This weekend my autozone battery went belly up. Today I finally got to the store and they verified it was bad. They got a new battery and as the guy behind the counter was new, a young lady rang up the transaction. She told him that if he rung it up a certain way that I'd be charged for the new battery based on what I'd paid 6 yrs ago and I'd save a bunch of $$. Cool! $60 is better than $106. After all was finalized and I was ready to leave she started telling the guy how my new battery warranty was based off my old battery. Huh? She said "yes that my new battery warranty would start where the old battery left off". So I said seeing as the old battery had a 6 yr. warranty, with 1 yr. left, that the new battery has 1 yr. warranty? she said yes. I told her to give me my money back, that there was no way I'd buy a battery with 1 yr warranty left on it. but she says "it'll cost you $106 for the new battery"(with a full warranty). I paid full price so watch it if this happens to you.
Um, I would have taken the original transaction. If this battery ever went bad, the date of the new battery is stamped on the case. Without the receipt, they'd warrantee it by the date on the case.
Something seems fishy. Based on the time you used it, it should be out of it's free replacement time and well into the pro-rated time. You should have paid full price for the new battery, with a brand new warranty to go along with it. But, then you should have been credited the pro-rated value for your old battery, even at 6 years old it would still carry some warranty value. Sounds like neither of them knew what they were doing. I bet you can still get some credit back if you go back in and explain the deal.
The cost based off the original price was the ticket. You were still getting $40 of the price of the new battery. And afterward, if this battery ever died, you 'lost' your receipt and it's warranteed from the date of replacement. You cost yourself some money.
They didn't know what they were doing. You bought 6 yrs worth of battery originally so if the replacement is only warranted for the one year you didn't get out of it, it should've been free. That ain't how a pro rated warranty works though. When you pay the pro rated price, you get the product with a full warranty. They had it confused with something like an alternator where they give you a free one to replace the bad one and the warranty isn't extended. Talk to the manager and he should make it right for you because they do owe you some money back. FWIW, pro rated warranty prices are normally based on current prices and not on what you paid 5 yrs ago, further proving the girl didn't know what she was doing.
I'm not having great luck with Autozone Duralast parts. In July I put a new alternator on my daily driver and it went bad in August. They gave me a new one but it is a bear to replace on my car (the front end has to come somewhat apart, so it was no fun doing it a second time. Then my power steering pump went bad and I replaced it. Two weeks later it was whining, so I took it back, they gave me a new one. Replaced it and an hour later it was also whining. Bought one from a local Delco house and it cured the problem. The brake pads I put on in September are dusting like mad and I have gone through 3 serpentine belts. Finally bought one also at the Delco place and it works like it should. So I am done buying replacement parts there from now on. Don
The factory installed battery in my '96 F-150 (which I bought new) lasted 11 years... Why can't the store bought ones last that long????
The kicker is that a Ford Motorcraft battery are about the same price as Autozone and they last a lot longer.
Seems to be the theme with remans anymore. Mexico isn't pumping out anything good, perhaps we should start making this in America again.
Losing the receipt wouldn't work. They keep track of that in the computor. If you give them your ph number they can tell you what you bought and when, if it had a warranty
They shouldn't need a receipt. The entire transaction (along with all of the customers info) is logged on the store computer.
thats why ive never dealt with autozone or advance etc.you cant hire people from mcdonalds and expect them to know what the hell their doing.i personally had a autozone area director tell me that if they can read and ask questions they can sell auto parts.really now? i was a counterman for over 25yrs and im still amazed at some of these buttheads behind the counter.
I think they were wrong. My wifes O/T car had an autozone battery in it. She took it in to have it tested and it was bad. Cost her $40 for the replacement and the new battery has a new warranty. Maybe the guy that helped her just liked the way she looked, who knows?
An Auto Clone "Never Start" battery that lasted SIX years, and still had warranty? Wow! Here in hot south Texas, you are lucky if you get 3 years out of any battery.
im going to have to disagree with most of you. so you buy a battery 6 yrs ago for 106, use it, it goes bad,and you want a new battery pro rated with a new warranty for another 7 years? so basically you can exchange your battery on your plan for 5.75 per year used. where doers a company make a profit on that? i think you did the right thing if your concerned about the warranty. what you could have done is, as mentioned, taken the pro rated deal, and just used it as a lost receipt deal, if /when you had an issue. the batteries are code stamped for year of birth.
I went throught this with their starters. It took 3 free ones and some parking lot mechanics to get one that that lasted. Learned my lesson with neverlast parts.
Just needed a battery for my 62 wagon. Autozone, Advance Auto Parts and walmart al wanted in the $100 range. Bought the battery at Costco for $68 and a better warrantee.
Even if you had taken the exchange, I'm pretty sure the battery should have come with a warranty period that would have started over fresh from the date of purchase not from 6 yrs ago. Their warranty system is kind of confusing.What makes it worse is some of the people behind the counter.
The manager at the local autozone has really started to be a jerk with any warranty returns. Had an alternator go bad after a month, and he had the guts to accuse me of hooking it up wrong. I just drive farther if I have to do a return, but I sure won't buy anything else from them now.
Yup... if we assume the transactions were correct, you essentially paid an additional $46 for an insurance policy on the new battery. I wouldn't have bought insurance on the battery.
Yes, when I bought the new battery outright, at full price, they credited me with the 1 yr. left on the warranty.
I'm gonna say as someone who's job is writing warranty work (service advisor for gm) that autozone was right. Sorry but same thing holds true on your car warranty. For example you come in with a no crank no start concern ( bad battery ) and I replace your battery at 35900 miles. You leave and battery fails at 36500 miles a month later. The warranty ended at 360000 miler cause that's when the base warranty ended. Same thing with a engine or ransmission or what ever.
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