Posted by Samurai do you people have any idea how hard it is to get the CORRECT part from an Auto Zone or Advance Auto on the weekend???? it's always the same archetype... spikey-haired little douchebag or gross, too tall redneck farm schmuck behind the counter. they barely speak a cognitive english. they have NO IDEA what car you drive let alone what the part looks like or what it does... they just look up shit in their little computers, you know, the programs that look like something a 4 year old would use to learn their ABC's... and then they look up and say, "A 96 Beretta? That's a Chevy right?" Yes. "It says here that there isn't a V6 in that year. Are you sure that it's a 6 cylinder?" Positive "the intermediate pipe is probably a dealer item. we don't carry it." ^that's usually the point where I go berzerk.

Advance I never had a problem getting parts at in Upstate NY. Now when I had to go get a new seperentine belt at Advnace in Buffalo, that's a different story.

I had some geezer who even though I gave him the part number I wanted he insisted he must look up in the computer by make and model.

"What engine you have in the 95 Caravan?"
"MMC 3.0 V6"
"MMC? I don't see that listed...oh we will use this one"

He walks back to the stockroom and comes back with my belt, which of course is a different part number. He says the number changed to new stock. I decided to buy it anyways.

Sure enough, it was the wrong damm belt. The one the geezer sold me was oh 2 feet LONGER. So I had my Great Uncle Ray drive me back to Advance, where I argued with the geezer and his manager who just refused to exchange it and did a return. My Great Uncle Ray then took me to NAPA and I got the right belt there. I mentioned my horror story to the NAPA Manager who rang me up and he goes "He probably selected the 85 Caravan on accident which does have the longer belt"

Posted by nostra-YOUPPI! thats one thing , crappy tires parts counter usually delivers the right part, I always liked the lifetime warranty on motomaster tires. I had sidewall damage, they replaced it for the cost of treadwear, 12$!!!

So here's an interesting peice re: CT's tire warranty policy!!

sometime around June of 2008 I received an email stating that i had to stop selling the warranty policy (known as FRC free replacement certificate or new version PPP Protection Plan Plus). In the Province of Alberta, the rules of the PPP technically make it an insurance policy. only a licensed insurance broker/agent may sell such a policy. So here....and only here are we NOT permitted to sell the replacement warranty, and word is we will never be able to again. Now it's straight up pro-rated based on tread wear.

Nostra:
I don't believe the Chateguay store was under Corporate Stewardship at any point. The rules of the Dealer contract do not allow for the Corporation to run any store for an extended period of time. The only time that would be permitted is if a Dealer was ousted for whatever reason, or in the event of his/her death where a spouse did not opt to run the business which they have the option of doing for a period of 364 days. The only thing i can think of that would be Corporate intervention of a Dealer was failing at the required metrics. they would step in to support the turn around plan. Otherwise the store goes into the queue and is sold to the incoming dealer.

I order all my parts from Audi, i get 30% off parts so its not that bad

Posted by Nismo I order all my parts from Audi, i get 30% off parts so its not that bad

You mean the Volkswagen-Audi group

And you get 30% because you sleep with the manager's daughter

Posted by Nismo I order all my parts from Audi, i get 30% off parts so its not that bad

believe it or not, on most of the parts that I order, i get a better price through GM than the NAPA next door. Although, i do get a wicked discount because of my brother working there.

Posted by Agent Skelly You mean the Volkswagen-Audi group

aka the Volkswagen-Audi-Lamborghini-Bugatti-Bentley Group and soon to be Porsche and probably a larger share of Suzuki then they currently own

Posted by Agent Skelly You mean the Volkswagen-Audi group And you get 30% because you sleep with the manager's daughter

well its an audi dealer...

and one of my good friends is the head service advisor

so I profit

Posted by oddspot aka the Volkswagen-Audi-Lamborghini-Bugatti-Bentley Group and soon to be Porsche and probably a larger share of Suzuki then they currently own

You forgot AUTO UNION

Posted by Samurai believe it or not, on most of the parts that I order, i get a better price through GM than the NAPA next door. Although, i do get a wicked discount because of my brother working there.

i find it odd, in my town napa sells delco o2 sensors cheaper than the gm dealer

Posted by Samurai it's always the same archetype... spikey-haired little douchebag or gross, too tall redneck farm schmuck behind the counter. they barely speak a cognitive english. they have NO IDEA what car you drive let alone what the part looks like or what it does... ^that's usually the point where I go berzerk.

Agreed, they usually tried first to get a job at a bakery, but (fortunately) were refused for hygiene issues. They need to be told 4 times the year, the engine size and two or four wheel drive. They sometimes ask two or four wheel drive on vehicles which were never even made in 4wd. Lordco, God help us everyone, high prices on oil and filters, spun out salespeople.

Once at CT, I bought four two packs of plugs for my 80 Malibu, one wrong pack was mixed with the right ones. I could have put a hole in a piston with the longer plug. (Yes, I shouldn't have installed it, but didn't feel like walking back to the store) the guy wouldn't take responsibility for selling me the wrong ones, he just said, someone must have put he wrong pack on that hanger. If he ran the scan number he would have seen the difference.

My awesome near unstoppable tiny giant 267 cid V8 engine could have ground to a halt because of this this tool. Glad to see he was gone a month or two later.

Posted by A. Lien Agreed, they usually tried first to get a job at a bakery, but (fortunately) were refused for hygiene issues. They need to be told 4 times the year, the engine size and two or four wheel drive. They sometimes ask two or four wheel drive on vehicles which were never even made in 4wd. Lordco, God help us everyone, high prices on oil and filters, spun out salespeople. Once at CT, I bought four two packs of plugs for my 80 Malibu, one wrong pack was mixed with the right ones. I could have put a hole in a piston with the longer plug. (Yes, I shouldn't have installed it, but didn't feel like walking back to the store) the guy wouldn't take responsibility for selling me the wrong ones, he just said, someone must have put he wrong pack on that hanger. If he ran the scan number he would have seen the difference. My awesome near unstoppable tiny giant 267 cid V8 engine could have ground to a halt because of this this tool. Glad to see he was gone a month or two later.

AH HA!!! The 4.4L is spoken of!
my friend Matt had a 267 in an 82 Impala... the cam was so worn out at 85,000 miles, when we wretched it free from the innards of that tiny avenger, the lobes on the cam looked like an extra set of cam bearings.

I do love the parts staff at Canadian Tire.

Me "I need vent visors for an '03 GMC Sierra 1500"

CT "Sure. What engine does it have?"

Me "Something tells me the vent visors will not be affected"

CT "Well I need to enter one to look it up"

Me "Great. Use any of them."

CT "Oh. Hey it worked. Umm... 2 or 4 wheel drive?"

Me "FAWK!"

They should really try teaching their parts staff about cars.

I had the parts girl tell me my '95 Dodge didn't have a pitman arm (because she didn't know what to look under). And CTC does have a pretty simple parts lookup system, you just need some common sense and half a brain to use it.

Posted by bandi I do love the parts staff at Canadian Tire. Me "I need vent visors for an '03 GMC Sierra 1500" CT "Sure. What engine does it have?" Me "Something tells me the vent visors will not be affected" CT "Well I need to enter one to look it up" Me "Great. Use any of them." CT "Oh. Hey it worked. Umm... 2 or 4 wheel drive?" Me "FAWK!" They should really try teaching their parts staff about cars. I had the parts girl tell me my '95 Dodge didn't have a pitman arm (because she didn't know what to look under). And CTC does have a pretty simple parts lookup system, you just need some common sense and half a brain to use it.

Oh brother...I think it was CarQuest where I once went into to get a new idler pulley for my car and this 17 year old girl behind the counter when I told her my car goes "Um...the computer says we don't have your car". Turns out she could just not read the cryptic error message of "CROSS REFERENCE TO ISUZU RODEO Y/N?"

one of my associates in my former car club worked at the Advance Auto in Ticonderoga NY... i was in line waiting to pay for my chemicals when he grabs me, yanks me behind the counter and has ME help this guy looking for pieces parts for his Avenger.

I went to the tire place once get tires for my truck and told the lady what make and model it was and she recommended a 265/70/17

Me: can i get a bigger size than what the computer says?

Her: sure what size do you want?

Me: 35/12.50/17

Her: there is no such thing

Hehehe... when you start the Canadian Tire parts lookup, then enter the year of the vehicle, it gives you 4 options:

(G) General Motors
(F) Ford
(C) Chrysler
(J) Foreign (which brings up a second menu with other makes)

One day the parts kid who had been working there for close to a month asked why it didn't list Honda... but it had a section for "Forjin".

Posted by bandi Hehehe... when you start the Canadian Tire parts lookup, then enter the year of the vehicle, it gives you 4 options: (G) General Motors (F) Ford (C) Chrysler (J) Foreign (which brings up a second menu with other makes) One day the parts kid who had been working there for close to a month asked why it didn't list Honda... but it had a section for "Forjin".

We are finally...... 3 years late, testing and preparing to implement a PC based look up like NAPA, Partsource etc....
No more green screen

Posted by bandi Hehehe... when you start the Canadian Tire parts lookup, then enter the year of the vehicle, it gives you 4 options: (G) General Motors (F) Ford (C) Chrysler (J) Foreign (which brings up a second menu with other makes) One day the parts kid who had been working there for close to a month asked why it didn't list Honda... but it had a section for "Forjin".

Ooo...when I go to BC in March...I will have fun with that as my Honda Canada never offered the Passport even though its an Isuzu Rodeo.

Posted by oddspot We are finally...... 3 years late, testing and preparing to implement a PC based look up like NAPA, Partsource etc.... No more green screen

i was wondering why, my friends cabling company was wondering why he was pulling cat 5 for pcs all over the store to replace the twinax terminals even though they simply used a terminal emulator on the pcs