Pep boys idiocy
 

Just went to Pep Boys to buy a quart of ATF. Store used to be set up with a parts counter at the back with parts behind it, shelves with all the pick yourself stuff in the middle and check out counter at the front. Now they've made the check out counter into a combination parts look up/check out counter with the parts themselves halfway back into the store on the side. So two customers come in, one picks up quart of oil while the other walks to the parts look up/check out counter. He asks for parts X for car y. Check out guy has to look up the part, leave the counter and walk back to the parts section to get the part, walk back and check him out, all the while the guy with the quart of oil is standing in line waiting to pay for his oil. Jeeeezuz. Don't they realize that if you're going to sell stuff on the floor, those customers aren't interested in waiting while you look up and search for parts for other customers? You're not NAPA you idiots.

Pep Boys is the absolute worst.

I try to avoid them......which for me is easy...I have lots of closer alternatives. I agree, that's annoying as all hell.

They are horrible. Autozone has done that to me too, and I have walked out and left things on the counter because it shouldn't take 15 minutes to check out.

My nearby Autozone does the same thing, but they have a checkout up by the front door as well, which helps the self-serve customers. But sometimes the front checkout is closed, but you don't know it until you bring all your stuff up there. Then of course you have to go all the way in back again and deal with it.

what pisses me off is say i go into a parts house for something, i tell them what i want and about that time the phone rings so they grab the phone and start to deal with them all the while i was there first and really getting pissed because they are more interested in the guy that called in rather then the guy that actually walked in the door.

I feel your Angst!
 

Try and Picture this.
The Local MB Stealer is also a Buick + BMW dealer...
Same people handle all parts (You Know How Screwed up that gets).
Same Techs handle All repairs,Specific Factory trained or not.
(I'm not gonna say it.)
Now one of the techs is "Moonlighting" at one of the Big Box auto parts places.
He'll spend 25 minutes talking to a pretty skirt about an oil filter while 25 people
pile up in line behind her waiting to try and check out.

What you are noticing is the lack of CUSTOMER SERVICE, and a lack of good management. Good management, and good customer service can make up for lots of mistakes in a business. Bad customer service is an indication that management is far removed from the day-to-day operation. If allowed to continue, the business will fail--( then someone will propose that we bail them out--pure capitalism would shutter the doors).

I don't go to stores like autozone/pep boys anymore except to drop off used oil. :D

I can get everything I need online/in stores like meijer/walmart/napa.

O'Reilly has good service, so I do go there sometimes for little things. Advance auto parts has decent service but the prices are way inflated.

That's the only solution. They must presume that since you are already there, they have your business, and the phone call is new business that could be lost if put on hold.

This is similar to Home Despot where they close aisles to restock when people are there to buy stuff.

Schlep Boyz
 

The other day I noticed that one of my rear tail lights was out and being it was the last week of the month I really did not fee like a citation from a cop fulfilling his "quota".

Stopped by the nearest parts place (Schlep Boyz) and found they were totally out of the most used bulbs, (1157) which means no one is making sure the restock setup in the checkout program is worrking? No! One of the employees had taken ALL of them for an order to another shop. So they don't have any so you strip your store to fill their orders?

Same crap at AutoZoned, basic stuff is low/no stock while they clog the checkout area with "impulse" items that none ever seems to buy.

Plus the employees don't know **** about cars! I've seen them give the customer the wrong part because the computer says so! Don't check the exploded parts fiche?

Oh yea, also EOL - English is The ONLY Language!

I only buy oil and filters at advance anymore, but thats because I have $200 store credit from a starter I replaced 4 times before I finally went to ford and got a decent one. brakes also, kspt having trouble until I bought the ford loaded set, better brakes and no more rattling and pulling.

Locally, Kragen has been absorbed by O'Reilly's and they've gone to the same model. PITA

Unfortunately, I had to use Pep Boys night before last. My started died on my 96 Explorer, and since I'm a member of the Pep Boys Club (did a lot of shopping for parts there in Utah), towing was cheaper using them rather than to have to call for a tow.

Their newer stores are nothing like the older one I used in Utah. Ogden's store has a parts counter in the back, cash registers in the front, and the service on the side of the building...like it should be.

Autozone and Advanced are screwed up now...they have registers they don't use anymore, at least not here in western PA.

At least NAPA and CarQuest are still the same as they were 30 years ago.

There is a definite challenge to the way that auto parts stores are run--when a customer walks in, there is no way of knowing whether they are going to pick up a quart of oil off the shelf, or if they were looking for a transmission seal from a 1931 Pontiac or something like that...even if they're holding a quart of oil, there is no way of knowing whether or not they need something else. The way we had it set up was on the weekends we'd have some girl come in and work a front register for "quick checkout" and the rest of us would do our usual parts thing behind the counter. Also, in terms of the phone, many parts stores do wholesale parts contracts with local garages and businesses. This was most of my profit for the store, when not directly taking care of a customer in front of me (i.e. waiting for parts to come out of the back) we would have to answer the phone to do wholesale business. We had two dedicated parts guys JUST on the phone who usually had 3-4 people on the line at any given time. Some people would complain about us taking too long if we did one customer at a time, others would complain about lack of individual service or something when we would do multiple customers. Either way, everyone feels like they are entitled to their own opinion and business model when they walk into a parts store, and not to absolve the stores of management responsibility--they need to accommodate for their volume of customers. For us, we had extremely high volume both walk-in and wholesale so our system worked pretty well, and all of the guys were ASE certified as well (with the exception of me, who decided not to take the test due to time constraints). Either way Pep Boys is the worst, they would actually call us and ask us questions, no lie.