supposed to. He spent a few minutes trying to print out a new rebate for me and couldn't get it to work. He went to his manager who also tried to no avail. They wound up just giving me $10 of my money back and now I don't have to wait. I was really impressed that they took the time to resolve the problem and found a solution for me. It seems that a lot of places don't have this good of customer service anymore. Definitely going to return to that store for my next purchase!

 

[Recalculating]

First..... Go buy yourself a lottery ticket. You may be in a lucky phase and may just want to reap a higher reward.

I have found auto parts stores to be hit and miss on personnel who will provide good customer service or even provide any technical assistance in the products they sell. They often do not even know the items on sale that draw the DIyer to the store and could care less, For example, I would not go to Autozone for a half price sale on everything near where I live due to their [censored] attitudes, Parking lot looks like DIYers do their work just outside the door.

There are stores in all chains who have a great bunch of personnel who enjoy working together and it shows as it rubs off into good customer service. If the management is [censored] so is the rest. If management hires and trains reliable personnel and treats them well, you can tell.

 

[dave1251]

Nice to hear, recommend that particular Autozone to your friends in the area. I prefer Autozone customer service and prices over O'Reilly's in this area.

 

[genynnc]

Not so much... while I agree autoparts stores are heavily dependent on their local employees, I have have found that Auto Zone and O'reillys are about the bottom of the barrell.

First place has got to go to Advance with NAPA trailing a close second.

Advance gets a big helping hand from their online deals and usual brick-n-motar sales.

 

[Kruse]

I will judge an individual store, but I try hard not to judge the actions of a chain. My reasoning is that it's the employees that make or break a store, even if corporate won't pay them over minimum wage.
My local Autozone store has a new set of faces behind the counter every time I go in there. That's one reason I just don't go in there too often any more.
I know the first and last name of the owner and all the employees of my local NAPA and they all know my full name. But when I needed engine overhaul parts for a late '40 antique tractor, O'Reilly's got them in two days. The NAPA boys told me that they could not find any of these parts...fully one month after I asked them to look and only when I was in the store the next time.
Getting back to the original subject, Autozone has their rewards program where you buy so many dollars worth of parts and you get a percentage taken off your bill. The last time I bought parts from their store, the man behind the counter did a hard push to sell me a candy bar so that I would exceed the amount needed to get my percentage back. I felt like a customer in a used car lot. Unless I have to, or unless they have some sort of fantastic sale, I just avoid them.

 

[fisher83]

I agree about Oreilly's. I've had too many bad experiences there. One of my favorites was when they got the fuel filter in that I ordered, then told me that they accidentally ordered the more expensive one and I needed to pay the $7 difference. I told them that it was their error, by their own admission, and I wasn't going to pay it so they could give me the part for the price of the part I ordered or I would just go to Advance. They did give it to me for the price of the cheaper one but I wasn't too happy that they tried to get me to pay for their mistake.

 

[fisher83]

The DIY'ers in the parking lot may be onto something... save that trip back to the parts store by just staying there until the job is done!

 

[chiks]

If I am going to fix my car, I would do it right outside the parts store. Quick access to parts.

 

[The motor guy]

The parking lots of auto parts stores usually have a little more oil in the front of the parking spots right in front of the store but oh well. So what if they work on their cars there. better than the driveway at their house.

 

[Spazdog]

Originally Posted By: chiks
If I am going to fix my car, I would do it right outside the parts store. Quick access to parts.


...and when you goof it up, the counterman will have to help you put it together right

Many years ago, we sold a set of spark plug wires to a customer who attempted to change them in the parking lot.

He took off all the old wires and put the new ones on by length. It looked nice, but he was 8 for 8 in misplacing them. A few backfires and no start and he comes in yelling how we had sold him the wrong wires.

One of the kids who worked with me had a mid 8 second 1/8th mile Chevrolet. He could do HEI wires in the proper order in his sleep...and he did it for the guy.