Pep Boys Has Gone Soviet Union!!

[Whimsey]

Heck, with AAP I bought my battery on line, went to the store 2 days later, my choosing, and they installed the battery plus new wiper blades in less than 20 minutes. My local AAP is really great. They get busy at times but always seem to move the customers reasonably quickly.

Whimsey

 

[Rock_Hudstone]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
I notice the AAP stores down here in FL has many women working there, I think that's so women customers feel comfortable dealing with female staff.

Me too, I feel very comfortable dealing with female staff..

 

[Cujet]

Pep Boys has "dumbed down" the local stores to the point where I just don't want to go there anymore. Used to be I could find "hard parts" in the aisles, and pick between various brands, styles and qualities. Now the aisles are filled with chicom LED's, dashboard do-dads and the cheapest of the imported generators/scooters/compressors. There really is no reason to go there anymore. If I want dashboard junk, I can get it for half price at WalMart.

 

[juanw]

At the local PB here in NC, if one waits until after 6pm when all the employees are watching the TV, one can walk out with as many items as they can carry.

I have used their reman starters, alts, and water pumps in the past and all are still working well today.

The price of their oil is sky high. Even their DIY oil change specials are a price joke.

They do still carry GC 0w30 as well as specialty lines such as Redline.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4

I was standing in line for 20 minutes to look at their hub assemblies and their tie rod ends.


20 minutes? And you stood there and waited?

You're a loyal subject, comrade Merkava. Most of us would have walked out after a minute or two.

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Yeah I havent been a fan of PB for a while. Every store has their pros and cons, but PB just seems to be not with it.

I think it all started when they deleted Moe's cigar.


+1

 

[Loobed]

There use to be a Montgomery Wards warehouse store in downtown Oakland. This place was 8 stories tall. The first 3 floors were for shoppers. It would take you 4 hours to pick up your order. Go in at 6pm, take a number, and you were lucky if you made it out before they closed. I remember one time we got out of there at 10:30pm The security guard was standing by the door and letting each person out individually. You should see what that part of Oakland looked like in the early 1970s at 10:30 at night.

 

[mechanicx]

Originally Posted By: Loobed

There use to be a Montgomery Wards warehouse store in downtown Oakland. This place was 8 stories tall. The first 3 floors were for shoppers. It would take you 4 hours to pick up your order. Go in at 6pm, take a number, and you were lucky if you made it out before they closed. I remember one time we got out of there at 10:30pm The security guard was standing by the door and letting each person out individually. You should see what that part of Oakland looked like in the early 1970s at 10:30 at night.




That reminds me of a store chain called Service Merchandise that was around until the early 90's. To call it "Service" was very ironic.

 

[Merkava_4]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit


20 minutes? And you stood there and waited?

You're a loyal subject, comrade Merkava. Most of us would have walked out after a minute or two.


I wanted to make sure I was experiencing what I was experiencing. I wanted to see if they'd call the lady behind me with the floor mats to one of the open resisters, but to my amazement, they made her wait until I was done talking to the counter person about the parts I was looking at. They were serious about having ONE line.

 

[spackard]

Yeah, Service Merchandise was a great store to go to if you wanted absolutely nobody bothering you while you tried to shop for, or at least stare at, stuff stashed away behind plexiglass.

Write out on a piece of paper an item you wanted, take it to a BofA bank teller line, wait for one guy to type it into a computer, then tell you it was "out of stock". Or, if in stock, it would roll down an incline conveyor 10-20 minutes later that had a strangely Pavlovian effect of causing everyone to turn and look at whatever was coming down, desperately hoping it was theirs so they could get the heck out of there.

My wife loved the place. She could look at all the jewelry for as long as she wanted.

 

[Sumboodie]

Sounds like the experience I get at the Post Office here. They don't deliver packages so I have to go down there to pick up anything bigger than a letter.
I have never been there with less than 5-6 people in the line, and that's a good day.
Yesterday there was a line going out the door, musta been 35-40 people. Took almost 45 mins.
They had 3 people "working". No sense of urgency at all. Then 2 of them put up a "register closed" sign and went on their break... yeah great time to head out for a break?
AND they wonder why they are going bankrupt?

 

[mechanicx]

Originally Posted By: spackard
Yeah, Service Merchandise was a great store to go to if you wanted absolutely nobody bothering you while you tried to shop for, or at least stare at, stuff stashed away behind plexiglass.

Write out on a piece of paper an item you wanted, take it to a BofA bank teller line, wait for one guy to type it into a computer, then tell you it was "out of stock". Or, if in stock, it would roll down an incline conveyor 10-20 minutes later that had a strangely Pavlovian effect of causing everyone to turn and look at whatever was coming down, desperately hoping it was theirs so they could get the heck out of there.

My wife loved the place. She could look at all the jewelry for as long as she wanted.


LOL that took me back to the late 80's. Last thing I bought at Service Merchandise was a single-shot 12 gauge shot gun I think in the very early 90's. The store closed not long after that.

 

[paulo57509]

I stopped going to Pep Boys 20 years ago. This is about the time when they stopped stocking the shelves and just left the stock in the warehouse shipping crates stacked up along the back wall.

 

[paulo57509]

Originally Posted By: Loobed

There use to be a Montgomery Wards warehouse store in downtown Oakland. This place was 8 stories tall. The first 3 floors were for shoppers. It would take you 4 hours to pick up your order. Go in at 6pm, take a number, and you were lucky if you made it out before they closed. I remember one time we got out of there at 10:30pm The security guard was standing by the door and letting each person out individually. You should see what that part of Oakland looked like in the early 1970s at 10:30 at night.



These days, I don't even go to Oakland at 10:30 in the morning.

 

[ltslimjim]

Originally Posted By: addyguy
It's the fact that people just sit there and TAKE that kinda service that kills me - after 5 mins., I woulda been outta there!

"You foolish people.." Yeah, they're right - you are foolish for staying!


Sometimes you are stuck and it's the only auto shop, it happens...broke down, etc.

It's also foolish to just leave at times.

The real problem lies in people not caring about the other person.

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: NHGUY
VIP auto parts in New England went to that format a couple years ago.I avoid that place no matter if its Sunday and nobody else is open.


I worked at a tire store remarkably like this chain and the techs don't touch money. They dress the same as the counter people and have to avoid eye contact with the customers, as we can't help them. One may get the same service at an Au Bon Pain... only some staff are customer help/ cashier trained and that person darting between front and back rooms really cannot help you-- not for lack of will, BTW. For all you know someone's shift just ended and they're still in uniform because that location has nowhere to change.

And yes they are staffed to a level where the asst manager, service writer, and cashier are all the same person. They didn't remodel the cashier kiosk and it's just a junk table covered with clearance air fresheners and pedal covers.

Some MBA thinks idle time is wasted time. They don't believe in customer service. If one wants to wait for parts they might as well order from rockauto. One of my bosses thought if I did loss leader $17 oil changes faster, presumably with less thorough 233 point inspections of the rest of the car, we'd make more money.

Can't tell you how many times I was interrupted from working on someone's car (someone who was waiting in the customer lounge) to fix a flat for some cute girl or whomever who flirted with the service writer and got to cut in line. Seems once we get a car in the bay we had them hooked and could then take our sweet-[censored] time.

 

[eljefino]

^And to expand on my explanation, the store is laid out so all the computer terminals are cashier terminals. EG the POS software and Alldata etc were all on the same screen. So if a tech needed some info off Alldata they sure looked busy on that screen. Dumb layout as the customer would walk up (we didn't have cashier "open/closed" lights like walmart) expecting service. Nope, sorry, helping someone else, whose car was half apart.

Now I could probably tell someone what aisle had the muffler clamps but dealing with money drawers on top of all my other work? No thanks. Not on a (modified) flat-rate system.

 

[artificialist]

Originally Posted By: mechanicx
Originally Posted By: Loobed

There use to be a Montgomery Wards warehouse store in downtown Oakland. This place was 8 stories tall. The first 3 floors were for shoppers. It would take you 4 hours to pick up your order. Go in at 6pm, take a number, and you were lucky if you made it out before they closed. I remember one time we got out of there at 10:30pm The security guard was standing by the door and letting each person out individually. You should see what that part of Oakland looked like in the early 1970s at 10:30 at night.




That reminds me of a store chain called Service Merchandise that was around until the early 90's. To call it "Service" was very ironic.

Yeah, I got my Nintendo NES from one, and that is all I remember getting from that store.

 

[simple_gifts]

Just got back from the Hartford area, swung by the local PB and the store is reorged with a lot more useful stuff on the floor. They have the Soviet style customer service island but I bee lined to the back of the store to check out the oil selection. It is, by far, the best in the area. Mobil 1 ESP, GC, Peak 0W-20 jugs, RP, all for outrageous prices. The floor workers seemed well dressed and busy or at least busy looking busy.

 

[boxcartommie22]

pep boys is not a good company always been crummy.. i been through the same thing here in denver as everyone else above says..wait until you have to take something back its a nightmare to go through.i never go to pep boys..the people behind the counter are idiots too...there auto shop rips people off and is on our consumer advocate program here as a rip off company...stay away from them!! they treat you like some kind of liar...bot worth it.