Parts Counter Clerk

For authentication purposes feel free to call David Hadley 517-485-2276...

Quite a few years ago I was working the counter at Heights Auto Parts in Lansing, Mi. This salvage yard was just down the road from one of the mangiest trailer parks in the region. We sold a few new parts to supplement the repair business we had as well. Very early one morning a young African American male requested from our office manager, Jane, wheel studs and nuts for a 1990 Chevette. Knowing how this was going to turn out I sat back and watched the hilarity. Jane muddled through the "Sir, are you certain this car is a Chevette and not, maybe, a Cavalier"... "Bitch, just give me the mother f^@&ing studs and lugs!"... Jane calmly reached into a drawer and handed him five studs and bolts for a 1986-1988 Chevette. An hour later home boy barrels into the parking lot with a 1990 Cavalier and literally kicks the door in.

Now if you have never seen the sales counter at Heights Auto Parts, It is about 10 feet into a 30x40ft room, there are a few chairs next to the door and at this time of day there was my skinny 300lb ass, David Hadleys svelte 325lb figure and Vern Morrows stout 465lb jigglepotamus all working the counter. All over the room, and I mean like 15 spots, there were "NO REFUNDS, ALL RETURNS EXCHANGE ONLY" signs. I know because I printed and hung them all, they were right next to the "LOOKING AT CARS INVOLVES YOUR EYES AND NOT YOUR HANDS, IF YOU TAKE PARTS OFF WHILE IN THE YARD BE PREPARED TO PAY RETAIL" signs.

The door goes BOOM! Mr. Happy comes in with a fire in his eye and screams "That C^#T gave me the wrong E36 M3 I want my money back!" Dave looks at me and smiles... turns back and says "I will be happy to exchange the incorrect part for the correct ones" Before Dave made it to "whuh" in will the kid was already flipping out. As Dave finished his sentence the guy had turned towards the door and as he started to reach for the door handle he shifted, picked up one of the chairs and THREW THE CHAIR ABOVE THE SALES COUNTER... It sailed between Dave and I who were both standing. With our Parts Ninja training we both caught a side of the chair and set it down. Shocked the guy just booked. I looked at Dave and said "Sir, you forgot your parts"

There is a morbid ending to this story that is not at all fun. Later that night the same guy shot and killed a clerk at a Marathon station for no reason. Dave and I have always wondered if WE set him off or if WE were lucky he wasn't packing in the morning.

Some folks call it the 80/20 rule, but I'm more optimistic about the state of the population's mental accuity, and refer to it as the 90/10 rule.

10% of your customers account for 90% of your problems.

Anyone else subscribe to this theory?

100% of my job accounts for 100% of my problems.

Sign at the local parts store." Arguing with a parts man is like wrestling with a pig in the mud, after a while you realize the pig is enjoying it."

TRoglodyte wrote: Sign at the local parts store." Arguing with a parts man is like wrestling with a pig in the mud, after a while you realize the pig is enjoying it."

I heard it as: "Never wrestle with a pig.. it makes you look like a filthy fool, and it annoys the pig..."

Of course that could go either way..

Never try to teach a pig to sing, it wastes your time, and annoys the hell out of the pig.

Another one...

I go out to repalce a battery(a random 80's gm on dubs didnt see that coming from this girl) for a rediculously hot young female only to find her child and her loser boyfriend sitting in the car ( he never got out). So i pop the hood while being mean mugged by said loser boyfriend and go to work while talking to said hot girl. I begin to loosen the cable and all of a sudden HHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK. the little kid and climbed up to the front seat and hit the horn. i collect my heart and place it back in my chest and the girl goes the window and asks loser boyfriend to control the little E36 M3 he continues to mean mug me and i go back to work not 30 seconds later......HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK this time i jump and hit my head on the hood.....evidently while i jumped i pulled a cable off remember this part...... so now im throughly hot and pack up the tools tell hot girl that was the last straw she can get someone else to do the battery and go back int the store, explain myself to the manager and step into the back until i stop seeing red. i can see out into the lot and see girl and loser boyfriend arguing through the window, she gets in to start the car and nothing happens. she panics and sends loser boyfriend into the store he comes in yelling that i broke his car and my manager ( the one who always says sir) procceds to argue with the guy for 30 minutes until he finally had enough and said "SIR if you would have controlled the child like you were asked you would be on way, because you chose to disrespect my assistant manager and myself ( he said some pretty vile things) you will not be helped no leave my store or the police will be called. The tow truck was there in 30 minutes( one of our accounts)

i bought my manager lunch that day because i knew the E36 M3 storm that would follow after the shiny happy person called corporate and the dm called him

As a 20 year vet of the parts biz, I think the downfall started with the introduction of the computerized catalog. Most systems don't have the tech specs that one needs to compare parts, match to a measurement, etc. I miss a big rack of catalogs....Since you can now look up a parts via prompts, anyone who can push a button can sell parts right? I totally agree with the old, dirty store being the best on to shop at.

Jensenman wrote: ^^ 'Idiocracy' is already here. There are two pricing structures in many dealerships: 'matrix' pricing for parts use in the shop and MSRP for parts sold across the counter. Scenario: customer gets an estimate for work in the shop, decides to do it himself and buys the parts across the counter, finds out they are cheaper. The service advisor is now considered a complete sumbitch. I have experienced this first hand.

I don't know any dealership in this area that does that. I've been in them 8 years and used to wonder why people wanted to come get a SECOND quote from me for parts when I had alreadygiven the service advisor that same quote. Then I was told of some archaic deal with some shady dealers so everyone no thought ALL dealers did that. They don't.

My best friend and I always thought that if we could install a brainwave scanenr at the entrance door and have a scrolling sign above it facing the parts counter it would help us tremendously. Have it programmed to show us what the customer might be capable of handling on their car unassisted. We had many that would have required us to install their air fresheners.

Old age and treachery will overcome youth and knowledge.

Better still...'Today we have met the ennemy....it was us'. POGO

Still more...'Brilliant individuals will encounter violent opposition from mediocre minds. Einstein

Enough said

Bear

Old age and treachery will overcome youth and knowledge.

Better still...'Today we have met the ennemy....it was us'. POGO

Still more...'Brilliant individuals will encounter violent opposition from mediocre minds. Einstein

Enough said

Bear

John Brown wrote: 100% of my job accounts for 100% of my problems.

Yup. You should have been around for the woman who bought a brand new Grand Caravan that has the shifter on the dash. She demanded thatw e replace the shifter because it was very hard to get out of park, she would yank back on the shifter and then push the button. Of course it falls to the jerk service advisor to explain nicely the correct way (push the button then pull the lever) that she's doing it wrong. Of course this means I did not show her respect because 'she's been driving for 50 years and knows how to put a car in drive'. :rolleyes: The GM of the dealership (they are generally sales pukes, very rarely do they have service drive experience and it shows) chewed my ass out because we did not replace the shifter as she demanded, never stopping to think that to do so would have probably initiated a lemon law case since it would still have had the same problem.

Bobzilla wrote:

Jensenman wrote: ^^ 'Idiocracy' is already here. There are two pricing structures in many dealerships: 'matrix' pricing for parts use in the shop and MSRP for parts sold across the counter. Scenario: customer gets an estimate for work in the shop, decides to do it himself and buys the parts across the counter, finds out they are cheaper. The service advisor is now considered a complete sumbitch. I have experienced this first hand.

I don't know any dealership in this area that does that. I've been in them 8 years and used to wonder why people wanted to come get a SECOND quote from me for parts when I had alreadygiven the service advisor that same quote. Then I was told of some archaic deal with some shady dealers so everyone no thought ALL dealers did that. They don't. My best friend and I always thought that if we could install a brainwave scanenr at the entrance door and have a scrolling sign above it facing the parts counter it would help us tremendously. Have it programmed to show us what the customer might be capable of handling on their car unassisted. We had many that would have required us to install their air fresheners.

Actually, matrix pricing is used for higher pricing on a slow moving part. It can be likened to a front fender, one dealership has it at $200 and another has it priced at $300. If you ASSume that both dealers have the same matrix pricing structure and nobody phucks with it, the one dealer sells more fenders then the other, hence the difference in pricing. All this is done is to cook the percentages that make the big wigs happy, not that you sold 100k instead of the previous average of 80k in a month, but you sold 80k with 40% vs the 100k @25%. About the only thing the percentages are good for is to find out where the weakness in sales are, whether service, wholesale, or retail.

If you have a service customer come in to the parts dept and get a separate price, the parts counter person quoted the MSRP instead of inputing the part number in to get the matrix price. I have also been working service, where service parts for shop use get a set percentage based on MSRP or dealer cost, in total disregard to MSRP or another dealer's price.

I like the brainwave scanner idea. I would love to have seen what some of my coworkers and shop owners outputed on the screen. I bet most have a hard time tying there velcro sneakers in the morning.

Brian

Jensenman wrote:

John Brown wrote: 100% of my job accounts for 100% of my problems.

Yup. You should have been around for the woman who bought a brand new Grand Caravan that has the shifter on the dash. She demanded thatw e replace the shifter because it was very hard to get out of park, she would yank back on the shifter and then push the button. Of course it falls to the jerk service advisor to explain nicely the correct way (push the button then pull the lever) that she's doing it wrong. Of course this means I did not show her respect because 'she's been driving for 50 years and knows how to put a car in drive'. :rolleyes: The GM of the dealership (they are generally sales pukes, very rarely do they have service drive experience and it shows) chewed my ass out because we did not replace the shifter as she demanded, never stopping to think that to do so would have probably initiated a lemon law case since it would still have had the same problem.

Too bad the person at fault is the one that collected the big fat comission check on the sale.

You can't always blame the clerk.

We were at a track day at Summit Point when one of the guys alternator on his SVT Focus quit. He called the AZ in Charlestown Wv to see if they had a new one in stock. They did, so he took my car to go get it while the rest of us stared to take off the old one.

By the time he got back we had it off and ready for the new one. Except that what he brought back wasn't even close to the right one (didn't even mount the right way). But I thought I had seen one like it before

So I took him and both alternators back to AZ. The 40'ish clerk insisted he had given the owner the right part. So I asked if he could show me. He said "Sure" and let me come behind the counter to use the computer.

I went thru the process of entering make, model, displacement, etc (looking for alternates the whole time) and came up with the same part he had given us.

Then he says "Wait a minute I will get the manager". When the manager turns out to be a young lady who looks like she is still in high school I am not encouraged. She looks at the two alternators and the computer and sort of mutters a bit. Then says "You need an XXX alternator . I probably have one but we will have to change some stuff.

So she goes and gets an alternator and some tools and helps me change the pulley right there at the counter. Since the connector was also different we had to remove the plastic connector part so that we just had a stud with a nut on it also.

Before we left I had her look up an alternator for a Focus with the 2.3L Duratec engine since I recognized what they had given us. Sure enough it came back with the same part. Guess someone higher up thought all Ford Focuses had the same engines!

Jensenman wrote: ^^ 'Idiocracy' is already here. There are two pricing structures in many dealerships: 'matrix' pricing for parts use in the shop and MSRP for parts sold across the counter. Scenario: customer gets an estimate for work in the shop, decides to do it himself and buys the parts across the counter, finds out they are cheaper. The service advisor is now considered a complete sumbitch. I have experienced this first hand.

Toyota/Scion dealership in Charlotte, NC did that to me too, after they wrote me up an estimate for the 30k maintenance as $250. When I pointed out that their estimate had both my VIN and an automatic transmission flush on it, despite the car having a manual trans, I asked them to quote me the 30k maintenance for a stick. Somehow it too was $250, despite having $60 worth of auto-trans only parts no longer on it and no tranny flush. Comparing the two part for part they were the same parts with different amounts of labor or different part prices for the same things, like adjusting rear brakes.

Went to the parts counter to buy the filters and such myself and they were priced at still another price. Between plugs, air filter, and some other little stuff I left the parts counter with $45 worth of parts that on one written estimate were listed as $90 and another were listed at over $100. You bet I let them have it when they called a week later to ask if I was pleased with my service.

Crooks. Not that I'm still bitter or anything. Crooks.

I believe the NAPA store in Charles Town will deliver to SP during business hours...

Wish me luck guys, I have to go to Autozone tonight to buy some detailing products. Luckily, my buddy is working there tonight (works there as a second job) so I hopefully won't be accosted by some donkey to buy packets of grease.

shadetree30 wrote: I believe the NAPA store in Charles Town will deliver to SP during business hours...

I'll have to remember that. Hopefully their computer system is better!!