Dont you just hate those little over priced packets of goop,they should give you as a courtesy?
Seriously I think Advance is in decline.
I am one of those dreaded Amazon parts buyers. I tried to give AutoZone my business (they are the only ones within 10 miles of my house) and bought some brake rotors and pads from them. They were junk and the rotors started vibrating badly within a year. I went in to get my warranty replacement and they said “no problem” but then had extreme difficulty making the computer do the exchange. When they tried to make me pay $20 to get my replacements I asked for the manager. It took her 20 minutes and she finally had to process the transaction as a “return” and “repurchase”, price matching my original purchase price. I had already purchased replacement parts online (of much higher quality) and they would not refund me my original purchase price. So now I have two boxes containing Chinese made door stops that were made for AutoZone.
Yes @kmccune, the Goop. I saw a customer get the last laugh on an Auto Zone store that had tossed various packages of condiments into the mix of parts he recently bought. He brought a sack full of the Goops with a hand full of receipts and the store manager was obviously unhappy un-selling all that useless junk. A well run DIY parts store would give the junk away with appropriate purchases.
Autozone has a nice computer lookup system for warranties. As someone else said, no receipt is needed for warranty returns. Yes, that thermal paper fades fast. Don’t keep it in the sun and it will last a lot longer.
The overpriced “goop” as you say is a convenience thing and am sure it has a HUGE profit margin. They have a product for every job packaged in these little packs. For example, they have several different silicone grease products. It is just labeled and marketed differently but all the same thing inside the pack. I have seen battery terminal protector, electronic connection grease, radiator hose anti-seize, and the like. They usually are the same price. I found a large tube for like 3x the cost but containing like 100x the product amount so I went with that. This type of marketing is done with other products too. For example the active ingredient in Benadryl type allergy pills is the same as that in many generic over the counter sleeping medications but the pills sold as sleep aids cost 4x the price of the ones sold as allergy pills. Of course I buy the allergy ones which list “May cause drowsiness” as a side effect.
One time I found that the computer lookup system for buying parts didn’t properly see a seal that I was looking for. I looked online and found the seal I needed also applied to quite a few common cars out there so went in and asked for the seal by the make/model/year of those cars and the part number itself. I have seen this with several stores so wonder if they all subscribe to a similar lookup service.
XEROX… or scan copy all thermal receipts you wish to keep.
Even out of the sun and in a file cabinet they are un-readable in a year or so…
’‘diasappearing ink !’’
Yeah I remember when all our fax machines used the thermal paper. You didn’t have to worry about destroying documents-they destroyed themselves.
I decided to invest in a $3 tire tread depth gauge yesterday so just stopped by AZ. Hadn’t been there for a while and usually don’t go there. Not to be sexist but there were two people working there and both female. Not only female but were dressed the way they would be if they were in a retail clothing store. The one was just selling a battery and flirting a little with the customer and wasn’t really there long enough to see if they knew anything about cars but I just got the impression that maybe they wouldn’t be the best ones to ask about car parts. They were good with the cash register though and the long nails didn’t seem to cause a problem with the key strokes.
Oh boy. Longing for the old days when you’d sit at a greasy stool at the counter with other greasy guys and have a smoke and listen to the car chat. I guess thats what bars are for but I don’t drink.
Well these days that’s what the CarTalk forums are for. 
Regarding the receipts printed on thermal paper, re-e-e-a-a-a-l cute! “Well, sir, I’d really like to honor your warranty claim, but that’s not a receipt, that’s a blank slip of paper.”
It depends on the time you go into one of the stores. Sometimes there is a trained monkey that can operate the cash register while other times it is someone who actually knows something. I agree that service is no longer what it once was at just about ANY store out there.
I buy shop supplies and occasional parts for a135 vehicle fleet. Napa used to love my business and gave me great service and discounts despite buying in small quantities. (I have a storage problem so have to limit how much I buy at one time.) Overall it was a fair amount of business annually ($35K).
My local store was taken over last year. Prices were jacked up 80%. As others have mention, no more knowledgeable staff. The kicker was when I was told that I didn’t need to call in, I could just order on line. Sometimes I need to talk to someone ! I started getting most of my shop supplies of another vendor who is giving me better service and prices than Napa ever did and loves when I call in orders. Napa should learn to not annoy and irritate purchasing people !
I think a lot depends on the individual store, location, and who’s managing it
Of the various Napa stores that are within driving distance, some were better than others. Those that were poorly run fell by the wayside. Location also played a big role in the demise of the stores which are now closed. The stores which are now closed were not really located in industrial areas, not close to the auto repair facilities who tend to be the regular customers
Of the various Napa stores that are within driving distance, some were better than others. Those that were poorly run fell by the wayside
Unfortunately that’s not always true. In area’s where unemployment is low and economy is good…even the very poorly run businesses survive…and they survive very well. When the economy turns south…it tends to weed out the bad ones. Right now NH is at 3.8%…and MA is at 4.7%…Low enough even for the dishonest crooks to survive.
I’ve liked NAPA because of the price/quality but also availability of parts. If the store didn’t have it in stock, a main warehouse was only 10 miles down the road and I could do a will call and a quick trip for my part. Once or twice that warehouse didn’t have it and it was waiting a day or two for delivery from the Minneapolis warehouse.
The whole alternator fiasco is what pushed me toward OEM instead. When I buy a new lifetime alternator, I expect it to last more than a year. I don’t know what their problems were but after about three alternators, switching to Delco solved it for me. I was in a position to have to be able to hop in the car and drive a hundred or two hundred miles without problems but once I had to replace an alternator in the NAPA parking lot that was only six months old. Not acceptable.
The kicker was when I was told that I didn’t need to call in, I could just order on line. Sometimes I need to talk to someone !
Yes, sometimes you do, and I think for the DIY crowd that is true more often than not. But for the professionals, either in a retail repair shop or in a fleet garage, picking up the phone is a colossal waste of time for both the shop and the store, and they know it. I can check price and availability on a part from 3 suppliers from the computer faster than I can do it on the phone with one. Plus online cataloging gives me a picture of the part, OEM part numbers and interchange, warranty info, and a host of other things. I would say 75% of the things I order are done with mouse clicks–dealer parts included.
I can’t imagine trying to do business any other way anymore. Times are changing. I would say 30% of customer interaction is now done through e-mail and text instead of phone calls.
@asemaster I was dragged kicking and screaming (not literally) but was forced to get a smartphone upgrade from my flip phone. I have gotten used to it, and these days text rather than voice or email. It is worthless to leave a voicemail message to a few people I deal with, missed call or text seems to work.
@Bing My experiences are exactly the same with alternators! It reflects the state of affairs in rebuilders. Click and Clack may have said there is no such thing as “heavy duty” parts but there is a huge difference in rebuilt parts. A used '89 Suburban that came into my driveway with a shiny new alternator underhood started having charging problems within 6 months.
I took it into a big-box store to be tested and it was bad so I bought a rebuilt. That, too, turned out to be bad right out of the box after I installed it. Took it back, insisted on getting my old alternator and a refund. Stopped by my locally owned serious-mechanic parts store and asked for a rebuilt alternator. I had a choice between XXX brand and an AC Delco rebuilt unit for $35 more. Bought the AC Delco and never had another issue.
The parts used to rebuild matter as does educated labor. Cheap bearings, brushes, diodes or regulators are just cheap junk used to get a car you are selling running again. Fortunately, the Subby’s alternator was easy to service.
I have heard that about some of the parts store engines that they sell as remans. I guess you don’t want to go that route unless you are about to sell the car and it is worth more running. Several people I have talked to said that you will likely need that warranty they include with them if you keep them long.
I always thought Jaspers were the best of the best for engines but have been hearing some bad things about them too.
eventually you are going to here bad things about every manufacturer, or re-manufacturer. I would still go with Jasper over a chain stores re-man.
The only engine I ever replaced was with a GM factory re-man engine. It really was better than the original. Who knows who actually did the work, but the quality was there.
Buying a rebuilt engine is a real crap shoot. The parts stores have several sources and they have little influence over where their next engine will come from. I learned to avoid McParts engines altogether after making many warranty repairs and replacements of their engines that failed when installed at other shops or by DIY owners. Rocker studs pulling out of the heads, missmatched cylinder heads, no dipstick hole, blocked coolant passages, etc, ad nauseum were all too common. On the other hand GM and Ford crate engines always right and reasonably priced. And while I could offer an excellant rebuild on a customers engine the price was usually as high as an OE crate or higher and kept the vehicle tied up for a week or more so only the rare, older domestics and foreign engines got an in house rebuild.
Interesting on the reman engines. Do any of the parts stores have a different source for engines or a “premium” option for reman engines? I am referring to Autozone and O’Reilly around here but figured others may have a better option.
There is some shop within a 100 or so miles of here that rebuilds engines for people regionally. They offer a 10 year/100,000 mile warranty so you can’t beat that. I figured that would be who I would use if it was a vehicle I could live without for a while. The graphic on their ads is always a Chrysler 2.7L V6 engine which I thought was appropriate.