The Parts Counter

[pillen140]

My favorite is getting brake lines, or fittings.... You know how ford uses a fitting for 3/16 line, but the threads are bigger? Well, only one guy thats ever worked at az could ever find them, and hes gone now. Every other idiot says they dont exist until i bring one in... And then they say someone must have made it from a plug and drilled it out..... I hate them.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

thats funny cause i always get people coming from A-Zoo with brake lines they bought there, but the employees of A-Zoo sent them to my store for adapters and unions because they dont know how to find them or how the sizing works or any of that. its probably better that way cause otherwise there would probably be a bunch of cars cruising around town with NPT fittings that are crammed into double flare brake fittings with compression fitting patches here and there, leaking all over the place. reading all of this makes me feel better about where i work, even if we dont "price match" every one or have a "life time warranty" on every little thing we sell.

 

[TheTopher]

reading all of this makes me feel better about where i work, even if we dont "price match" every one or have a "life time warranty" on every little thing we sell.

Lifetime warranties and low prices aren't worth a damn on the wrong part.


Wish we had a store like yours around here, all I have are the chains.

I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've walked out of Autozone after waiting fifteen minutes for somebody to come to the register and ring me up. Napa, pepboys and advance aren't much better in the parts department, but at least I can get my items rung up.

I finally decided I'm just better off waiting a few days to get my parts from Rockauto.com The only parts I get locally anymore are oil filters.

 

[OilPatch197]

I like old time parts stores, they got stools you can sit on and B.S. for hours with the parts people.

 

[TheTopher]

I like old time parts stores, they got stools you can sit on and B.S. for hours with the parts people.

I gotta find me one of them. Not only could I get my parts, I just might learn something.

 

[Jason]

I like old time parts stores, they got stools you can sit on and B.S. for hours with the parts people.

That's the type of store I started working at in 1996. I loved it. We could actually smoke in that place. lol


The problems started when everyone liked us so much that we would have 12 counter guys on a weekend and still have customers 5 deep waiting. I never worked so hard but the money was AWESOME!

 

[Hopman]

I like old time parts stores, they got stools you can sit on and B.S. for hours with the parts people.

I deal with a place like that in Concord, NH. It's called Sanel's on South Main Street.

The guys and gals down there know their stuff and many of them have been working there for 20+ years!!! One guy, Gordon (who's now semi-retired and just works Saturday mornings) has been there for about 30 years!!

The best part is that in all the years I've gone there, I have gotten the wrong part EXACTLY once, and that was a honest mistake. The Wix P/N for a 2.3 oil filter is 51515. Somebody had out the wrong part on the shelf, P/N 55115 (which is a hydraulic oil filter). I took it back and they changed wit with no hassels, just a big mea culpa.

 

[ufgators68]

All we have, around here, is O'Reilly and Autozone. And there is only one person, per store, who is any kind of help. Both of those happen to be 40ish year old women.

I'll stand in line to have them help me... if I don't know exactly what I need.

 

[Hopman]

I guess I'm lucky when It comes to parts store choices. Along with the usual "big box guys" (Advanced, Autozone, Pep Boys) there's a smattering of smaller local chains such as Sanel's (a Parts Plus afilliate), Robbin's (Federated afilliate), and VIP (New England Reigional chain) Oh yeah, there's a couple of NAPA's around as well.

My prefences are Sanel's and Robbin's.

 

[pillen140]

I wish there was a callahan auto parts around here..... You can shove your ass up a butcher, wait, you can ass your butcher.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

I just wonder why when there are three people behind the counter two doing nothing but picking their noses and the phone rings and the guy helping me allways has to answer it right in the middle of me telling him the info and have to repeat myself at least two or three times. Whenever possible I will take the part in I am going to replace to match up and I always have them test the new alternator before I take it home I really hate putting a new/rebuilt part that dont work.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

just had my first dumb ass customer of the day who brought in his 750 holley carb to get an accelerator pump. the holley book lists various sizes (measured in cc's) and he doesnt know which he needs, so before i can grab the book to look up what that 4160 model carb was originally equipped with he starts fiddling with the carb and spills gas all over my counter, soaking the counter mats. before i know it he has got it on the floor infront of the counter and hes taking the screws out of the acc pump cover with his leatherman and in the process spills more gas on the rug infront of the counter! i get him the right part off from the shelp once ive confirmed that its a 30cc pump, and then he tries to return a fuel line assemble thats missing half the parts and a set of valve cover gaskets that have been opened and are covered in oil and dirt. what gets me is that he drove up here in a 2008-2009 f350 and probbaly had the carb sitting on the front seat the whole time and never bother to think about draining the gas out of it? some people should not breed.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

just had another guy tell me a oil pressure gauge was too expensive and would only buy it if i gave him my discount......WTF? i think its time for lunch

 

[gribly]

ForOffRoadDriving, don't get me wrong, I don't hate ALL parts guys. I just don't like the ones that don't know anything about cars. I suppose the job is worse on your side because of idiots that try to work on their own shit and think they know everything.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

i dont take offense to it, ive been on both sides of the counter (i wasnt always a parts guy). its just sad that people are starting to avoid going to local parts stores because places like A-zoo and Oreally are pissing people off daily. i constanlty get people looking for a lifetime brake pads, but brake pads are designed to wear out so how do i benefit by offering them? we sell raybestos, centric, wagner, and morse friction and the best warranty offered is 2 years IF the brake pads arent worn down to the backing plate and they are worn evenly (any other wear pattern indicates a slide pin failure or other mechanical defect). i wish our company had more stores nation wide, but for now we're only in the michigan, wisconsin, illinois, ohio, indiana. my store started out as an independently owned operation back in the 50s (named Stub's auto parts) and my grand father bought parts from them regularly during his career as a semi truck mechanic. my father worked for them for 10 years during the 70s and was the machine shop foreman for the last 5 of those 10 years. the store changed owners 3 times since it was originally opened and it wasnt until 2001 that it was sold to the autowares company. auto wares had been the supplying warehouse for stubs for as long as i can remember (im 24 and my dad always shopped at stubs when i was growing up) so it only made sense that the auto wares company would buy our store and make it a company store, which allows us to transfer stock overnight from any other company store, check stock at all other stores, we can call the warehouse and talk to the paint department, performance, batteries, cataloging, tools, A1 heavy duty truck, S&G import, and the list keeps growing. anyways, i love my job and have close relationships with alot of my customers, but a selcet few customers some times make me wonder why i bothered to wake up today?