Advance Auto Parts review: bad customer treatment 45

Now you know why you need to diagnose the problem before you buy an electrical part. electrical parts are non returnable. if you look in the store, there is a sign that says just that. secondly, you never handle the glass part of the bulb with your bare fingers. the oil on your fingers gets transferred to the bulb, which gets very hot. that can cause the bulb to fracture. where does it say that on the box? I have never seen a halogen bulb box with out that piece of information. maybe if you insist on dyi, buy some books. learn before you do.

The outcome would be the same at any other parts store. Advance does a terrific job and service for their customers.

I agree about electrical parts diagnosis and proper bulb handeling, however, I will never buy so much as a sparkplug from advance ever again... bought a timing chain tensioner for my 95 pontiac grand am from them. I am ase certified and have been in the auto repair business since 1967 (I just might be qualified to do this job) bottom line is that the part was defective. the manufacturer (sa gear) said there was nothing wrong with the part (though when I had it, it failed to properly extend) advance told me basically to get lost. damage to my engine: complete cylinder head and one piston.
Even though I installed it correctly, the chain lost tension on cranking causing the chain to bunch up in front of the exhaust cam gear. my only departure from standard practice was that instead of turning the engine two turns before re-checking cam and crank indexing, I turned it four times, checked indexing and tension at both sides and top before buttoning engine up. (quad 4)
As far as i'm concerned, advance is a bunch of polite #s who care more about winning than they are about the truth. this is not good or real customer service!

I work for the competiton and would have told you the very same thing they did.

I work at the competition, and we would have just defected it out... we still would have got credit for they sale, so you are a [censored].

your east stroudsburg pa store sucks i called to and they realy ansered this time a i asked joe if he had part for my truck and and i even gave him the part number and said he cant get it or it dont come up i called your broadheadsville store and they heve it whats up with this

Howard is correct about the oil on your skin, causing damage to the halogen bulb. However, I agree that it is the salesman's responsibility to inform the customer during the sale about that type of policy especially considering the level of enforcement you received during the return.

At my store, we practice a "No Hassle" return policy, which would allow a return on that type of product while educating the consumer about the issue. We may have 1 out of 10 customers that buy a headlight bulb come back in to return it. To take the return without an issue would result in maintaining our 100% customer satisfaction rate on headlight purchases.

Same ideals would apply to Richard Scordino's situation with his SA gear timing chain tensioner. What benefit is there for the company to dissatisfy an ASE certified mechanic that has years of experience, not to mention ties to the local commercial repair industry? There isn't, the sales that would have been generated by keeping him as a happy customer would have covered the cost of his tensioner. Nothing costs the company more than an unhappy customer.

From my experience with this place spawned from hades, i'm surprised you even got waited on. it seems to me that aap places number 1 top priority on the phones. what is up with that? i've seen where the place can be extremely busy, (I mean at least ten customers with maybe three employees working), and they would stop helping the walk in customers and answer the damn phone. of course a number of customers, or should I say ex-customers, including myself walked out and went somewhere else. come on people, the walk in customers are more important than the phone. stop slamming the door on us and take our money!

I drove into aap today looking to buy products to remove the rust from my door latches, meanwhile an employee was kind enough to come out and look at the latches before recomending what product to purchase. this employee was called back into the store by another employee. I was on my cell phone with the ford company at the time checking to see if this was under warranty before I attempted it myself. meanwhile, another employee comes out of the building, sprays some type of lubricant into my latch, pops it with a screwdriver, slams my car door shut and says "there you go, see ya", very abruptly and rude, and walks back into the store. first of all, I didn't ask this employee to even touch my vehicle let alone come out and pry my latch open with a screwdriver... I came there to ask what products I could purchase! I wanted to do it myself! I wasn't looking for a handout, nor a man to do the job for me. needless to say, I got in my car, left and purchased my products at a different auto store. this aap is less than 2 miles from my house, and yet, I rather drive 8 miles to go somewhere else than to support that store. rude, poor customer service, and sexist.

Howard .. you ###... where does it say that electrical parts are non returnable? Obviously reading is an issue with you. So it wouldnt matter if there was a warning on the bulb box or not.

I bought a new battery for my jeep in sept 08. then, in nov 08, i bought a lift motor for my window. the battery had a one year warranty and the motor has a lifetime warranty. i gave them all of my information and they put it into their computers. later, the battery goes out, so i take my car in to advance. they bring out the test kit and find out that the battery was indeed bad. Not having my receipt, they told me this was alright because they would have my info in the computer. also, the battery had a sticker on it that said Sept 08 with an advance label. well needless to say, somehow my information was gone! there was no record of me ever purchasing that battery. so they would not honor the warranty, even though i pointed out that they are the only company to carry the particular brand, and showed them the date sticker on the battery. they still would not honor my warranty, so i bit the bullet and paid full price and got maybe 10$ back for the trade in.

next, about mid July 09, my window lift motor goes out and of course, i didn't have a receipt, but hey, with a lifetime warranty and their computer information system, i figured i would give it the benefit of the doubt and try to get that item covered on warranty. this was also a part that only advance carries, so there is no chance of me getting it elsewhere. i took in the part and said i would like to have it replaced and it has a lifetime warranty. they looked up my information in the computer, and that purchase was gone from their records as well!

it seems that they are deleting peoples information just so we will have to pay full price on items that should be covered by warranty. i am in the process of opeining a criminal investigation with my local police department.

I just visited the Pittsfield Ma. store and never intend to return. AAP advertises customer assistance as one of their selling points but they seem to have open disdain for laymen attempting their own repair. I bought a repair manual from them several days ago to prepare myself for brake line replacement on my Dodge Ram. Today I went back to buy some necessary tools and price brake lines. When asking about prefabricated tube (flared with fittings ) the clerk seemed put out and asked me if its metric and do I need one foot or fifty . I was hoping for intelligent advice and instead got impatient sarcasm.

You are all idiots that think your 5 bucks are actually worth something

hi there.look i am working in iraq at the moment and my wife had to go and get a alternator for her 2005 ford mounterner, the cost was$206, and dont get me wrong i have shoped many times at that store with no complaints, we used to be wards european auto service, she had a friend, of mine put it on, and it still did not charge, so she thought it had to be a electrical problem, she had it towed to naples auto electric, and they confurmond that the alternator you gave my wife was defective, i beleave my wife has taken it back today to get her money back i hope with now problems, but the real issue here is because your product, was defective, it cost us a towing bill and a rental car.happy christmas.gordonwardnaples@yahoo.com

Sure, Naples Auto Elctric would say it was defective no matter what. But what made the alternator go bad in the first place? Was it old or is there a problem with the wiring. You cant trust a shop like Naples Auto Electric, they are known for screwing people over. Before you install the alternator, have it bench checked at the store first.

I bought wipers at store 08988 (Columbia MD) this morning.

On walking in, the clerk who was arranging wiper blades (older gentleman, about 55, about 6' 1", full head of greyish white hair, glasses). was extraordinarily rude, almost interrogating my as I tried to locate the blades I needed: "Do you need help? do you need blades with pins? if you need 24s, they're all going to be the same, those wipers you just picked up don't go there...HELLO!?".

That is exactly what he said, after peppering me with questions...he went (very loudly, and within earshot of the guys running the registers)..

"HELLOOOO?"

I wanted to become very angry with him right on the spot, but instead simply turned around and glared at him. I must have startled him, because after staring him down for about 3 seconds, I informed him I would use the electronic guide.

The idiot wandered off to leave me on my own. (good thing too, since I was very angry, and what he was telling me I should buy was wrong anyway).

Since he was acting the way he was within earshot of who I assume was managing the store, I saw no point in venting to the manager. I paid for my blades and left (with the guy who was so very, very rude to me going outside with another customer to check her battery).

Is this the way Advance Auto Parts like clerks to treat customers? Doesn't the clerk know customers make it possible for him to get...PAID?

I will steer clear of this store, nor will I recommend it to people I know. This particular store must being doing just fine if they can afford to treat paying customers in this manner..

I will never, ever shop at advance auto in marion, va again. I have been a mechanic for over forty years (ase certafied), but today was my last trip into their store. the manager was nothing more than a "hamburger flipper". he was totaly useless when it came to a warrenty problem. I paid for a starter with a lifetime warrenty twice. it wont happen again!

I went into a restaurant and asked the waitress if indeed my stomach was rumbling because it was hungry, she said "most likely it is yes". so I asked what I could do about it, she said"we have a wonder full menu full of really cheap food". I was confused... I mean all this food what kind of food do I need. so I asked her what I should put in my stomach to remedy the problem... she said "a nice size hamburger with french fries or homefries will fix that stomach for awhile". I asked how much?... she said $4.95, I almost fell on the floor, how could they possibly charge so much for a stomach fix! I told her her prices were outrageous, but ordered the hamburger with homefries anyway. after giving her attitude and no tip I existed with my full stomach. the next day I couldn't believe it my stomach was rumbling again... so I went back to the restaurant and asked the see the manager... I wanted my money back because their fix didn't make me happy at all and that the waitress made me eat my own food! this restaurant is ridiculous! the manager said he knows the food wasn't as filling as in the past but he has no control over it because corporate outsourced all the foods to china and he too has noticed higher prices and cheaper results. I will never go back to that restaurant and they are the building next door... I will drive across the city where they will feed me for free!

C'mon people your talking about an autoparts store not
A - don't be ridiculous yourself - know what you drive!
B - if you don't want the aftermarket solution go to the dealer! (see if that makes you happy)
C - the salesperson doesn't get paid for doing anything for you. and no commission... heck they barely get paid.
D - the salesperson on the floor works in what is called the diy area do it yourself this means he is there to assist you in finding the right parts for your car, he does not need to be an expert... because you are going to do it yourself. this place saves you tons of cash!
E - if you don't want to do it yourself then go to a garage its that simple!
F - wanna see an advance employee happy actually try to do something yourself... these are real people treat them as real people and by the end of the day maybe they will still be able to treat you with the respect of a good person.
G - educate yourself and realize how irresponsible and cry-babyish you all sound..
H - if you put the wrong fluid in your car... im sorry for you but its your responsibility not theirs holy crap!
H - stop taking everything back make a damn commitment... they have free rental tools to use!

Alright I bought motor mount from adavnced autoparts it turned out to be the worng part even though I gave them the correct information in regards to my car; so I took the part back to get an exchange and found they still did not have the correct part for my car? so I asked for refund for the part they sold me; then they asked me for my receit which I have misplaced (lost) so they told me they could only issue me a store credit! for a part they don't have! and I am trying figure how this policy works for the consumer that needs the part? do I now buy oil and use it as a motor mount with my store credit? this does not help! I paid cash aleast find the part at another store or try to order the right part. never again will I deal stupid policies such this; then I called advanced autoparts cutomer care and they compared themselves to walmart as to store policies without a reciet; un - beleiveable I came in your store for a specific part you gave me the wrong part took my money then told me without a reciet you can only issue me a store credit for a part you dont have but your willing to take your part back; there is no customer satification! and I am stuck with a store credit that is absolutley useless to my needs! buyer beware; then to make thing worst they couldn't find me in the computer and I watched the clerk input my information at the point of sales; what a waist of time and energy never have I such a bad encounter with an autoparts store.

Well my friend welcome to the real world, you don't have a receipt... that means if is indeed something they sell they can give you a your cost price for the part. this is indeed not only fair but very much a convenience to you and i'll explain why. okay lets pretend you actually didn't buy that part from advanced auto... lets say you found it in a trunk of a car you just bought... or lets say you found it in the garbage lol use your imagination here... lets say ahhh you stole the part from another store... hmmm now your thinking aren't ya... well guess what this happens way too much in retail... and the retailer suffers from it.

Info not in the computer?... well either it wasn't a part that carries an extended warranty or you are one of those customers that doesn't give the right personal info when they ask for it, or your somebody who thinks this is not important for them to have... either way fix = make sure they ask for your information when you buy a warranted part, this will hold you in their database for at least 2 years, and will also provide a conduit for you to receive the coupons that everyone else is using.

Now for you getting the wrong part... you never said what car it was... and since i've seen this before 9.9% of the time you received the right part, but provided the wrong information... did this vehicle ever have the engine replace for instance.

Now lets say advanced auto gave you the wrong part because the vendor that is making them for advanced is either putting the wrong part into the box (employee of the vendor error), or maybe it was engineered wrong for the application still... (engineering error of the manufacturer)... but ok lets put some blame on advance and blame them for poor quality control... there you have it... you got the wrong part because they messed up... ill let you know this is more rare than you think.

Ok so conclusion you got the wrong part because of an unconfirmed circumstance,

Long answer... do some research and find a brand/part that both the competitor and advance sells, put that credit towards that part and buy it with cash... now take that part back to the competitor (which you already know has your correct part... lol) or advance and return the credited part to them as a cash refund... bingo problem fixed

Short answer next time keep your receipt just incase something of this sort happens to you again.

advance auto parts is a horrible place to visit staff have no idea what they are talking about purchased many parts from there because they said i had to replace them but in fact all but to things i really needed one part damaged my cars engine but advance inc told me its my problem i shouldnt have listened to them wow what a place never again

Advance sucks

Electronic parts are non-returnable pretty much no matter where you go. You can't guess what is wrong with your car, 'rent' parts to 'check' if you are right and then return them because it didn't solve your problem. That is completely unethical. True, I can defect the part out and still get credit or whatever, but my policy is to HELP my customers, by keeping parts costs down; especially if this means not defecting out every parts for every single 'idiot' who clearly does not know what they are doing. If you are that dumb, you should probably ask questions or take your vehicle to someone who actually has a clue. Oils from your fingers create heat and damage bulbs, so if the package is open we can not guarantee that part will work for the next guy. We sell NEW electrical parts, if you installed it, it is no longer new. We SELL auto parts, not perform free rental kits for dummies. And, an ASE cert in 1967 does not keep people up to date on newer vehicles, ASE certs are something that needs to be kept up on, because I can promise an ASE cert from as recent as five years ago does not tell any tech what every possible thing about a vehicle made 2 years ago. SO Congratz, you just showed the entire web how completely stupid you are.

P.S. Every purchase you make comes with a receipt of purchase... This IS your warranty. Some records are kept longer than others but I have noticed a lot comes off around 2-4 years based on frequency of use for an account AND if parts store A is not the same exact store you make a purchase from there is no way parts store B can (or should even have the right to) find your information. It is for your protection. I know I don't buy something with a warranty handed to me and then get pissed off at the guy trying to help me because I cant keep MY records.

I purchased a pair ti-rods for my car at the racine wi store. the next day I went to put them in and on of them was defective. there was no whole for grease after it went through the zerk. I went to exchange the part at the st francis location which was closest to where I was fixing the car. they had no problem giving me another ti-rod. but the one they gave me was torn out of the bag, covered in grease, and the threads for the zerk were stripped. really?! what sort of idiot is running this company and is so cheap to cut corners when it comes to the production of there merchandise? this happens every time I have bought replacement parts from advance. I will never shop at any of there stores again. i'd rather go to a store like napa, pay a buck more, talk to someone who has worked on a car before, get the right part, and most of all get one that isn't defective. advance only saves you a lot of money because what they sell is cheap, poorly machined, and doesn't hold up. if you want a hassle and you like putting on bad parts just to take them off again, then this is the store for you.

I called to see if this store had a part that we needed in stock. I called at 8pm, and they said their store was closed. The website clearly states that they are opened until 9pm. I then called to file a complaint. The customer service department said that someone would call me back. After 2 weeks, I called back, only to be told that they have not gotten an answer to my problem yet.

A week later I emailed to see if someone was going to give me an answer or not I have yet to hear back from anyone. It seems to me that they must have way to many complaints if they are so busy to not getting back to answering them. I will not be doing with a company that doesn’t care about resolving their problems, and as far as their customer service goes they have none.

I am currently jumping through hoops...
One store, 3 customer service reps (all said that advanced would reimburse me for the r134) and 6 phone calls later I am waiting still for the refund on my ac refrigerant that was wasted (properly disposed of however, keeping it green) on a defective ac compressor. the part was a reman I bought from advanced auto. so now I have the new, brand new, compressor installed, charged, and yes replaced the orfice tube and the accumulator (per warranty guide lines) and I am out 57 dollars for refrigerant! not to mention I could not exchange my old compressor because I had only one vehicle to my name! so add on an additional 50 dollars because I could not get the credit for the coupon previously used to buy a defective compressor on a good one! I must say that not only was I glad to pay the difference if I could exchange it, but it truly kills me because I could have used my original purchase price, cost, including the coupon if I could have exchanged it. chalk up 2 calls to customer service center to vent on that one! so I am angry to say the least. but it gets better, it takes some time to do the part replacement... I love wasting time on replacing defective parts! then the time it took to replace the power steering pump and the tension pulley... so much fun! could the defective ac compressor damaged the pulley system, I think it could have! I am almost certain... side note for the readers, the tension pulley was fairly new and the power steering pump was running just fine until the defective clutch/ac compressor started shredding metal shavings through out my engine compartment! soooo back to the real fun, I had one associate tell me "I had to buy the orfice tube and accumulator at an advanced auto parts store to honor the warranty..." wtf, excuse me?!? I can shop where ever I want to! another call to the customer service number on behalf of the columbus aveneue store in bay city. antoher fun thing, upon dealing with trying to work out the details on the exchange of the defective compressor, I had several stores tell me the warranty was void because i, at the time, would not be able to come up with the receipt for the accumulator... the nature of every call was I have an ac compressor that is shredding metal all over the clutch plate and it is squealing. there was nothing I did to cause this part to fail... the clutch plate was jacked up from the start... to me this screams out defective part, to advanced though it meant playing a game of we are not honoring the warranty. so another call to customer service, and thank god, this time, alex an outstanding employee took my call! I explained everything to him, the same way I explained it before to all the store associates and alex agreed that part was defective. it was really nice speaking with someone, like myself, who knew something about auto repair!
Alex saved the day! but there is more... after all this hoops, and contradicting stories from employees about warranties I really must say something must be done! I am still waiting for my mula... I must add that one store and 3 customer call center employees told me that the refrigerant would be and could be reimbursed since the part was defective just by heading into the local store and filling out the claim form. I did this, and oh wait, I did not because the employee at the columbus store said he had never heard of this and treated me like a jerk! he took copies of the the receipts and said he had to forward them to his district manager.. wtf ever... I called customer support as soon as I left the store and the service center employee said that the store shoulda gave me the form and took care of it on the spot, refund on the spot. so I wait... I think I will be doing my business at autozone from know on!

A faulty compressor can happen, luckily myself I have never seen this. i'm wondering if you bought the whole job... meaning the compressor the orifice tube, the accumulator, etc... if you use the in-store computer it will show all the components you need to purchase together in order to honor the warranty... yes from advance auto parts. now an employee that sells these parts should mention the warranty and recommend purchasing the whole job, but < — this commonly doesn't go over well with the customers because it seems any time an employee "recommends" any parts or jobs to them, 90% + will think your trying to scam them... which is completely untrue, the employees do not make commission. now keep in mind if they did not go through channels in order to honor warranties then they would most definitely fold as a company because in all honesty way too many people are in the store everyday trying to get something replaced for free because of improper installation techniques, im not saying you installed it improperly. I believe you actually did get a bad compressor and I would recommend giving it some time, I believe you will see a refund. it is just too bad us as americans cannot manufacture anything that we ourselves can afford... how ironic... so therefore we are subjected to bowing down before china, and since they are across an ocean and companies do not care about the consumer or the employees, we see this situation right here.

I work for advance so let me say a couple things...
1.) not all advance employees are jack@#. we are people we make mistakes. it does help us find you the right part if you know what you are driving. I have had customers come up to me tell me they drive a toyota 4runner I look their part up... sell it to them and they come back because it is the wrong part... they again tell me 4runner the same parts come up. "is the vehicle here?" I ask. "yes" they answer. "let me take a look at it." thinking if I see the part I might be able to match it up... I get to the vehicle and its not a toyota 4runner it is a toyota tacoma prerunner! different vehicle completely.. maybe that's why he got the wrong part?

2.) I treat everyone with respect. if you got sold an incorrect part it could have been an honest mistake on one of my coworkers part, again we are human we make mistakes, don't get ticked off and take it out on me. I didn't make the mistake and I will try and help you but cussing at me doesn't help. you get the same respect you give and that is true anywhere.

3.) for people who do not have their receipts - one a great idea is to take your receipt and make a copy of it or scan it into your computer so you can print it should you need it. our computers only store information for two years. once two years has passed it is deleted. we can only store so much information and no you are not our only customer.

When you don't have a reciept we have to go check our computer if its not there we can do a return for you still.. sometimes our computer will let us just give you cash and other times (for whatever reason) the computer will only let us give store credit. I have no control over that. I can't change that sorry...

4.) the haolgen light bulbs cannot come into contact with your skin. another poster was correct in saying the oil from your skin causes the bulbs to overheat. best case scenario the bulb cracks other times they shatter. you need to wear gloves of hold the bulb with a paper towel.

5.) we do check engines and test batteries, alternators, starters all day. it is a free service we provide. is it to much to ask for a nice thank you?

6.) if you need windshield wipers why must you wait until it rains to come get them? if you know its going to rain that week why not come while the weather is dry to get them changed.. especially if you want one of us to do it... I don't mind going out in the rain but its cold and now I am cold and wet. and the customer doesn't even thank me...

7.) suprisingly when it rains people also want me to test their batteries. no I can't take my tester out in the rain it can damage my tester and also could short out your vehicle. don't get mad at me. I am trying to protect not only my equipment but your car. I was cussed out a few months ago because not only I told a customer that I could not test her battery because it was pouring outside, but also another co worker as well as the commercial manager. believe it or not it is not my fault your car died on the side of the road while you were waiting for the tire to be changed by the wrecker service because you were running your radio.

8.) I am not a mechanic so no I cannot tell you what that banging noise is. if it is bothering you don't bring the car to me take it to a mechanic.

9.) if you are purchasing any of our products for something other than a car/truck, motorcycle or some atvs and you have no other manufacturers product number don't get mad at me cause I don't know what part in my store you could use. I can try and cross refernce a manufacturers product number but without it I can't search it in my computer for it.

10.) answering our phones is something our bosses demand we do. we are supposed to answer them within three rings. the customer in the store is our priority but the customer on the phone is a potential customer as well. if you were on the phone wouldn't you get upset if your call was not answered in a timely manner?

11.) if you purchase the product at a different advance store and come into mine for a return please have your receipt. or if you have a battery you purchased that is now having problems etc, etc.
If you don't have your receipt from that store I can't look it up. my system is not connected with other stores. I can only look up items sold at my store. if you don't remember where you bought it I can look to see if it was bought at my store. keep in mind my system only stores receipts for two years. if it is not there perhaps you bought it at another store.

And lastly...
12.) make sure the product you purchased came from advance. I had a customer come up to me with a battery problem and he said I know I bought it here. look in your system. I did. he got mad at me wheni said "I have you in here but I don't have a battery purchase within the time frame you told me. is it possible you purchased it at another advance store?"
"no I bought it here. what brand batteries do you carry now?"
"we have autocraft batteries."
"that's not what I have. I have a duralast."
"sir we don't sell duralast."
"well you did because I bought it here."
"sir we have never sold duralast to my knowledge."
"well I bought it here. less than two years ago."
"sir I know we have not sold duralast in the past two years. we sell autocraft batteries. is it possible you bought it at autozone? I think they sell duralast."
Needless to say after quite a few minutes of back and forth he finally realized the battery was an autozone purchase. it took another employee confirming it but he finally conceded he had not purchased from us.

Most of my customers are very nice even the ones who are aggrivated because they got a wrong part from another employee. I will try to correct the mistake and get you the right part. and most of my customers leave very pleased. but the old expression holds true even now. "you can please some of the people some of the time, most of the people most of the times but you can't please all of the people all of the time."

If you are ASE certified than you would have known not to touch the glass part of the bulb and as a ASE mechanic you would understand timing components wear out you probablyhad those parts on your car for 200, 000 miles and past the 75, 000 mile ssuggested mileage on all timing components you are a flipping joke and i hope you dont screw to many people out of their hard earned money.

I went there tu buy some viper blade ask for help to chenge mine blide and that ladies told me can't do it she didn't no how..she ask the manager said he was bussy Bad customer services

I went into store to purchase a new battery they tested it for me and told me I needed a new battey come to find out after breaking down later in the day it was not my battery that was bad it was my alternator when I returned to the store for a refund on the battery and my old battery back I was denied a refund. Never will I shop here again

I bought an Autocraft Gold battery for my wife's vehicle in 2014. It came with a 3 year replacement warranty. On July 30 2016 she got up to go to work and her vehicle would not start so I had to take her to work. After I came back home I checked her vehicle and it looked to me like the battery had died so I jumped her vehicle and drove to the store that I bought it from to get a replacement.
I figured they would verify that I bought it there and give me the replacement then I would go on with the rest of my day. Not that simple.
The guy behind the counter, Giovanni, tested the battery and the result was that the battery was dead. He then ran a test to see if the alternator was bad and that result was negative so it definitely was the battery. Instead of replacing the battery he informs me that their policy requires them to charge my battery for 24 hours and retest it to make sure the battery was dead. I told him that I thought 24 hours was pretty long to charge a battery and that I did not want to be without the vehicle for 24 hours and if I had known that this was the policy beforehand I would have never bought the battery from them. He said that he was not keeping my vehicle for 24 hours he was only keeping the battery for 24 hours. I asked him to explain to me how the vehicle was going to run without a battery. I reiterated that I did not want to be without the vehicle for 24 hours so could he give me a replacement so that I can keep the vehicle and if the existing battery does keep a charge after 24 hours then I would return the new battery and take the old one but if the old battery failed again then I would already have a replacement and our transaction would be complete. He would not go for that. So I then asked if they had someone that could take me home since I can’t drive home now. He said that my wife could come and get me. I had to remind him that I dropped her off at work and I drove her vehicle there. She is at work with no transportation and my vehicle is at home. He said that they couldn't help me get home. At this point I am not happy with the situation or the customer service so I gave them my name and phone number so that they could call me the next day to let me know the test result. As I was about to leave Giovanni said that he would call me later that day with the result. I said later that day was not 24 hours. I said he knows but they can tell within an hour if the battery will fail. I told him not to call me until my 24 hours is up. I want to make sure the policy is followed and I proceeded to walk home.
The next day Giovanni called me to let me know that the battery failed and I can come back to get the replacement battery. I took my son with me so that he could drive my vehicle back. Giovanni was busy when we got there so a different employee attempted to help us. I say attempted because he could not find my battery in their system anymore so he was not sure what to do after that. Finally, Giovanni was free so he checked for my battery in the system. It turns out that the company no longer carries the battery that I had. Probably because other customers had the same issue that I had with it dying prematurely. Now they don't even sell a 3 year warranty battery for this vehicle at all. The longest is 2 years. I told him that I'll take the 2 year battery. It took him a long time to get the system to allow an exchange because my battery was not in the system anymore but it got it to the point where it would but then he turns the screen to show me that the replacement battery cost more than my original and he wanted me to pay the difference. I told him that I was not going to pay him anything because my battery was still under warranty. After trying several times of trying to get the system to register a zero amount for me to pay he could not do it so he told me to just take the battery. Then I noticed on the screen that the battery he was giving me had a purchase date in 2014 and that it was already outside of its warranty limit. I asked him if the 2014 date was when they received the battery and he said yes. I asked him if the warranty period starts on the date they receive the battery or the date they sell the battery. He said it is when they receive it. So this battery has been sitting on the shelf for 2 years and now the warranty has expired. So now I am not only not getting a replacement for the battery I originally bought but the replacement I am getting has no warranty because it sat on the shelf for 2 years. I asked Giovanni if he could call a different store to see if they had a new battery that still has a warranty and if they didn't want to deliver it I will go and get it myself and he said he could not do that. I told him to just put the battery in so that I can leave. He asked me to go and open the hood and that he would come out and put the battery in. I went out and opened the hood and then I went back inside. He was helping another customer when I went back in so I waited for him to finish with that customer. After he finished with that customer he called for the next customer. At this point there are about 10 to 12 customers in the store. I stopped the customer from going to the counter and told Giovanni that he needs to put my battery in. He said that he has customers waiting. I told him that I am a customer and I have been waiting since the day before and I need my battery. I said that I can put the battery in myself or wait until he finishes with his customers. I told him that he is not waiting on anyone else until he puts the battery in my vehicle and I can leave the store and he will never see my face again because this will be the last time I buy anything from this company again. He came from behind the counter and put my battery in. This was the worst experience I have ever had at any auto parts store.

On 01-10-17 tuesday evening around 8:20pm I walked into the advance auto parts store and requested that my car battery be replaced because it was bad and covered by advance auto parts warranty.
Chris terry a manager at advance auto parts said the battery had to be tested first and he would need to see the battery receipt of purchase or the warranty number in order to honor the warranty. I said I didnt have the receipt on me, but I am sure it could be retrieved via store network or by contacting the perry, ga 31069 store where it was purchased in 2013. he replied thar therw was no way of doing this and his store was in a local district with only the contact numbers of those stores in this limited district. I said isnt there internet access where you can look up the perry store contact and call them?
He replied that there is internet. but he cannot contact the store and I would have to get the information myself.
I found his attitude to be very condescending, rude, inflamatory and inappropriate even smiling with his coworkers. 5mins had passed by now.
I then requested a check on my car battery for testing. he had a store employee do it (nice guy) and found that my gold advantage advance auto battery was low on voltage at 12volts and not 14volts. I asked him if this qualifies me for a warranty replacement.
He said no, but it had to show a bad cell on the test to qualify for warranty replacement. he said he could spray the battery terminals to remove the little white powdery buildup on it. I said ok.
I was disappointed and felt insulted by his manager for not assisting with processing my warranty information via sister store contact.
I asked him to charge the battery. he went inside the store to get the charger and after 5mins came out and said it would take 40mins. I said ok lets do it.
He said ok and went back inside the store.
I proceeded to search my passenger side glove compartment for the perry store receipt of battery purchase and warranty. no success.
After another 10mins he came out with his manager. they looked at the terminals and the manager chris (bald head) said they cannot remove the battery and charge it because the terminals are too corroded and may break if they attempted to loosen them.
I thought this was purposterous and told him I didnt believe him and that was not going to happen as one can clearly see the nuts and bolts were easily removeable with correct tools.
I asked him to step away from my car and I proceeded to get into my car and left the premises.
I believe I was wrongly treated by this advance auto parts store manager who set a bad example to his coworkers.
There should be some compensation for this terrible experience.
Advance auto parts store 8769
1671 cobb pkwy s, marietta, ga 30060
[protected]

I went into my local advance auto parts, located at
2040 central park drive winterville, north carolina 28590, this morning (1-18-18) with a broken windshield wiper. I brought it in to the store with me to make sure I got the right replacement wiper. the young man behind the counter said all I needed was the clip. he said he was sure there was one that they'd discarded in the store. he disappeared in the employee only area, came back a few minutes later, without the part. then he said, "I know we have one here somewhere." he disappeared to the other section of the employee only area. then in a minute or two he came back with the clip that i'd broken on my wiper. he fixed my wiper, then volunteered to go outside in the freezing cold and put it on for me. this cost me nothing! the name on his shirt was emmanuel. thank you emmanuel! you just got advance auto parts a customer for life!

Waited patiently on an employee for about 20 minutes. Everyone was focused on one customer joking abd laughing out loud. Didn't knowledge that I was asking for help, when I did get Mr. Todd attention he didn't really show know concern in helping me as a customer. That's not what customer service is to me.

I was sold a defective AC compressor and once I paid $260 to install it, Advance refused to pay to get the new one installed. They only want to give me $75 . I now have a faulty ac compressor and my ac don't work.

I need an email to someone at corporate. The complaint I have is about management. I'm an employee at one of your stores.

on 9/9/2022 i went to advance auto parts and for some reason their system wouldn't accept my card i was so embarrassed but i double checked my retailors and they are on the list,,i'm very confused.

Why would I want to leave complaint here when I can leave it on Google and have more impact you have the rudest employees at the Hub store named Brad Trenton Michigan have a nice day I will not shop with you no more