Vent::::I Hate O'Reilly's Auto Parts

I shop O'Reilly also. Got the O'Reilly discount card.

And it sounds like we experienced simular results.

You have to realize that the clerks who work at a lot of these auto part stores are at best shade trade mechanics if your lucky. Very few people who know what they're selling.

I purchased pad for my 2007 Buick Luceren about three months ago. I always go on there web site first to find it, as well as other sources other than oReillys.

At the time also, I was also looking for shocks for my car, of which I had questions if it would fit, I could not get a sound answer from the clerk and the web site sucked. I deal with (2) oReillys auto parts on in the city where I work (I pass it to and from work every day), and one in the city where I live.

Because the shocks for my car are rather pricey because the Luceren is so Dam heavy and I'm not in need as of yet, I'm still researching. OReillys prices seem competitive, as well as stock, but one has to know their own business, because these clerks are lucky to be able to operate the till.

I not going to get in the experience I had with oReillys when I wanted them to check out my alternator.... I think they use google.

Your lucky you found some (shade tree) clerks that ever looked under the hood of any automobile. I have 2 nephews, (both brothers) that worked for O'Reilly's and could always tell when they were working, I'd get anywhere between 3 to 6 phone calls a day from them wondering what some part was or were it fit! The average mean age of their clerks are about 21 years old. O'Reilly's don't pay enough to hire experienced help

I had a trouble where I wanted to find out if it was a bad alternator or regulatora on a Porsche 911,

I recall they would check your alternator it for free, I had it out already and I called if I could bang it in for them to check it out. They said sure, I dropped it off, and ended up calling only for them to say that that it was the wrong alternator. I told them no it's not, the. They said I needed to reinstalling and then they put a multimeter in it.

I told them I did that already, and it wasn't charging. but I needed to know if it's the alternator or regulator... They said they didn't know how to do that.... I told them, before I brought it in this is what I needed....

Btw,... Nephews has a tendency to make one wonder if they were adopted from the zoo or something.

They do make you wonder sometimes

Do your own research first..Go to the manufacturers site, for the OEM numbers for your car. Then go to a crossover list for aftermarket manufacturers, if you choose to. Then take the numbers into the store. Parts people are just that…The advent of the computer systems have been partially responsible. I worked in a General Motors OEM parts warehouse for years, and we did all of our reseach by hand, going through the parts manuals, exploded diagrams etc., to find the numbers. That was after the mechanics or garages had already done the same thing, and we could compare the part numbers. As I overheard one parts guy , after replacing a wrong part he had sold, "Hey--Realize I am no mechanic..If I were , I'd be making the big money, not working here…" Sorry to hear of your problems, but it is not going to get any better in the future.

"research before you buy"?

Really?

Brake pads?

I'll take your word for it.

I see a basic error in your strategy. Give them a residence address just next door to one of their stores.

Once they see that they will be unable to cause you aggravation - you can walk easily - they will pester someone else with incorrect parts...

I buy all OEM parts.

If your car wasn't a Cavalier (as pointed out earlier) you wouldn't need so many of them. :)

When you are hungry and want a good meal, do you go to McDonalds or Burger king?

No, you go to a decent restaurant.

When you need wiper blades, or a quart of oil discount auto parts stores are fine. Look at an automotive repair facility that is successful. Who are they buying from?

On many occasions on this site, I have quoted part numbers from NAPA. The times I have had wrong parts in the last 40 years with buying from them is very few, and always handled professionally.

Rock Auto Parts is an on line parts store that has been good also, but you need to know how to decide what part fits with their listings. They often have a wide range of prices available.

Damn, I hate it when I'm wrong.

I promise I'll go to NAPA from now on.

Really, I don't normally work on anybody's vehicle.

My wife's van goes to the Chevy dealer and the kid's truck hasn't needed anything since I had the brakes replaced by a brake shop who bought NAPA parts.

I let the kid put the brakes and shocks on my truck so he could learn and his school gets their parts from O'Reilly's for a discount.

Lesson learned.

I ALWAYS buy from NAPA, who is owned by GPC; which also owns Motion Industries... who I procure from for my industrial needs. Never an issue and the few times I dealt with a desk clerk that wasn't sure - they found someone who would be.

Lesson learned.

Does that mean its the end of this thread ?

Cause I didn't get to say I buy my parts from Car Quest.

No. Threads never end.

Even after a foolproof, absolute, iron-clad, scientifically valid answer has been established, many times people just keep on keepin' on giving advice.

Lot's of times it's just to impress themselves.

I had an O'Leary's auto parts near me but it burned down...

Did they keep a cow in the back room?

Yes, as a matter of fact they did, but you couldn't call her one in front of her.

Don't quit your day job.

I also have had an issue with them. I went in and reqested an air filter for my 2006 miata. They did not have it and responded with" sell the car and buy something with parts that we have".

They will NEVER get my business again.

going off topic here a bit.

But I may as well share this...

Last spring when I did the brakes on my Buick, I was at harbor freight and bought their Disc Brake Pad and Caliper Service Tool Kit this from Harbor Freight. It was on sale and a 20% discount.

And it works great. I could not believe how much easier it made the job. No more using a C-Clamp. I've since put new brakes on my girl friends Chrysler and Dodge Durango.

Blame the US government. Back when we were the age of todays clerks, tearing into engines and cars was:

1. Very much simpler.

2. Very much legal, or at least semi-legal. (yeah - as young hot rodders we did sometimes pushed the limits on tire width and noise level)

Therefore there was an over abundance of parts store clerk material to choose from who had actually worked on a car back in those days.

They work at car parts stores... to get the discount for the parts they need.....

How is it not legal to work on your own car? What police state do you live in?

It has been illegal for decades to do "hot rodding" tricks, such as removing stock bumpers and putting on simpler ones, putting wheel/tire combos on that exceed the width of the body or fender such that the tire sticks out beyond the car body, install headers and glass packs, but remove the glass packing, tinting the crap out of the windows, removing running boards, changing stock tail lights for custom ones, and so on. Got busted for this on my VW in 1969 in Pa.

In the early 1990's, in order to stay competitive and still run a "street legal" car in Pa, the so called street legal drag racers had to know a crooked inspection station that would slap on a sticker on a modified car. I got 2 of them shut down in 6 years, myself, with my Mustang.

You want to see a real "police state" - check out what you can do to your car in Maryland sometime, and they apply their rules to out of state cars as well.

Don't know about you but I live in the United States- State(s) where if the police don't like your looks they shoot you dead, whether your armed or not.

Tinted windows, wide tires, loud exhaust. is their excuse for justifiable homicide.

or if you remind them of the guy in high school that picked on them....

btw, picked, not bullied.......

The car manufacturers have to share some of the blame. I asked for a rear rotor for my Silverado, and the clerk asked if I wanted the 12.9", or the 13". Even if I removed the rotor, and got an accurate measurement, it would be considerably undersized by the weather and road salt of living in the lake effect snow belt.

That doesn't make any sense !

1. 12.9 " / assuming that " ( .9 ) equals 3/4 " , then that would be to say 1/4 " has corroded away from the diameter and it would be in the operators best interest to replace the rotor because that would fall way outside of the minimum spec's for the rotors diameter,

So,

the clerk is looking after your best interest ( Safety ) to get you the correct part,,even if your not.

They said my truck may take a 12.9" rotor or a 13" rotor, .1" difference, and offered me a tape measure to make the decision. In that particular case, I looked at one of each new ones, and one was also taller than the other and looked like mine.

I also seem to end up with changes that occurred in the middle of the production year, so they ask if I have the 2004 1/2 for instance that may or not take the part they are offering.

Ok, what you need to do is look at your RPO sticker, on my Chevy its in the glove box. Take the RPO, go to the dealer and have him print you off a production sheet. It will indicate when and if there are changes, this makes it a lot easier when you go buy parts.

After you do that, let's say your working on an assembly or a sub assembly, the dealer parts guy can print you off a copies showing the previous rpo and the later rpo and you can compare the difference, then match that to your truck and you will see if yours has the change.

And just think how much better the service gets, if the minimum wage gets raised to $15.00/hour. .... ya,.... sure it will improve.

if the minimum wage gets raised to $15.00/hour
Then the price of everything goes up.

The price of minimum wage rising does not correspond with the intelligence rising.

The only thing that would happen is the price of everything would go up, and you still have incompetence behind the counter. If you think people are po'd now incompetence at or near minimum wage.... just think how much more po'd they'd be for people paying higher prices for it.

I sympathize Lyn however it is not just at O'Reilly this is occurring as this scenario is happening at/in every workplace at an alarming rate, every day.

I do not know of any organizations that are not having similar issues with their employees and/or supply systems.

RTFS has always been a problem with inattentive people and the number of inattentive people is growing exponentially by the day.

I recently was assigned the responsibility for interfacing with General Electric Turbine Generator Parts & Service Department because our power generation operations department and warehouse personnel could not order critical replacement parts for a circa 1976 combined cycle power plant.

The submitted part numbers taken directly from the old parts were/are obsolete and obviously there is not any direct replacement or parts number exchange DATA available from GE.

The young GE sales personnel kept insisting that since we had not purchased any new parts of the particular description from them in the last 10 years, then the plant could not be operating and therefore GE would not supply parts to us

I went through 5 different people in 3 different divisions of GE Service before I was able to resolve the issues.

I had the legal conversation with a GE department manager then followed up with sending pictures, drawings, and OEM GE specifications for the parts to the GE engineering group.

I then received a computer generated form that I had to "check the appropriate box that applies" and include comments to clarify all needed options on the parts.

The operation was finally a success but the patient almost died.

Hang in there Buddy besides, you always wanted to be "hung" right?

The service went the way of the family operated auto parts stores.

Yes and I miss those days so much sometimes. I often ask the sales person to allow me to view their screen in order to understand why they are having difficulty. More often than not they are not Reading The F (whole) Screen or choosing the correct vehicle/equipment options. I feel sorry for some as the software they are using lacks a lot.

I had service people ask me to look at their screen and tell them the part that's needed... that is if they have the know how to connect to logistics.

One thing I would recommend, is not punch a hole in your old oil filter with a screwdriver to get the %%$$&*& off, before checking to see if the one the out o' parts store gave you is the right one....just sayin....

In the UK, when you go to buy parts, most will ask for the reg. number (I don't think you have those in the States). This identifies the specific make, model & variant so that the correct parts can be identified. This site does the same.

I went to I believe an Autozone years ago in Fla and asked for 11" brakes for a 71 GTX, the guy looked it up and said they didn't come with 11" brakes. I told him give me 11" brakes for a 71 Satellite then and he went and got them. Again, Autozone, just a couple of years ago for an alternator for an 02 BMW. It lasted a week. Took it back and got another, which lasted till the end of the block. Took it back and got a refund. Seems like some things never change.

I always got my parts in Green Bay, WI from a place called "Georges Auto Parts".

I even went there for parts on my Porsche, (Oil Filters and the like) (actually a lot of European car manufacturers use a lot of like parts) and he would say, We have it in our DePere Warehouse (De Pere is just outside of Green Bay) We can have them here this afternoon or you can pick it up there.

Then "Georges Auto Parts". became CARQUEST.... and the knowledge base dropped considerable.

I checked my email today and I see this old thread popped up again, maybe I post another comment, what the fudge.

a. My last O'Reilly's visit. Now more than likely, Lyn has shopped for auto parts here a gazillion times before and everything went well.

b. The original parts. Like what ? We kinda figured your too honest to put the old parts back in the box and try and return those.

c. Checked the GVW. Huh ? I've replaced tons of brake pads and I've never had to give any parts person the GVW, how about - year-make-model next time.

d. One shock absorber off. This must be some kinda of specially engineered car that can drive safely with 3 shocks or was there some reason in particular the mechanic couldn't put the old shocks back on then drive back to the auto parts store ? I think even a junior engineer would know this.

e. Detective brake pads. I betcha in a 5 mile radius of the O'Reilly's there is every brand name auto parts store but then if your committed to being a tightwad then nothing can stand in your way.

f. Fool me 3 times. This sounds like that dopey broad that has been posting on Craigslist rant and rave the pictures of a monkey with the words, " don't trust Steve Torres ! ".