NAPA experience

[Dingo3]

Our local Napa still has books. I was just there last week and needed an odd ball wheel stud. The car is no longer listed in the computer. Matched it up to the picture in the book and the correct thread size. They had two, bought them both and ordered a few more for extras. The Napa near my old employer always let me go in the back to match up hoses and belts. I have always had good luck using them.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

Did you let the kid know it was for a tractor? gm

 

[Butch(OH)]

If you were to walk into NAPA in Mt Gilead Ohio you would experiance a 1970s store staffed with 60 some year old knowledgeable employees. Just last week I was there to get an oil filter for a 1945 John Deere B. The guy didn't even have to look in a book and went and picked one off the shelf. Not sure how much longer it will be that way as NAPA has purchased it and will be a corperate store now. I drive by a NAPA that is 15 miles closer to shop there because the close one is as you describe.

 

[AZglide]

Depends on the store. I worked there for six years after the 2008 deboggle when I lost my last real job. Managed the regional warehouse, pulled orders for the jobbers and route drivers etc, pretty much did everything except actually manage the store.
NAPA has a very good cross reference system for just about anything out there. Farm equipment, cars, trucks, boats, heavy trucks you name it the guy behind the counter can cross reference it and find it if he wants to and knows how. The problem is the quality of people they have to hire is very low. I walked away from a couple of them and told the manager that I was wasting my time trying to train them because apparently they already knew everything.

A little funnycouple of weeks ago I needed a couple of O rings so I went to the local Auto Zone. Told the kid what I needed and handed him the old one. He asked what it was for and I said a blue swimming pool. He turned around to his computer and entered something, and said there was no match didnt have anything. Even ask one of the older guys there and he looked confused and offered to sell me an assortment that might have the size I need it $9.00. Held my tongue and said no thanks, went to the Ace Hardware about a half mile away got what I needed. Total cost: .79 and the young man, probably about nineteen was very polite and helpful so they are not all totally ignorant.

 

[AZglide]

Mostly agree but wouldnt totally blame the computers. Information is there as well as the cross reference information. Its the person looking across the counter thats the problem. NAPA, and Im sure all the others have a very extensive cross reference system. When I was there I was amazed at the amount of part cross reference information was in their system. Some of them going back to the 30s. The information is available its just a matter of finding someone who cares enough to look it up for you.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

It isn't even so much care as it is training and practice.

When you get hired, you get a shirt, and about 5 minutes of training. Then you're turned loose with the customers. Because 99.9999% of their business is CAR parts, most will never even have the opportunity to get called dumb by an old guy looking for a weird part.

The "old timers" aren't alll that and a bag of potato chips either. I brought in a common wheel seal out of a 3500lb Dexter hub WITH the number on it. Old guy took one look at it and said, "We ain't got nothing like that!"

Different NAPA, the old guy wouldn't even take his nose out of his newspaper. Young guy cross-referenced the seal in about a minute and had 4 of them for me in no time at all.

 

[RodinNS]

When the store goes corporate, that will end. They won't pay a wage to anyone who knows how to look. Beyond that, most times the first thing they do is toss the old books in the dumpster, and with it the ability to find anything.

Rod

 

[oldwrencher]

I went to o'reilleys, picked up a couple fram filters, went to the counter, was given a wadded up sheet of paper and told this will be better. Told the idiot I ran the car 246,000 on them and it still did well, put them back on the shelf and said if you don't want to sell them, I don't want to buy them, or anything else and haven't been back and never will be.

 

[john in la]

Do not blame the Kid; Napa; or the computer.
If you really want to find who to blame look in the mirror.

The general public has shopped price rather than service for many years.
Now the chickens have come home to roost and any business that wants to stay in business has to cut cost some how.
First it was cheaper parts from China and now it includes the help behind the counter as the older help dies off or retires.

 

[redtom]

You know what doesn't have bad help behind the counter? The NET! And it's never closed. I'll take buying online any day over trying in town anymore. Can get almost any brand and order 24 hours a day usually cheaper. If I have to look it up before I go to a store so they can order it and mark it up, I'll just buy it myself online.

 

[jimg.allentown]

When it comes to parts, I cannot tell how many times I went to NAPA first thinking they would be most likely to have what I need. Just about every time, they don't have it.

Anything I have time to wait for, I order on line - mostly from Rock Auto. However, the last item I ordered from Rock Auto was shipped via DHL. They are the worst of the worst shippers. If they don't break it, they will most certainly lose it. I ordered a set of sway bar links. A month later, tracking still says they are ''en route.'' Right. My money says they are lost. I finally cancelled, got a refund, and re-ordered and specified a different shipment method. I'll probably have the parts in my hand before DHL finds the original order.

The whole thing with the computers is that employees are trained that way. Parts are classified by sales volume, and employees are told to look up everything on the computer. Most stores stock only A movers and some B movers. The parts business is being run by college boys that couldn't pour pi$$ out of a boot if the instructions were stamped into the heel. Everything is about volume and profit. After a while, you get used to their peculiarities, and learn how to deal with them.

 

[Pete76NYPa]

NAPA has those. One thing I have gotten really good at is writing down every part number of every part I buy if it comes from a source other than the OEM manuals. It's hard to find a parts person at a CIHNH store or a Deere store that can find parts for our old gals. They don't even know they exist, let alone how to find parts listed for them. For years I had a guy in about every place I used that could or would find the stuff. When they started leaving, I started writing down part numbers. I don't have a Jubie, but it's a simple search to find the NAPA part numbers for either Blue Streak or Echlin (which are probably the only ones ya wanna use anyway) for that tractor and just call them with the part numbers. Within the last couple months I have gotten Blue Streak points and condenser for our 2n, our Super C, and for the Wico X mag on our JD B by just calling with the part numbers, all from NAPA

 

[r.w.b.]

ahhhhhhhh in autozone ,i need a headlamp for my 1991 dodge ram 150. sir does it have 1 or 2 dome lights? does it have automatic transmission ? does it have 318? does it have,stop HOLD IT LOOK AT IT ONLY VEHICLE ON THE LOT RITE THERE 1 headlite guy i dont have the build card in my hands left it at home

 

[Butch(OH)]

What John said X2

 

[MarkB_MI]

Well, I tried to buy points for my Ford tractor at AutoZone, and of course they said they don't have tractor parts. I told the lady behind the counter 'no problem', and explained that the points for any early sixities Ford would work. 'What are points?' she asked. Fair question, given that manufacturers quit using them forty years ago. After I explained that they were ignition parts and that at one time every vehicle had them, she looked up the part. Turns out they were out of stock, but another AZ store down the road had them. I decided it was time to make the switch to EI.

 

[caterpillar guy]

I ordered an oil pan for a pickup one time. Had to go out with the semi for a week to 10 days. Would be back to get the pan when I came in. Or so I thought. It was over a week so they sent it back never called or anything. I said I had to go out of town and nobody said if it was over a week they sent them back. So I went to my local truck parts house for the semi.He ordered it. I said if I don't pick it up in over a week,, while I'm out of town are you going to send it back on me, he said no. Not been back to NAPA since. That was about 20 years ago. ORielly's told me the part numbers on the online catalog were not the same as the ones in their store so the part numbers I gave them would not work and they didn't have what I wanted when they looked it up so not been back there only once and that was because my local parts guys could get it there and I just pick it up there. Other wise I don't bother to go to either anymore. I never can find parts online as cheap as my local guys and even Rock Auto I think is expnsive for parts. I do take some time to look them up and compare usually the local guy wind from the freight stand point. same price and no freight to add. I even order Parts from the local deere dealer on stock orders if I'm not on a hurry for them. I try to kep some extra parts around for most things. With A&I at Deere I can get some parts for other equipment there for a simialr price to other places.

 

[Traditional Farmer]

Considering the tractor is 70 years old think someone in a truck/auto parts store needs to be cut some slack for not being able to instantly conjure up a part for it.BTW the much complained about Tractor Supply keeps those in stock.

 

[Crazy Horse]

'Given a wadded up sheet of paper' ...... hmmm, what are you referring to? I can't begin to guess. I'd bet that you lost more sleep over what happened than the guy behind the counter did OW.

 

[Richard G.]

Not where I live.
TSC is a joke here.
Our NAPA guys and our old family owned auto parts store would have them in stock and know how to find them.
If not in stock, the family owned one would have it at 8 AM in the morning.

 

[grandpa Love]

Our napa either has tractor parts in stock or can order anything, same or next day. It really helps to have part numbers with you when you call. Oh.... If you set up an account, they deliver to the barn,.

Our most used parts are written on the barn wall!