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Ok, so its icy and slick here, typically crappy weather for this time of year, so I don’t have the ability of go across town to the race shop I usually go to, so I thought I would stop by the local autoparts chain to get, are you ready for this super complex part. A distributor recurve kit for a Gm distributor…like an 8 dollar common part. Mr Gasket makes it, probably others too. same part fits any chevy from 1957 to 1974. Anyway, not one, but two different stores gave me the deer in the headlights look when asking for this. They were clueless, plain and simple. One of them even tried to google on his phone, still couldn’t find it. I looked up the part number a few minutes ago and its a Mr Gasket 926G. Ok not rocket science here. and so one of these stores (one with 3 guys on the sign) actually pitched me their performance line about a week ago and said we can price match. The have chrome plastic skulls, Hello Kitty seat covers,fart cans for Slowyotas and all sorts of other garbage, but no springs and weights for a Chevy distributor. WTF moment there. I have to ask this question, does that seem like such and obscure part ? Its not like its a crankshaft for a 1933 Rolls Royce or something. Next time I might just ask for a distributor cap for a 1960 Facel Vega if they want obscure. Even that crosses over to something really common, but they wouldn’t know it. Has anybody else had this experience with older parts ?
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I had a trailblazer with the I 6 motor and couldn’t remember if it took 5 or 6 quarts of oil. Went into our local advance auto to pick everything up and asked the (older) guy at the counter if he could look up the quantity for me. He instantly replies “oh it’s 4 quarts”. I said no it’s not. It’s 5 or 6. He says ” I used to manage a shop in Florida and I know that all vehicles take 4 quarts.” So I went to the Haynes manual isle and ripped open one right there and turned it to the maintenance pages in the front. Showed it to him and walked out. Moron
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Hey, there’s no excuse for a bad attitude lol. Doesn’t reflect on ALL us parts guys. People just plain suck sometimes. If you’re having trouble with a parts place, avoid it for a while, then come back in a few months and see if the staff has changed. You might be surprised.
^ I agree because my incident was a few years ago and I still go there. That guy isn’t there anymore. Lol actually he would go to the back when he saw me come in after that.
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I know an assistant manager of an Autozone here that literally gives everybody dirty looks. I tried to look at a box with some points in it and he snapped it back out of my hand and said something to the effect of don’t touch that, with a nasty insult under his breath. It angers him when he has to look up a part, and if he had to ring the part up, it makes him even madder. He is so bad, its funny.
Dealing with co workers at different stores when we put in transfers can be entertaining. One lady who is the big cheese at the district distribution center is so snotty and rotten about everything, we all call her just to bug her and get on her nerves because she’s so reactive lol.
[quote=”Rhynorock” post=130581]I’d like to chime in here, if I may. I’m a manager at a big name store, and I can tell you that when it comes to customers who really know their stuff looking for something that wouldn’t be a stock replacement part, yes, we would be pretty clueless. Because the overwhelmingly large portion of our business as a parts provider is fix it parts. And granted, we don’t always (actually quite rarely) hire competent mechanics that really know good tricks and unconventional repairs. The job has been dumbed down so to speak from the killer parts guys of years past, from a mile long row of books to a point and click, Google-esque search catalog.
That’s a scenario of which you’d be ahead of the game to personally find a part number and provide that instead, because it just won’t be part of a stock parts lookup. Plus, descriptions of parts don’t always reflect to how it’s labeled in the parts database, too.
Food for thought :)[/quote] Ya, I can understand that. My truck in particular is an odd case. The engine is built and requires totally different specs than stock. The brake system is part hydroboost truck and part vacuum boost from a Chevelle. The Carb is Oldsmobile 455 carb. The oil pan is LS6 from a Chevelle etc the list goes on and on. The parts guys don’t know this AND they can’t look up my trucks Vin either because it is a 13 digit Vin which apprantley their comps don’t recognize. I don’t expect the parts guys to know this stuff… but I do expect them to get the stock parts right…like simple brake shoes which they have gotten wrong on me. The guy even measured the brake drum in the parking lot and still got it wrong…that’s just sad.
[quote=”andrewbutton442″ post=126029]Ok, so its icy and slick here, typically crappy weather for this time of year, so I don’t have the ability of go across town to the race shop I usually go to, so I thought I would stop by the local autoparts chain to get, are you ready for this super complex part. A distributor recurve kit for a Gm distributor…like an 8 dollar common part. Mr Gasket makes it, probably others too. same part fits any chevy from 1957 to 1974. Anyway, not one, but two different stores gave me the deer in the headlights look when asking for this. They were clueless, plain and simple. One of them even tried to google on his phone, still couldn’t find it. I looked up the part number a few minutes ago and its a Mr Gasket 926G. Ok not rocket science here. and so one of these stores (one with 3 guys on the sign) actually pitched me their performance line about a week ago and said we can price match. The have chrome plastic skulls, Hello Kitty seat covers,fart cans for Slowyotas and all sorts of other garbage, but no springs and weights for a Chevy distributor. WTF moment there. I have to ask this question, does that seem like such and obscure part ? Its not like its a crankshaft for a 1933 Rolls Royce or something. Next time I might just ask for a distributor cap for a 1960 Facel Vega if they want obscure. Even that crosses over to something really common, but they wouldn’t know it. Has anybody else had this experience with older parts ?[/quote]
I can tell you what is going on with them. I worked for an electronics supplier for awhile, our whole purpose was to supply tools, components, and such to DIYers, curious shopers and even professionals. When I was hired to this specific store I knew nothing about electronics — in fact back then (many years ago) I didn’t even know what a transistor was, or even did. For my coworkers it was the exact same thing, none of us knew anything about the product we were selling.We were all paid minimum wage, and we all had specific products that we had to try and push on customers. We all had quotas that we had to meet for those products that the business wanted us to push. Most of our training was centered around those items that the business wanted to sell the most of, and of course these items are not what most customers were looking for when they visited our store. Training lasted only a couple of days before they threw me onto the floor, and of course me and my coworkers were not able to provide anything resembling good customer service. I had to look everything up on the computer, and our data base didn’t always cover everything.
It was easily the worst job I’ve ever had. None of us knew anything, and we even had a hard time finding specific parts for customers when they requested it. We were reliant upon a flawed data base, and aside from that data base we couldn’t help you with anything. Whenever I have gone into auto parts stores around my area I have always gotten the distinct feeling that they were ran in the same fashion as the electronics store I worked at.
The people that work at these stores near me are nothing more than mere warm bodies, just like I was with maybe one or two guys that are actually competent parts guys that actually have a working knowledge of vehicles. Most of the workers seem to be teenagers or college kids that really don’t much training nor do they know much of anything about automobiles. Heck, not to long ago I was looking for a distributor for my fathers old Toyota Celica from the early 90s, and the gentleman that was helping me was not sure what a distributor even was. He thought I was asking for a tool… I went into another local auto parts store, because I needed a tread depth gauge. I asked the employee if they had one, and he said “let me see”. He spent 20 minutes in the back where they keep the parts, and he came back out again and asked me “what part are you looking for again? I can’t find it.”. I had to tell him “I’m looking for a tool, not a part”. Poor kid looked like he wanted to die when I said that.
The issue here is when you pay your employees minimum wage and don’t give them proper training, this is what you end up with. I was one of these kids once at the electronics store. I was that random high school kid at the counter that was ignorant to the particular object I was selling. This is what I believe is happening to the parts guys er… sales clerks at these stores. They’re trying to keep the store running, for the smallest amount of money possible…. What usually happens in this scenario is customer service takes a huge hit. That is what is happening at the parts store.
Now.. if you really want some terrible customer service — try dealing with Verizon, Sprint or AT and T… :silly:
^^^+1
Hit the nail right on the head, man.
Just today, a “regular” customer blew up at me because he received the wrong parts from a very new co-worker, for what he says “the last time” (although I don’t recall this prick ever stepping foot in the store). But he was the unfortunate victim of dealing with a counter person who had been on the job for a single day when buying his parts. The sale must have happened during my day off, but the customer brought his receipt for the return, so I could get info from the transaction number and the employee number who conducted the sale, and sure enough, the kid who sold him his parts was on his very first day working at my store, coinciding with the date of the transaction, The kid apparently wasn’t aware that a late 80’s C/30 rear shocks differ between single cab to crew cab. It also didn’t help that only one part number was actually on the shelf, so he sold the guy what was in stock, not realizing the difference, despite being right in front of his face on the computer screen in plain english.
Auto manufacturers create far too many differences and subtle details to train for everything (ahem FORD), the only thing alleviating that is extensive experience. And going back to what Radish was speaking about, unless you get lucky and get promoted, being a parts guy is a dead end, low paying job, normally not worthy of putting forth effort to keep. Honestly, if I hadn’t gotten lucky to be promoted, I’d have left months ago.
[quote=”Chevyman21″ post=130825][quote=”Rhynorock” post=130581]I’d like to chime in here, if I may. I’m a manager at a big name store, and I can tell you that when it comes to customers who really know their stuff looking for something that wouldn’t be a stock replacement part, yes, we would be pretty clueless. Because the overwhelmingly large portion of our business as a parts provider is fix it parts. And granted, we don’t always (actually quite rarely) hire competent mechanics that really know good tricks and unconventional repairs. The job has been dumbed down so to speak from the killer parts guys of years past, from a mile long row of books to a point and click, Google-esque search catalog.
That’s a scenario of which you’d be ahead of the game to personally find a part number and provide that instead, because it just won’t be part of a stock parts lookup. Plus, descriptions of parts don’t always reflect to how it’s labeled in the parts database, too.
Food for thought :)[/quote] Ya, I can understand that. My truck in particular is an odd case. The engine is built and requires totally different specs than stock. The brake system is part hydroboost truck and part vacuum boost from a Chevelle. The Carb is Oldsmobile 455 carb. The oil pan is LS6 from a Chevelle etc the list goes on and on. The parts guys don’t know this AND they can’t look up my trucks Vin either because it is a 13 digit Vin which apprantley their comps don’t recognize. I don’t expect the parts guys to know this stuff… but I do expect them to get the stock parts right…like simple brake shoes which they have gotten wrong on me. The guy even measured the brake drum in the parking lot and still got it wrong…that’s just sad.[/quote]
Because he measured incorrectly! The rubbing surface on the inside of the drum is the measurement needed 😉 Unless he was outside pulling your drum apart and still got it wrong, then he’s just plain ignoramoose.
[quote=”Rhynorock” post=131567]^^^+1
Hit the nail right on the head, man.
Just today, a “regular” customer blew up at me because he received the wrong parts from a very new co-worker, for what he says “the last time” (although I don’t recall this prick ever stepping foot in the store). But he was the unfortunate victim of dealing with a counter person who had been on the job for a single day when buying his parts. The sale must have happened during my day off, but the customer brought his receipt for the return, so I could get info from the transaction number and the employee number who conducted the sale, and sure enough, the kid who sold him his parts was on his very first day working at my store, coinciding with the date of the transaction, The kid apparently wasn’t aware that a late 80’s C/30 rear shocks differ between single cab to crew cab. It also didn’t help that only one part number was actually on the shelf, so he sold the guy what was in stock, not realizing the difference, despite being right in front of his face on the computer screen in plain english.
Auto manufacturers create far too many differences and subtle details to train for everything (ahem FORD), the only thing alleviating that is extensive experience. And going back to what Radish was speaking about, unless you get lucky and get promoted, being a parts guy is a dead end, low paying job, normally not worthy of putting forth effort to keep. Honestly, if I hadn’t gotten lucky to be promoted, I’d have left months ago.[/quote]
Let me tell you man, a good parts guy is worth his weight in gold. I understand this because I have to deal with them every day at the dealership I work at. These guys I work with are good, I’ve only seen them get a technician one wrong part and that was because somebody messed with their storage system. They understand which part each vehicle uses, and if they don’t have the part in stock they know where to get one. These guys have been doing it for years, and I’m very impressed with how they just know which each car uses, and most of the time they are right.I understand that it is a hard field, especially when you’re dealing with almost every common place car make, and with cars that are 20-30 years old, sometimes older. Today all of the experienced parts guys have been replaced by minimum wage workers that are most likely just out of high school. They don’t have the skill, nor the experience needed nor do they stay long enough in these shops to pick up the trade.
Personally I think you’ve got it pretty hard man. You have to deal with the company cheaping out on coworkers, and dealing with their inexperience with anything car related, and lack of training. Naturally this means pissed of customers, you probably get all of their ire. But… Keep it up man, we need good parts people out there. Our industry would not function without you guys.
The garages usually aren’t the problem, it’s the backyard knucklehead that makes this job so miserable. Almost every single day, there’s some rotten schmuck who doesn’t know a lug nut from his rectum, trying to have me fired and harassing our district manager to get something for free. I wish everyone saw it the way you do, bro. It’s no longer about the people and the art of good wrenchwork, it’s customer service for the almighty dollar. Somehow along the trail, american big businesses deemed it a good idea to allow the public to act like spoiled little kids and throw tantrums at their employees, and telling us to “see the big picture, or be fired”.
I should start a “parts store horror stories” or “life behind the parts counter” thread.
[quote=”Rhynorock” post=131580]The garages usually aren’t the problem, it’s the backyard knucklehead that makes this job so miserable. Almost every single day, there’s some rotten schmuck who doesn’t know a lug nut from his rectum, trying to have me fired and harassing our district manager to get something for free. I wish everyone saw it the way you do, bro. It’s no longer about the people and the art of good wrenchwork, it’s customer service for the almighty dollar. Somehow along the trail, american big businesses deemed it a good idea to allow the public to act like spoiled little kids and throw tantrums at their employees, and telling us to “see the big picture, or be fired”.
I should start a “parts store horror stories” or “life behind the parts counter” thread.[/quote]
I know all about this craze as well… I’ve done retail several times in my life and I’ve seen it all. Customers have found out that if they complain enough they can get things for free or get things heavily discounted. Granted there are some situations where they have a reason to complain, however most of the time it is some guy trying to get something for free, and he does this by yelling at you for 20 or more minutes until the manager is available. The manager comes out, gets yelled at, apologizes and then gives the complainer something for free.At one of my retail jobs we had to sell extended warranties, they last only 1 year. We were required to tell the customer about the length of the warranty, and we even hand out a giant brochure that tells you everything it covers, and for how long you have the warranty. That brochure also has the length of the warranty right on front, and the receipt physically tells you that you bought a warranty and that it lasts one year. So there is no reason why you SHOULDN’T know that you warranty lasts one year.
A customer comes in with a broken set of 100 dollar headphones, and he says he wants to use his warranty. Well.. I look it up and he bought those headphones THREE YEARS AGO. I tell him his warranty has expired, and he starts going ballistic. He goes on a rant about how he was never told that the warranty lasted only 1 year, I was told that it lasted forever and that we’re a deceptive, and manipulative company, he also told me that I was being faceless for saying that my hands are tied. I was yelled at for what must have been 1 hour until my manager came back in. It turns out that we didn’t carry that particular headphone anymore, so my manager ended up giving him a more expensive set free, just because he was throwing a fit.
I’ve got way more stories like this, but I assume this is what you get practically every day, probably even worse. My company gave away so many free services, and products just because we got angry customers that were trying to get free stuff. I don’t know how companies stay open when they reward people for this kind of behavior. Being a manager you really have it the worst with customer rage.
[quote=”Rhynorock” post=131568][quote=”Chevyman21″ post=130825][quote=”Rhynorock” post=130581]I’d like to chime in here, if I may. I’m a manager at a big name store, and I can tell you that when it comes to customers who really know their stuff looking for something that wouldn’t be a stock replacement part, yes, we would be pretty clueless. Because the overwhelmingly large portion of our business as a parts provider is fix it parts. And granted, we don’t always (actually quite rarely) hire competent mechanics that really know good tricks and unconventional repairs. The job has been dumbed down so to speak from the killer parts guys of years past, from a mile long row of books to a point and click, Google-esque search catalog.
That’s a scenario of which you’d be ahead of the game to personally find a part number and provide that instead, because it just won’t be part of a stock parts lookup. Plus, descriptions of parts don’t always reflect to how it’s labeled in the parts database, too.
Food for thought :)[/quote] Ya, I can understand that. My truck in particular is an odd case. The engine is built and requires totally different specs than stock. The brake system is part hydroboost truck and part vacuum boost from a Chevelle. The Carb is Oldsmobile 455 carb. The oil pan is LS6 from a Chevelle etc the list goes on and on. The parts guys don’t know this AND they can’t look up my trucks Vin either because it is a 13 digit Vin which apprantley their comps don’t recognize. I don’t expect the parts guys to know this stuff… but I do expect them to get the stock parts right…like simple brake shoes which they have gotten wrong on me. The guy even measured the brake drum in the parking lot and still got it wrong…that’s just sad.[/quote]
Because he measured incorrectly! The rubbing surface on the inside of the drum is the measurement needed 😉 Unless he was outside pulling your drum apart and still got it wrong, then he’s just plain ignoramoose.[/quote] Ya, he didn’t pull the drum lol. He measured the outside of the drum haha. I did give him the axle information as well as the VIN before he took a stroll out to measure it…I just let him do his thing. He had a 50/50 shot of getting the size of the shoes correct. Two variations on my specific axle. His method made him guess wrong I suppose. He had to order the shoes from the warehouse, so I didn’t even see what he ordered me until they came. On the plus side he did get me the correct wheel cylinders, go figure.
EDIT: I forgot to mention, the 2 variations are due to the regular 1 tons and then the camper special 1 tons. The sway bar in the front is the same way. There are two variations, one for the reg 1 ton, and another for the camper special which I have. Both the sway bar and the brake drums are bigger for the camper special.
[quote=”Pithy Radish” post=131578][quote=”Rhynorock” post=131567]^^^+1
Hit the nail right on the head, man.
Just today, a “regular” customer blew up at me because he received the wrong parts from a very new co-worker, for what he says “the last time” (although I don’t recall this prick ever stepping foot in the store). But he was the unfortunate victim of dealing with a counter person who had been on the job for a single day when buying his parts. The sale must have happened during my day off, but the customer brought his receipt for the return, so I could get info from the transaction number and the employee number who conducted the sale, and sure enough, the kid who sold him his parts was on his very first day working at my store, coinciding with the date of the transaction, The kid apparently wasn’t aware that a late 80’s C/30 rear shocks differ between single cab to crew cab. It also didn’t help that only one part number was actually on the shelf, so he sold the guy what was in stock, not realizing the difference, despite being right in front of his face on the computer screen in plain english.
Auto manufacturers create far too many differences and subtle details to train for everything (ahem FORD), the only thing alleviating that is extensive experience. And going back to what Radish was speaking about, unless you get lucky and get promoted, being a parts guy is a dead end, low paying job, normally not worthy of putting forth effort to keep. Honestly, if I hadn’t gotten lucky to be promoted, I’d have left months ago.[/quote]
Let me tell you man, a good parts guy is worth his weight in gold. I understand this because I have to deal with them every day at the dealership I work at. These guys I work with are good, I’ve only seen them get a technician one wrong part and that was because somebody messed with their storage system. They understand which part each vehicle uses, and if they don’t have the part in stock they know where to get one. These guys have been doing it for years, and I’m very impressed with how they just know which each car uses, and most of the time they are right.I understand that it is a hard field, especially when you’re dealing with almost every common place car make, and with cars that are 20-30 years old, sometimes older. Today all of the experienced parts guys have been replaced by minimum wage workers that are most likely just out of high school. They don’t have the skill, nor the experience needed nor do they stay long enough in these shops to pick up the trade.
Personally I think you’ve got it pretty hard man. You have to deal with the company cheaping out on coworkers, and dealing with their inexperience with anything car related, and lack of training. Naturally this means pissed of customers, you probably get all of their ire. But… Keep it up man, we need good parts people out there. Our industry would not function without you guys.[/quote]
This is exactly right. I used to work at a retail parts and service store; the majority of the parts employees were kids out of high school or in college with no real training making minimum wage. The company was more concerned about planograms and tire displays then training us how to look up parts on their 20+ year old computer systems. Needless to say, they went bankrupt and are no longer in business.
Chevyman, reading the description of your truck reminds me of a car my cousin had. He bought at auction a state trooper vehicle back when they drove the big Dodges. He found what Dodge had done for the police package was use an engine that wasn’t available to the public until the following year. Also, the following year had a changed body style. So, first nothing in the books matched the engine and second things like exhaust and motor mounts, anything that connected the engine to everything else was unique to the police package for that year. Listening to him trying to explain this at a parts house was comical.
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