autozone on hold

[javacontour]

I always say to myself, how important is my call if you don't have someone ready to answer it?

Originally Posted By: Rick in PA
I always love the standard recording:
Hello, your call is important to us...

Then you start the button pushing, followed by the long wait with annoying music. At regular intervals during the music, the line will go click and a voice will start, you'll have a momentary burst of enthusiasm thinking you got a live person. No, it's just another recording telling you you're still on hold...

 

[andyd]

Unless its a spur of the moment drop in, I check AZ's on line catalog first. It will tell you if and where your part is in stock. For back up, I also write down the P/N. Ditto with NAPA and AA. Faster results, less drama.
Thanks Elje. Piece was entertaining, just like the guys with an unlimited budget building a hot rod on TV. I'm just a shade tree hack trying to fix some heap on the cheap.

As for all the young guys working, consider this as just another day at the salt mines.

 

[Sayjac]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
The customer doesn't know the model and year of the vehicle, but apparently the guy behind the counter should?

Those guys look up parts by year, model, etc. Those are the tools they are given.

A fair point.

They shouldn't however, have continued to put him hold when he called. Just been straight up and said, we use year make and model to look up parts, if you can provide that we may be able to help you.

Counter jocks not paid a bunch, and higher expectations than looking up a part by year make model would be too much imo. And besides using codes, why I prefer to do the research and order online from AAP. I'd do the same though if I was going to the store just to make sure I got the correct part.

The buyer here was somewhat lazy and/or unknowledgeable about the limitations of many/most auto parts stores.

And not to single out AZ because ime most of the parts chains are similar, but a couple years back had a valid instant rebate for Gumout All in One at AZ. No one in the store could figure out how to apply the rebate on the computer. After a fair amount of frustration and embarrassment, ended up giving me the All in One for free.

 

[Justin251]

Originally Posted By: pbm

No way. You can totally afford a nice car, nice house, and put 3 kids through college on $7.50 an hour.


I don't know about the nice car but I have neighbors living in house like mine and their rent is paid by a program called 'Section 8' (paid by we the taxpayers).
Also, college tuition is not the same for any two people (except those extraordinarily
wealthy people who can afford to pay full price). Low income people generally pay far less than the middle class.

PS: Great story EJ....consider yourself lucky that you even got to speak to a human if only briefly...


I'm not saying I think anyone should look at these minimum wage jobs as a career. But minimum wage hasn't followed inflation in a long time and serves only to keep money in the pockets of the 1%

 

[eljefino]

Once again, this is a repost from Jalopnik. It didn't happen to me, and who knows if it happened to the original writer.

However couldn't we imagine being in those shoes.

Humor section.

 

[pbm]

Originally Posted By: Justin251
Originally Posted By: pbm

No way. You can totally afford a nice car, nice house, and put 3 kids through college on $7.50 an hour.


I don't know about the nice car but I have neighbors living in house like mine and their rent is paid by a program called 'Section 8' (paid by we the taxpayers).
Also, college tuition is not the same for any two people (except those extraordinarily
wealthy people who can afford to pay full price). Low income people generally pay far less than the middle class.

PS: Great story EJ....consider yourself lucky that you even got to speak to a human if only briefly...


I'm not saying I think anyone should look at these minimum wage jobs as a career. But minimum wage hasn't followed inflation in a long time and serves only to keep money in the pockets of the 1%



I agree with you on that point.
I'm just saying that the middle class takes it on the chin .... they don't have all the 'write offs' that the wealthy have and they don't qualify for all the 'government programs'...

 

[Vikas]

Well, nobody here actually *reads* the original post; their attention span is about the same as the typical autozone employee!

 

[Sayjac]

I must be 'nobody' then because I actually did read the original post including observing the link to jalopnik. Never thought nor indicate that I considered it to be the OP.

Also saw that it was placed in the 'humor' section 'on bitog.' However it is not in a labeled humor section on jalopnik. It is somewhat comical though. 'If' it is total fiction, seems 'IMO' that jalopnik went out of it's way to trash AZ and it's employees.

 

[PR1955]

I am willing to bet that that counter guy has been in the business for years, and he has a good memory, and a lot of knowledge and experience-normally parts can not be looked up that way. He remebered the applications that matched up to the descriptions given.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
The customer doesn't know the model and year of the vehicle, but apparently the guy behind the counter should?

Those guys look up parts by year, model, etc. Those are the tools they are given.


I will expand more, to look up parts for most Ford differentials, you need the tag number off the diff housing. Without that tag, or a VIN that will pull up the tag, I would literally be guessing.

Also with our cataloging, there is no 9" listing anymore. We have some old books, but every time I have taken the time to look stuff up in them, the parts are obsolete.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Not related to parts counter - but something that shouldn't have happened regardless.

This was probably 20+ years ago - right about the time our county got 911 service and they were directing you to call 911 instead of calling the fire department directly.

Well, the guy who bought our old CJ7 was driving down the road and it caught on fire. This was the days before cell phones, so he ran to someones house and they let him call 911.

The 911 operator and fire department were not able to find the address (because everything was given a CR# ... it was no longer windfall road, old state road).

So he hung up on 911 and ran 1/4 mile up the street to the fire department. There were firefighters already there from another call and he pointed out "See that plume of black smoke, that's my Jeep on fire that you couldn't find".

They did get it out before it was too far gone. I believe it was mostly paint and some wiring that caught fire.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
The customer doesn't know the model and year of the vehicle, but apparently the guy behind the counter should?

Those guys look up parts by year, model, etc. Those are the tools they are given.


I will expand more, to look up parts for most Ford differentials, you need the tag number off the diff housing. Without that tag, or a VIN that will pull up the tag, I would literally be guessing.

Also with our cataloging, there is no 9" listing anymore. We have some old books, but every time I have taken the time to look stuff up in them, the parts are obsolete.


Seriously?! I found hundreds of 9" parts in a 10-second search.

 

[rshunter]

Originally Posted By: Kawiguy454
...the lady making sandwiches at K-Mart...


I thought that I was the only one who remembered those. I've had people look at me like I was suffering delusions after having mentioned them. Must be proof that I really am getting old.


Oh, and I love just how many have missed that this is in the "Humor" section...

 

[dlundblad]

This is the reason I look all my stuff up online first. This also goes along with looking for the best price depending on how urgent i need it and who has the brand I want.

When I had my parts job, I never understood why so many people called for prices/ specs when everything was listed online.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
Seriously?! I found hundreds of 9" parts in a 10-second search.


For OEM parts ya. For an example, lets say you wanted a pinion seal for a 2004 F250. When I type in the basic number 4676, it does not show just the seal, the cataloging lists 361 different axle tag numbers that were available that year. It literally just lists the tag numbers with no description. My cataloging only goes back to 1980 on a computer, and we threw the micro-fiche machines away a few years ago.

Anytime someone calls with a 9" diff I refer them to Summit, same when people come in thinking we can get Ford Racing parts for cheap.

 

[MinamiKotaro]

I don't even attempt to get parts locally, it's a waste of time. I do 100% of my car parts shopping online. If it's an emergency, I just pay for overnight shipping. (And if it's such a big emergency I can't wait until tomorrow, I likely have more important problems.) It still comes out to the same or less than any brick and mortar store.

For example, I can get a brand new AC Delco starter for my Saturd, pay for overnight shipping, and still come out to significantly less than a no-name, reman one from any of the local parts stores.