Wally World Rocks

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Co-worker told me that he gave up waiting for two hours to get his oil changed at Wally World. When he complained, the manager told him that he lost two workers he just hired because they failed a drug test. He told him it was hard to find experienced help that could pass the test.

I bet its min wage.

Last week while I was looking over the oil bottles at Wally World, a customer had gotten one of the workers in the oil change bay to give her advise on what oil to buy for her boy friend. The goof told her that if she was put Chevron Supreme or Havoline in their car it would last less than a 1000 miles and do damage. He told her that tehy put no additives in the oil. He suggested Quaker. He was probably wondering why I was laughing

Wally World Rocks

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Idiots at wal mart... seesh.

Why anyone would wait 2 hours to get an oil change at wal mart is beyond me...

Once a tire on the fiancee's integra started going flat. The other one looked like it may be getting dryrot, so we wanted to get 4 new tires.

Wal mart waqs closest to where we were, so we stopped in... they told us we'd have to wait 4 hours.

We went around the corner to the jack Williams tire and they took us right away, and charged less per tire installed with lifetime balancing than the wal mart wanted for the tire itself.

Id buy oil there, but not let them do anything to my car... theyre bottom feeders, bottom bidders, and strongarm their suppliers, and likely their techs too. no way.

JMH
 
"bottom feeders, bottom bidders, and strongarm their suppliers, and likely their techs too. no way."

That statement can be made about ANY major corp. in the world.
 
Alot of people don't want to work for 7-8 bucks an hour and get burned by a hot exhaust system or with hot oil. I'm sure any quick lube place has a high turn over rate.

Most Walmart employees that I have met/talked to seem nice.

Bob, tell your coworker to get a Fumoto valve, oil changes are a snap.
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quote:

He told him it was hard to find experienced help that could pass the test.

I bet it would not be a problem if they paid a decent living wage.

It funny how many business that pay crappy wages always complain of how hard it is to get a good employee, go figure.
 
quote:

Originally posted by BobXRC:
Last week while I was looking over the oil bottles at Wally World, a customer had gotten one of the workers in the oil change bay to give her advise on what oil to buy for her boy friend. The goof told her that if she was put Chevron Supreme or Havoline in their car it would last less than a 1000 miles and do damage. He told her that tehy put no additives in the oil. He suggested Quaker. He was probably wondering why I was laughing

It's unfortunate that so many people are willing to dispense advice on subjects they know nothing about. A simple "I don't know" would have been much more helpful. I definitely would have interrupted that one to explain the difference between marketing and API test procedures!

At least there will be no damage from his advice, except possibly the spread of ignorance if she passes the advice on to someone else.
 
quote:

Originally posted by milwaukee:
"bottom feeders, bottom bidders, and strongarm their suppliers, and likely their techs too. no way."

That statement can be made about ANY major corp. in the world.


You might want to revise your blanket statement. I work for a "major" corporation and it doesn't work that way at all.
 
On the other hand, they DO have 5 quart synths (like PP 5w20/5w30/10w30 for example) under $19. Hard to beat for an everyday price...
 
quote:

Originally posted by Hirev:
It funny how many business that pay crappy wages always complain of how hard it is to get a good employee, go figure.

The other side of that however is that the typical consumer values low cost above all else and that's partly how you keep low cost. If Wally-World paid oil changers $12/hour to get better people and had to charge $39.99 for an oil change, a lot of customers would then find a still cheaper place that didn't do drug testing or whatever, and they wouldn't care either.
I own a small service-type company, basically entry-level work, and I got tired of turnover. So I drastically raised my prices about 4 years ago in order to pay more to attract and retain better employees. Turnover is way way down but I often get a lot of abuse when I do a bid because of what I charge...which is a fair price for a legitimate business but a lot more than people who work under-the-table charge. And most customers don't care, they just want the work done as cheap as possible.
 
Its just my experience, but I have been lucky with 'my' Wal-Mart. I worked at the one near my house for 7 years, and good chunk of the staff are still there and still know me, so they don't screw me. As far as waiting for an oil change, the store is on a major bus route to my work, so I just drop off the car at 8:15 or so in the morning, bus to work, and bus back there at 6 or so to pick up my car. The fact that Wal-Marts have long store hours really, realy helps!

I agree that if I had to wait to get an oil change on a weekend like a lot of other people, it would be a frustrating 2-3 hour wait.

Also, the price can't be beat going to Wal-Mart - $23.97 for an oil change using top-quality Pennzoil oil, for being willing to leave my car with them for an entire day. If I didn't want to wait, I'd have to pay anywhere from $30 - $45 for the same oil change at a drive-through lube express place. If I want to be really cheap; I can get a Tech 2000 change for $17.96.

Again, this is just my experience, and just happen to be lucky enough to have a system that works well for me, and a store that I trust.....
 
quote:

Originally posted by JohnnyO:

quote:

Originally posted by Hirev:
It funny how many business that pay crappy wages always complain of how hard it is to get a good employee, go figure.

The other side of that however is that the typical consumer values low cost above all else and that's partly how you keep low cost. If Wally-World paid oil changers $12/hour to get better people and had to charge $39.99 for an oil change, a lot of customers would then find a still cheaper place that didn't do drug testing or whatever, and they wouldn't care either.
I own a small service-type company, basically entry-level work, and I got tired of turnover. So I drastically raised my prices about 4 years ago in order to pay more to attract and retain better employees. Turnover is way way down but I often get a lot of abuse when I do a bid because of what I charge...which is a fair price for a legitimate business but a lot more than people who work under-the-table charge. And most customers don't care, they just want the work done as cheap as possible.


The thing is that from everything that ive read, the profit margins on oil are amongst the lowest of everything in an auto parts or discount store. If that is the case, and bulk oil is a loss leader.. than the cost of hiring better help at better prices should be only a few dollars more per change.

Ill assume that this help is "part time" like wal-mart likes to do so they dont have to pay them benefits... The difference between $7/hr and $13/hr is $6... Ill assume that since its a quick lube place, they can do at least 2 changes in an hour. So, overall the difference in price shouldnt be much more than $3/change.

Ill assume that with all the fancy warehousing and distribution/demand tracking that wal-mart does... they can also track how many oil changers they need each day/hour to meet demand... so cost-effectively attracting better laborers shouldnt be hard.

IMO, the problem is that if you really know stuff about cars, you really like to learn about maintaining them, and you are really interested in doing a good job, then youll probably go for ASE certification, maybe some certifications from Bosch or similar... and then oil changing and tire changing is just too monotonous.

People that are worth more than $7/hr likely dont want to be stuck doing just that one or those two tasks over and over...

JMH
 
I also think it's "location, location, location." I too have had nothing but good service, pre-bitog days mind you, when I had my oil changed or tires worked on or battery checked out. Smaller towns will get better and smarter technicians. True, they don't stay there forever, but a lot of them were raised around farms and they know a thing or two about oil and have probably changed a lot of oil themselves. They work at Walmart for a short while between college breaks or summer time.
 
Very true - When I worked in Wisconsin I applied for Wal-Mart's TLE. Most of the people there had worked there for 5+ years and I would have no problem trusting them with my cars. They were very careful at letting me do things until I knew how (when I worked there).

Now that I accepted a different job out here in California the Wal-Mart TLE out here = whole bunch of people who can't speak English and that can't read a dipstick. I've had them botch my oil change twice (PREBITOG) and my tires 3 times in a ROW. Each time I go back seems like someone new is working there.

I think minimum wage was 3 dollars less than what I was getting at Wisconsin's TLE. In California, according to the TLE Manager, they make $11/hour. California's minimum wage? Not sure
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