Whats your thought....

Rob Keeble

Member
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12,633
Location
GTA Ontario Canada
So yesterday I go off to local Canadian Tire store (read automotive parts..and other junk store) to pick up a new alternator belt for sons Honda.
This is only one of the most mass produced cars in Canada.
In this store they don't have the parts out with a supplier catalog so you can choose your own, you have to order at the desk. So youngster at the counter looks it up then asks another youngster for confirmation and he says yup $16.99 I say ok get it. So I get the part and I look at it and think this aint right but hey who am I ???

Well get home and I decided after the little voice in my head best check before you get into the job and sure enough its wrong part number. Ok so I phone store which is not exactly on my doorstep, and ask for correct part and they say they aint got any. Now I am equipped with the proper part number. So I phone another in the chain and yup they got one, off I go to that store pick up the part, then go stand in line to return the incorrect one and then return home to tackle the job.

Never mind the time wasted but the gas to and from the two stores.

So I was thinking.....this just aint right. I had questioned the part when I was given it at the store and the two staff members one checking the other had said nope it was correct. Why should I have fitted the bill for the exchange. I was really mad and that store gets a fair amount of my business on a regular basis. I ended up blaming myself for not looking up the part number myself in the first place, but man if you work at a autoparts store surely one should expect that they have their system correct. The youngsters had to rely on the system so I cannot exactly blame them.

Whats your thought? It aint the first time this kind of thing has happened and it cost me half my day with the running around.

I have had great luck online with ordering parts but trouble is there was no time for this in this case.


Then if that's not enough, I find that the battery that we purchased the day before, although supposedly the same configuration and category type had the terminals on the wrong side so cables would not fit. So its now go to go back too. And that was chosen out of a catalog by ourselves off the shelf.

Here I did not post what I was going to be doing on the Friday post thinking I would jinx myself as I usually do but it did not matter, still got no shop time to get the bed done. Man!!!!!!!!! Wheres the justice. You guys that don't have kids don't realize just how lucky you are and I aint being funny.
 
I've never liked the whole waiting in line at the parts counter.

Think about this. What if you are working on an old 46' chevy with a straight 6 from the 70's in it. The parts kid can't just punch in year/make/model and give you a part. I've had to take a bent up piece of wire and try to compare it to the hoses on the wall to find one that works.

I'm a big one for taking pictures of stuff on my cell phone before I go and buy stuff to make sure what I get 'matches' what I need.
 
Think about this. What if you are working on an old 46' chevy with a straight 6 from the 70's in it. The parts kid can't just punch in year/make/model and give you a part. I've had to take a bent up piece of wire and try to compare it to the hoses on the wall to find one that works.

Yeah, had that same issue with my 71 international. Those trucks were built with whatever parts were available that day. I finally started taking the old parts with me when I could and kept a log book of what models of cars/trucks they matched to. This was mostly pre-internet times for me, today I think I'd have pretty good luck with all the forums and online resources.

Insanity is hereditary, you get it from your children! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:...so true
 
The one that gets me is I have a GMC, diesel, 2007 pickup. How common is that (?), but every time I go to get oil and filter for it I have to go to at least 3 different auto parts stores to get the items I need to do a simple job. One will have a filter, but not the right oil, another will have the oil but only 2 quarts.... It happens every time. And when I go to the counter, I get the same questions, no matter what I am buying, What make, model, year, type engine, type trans, etc, even is I'm buying car wash! What is up with that?!
 
Rob, It will depend on the store I go to. One has parts diagrams for most makes/models and will verify the part with you. They tend to have good descriptions of what features to ask about for narrowing down when there are more than one. Also on my International, the steering gear box was needing replace. The only question they asked was, do you want the $175 version or the $350 version, both by the same manufacturer. They weren't able to tell me the difference as no one had entered it in the system, and of course I wanted the $175 version. I borrowed the pullers needed and got it swapped out. Well, when I turned the wheel left, the tires turned right. :doh: A return was in order and they were able to update their part description of what the difference was.
 
From another perspective...
My wife has been in the after-market auto parts biz for over 30 yrs and there isn't much she hasn't seen in the way of 'wrong parts'. Her biggest pet peeve is folks who blame her &/or the employees when a part sold is not correct. There's an umpteen number of reasons but the most frequent one is customer lack of knowledge, as in > wrong year or engine size given. And it's not just the home D.I.Y.er's, but happens more often than one would think with professional mechanics. Over the years she has come across some understandable situations where both the store and the customer were banging heads against the wall, one example is folks who have bought a used car with no knowledge of the motor being exchanged prior to ownership {ie: different year &/or displacement}. Of course this is not to say that the manufacturers parts catalogs are error proof. When it comes to cross referencing part numbers, one enters a whole new field of what the ???? And we won't go into the counter-person competency aspect, as over the years I've heard enough horror/comedy stories from her to fill a book. :rofl:

I feel for you Rob, nothing worse than spending more time chasing parts than in the repair itself. :doh:
 
I finally started taking the old parts with me when I could and kept a log book of what models of cars/trucks they matched to.

This! A thousand time this!

A distressing number of vehicles of the same make/model/year take 2-N different replacement parts depending on what the manufacturer decided to put in it that week. The worst I had was an 86 cherokee that had (I kid not) 4 different possible starter motors and 3 different transmission types (mine was the honda transmission :rolleyes:). Even more modern cars we've gone in and I've seen the part and said "that ain't right" and had the guy behind the counter triple check and sure enough there is a difference in two different parts that show as "the same replacement" on their computer.
 
:rofl:

I can only imagine the look on your face when that happened and the words that must have been flying around.....

I was laughing too loud at the look on my buddy's face when he saw the wheel go one way and the tires the other. We debated about taking it for a spin, but quickly decided that wouldn't be a good idear.
 
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