AutoZone Customer Takes Matters Into His Own Hands After 45 Minutes On Hold

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1983 300TD 240k Thistle Green Auto (Euro) [sold]
1984 300D 240k Petrol Green Auto
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"You know, times are changing. Ladies can do stuff now and you're going to have to learn how to deal with it."
"What? Were you saying something? Look, I don't speak Spanish."

Oh don't we all want to do that.....but it really accomplishes little.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Oh I don't know about that. Sometimes there is much satisfaction to be gained from being able to make someone realize what a douche they are.

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You're a daisy if you do.
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84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

I can relate to his frustration but I wouldn't have put as much cursing and anger into the mix.

I had a sort of opposite experience at O'Reillys a while back. The guy was helping me with something, we were almost done, the phone rings, he picks up and starts yacking away with him, looking stuff up on the computer. I was there because I'd been given the wrong part earlier so I sorta lost it, in a controlled way. I said: 'I get put on hold here all the time when I call up. Can we just finish this please??'

The guy came to his senses, put the caller on hold and got me out of there.

Two points for the kid.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Corporation auto parts stores suck!

I do all my parts shopping on line. The only thing AutoZone carries parts for is my old work truck, the one I hit the junk yards with, so I don't really shop for auto parts all that much.

If I can I buy on-line. But I always check local, too. And if I need it I hand them a list with the part numbers on it.

And they go pick it out and I pay for it.

With the machine on your desk you have the same catalog as they do, so I do my looking while I am sitting down and not standing at the counter.

Mmmm ... I dunno. Maybe for my German cars but I recently did a lot of work on my chev van - rotors, bearings (front), pads, radiator, water pump, auto tranny filter. NAPA and O'Reillys. I wouldn't want to have waited to get it in the mail. I hadn't really planned ahead and I was on a deadline. The radiator was cheap, almost too cheap - $120 - China via O'Reilly's. Alum core and plastic tanks of course. But it's gone 3,000 miles on it so far no prob.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

At one time, I used to have better luck at NAPA or CarQuest. But my NAPA closed and the CarQuest here got gobbled-up by Advance Autoparts.
Anyway, a few years back I was out of town, visiting friends and they needed a distributor-cap for their '95 Volvo. So I called every parts store in town - six of them. Getting put on hold six times! Finally, the kid at the local NAPA there said they had one. I asked him to pull it for me.
So I drove cross-town and the kid's on the phone, chatting & giggling with some buddy or girlfriend, ignoring me for like 10 minutes. Meanwhile, I spot the receipt and new cap sitting on the counter, and it's an aftermarket Italian brand that has soon failed every time I've used one. The kid's still yakking on the phone so, without a word, I walked out!
Fortunately, I was able to buy an OE cap from the local Volvo dealer, 15 minutes before they closed.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Different stores, different clerks, different results. This isn't limited to auto parts. It's a general problem with retail establishments. The story in the link is particularly egregious, but certainly a bit out of the ordinary.

I can empathize. I think we've all called a retail establishment at one point or another, gotten put on hold, and then another clerk picks up the phone, starting the whole process again. Long story short, if a retail clerk is dealing with customers in person, at a cash register, they probably shouldn't be answering the phone. But, that's a policy change that needs to happen at the corporate level. Often, retail establishments are understaffed, exacerbating this kind of situation.

Assuming the story in the link is true, the problem there was (seemingly) more about lazy clerks.


As for me, I've encountered situations like that, but find them to be the exception to the rule. I shop at the Advance near my house a lot (rarely parts - mostly for fluids and generic supplies), mostly because it's right around the corner and often has what I need at oddball hours, or when I'm in the middle of working on the car. Most of the clerks there are actually really helpful.

Actually most of the time I get decent service. There are things though that simply are not on the radar of a big chain. For that we have the internet!

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

guy sounds like an jerk honestly.

also, you constantly hear these rants about how someone with a custom application is pissed that they need to know make and model for the parts database in these parts stores.

Simple, thats the only way the system works. You can't just type in random stuff, you have to do it a certain way.

this whole business below in unnecessary. He should have at hand an invented car that the axle hes using came out of to feed the parts store instead of getting pissy. Surely he pulled the ford 9" rear end out of something, tell them what that was. I do that all the time. I have parts from 5 different year vehicles in one of my cars, I feed the parts store the source vehicle and get what I want without nonsense. Getting pissed off about someone not jumping into your head and understanding the custom nature of your personal project, that is just being a jerk for the sake of being a jerk.

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

I can identify with this guy's frustration although poor customer service relates to health care, not auto parts. We had to get new health insurance this year due to the fact that our old plan was outlawed by Obamacare. So we chose Golden Rule in December but not before discussing with them the fact that our daughter would be moving home in April from Canada where she was attending college and should we include her in the plan when we enrolled in January or wait for April? Were told wait until April and when she gets home just call us and we'll add her. We did that. We were then told it wasn't just a call but she had to fill out an application. They e-mailed us the application. Daughter filled it out and faxed it back. We called to make sure everything was moving smoothly a few days later. No, the application isn't correct. I need to fill out the application, not my daughter. Odd but I filled out the application while talking to them on the phone to make sure everything is correct. We fax it and then call to make sure everything is correct. Yep, all set, she'll be on the plan by May 1st. May 8th I get a letter from Golden Rule saying the application was not correct, there's a new application included and my daughter has to fill it out. Needless to say I wasn't happy. I was on the phone with them for about an hour and a half, first talking to a clerk and then a supervisor trying to find out why my daughter needed to fill out a second application after she'd already submitted one which was rejected in favor of me filling out the application. No resolution, just told, 'Fill it out'. Still doesn't make sense to me so I call the next day. Clerk can't answer my questions so directs me to 'Service Resolution'. Talk to a person there. She doesn't know what's going on but says she will call me back. 24 hours no call. So I call again. No resolution but woman says she will call back. 10 minutes later I get a call back. "It is against the law to add a person to an existing non-exchange health insurance plan who moves back to the US from another country." ****, you'd have thought they'd have told me that when I asked them that specific question in December. Nope. Hours and hours of wasted effort.
Like the guy above, I did try to find a local office where I could go to talk to someone in person where I thought it would be more difficult to just blow me off, but while I'm sure they have an office in the state somewhere, it's not indicated on the internet. I did call the State Insurance Commissioner who while very helpful and willing to file a complaint against the insurance company advised against it since once it was filled it would stop the application process and since enrolling in health insurance outside of open enrollment requires 'Special Enrollment' the time limits on special enrollment would probably expire before the complaint was resolved.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Those damn complainers and their rants.....
Why cant they be like a first or second child, instead of one of those last ones. Only dudes that have a right to complain are the first born types!

Everyone has a right to complain, its ranting about self evident realities that is pointless.

Self evident reality 1- they obviously forgot he was on hold. A reasonable person would have hung up and called again after a few minutes. Business like that, things like that happen all the time. When he called, they were probably busy at that moment. Were he in the store he would be ranting they took a call ahead of him.

Self evident reality 2- anyone who buys anything from any parts store should know already that make model ect battery of questions is going to happen. No they cant look it up from vague generalities and basic descriptions. His actions are like going in and saying he needs a chevy door handle.


So we have a news item about a guy who wasted his own time staying on hold to go drive all the way down there and yell, and then decided to get pissed that water was wet after that. Hes a foul mouthed moron if it really happened, but i doubt this did. Sounds like a big fish story to me.

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

Before I go to autozone I get on the inernet and get the part number and if I can expect the local store to have the part or not.

Also the local one is just 1/2 mile away so I can walk to it if I need to.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel