People getting ripped off

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DARKSCOPE001

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Aug 19, 2010
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Pickerington Ohio
Hello all I havent posted anything new in a while so I thought I might share a story from work with you. So as some of you may or may not know I am a sales clerk at a retail chain. We are a general store with a "auto" section. and of course we sell oil and filters. For some ungodly reason we are way over priced and people still come in and buy oil from us. about the only oil I would buy from us is ams and maybe an occasional filter denending on the car im changing the oil in. Point being your gona get screwed. So anyways this guy and his girlfriend come through my line and the first thing I see is the orange box of doom (I really had to hold back from saying something because I usualy get the "yeayeayea thats nice kid" till I tell them I graduated AMT school and Im getting my A&P then they just look at me like more of an idiot or they get put in there place) well I didnt say anything. scaned the filter and it came up 3 dollars and some odd change. for less money you can get a penzoil filter thats on sale right now at my work place for 1.99 for most cars. Then idiot decides to get 5 quarts castrol GTX high milage. I am not a fan of castrol but its rather unfounded. Point being this stuff is 4.50 a quart so lets review. at 4.50 a quart he has just payed 22.50 pluss he bought the orange can of doom. Now im willing to bet this guy is going to get home and not even have a drain pan or a jack or anything and spill oil all over the place and have one unhappy girlfriend. So I have to ask my friends have you ever seen anyone do anything dumb like this before? About oil that is. and does it make you laug or want to say something when you see a cart full of orange boxes of doom? do you try to help people in the oil isle or do you let them fall to there own devices?

THANKS
Sean Scott
 
Pretty harsh.

At least the "idiot", (I hardly think he is), is getting a self service oil change for $10 to $15 dollars cheaper than going to Iffy Lube.

I would have been those one of those "idiots" about 7 years ago. I would think you are best served by suggesting he get on this website and if he is interested, learn more about oils.
 
Sometimes guys look like heroes for spending money on/ in front of their girls. He was probably buying the most expensive stuff he could find, for her car, probably a cute VW cabrio, and was going to take all afternoon proving his manliness by changing her oil "just right". You know, crawling under with only the scissors jack, using a crescent wrench on the drain plug, dishpan for an oil catcher.

As a matter of his internal religion, you couldn't help him any. Just like you wouldn't be able to talk him into a different brand of beer or cigarettes... the self-image thing.

Though you could point out that BP-Castrol like dumping oil in the ocean and hurting little fishies.
 
Hey, look at it from the other way...

Maybe he's been nagged to doing the "car stuff" so he goes to the store and gets whatever off the shelf and goes home to do it.

He might just not care.

Also, people make poor informed choices all the time. Ignorance sometimes doesn't equal stupidity - it just may be that he doesn't know who to ask or what to do. You should have written down "www.bobistheoilguy.com" on his receipt.
 
hahah i should have given him the web site. I wasnt like royaly [censored] or anything but it seemed like another one of those cases of "I know exactly what im doing and you are just a mindless robot that runs the register so Im not going to take advice from you." So I keept my mouth shut, but i do have to say that the girl seemed to know a bit more than he did, my girlfriend works in pet an auto and heard her arguing with him because she thought that 27 dollars they just payed for oil was a rip. (I think it is too) But im just saying. I dont like orange cans of doom and I would never recomend anyone buy oil from where I work "andersons" cough cough. I think I would have happily walked him down to auto (whatever) and shown him one of there many specials.

THANKS
Sean Scott
 
I've seen a lot of threads ragging on Castrol or Fram, but they were all separate from each other. Now this thread combines the two, a match made in heaven for BITOG.

Let the "facts" fly around
27.gif
 
I think you are being a bit harsh on the guy. I mean at least he is changing his own oil. Castrol high milelage is a alright choice, he wasnt buying a cheap no-name. I probably would have said that our Pennzoil filters are on sale and are produced by Fram, so you could save some money. He may have apprieated that. Everything else you said, was your opinion, the customer is always right. Imagine your response if you went in to buy a Purolater filter and the guy at the counter told you the Fram is a better filter,(this has happened) you could argue, point is he has his opinions, you have yours. What I think is a big waste of money is filters such as Royal Purple or Amsoil oil filters, why pay that much for a oil filter, when you can buy a Puroltor for so much less that will be more than adequet, thats just my opinion though, means nothing. As far as whining about BP/Castrol and the oil spill, I would say "What oil spill? Show me, Oh, you cant find it but its there-Right?."
 
I tend to question the advice of people who's first defense is to spout off their education and credentials.

Judging others while not knowing the circumstances makes no sense.

Knowing when and when not to stick one's nose into other's business comes with maturity. It's all about "reading" people. A confused old person debating to pick up a store brand bottle of SA oil "might" appreciate some helpful advice.....or maybe not.
 
fair fair. I am being a bit harsh but perhaps it was just the attitude i got when he walked into my line. I sometimes try to make chat with customers but it always seems like i get the wrong ones. I dont start the convo like "that oil is garbage" or anything. or fram is garbage. ive only told one person besides my friends fram is garbage and that was someone I worked with and he was more or less burnt out and didnt really seem to know what I was trying to say. But point being what i wish I had said was "you can get a much better deal on oil and filter at auto zone we want way to much" or as many of you have stated I could have told him that penzoil filters were on sale. Anyways I was more or less just curious if anyone had ever seen someone like this before? have you tried to help them pick an oil? let me give another example. there were a group of people that walked into walmart when i was picking up a 5quart of penz platnum. They were looking around and asking eachother what kind of oil they needed. and they were talking about weights and never once did brand come into play. I was going to recomend something when my girlfriend usshered me off into the next isle.

THANKS GUYS
Sean Scott
 
I liked Castrol, and used to use Fram with my pops in his old Chevy van. Better options, yes. Idiotic option, absolutely not.

You may think you're coming across here as being the bigger man by keeping your mouth shut, but it seems that you're being oil-cocky. Don't worry, it happens to us all. I've learned to keep my mouth shut, too, especially since my knowledge of oil is probably more-limited than I'd like to admit. Haha
 
Originally Posted By: DARKSCOPE001
I was going to recomend something when my girlfriend usshered me off into the next isle.


She sounds like an intelligent woman. Follow her lead.
 
Quote:
...and they were talking about weights and never once did brand come into play.



Stick around here for a bit longer, and you will find that brand name means very little, it's the specs and viscosity that the engine requires that matter, these people were smart, good thing you did not had a chance to add YOUR PERSONAL bias into their decision making.
 
Fram does excellent marketing. The competing manufacturers probably don't even know what marketing is. So people end up buying Fram filters.
 
alright alright. Let me iron a few things out so. Ok about the oil at my store. Im not saying its a bad oil, its just we want so much. and we dont offer any deals. Secondly about the people i tried to help they looked lost and i was simply going to say that any good oil will work just fine :) because they were going back and forth on what weight to use and if this oil would be better than this oil. and that this oil was high milage. I was just going to to tell them any oil will work just fine for topping off between oil changes. have you ever seen anyone look lost and confused and want to help them? This has nothing to do with oil but another story, I was in the fishing isle at a department store looking around. when i overheard a small boy and his grandma. the small boy said that he needed new line. and was looking at those brightly collored markers that have the twine tied to them and said "grandma thats fishing line!" I looked over and saw that he was about to get the wrong thing so I walked over and i said "can I help?" and the lady was verry happy to accept my help. so I grabbed a small package of 8-12 I dont remember now box of trilene and handed it to the grandmother. It was about 2 dollars instead of 16. so she was happy. Just wondering if anyone has ever come acrost people like this and wanted to step in. I wish I had told him that our penzoil filters were on sale. One of the ladies i work with walked out with two big filters for a lager truck or something and paid 1.99 for them. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.
 
It's VERY hard for me when I'm at Wal Mart drooling over the prices on Rotella T5 and Delo 400 LE to not tell the people picking up the orange can of doom-DON'T DO IT! BUY THE SUPER TECH (unless it's an e-core)-but somehow I'm able to stop myself! BTW, IMHO there are MUCH worse oil choices than Castrol GTX-how about that All-American SB oil at the c-stores for $3.79/quart!
 
Originally Posted By: Panzerman
I think you are being a bit harsh on the guy. I mean at least he is changing his own oil. Castrol high milelage is a alright choice, he wasnt buying a cheap no-name. I probably would have said that our Pennzoil filters are on sale and are produced by Fram, so you could save some money. He may have apprieated that. Everything else you said, was your opinion, the customer is always right. Imagine your response if you went in to buy a Purolater filter and the guy at the counter told you the Fram is a better filter,(this has happened) you could argue, point is he has his opinions, you have yours. What I think is a big waste of money is filters such as Royal Purple or Amsoil oil filters, why pay that much for a oil filter, when you can buy a Puroltor for so much less that will be more than adequet, thats just my opinion though, means nothing. As far as whining about BP/Castrol and the oil spill, I would say "What oil spill? Show me, Oh, you cant find it but its there-Right?."


I'd agree 100 percent.
I don't think we shouldn't judge BP too harshly (even though I don't usually use their products). Everyone has had their problems. Remember the Exxon Valdez?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill

BTW, to the o/p you may not like "the orange can of death" but many of us have gone hundreds of thousands of miles using them. I have a vehicle right now that has over 200K miles and for the first 100K miles or more of it's life only saw Fram orange filters. Many other vehicles before that. Some of our vehicles had over 300K miles when they were sold or retired!
As I have said many times - better filter for less money? Absolutely but to each their own.
 
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We're a very unique group here - we love oil, and love geeting it for great prices. We have the 'art' of 'oil deal searching' down to a science.

for most people, buying oil and changing it is a chore, like doing dishes - they are just trying to get it done with as little fuss as possible.

So they go to a store and just grab the first thing that catches their eye on the shelf - usually, they saw an add a few days befpre that made them thing to change their oil and use 'X' product.

Like others have said, at least the guy IS changing his oil!
 
One thing you seem to be forgetting is that where you work they may not buy in volume like the big chains and so their profit margin is less. Part of each sale helps pay your salary. There is a lot of hidden cost concerning any business that has to be paid to even keep the doors open.
 
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