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My reaction greatly depends on why the parts were wrong. Near me I have one of the best parts guys I’ve ever met. His father opened the store 50 years ago, and now he’s running it. Very rarely do I get wrong parts that are his fault. Sometimes I will goof up and it’ll be my fault, and that really frustrates me, but excrement happens. But what gets to me even more is a situation like this: I was on the phone with a customer coming in for pads and rotors for a Ford Explorer, on the website asked them all the questions, ordered them in that afternoon so they would be here first thing in the morning. They told me that it was a 4 wheel drive, but it was a 2 wheel drive. First thing that went through my mind was, how can a person own a car, and not even know if it is 4 wheel drive or 2 wheel drive?
I don’t know if this is along that same line, but the quality of parts is what I’ve noticed a big difference in lately. Sure, the made in China stuff fits okay usually and will work, but in my experience not as well or for as long. It just really depends on the vehicle and part. I know there are a couple parts on Hondas that Eric insists you use OEM or you will have problems, like distributors or PCV valves. But for most domestic and Asian cars, I don’t mind using the cheap stuff from the local auto parts stores since they have a lifetime warranty, but only if it’s something that isn’t a safety liability and is easy to replace. So like power steering pumps, plastic parts like fan shroud, or some sensors or things like IAC, etc I’ll save the money on. But suspension parts, motor mounts, filters, bearings, O2 sensors(! Can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen the wrong brand cause problems), internal engine/trans, I think you’re crazy not to go OEM or OE supplier on.
How to react depends on a lot of things. I try not to lose my cool until they’ve messed up the third time on the same part. It really does happen. We pretty much expect the parts houses to fail at least twice on sundays. The attitude of the customer can influence my attitude and a botched part order can amplify a bad attitude for everybody. Mostly though, the reaction is the same. Bitch and complain amongst ourselves and reinforce the fact that they’re all idiots at that store, wait for the service writer to call the parts store and reorder the part, then wait. We experience these bad streaks with all our parts houses where they’ll get good for a while and then fall on their face. So we stop giving them our business for a while until the next parts house starts to fail in consistent form.
If you do this enough, you learn to take as many proactive steps as you can. Most of my service writers are really good about shopping the parts online first and comparing pictures of their parts to what we’ve actually got in our hands. We take away some of their ability to mess up and just leave them with an online order with the part numbers already listed for them on the order. They’ll automatically copy & paste VIN numbers too and that helps reduce mistakes. My service writers are also really good about observing the details and verifying anything I might fail to specify. I usually get caught on things like three different size brake drums for a specific model year Dodge Dakota.
My first new car was an Ford Escort 84 1/2. The problem was that some of the parts where 85 and some where 84 depending on what changed. The parts guys usually did not show the half year, so I would have to see what the part was for 85 and 84 and decide what I thought it would take. Most of the time I would buy both parts and take the one back that did not fit. This was the worst car to buy parts for and I will never buy a half year car, even though there are a lot of cars that depend on vins, but at least the parts people are ahead of the game on those. I am assuming the location of manufacture is what they are looking at.
I’ve touched on this in one of my posts here on how NAPA consistently messed up my requests. I don’t mean to bash them at all, but this is quite possibly the worst instance I have experienced…so here it goes: Once I called them with a part number to match with some mufflers so I basically did the work for them. I was asked the VIN number of the vehicle to which I replied “it’s irrelevant due to my exhaust system being totally fabricated(keep in mind the mufflers on it were OEM and from a 1971 Chevelle). He asks again for the VIN number and I give it to him just to move this along. “Nope I’m sorry your VIN doesn’t come up in our computer due to only being 13 digits long”…..really???? That’s how all VINs were in the old days. So he proceeds to say that the part number I gave him comes up in the computer but won’t fit my application….gee I told him the exhaust system ain’t stock! He then tells me I’m all set and can pick it up in a few days. So I get there…they are stock spec mufflers that will not fit my setup! As you can imagine I was furious, and after 2 more screwups, I ALWAYS go there personally and doublecheck what they order me behind the counter.
2008 was the last year they made the Pontiac Grand Prix, because of this the parts listed on the internet or there place can be interesting, the motor mount listed for the 2008 pontiac grand prix all the parts places i know seem to only have the motor mounts for the GXP with the 5.3L LS4 V8 listed, but not for the 3800, luckly i noticed this and when i went to replace the motor mount on my grand prix i asked for a motor mount for a 2007 pontiac grand prix and TA DA…. correct part
of coarse when it comes to aftermarket parts it s a whole different kind of world, there is a huge performance parts market for the 3800 but sometimes you have to know what you are doing to order the aftermarket parts for them, when i got my cold air intake from K&N the only year they had listed as a option for that part was the 2004 pontiac grand prix, the 2008 is obviously the same car, so i ordered the K&N cold air intake for the 2004 pontiac grand prix, fit like a charm…
when i ordered the MSD spark plug wire kit for the car, they didn’t have those parts listed for the 2008 pontiac grand prix, or any of the grand prix cars of that year or era, or any of the N/A cars of the previous era… only the cars with the L-67 supercharged 3800 such as the 1997-2004 Buick Regal GS, 1997-2003 Pontiac Grand prix GTP had those parts as a option, so i ordered MSD spark plug wire kit for the 2000 Buick Regal GS and put it together and it fit my car perfectly.
a lot of the parts through ZZP aren’t listed as parts for the series III 3800 they only say compatible for the 3800 series II and it comes down too knowing what parts are interchangable for the two engines and what isn’t… such as the aftermarket part world.
and as far as my relationship with the parts stores i frequent at, the people who work at the parts store know me buy name because i shop there so frequently, i go to Orelly auto parts in Ionia and have very little trouble with them, they have always been friendly to me, so they get my repeat buisness…
It seems like some parts stores are better at finding you the right part than other stores. In my area, we have two parts stores that are independently owned and have been opened since the 1920’s and 30’s. The guys have been working in them stores for many years know how to look up parts right. If they aren’t seeing what they need in a computer, they dig into the paper books, spending their time searching for the customers right part. With a lot of things you can bring the part in, show it to them, and they can go straight to the shelf and pick it out. And when you leave, you have the right part. I worked in one of them stores for my first year out of school and I learned a lot. Now when I go into our local ‘bottom dollar discount’ part store, I can’t help but to shake my head.
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