Official Rant thread.

[wytbishop]

I have a good friend back in germany going to see whats going on with him...

Sadly this was my first thought while reading your post. and frankly I'd do a lot worse than that.

[WhiteFinish]

Damn you guys have some bad luck !

[MrMazda92]

I have a good friend back in germany going to see whats going on with him...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who believes in retribution.

[Josh]

Those who cannot "DO", "Teach". Or at least they seem to try to...

[MrMazda92]

Well, it applies to most of what I post on these forums.

Not many things harder than researching projects I can't afford, in the hopes that others may benefit.

[Josh]

-People on Reddit today posting about "F***S" with HID lights blinding people.

-I say there are bulbs designed to specifically to work with H4 housings and they do not blind people. These offenders you speak of are using the wrong kind of HID bulbs for their application.

-They try and tell me I am wrong, down vote the crap out of me, say bad things to me. In negative Karma...

-Post pictures, Proof! Excelsior!! - http://imgur.com/a/Nd4TU

-Still no one cares, still in negative Karma

-Get sad inside, no one likes me...

-Sit in my office with door shut, eat some ice cream, I like to be fat, it makes me feel better for a little while.

Internet bullies.

[Sleeper6]

http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo ... pacitator/

put these in your headlights instead for them

[RobMinhas]

To be fair Josh, reddit is filled with idiots who think they know what they're talking about.

The stuff I've read there...

[Josh]

Lol I was just foolin around, just gets my goat that people are so ignorant and angry about things... get mad about the things that are important in life.

[chapstickaddict]

Okay, so I've been poking through the forums for a while and discovered this thread. Went several few pages back and saw some huge discussion about "quality" posts in the worklogs. So first, as a dumb newbie, I would like to apologize for any dumb-noob posts and the lame quality worklog I have. I'm pretty new to fixing/working on cars myself and before recently, haven't had the proper vehicle or tools or space to do things to my car.

I consider my worklog, at this point, to be something were I can just catalog the things I have done and the things I need to do with some progress pictures. It's nothing too crazy or interesting and I don't expect anyone to be interested in my log since it's all pretty basic stuff. So please excuse my frequent posts; they aren't meant to be HEY EVERYONE COME COMMENT ON MY NEW BRAKE PADS, they're really for me to keep track of stuff and update somewhere other/more appropriate than Facebook. And yeah, I'm personally proud of my basic maintenance things, but there is no way I expect anyone else to give me cookies for it. I moderate a group myself, so I try to avoid silly slip ups but you know, it happens.

ALRIGHT. I actually came here with a rant of my own, though, so time for a wall of text about OUR LOCAL CARQUEST I have never had such an insulting experience at a car place. Ever. I'm sure some would get on my case about being all "sensitive woman" here, but either that guy thought I was actually really dumb for being a girl or he is just a massive a-hole to everyone.

WARNING: Massive wall of text ahead! TL;DR at bottom

Note: This is the ONLY place in town that does color-matched paint. I wanted to surprise my SO some with paint for his Honda for spending so much time helping me work on my car. This is why I didn't just leave.

I walk in, and there are like 5 CarQuesties clustered around their bank of registers all talking. I stand awkwardly for a moment in front of them before the oldest guy (probably 60 or so) notices me while drinking coffee. He doesn't even lower the mug and just stares at me for a moment with his eyebrows raised. I'm used to this because I have pink in my hair. Whatever. He asks me what I need, and I tell him that I was looking to get some paint mixed. Here, I screwed up and didn't realize that I would need the paint code from the inside of the door. I know they have looked it up before, but I wasn't prepared and I'll admit that.

He stares at me for a beat longer than normal. "Okay. You got the paint code?"

me: "Oh, uh, no. I'm sorry I didn't even realize I needed it. I thought there was a look up system or something. We've bought the paint I need before, is there any chance of looking that up?" I've told him I have gotten this paint here before. This becomes important later

him, sipping his coffee before responding: "Uh, no. We don't keep records."
me: "Oh, okay, sorry. Just one second and I'll get that." I turn away to Google it on my phone. He scoffs and goes back to his coffee. In less than a minute, I have the color name and manufacturer's code pulled up. Grenada Black Pearl: NH503P -2.

me, walking back to the counter area: "Okay sorry about that. I've got the code right here."

He kind of makes a noise and slowly sets his coffee back down. During this, another bearded CarQuestie is staring at me and smirking. He asks me for the code, I tell him. "What," he says. I should note that every question he asks was more of a flat statement. It was extremely off putting, but maybe that's just his voice. I repeat the code, looking at my phone for reference. He kind of squints at me. I show him my phone. He takes it, picks up a notepad and pen, reads the number, doesn't write anything down, then asks me what car it is for. I start to answer, then the store phone rings. The other guy at our counter is already on a call, but the three dudes to the left aren't busy. Without a word and in the middle of my sentence, my guy picks up the phone and answers the call. I totally get having to answer the phone at work, but not even a "I'm sorry just one second" or anything instead of just cutting me off?

He asks what the car is again. I respond, "1995 Honda Del Sol." THEN HE JUST WALKS AWAY. He starts heading toward another counter to the right and gets about halfway there before waving me over without breaking stride or turning toward me or anything. Just a over-the-head beckoning. Uh, okay. I follow him to this computer and he asks me what the car is again. "1995 Honda Del Sol."
him, looking at me like I'm stupid: "What kind of car."
me: "1995 Honda *Civic* Del Sol."

THEN HE STARTS LOOKING IT UP. I GUESS YOU CAN JUST LOOK UP THE PAINT FORMULA BY MAKE AND MODEL.

He asks me for the paint code like three more times,I also tell him the name of the color a couple times, in case it is different in their system.
him, with this tone like he doesn't believe me: "Um. Well we have the information for a Honda CIVIC. Don't know about this...Del Sol."
me: "The Del sol is a form of a Civic so it is probably under that. There are like 4 or 5 OEM paint colors for this car. It's Grenada Black Pearl, the code starts with NH-503."
him: "Yeah, no. We don't have that formula." Then he kind of smirks.
me, now really annoyed: "Oh, that's kind of funny since I have purchased at least three cans of paint for that exact car at this exact store." WHICH I SAID EARLIER WHAT IS THIS GUY PLAYING AT?

He sighs, raises his eyebrows, and goes back to the computer. "We have a black for a Honda civic. Just black. Are you sure that you actually have the paint code and not just some paint chip color?"
Me: "It's like a pearlized black. It's what I got when I looked it up, and the car owner says that's the correct code. There's nothing that looks like Grenada Black Pearl or starting with NH503?"

He stares at me and goes, "Oh, NHfive-oh-THREE." As if he hadn't looked at the code about three hundred times and I haven't told him like another three hundred times. I could see me mis-speaking once or him mis reading it once but at this point he is clearly just being difficult for difficult's sake.

Him: "Well I GUESS I have a GrenaDAH black pearl here with a NH503 code" (I was pronouncing it Gren-EH-Dah instead of Gren-Ah-dah. I still don't understand him being like this about it. He saw the words more than a few times on my phone)
Me: "Yes, that's it. I would like to buy some."
Him: "How many cans."
Me: "Two, please."
Him: "What."
Me: "I would like two cans, please."
Him: "Okay. Those will be done sometime this afternoon." AND THEN HE WALKS AWAY WITHOUT ANOTHER WORD. Um, "sometime this afternoon?" It's 10 am and I get that no one can guarantee exactly when it'll be done but we can't do better than a 8 hour timeframe? Every other time I've been in there with SO, they've at least given out a general idea, like "Should be done sometime around 3."

I actually wanted to pay for the paint before hand since boyfriend would be picking it up when I was at work. I follow him to the other desks where everyone studiously tried to ignore me and I'm like, "Hey, I was actually wondering if it was possible to pay for this now?" He goes, "No. Just pay for it when you pick it up" and turns away from me. I just kind of stand there and say, "Oh, well I just wanted to ask because it's a surprise gift and my boyfriend will be picking it up later while I'm at work and I wanted to try to prevent him from trying to pay for it." The dude walks away without a word, snatches what I assume was my paint order off the wall, goes to his computer, types a bit, and goes, "That'll be $47.70."

Oh, so it is possible? Was it really that hard? Sorry to be such an inconvenience. This is the third time he has told me something wasn't possible when it clearly was. I pull out my card and he goes, "Is that going to be credit?" I answer yes. He doesn't move, stares at my card and goes, "That looks like a debit card to me." "Yeah," I respond, "It's a debit card but it can be run as either."
"Okay" he goes, "So is that debit or credit?" DID I NOT JUST RESPOND YES WHEN HE ASKED ME IF IT WAS CREDIT? "I really don't care, I guess. If debit is easier I can just do that." He like rolls his eyes and goes, "Well I just need to know so I can press this button on the screen." WELL DUDE IF YOU HADN'T DECIDED TO TELL ME WHAT MY CARD WAS WE WOULD ALREADY BE DONE WITH THIS TRANSACTION. "Debit, then," I say. I do the pin pad things, some stuff happens, then he sets down a receipt halfway between him and I on the counter, grabs his coffee, and starts typing on the computer. I guess that was my cue to leave.

TL;DR Carquest guy argues with me about a paint purchase every step of the way, treats me like an idiot, and tries his darndest to not sell me things

Sorry for the novel. I just wanted to try to convey the attitude I was getting as best as possible. The whole experience was ridiculous, and I felt as though I was being argued with and belittled for no real reason. Like, even if you hate people or hate my hair or whatever wouldn't it just be easier to briskly ring me up without dragging out everything? I work retail. I work tech support. I try really hard not to be That Customer to people, and generally blame myself for bad service because I know how much it sucks and how customers can just be SO UNAWARE of anything but themselves. But this dude was very subtly super rude and mean to me for no real reason, other than me not being prepared which I owned up for and fixed within a minute.
I was furious about it for hours, but I feel like there is no point in complaining because I'll just get written off as some over emotional girl.

[Sleeper6]

Wow that is totally a horrible staff, in a case like that you should atleast get ahold of their corporate office and send them exactly what you typed, if its anything like the parts stores Ive been in the least they will do is offer you some kind of compensation to keep your buisness and stop some bad press. Ive always been impressed when girls go into parts stores, whether Im working or just a customer mainly because most Ive helped have had better project cars then most the regular guys.

[chapstickaddict]

I might try to get a hold of corporate. I've heard stories about how the staff in general is "really weird to you unless you are their friend" from others but nothing quite like that. It makes me think more and more that the dude had a problem with girls; possibly especially pink-haired ones. I don't expect any special treatment for being a girl in a parts store; I'm not some kind of special snowflake because I can manage to read an owner's manual, lol. Although I was proud of the time I had to completely teach myself how to replace a water pump in my old Jeep Cherokee with only a ratchet set in my residence hall's parking lot.

I just wish I would stop getting the "oh are you here for your boyfriend" or "girl must have no idea how to cars" treatment. It doesn't happen much at the parts store I normally go to; because I'm friends with some of the clerks and I have proven myself to the others. But man it sucks having to prove yourself every time you walk into a new parts store.

[RobMinhas]

I feel like this happens to me at almost every parts/paint shop i go to. The guys behind the counters treat me like a monkey when I give them specifically what I need. Just a month or so ago I wanted a universal oxygen sensor by bosch and I gave the dude the exact part number, the same one on their website, same one on rock auto and the same one on ebay and told him exactly what I needed. "I need a single wire oxygen sensor by bosch, here is the part number xxxxx" and I hand him the piece of paper I wrote it down on.

Dude just asks me what car I have, and when I tell him it's for a 95 MX3 RS but it's had the engine swapped he still looks it up and tells me that my car doesn't need the single wire sensor I want. So I have to tell him again that the engine has been swapped and then he insists on asking me what car the engine is from so I tell him it's for a 93 Mazda Protege with the 1.8L DOHC. And then he tries to sell me one of the OEM fit ones that cost $80 when the bosch one costs 13 dollars.

Finally I tell him I just want the one I gave him the part number for, and not the other one he seems to register what I'm asking. This whole unnecessary exchange took fifteen minutes and we're back to square one. he then tells me the part number is wrong and nothings turning up, so i whip out my phone and search it on Napas site and show it to him and instead of taking my word for it he opens up a new window on his computer and looks it up himself, and lo and behold, my part number is right.

Then he starts tearing into me for telling him I wanted a Bosch sensor not a Robert Bosch sensor. Even though the sensor he pulled out front the back says "Bosch" on it, not "Robert Bosch", in fact it didn't say Robert Bosch anywhere else either. Once he told me that I just walked out without saying anything, this idiot had wasted twenty minutes of my day and then got mad at me when he was too inept to look up parts properly.

Ugh I hate my local parts stores.


But yah, go to corporate, the managers will be all over that.

[chapstickaddict]

I feel like this happens to me at almost every parts/paint shop i go to. The guys behind the counters treat me like a monkey when I give them specifically what I need. Just a month or so ago I wanted a universal oxygen sensor by bosch and I gave the dude the exact part number, the same one on their website, same one on rock auto and the same one on ebay and told him exactly what I needed. "I need a single wire oxygen sensor by bosch, here is the part number xxxxx" and I hand him the piece of paper I wrote it down on.

Dude just asks me what car I have, and when I tell him it's for a 95 MX3 RS but it's had the engine swapped he still looks it up and tells me that my car doesn't need the single wire sensor I want. So I have to tell him again that the engine has been swapped and then he insists on asking me what car the engine is from so I tell him it's for a 93 Mazda Protege with the 1.8L DOHC. And then he tries to sell me one of the OEM fit ones that cost $80 when the bosch one costs 13 dollars.

Finally I tell him I just want the one I gave him the part number for, and not the other one he seems to register what I'm asking. This whole unnecessary exchange took fifteen minutes and we're back to square one. he then tells me the part number is wrong and nothings turning up, so i whip out my phone and search it on Napas site and show it to him and instead of taking my word for it he opens up a new window on his computer and looks it up himself, and lo and behold, my part number is right.

Then he starts tearing into me for telling him I wanted a Bosch sensor not a Robert Bosch sensor. Even though the sensor he pulled out front the back says "Bosch" on it, not "Robert Bosch", in fact it didn't say Robert Bosch anywhere else either. Once he told me that I just walked out without saying anything, this idiot had wasted twenty minutes of my day and then got mad at me when he was too inept to look up parts properly.

Ugh I hate my local parts stores.


But yah, go to corporate, the managers will be all over that.

Wow, that's ridiculous. I get that people at these stores must have a lot of people coming in with no idea what they actually need, getting the wrong thing, then coming in and screaming about it. People are sucky like that, and I saw it a lot working electronics. But you can usually spot those people. They rarely come in with part numbers and references. To be honest, even if you were completely wrong for whatever reason, you were super insistent about what you needed so why not just get you the thing you were asking for and send you on your merry way? Like what was he to gain from wasting so much time? If you or your request bothered him that much just get you the thing, ring you up, get you out of his store. If I get customers that are awful in some way, I just kind of scoot them out asap.

I just emailed CarQuest with what happened. I didn't want to speak to anyone at the store, because they seem like a tight-knit group and I assume the man I dealt with was a manager in some way or had some kind of seniority. I wonder what will come of it.

[Savin]

I don't have any issues like that at my local autozone. They pretty much know me by name and my cars anyway. They don't doubt me when I look for something specific. A lot of times if its something real out there they'll just let me search for the stuff myself. I needed fittings, lines, and hoses to make some trans lines for my mustang. They just let me grab what I needed from the back.