Advance Auto screwed me on lifetime warranty of plug wires

[My Nameis]

So here’s the gist of it. I was driving my 98 civic ex yesterday when my check engine light started flashing and car ran like crap. Suspected a misfire. Pulled over and with my handy wifi obd2 scanner linked to my phone I quickly read that there was a misfire on cylinder #3

So I swap wires with #1 and the misfire moved to that cylinder. Great, found faulty wire and they’re under a lifetime warranty.

Now I swap wires back and the misfire disappeared, maybe it was a loose connection? Idk but figured they’re under warranty let me just replace them all.

Drive to advance and explain the situation. Mind you they’re the expensive NGK brand. They look up my # in their system and somehow it shows a return! So they can’t honor the warranty exchange.

I’m like uh how are they returned if they’re in my car? So then the guy starts accusing me of miss properly installing the wires and “yanking on them” yeah because I love randomly pulling on ignition parts hoping to cause a failure and use up my warranty! Unbelievable.

After some exchanges back and forth he only agrees to exchanging the one bad wire. He opens a BRAND NEW box and swaps only the #3 wire and labels the box “defective”

I said if you’re going to return that to the manufacturer/distributer why not just give me the whole set, I mean if one failed it’s possible maybe not likely but possible one of the other wires can go bad. He proceeds to say no that’s all he can do.

At that point I just left bc I had to be somewhere and needed my car. Now I’m looking back in anger, my ocd hates that there’s one brand new wire mixed in with year old remaining ones.

What should I do? And is it ok that one wire is newer than the rest in terms of operation?

Topic

[ratdude747]

I wonder if the guy at the first store was pulling such a return scam? It would explain the attitude.

[Kevin]

Sorry about digging up a 6 month old thread.

I worked at a check cashing store for ten years and I had a coworker who did this type of scam unbekownst to any of us….a customer would come in to pay a utility bill and she would appropriately do the transaction. After they left she would go back into the system to void the transaction and pocketed the cash.

We found out afterwards (after she was fired over it) that she had a drug problem.

Keep receipts for awhile to cover your butt in situations like these.

[Author]

Replies