Moron Parts store CUSTOMERS

Wow. I would have figured more than one but not forty fucking one.

 

I work at an automotive paint store and over the past ten plus years I have had my share. At least once a week I get scolded and told that there is only one chevy white. Had a young guy call me and tell me that he had something seriously wrong with his paint. I have seen it before so I tell him to bring it on in and I will check it and mix him up some more. He shows up and I notice that the can is covered in paint so I pop the cap to find saw dust mixed into his paint. I imagine that was a hell of mess to clean up when he spilled it, but he got upset when I refused to give him paint and threatened to bring his mom back with him. I don't think he liked when another customer started laughing uncontrollably next to him.

One more, I have a customer that fixes and resells auction cars. Prior to about six months ago he had never even held a spray gun but we have helped him along pretty good. Just last week he ordered and sprayed some paint from our store. About an hour later he calls cussing me out because his color was completely off. Well I started to feel really horrible so I offered to make more paint and get him some clear to make up for it but I wanted a peice off the car to match. He continued to call me an idiot and tell me I am the profesional and should have never let this happen. Well the owner heard this so he kind of took over for me and tried to help the guy. After 10 minutes on the phone calling us every name in the book and telling us how stupid we were he finally agrees to bring the gas door in to check the new color for him. It only took a glance to realise that the car had been repainted and I turned the cap over to reveal the original color on the inside of the door. He just laughed and said whoops, no apology, nothing. Sometimes you have to have real thick skin and a damn good attitude.

 

Oh and just for the record I am willing to admit that I make mistakes and stuff happens. If that first guy would have just come in and told me he spilled his paint I probably would have done everything I could have for the guy. Sometimes being a decent human being gets you a lot further.

 

Thanks for sharing these folks... I laughed pretty hard at several of them.

-W

 

This is exactly why I have pity for the good counter men. Sure I remember that one guy that you could throw a set of worn out brake shoes on the counter and he'd turn and go get a relined set off of the shelf back in the 60s. The amount of parts is staggering today. But back then foreign cars had their own parts stores. Import auto parts. No Chevrolet spoken here. If you needed shoes for a Nova and a ball joint for a Corolla you had to go to different stores.

I do think it has gotten out of hand. I stopped to pick up a hub cap for my wife's 91 Sebring. He said I need a vin #...for a hub cap?? Yep can't even order one with out the VIN.

My favorite customer story was the irate little old lady hollering about us putting an idler arm on her car and it won't idle now.

 

ive sold parts on and off for a very long time and ive got alot of good stories but my favorite one is when one cold morning i get a call from a guy whose wifes late for work and the kids cant get to school. hes mad as hell.i can hear hiom yell at the kids and the wife to shut the fuck up, his words not mine.anyway hes rantin and ravin like hell and then it gets real quite and i hear a storm door slam then i can hear a car runnin and then the guy asks me what does this sound like to you. sounds like the bitch run the car out of oil to me, he says.i cant hear shit, didnt really try.i couldnt believe this guy is holding a phone next to his car and askin me what does this sound like to you.i tell him i cant really tell over the phone that if the car is driveable to bring it here and maybe we could get an idea of whats going on. he says if it was driveable he wouldnt be stuck at the house with these fuckin kids and a bitch of a wife. slam goes the phone.about a hour later a guy walks into the store all bundled up.coat ,hat, scarf gloves and shackin .he sees our coffee pot and asks if he could get a cup.sure. he sits on a stool at the end of the counter and dont say a word for a long time. customers come and go. i ask him how can i help him a few times he just says in a minute so i tell him let me know when your ready. he drinks a few more cups of coffee.finally the phone rings and i answer, talk a minute and start laughing and hang up. had 5 guys standing at the counter and our stool guy still sipping coffee. finally i ask them whose the idiot that started to change the oil in the car and didnt put the filter back on or put in the new oil and cussed out his wife and kids and broke the back door and threw the phone thru the bedroom window. thats when the coffee guy stood up and asked me if i was callin him a idiot. i say no sir that was your wifes words. do you want me to tell you what else she said.hell yes he says. well she said and im tell you buddy she said this these are her word i tell him.she says that she called your brother and told him she would give him a blo- job if he would come over and fix the car. would you like for her to pick you up now.and that was just a monday morning.that is a honest god true story.

 

Dear Lord^!

I had an AVIATION mechanic call to ream me out about my junk wheel cylinders. He had replaced four wheel cylinders on their fuel truck and they blew out. He had left the shoes and drums OFF when testing by pressuring the master cylinder with a vacuum tank to bleed them and KAPOW!

 

Same guy called my boss to complain that our cheap oil filter (WIX) had crossthreaded and not sealed to his own personal car and locked up his engine. He wanted compensation, dam+it! Upon further questioning, he admited that he had stole the filter from his shop inventory that we stocked for him without looking up the application. It LOOKED like his old one so it had to be right. The boss said, "how about we don't pay for your engine and you won't have to tell your boss you stole it from him?

It's easy to pick on parts guys who don't know what you do. I have been reminded daily about just how little I know and I honestly do try to learn at least one new "thing" a day. If I don't know, I learn. Showing your ass to the parts guy only shows him you are an ass. The customer may always be right, but some of you "aint quite right". Ask Ryan or our mods.

 

makes that rebeca black song friday even that much better. laughs.. i could not deal with the public id tell them what i was thinking and get fired.. have a great day.
chris.

 

I've come pretty close to doing just that. Just a few minutes ago, I had a new car saleman come in telling me I'm pissing him off. I told him to get outta my dept and walked away.

 

this made me spit out my iced tea dis morning.. man could not help but laugh at the starter...

lots of good laughs, i do not feel quite as dumb as i did when i woke.. im sure ill hit the stupid stick before sun down tho. laughs
chris.

 

It's about time this thread was created- this has been a long time coming.

 

Good thread...it shows that sometimes how smart you are depends on what side of the counter you are on

 

No specific story but I would love the guys who would come into the store thinking the parts are like books at the library, they would assume a part is faulty, buy a new one, install it and it wouldnt fix the car. They would then take the new part back off, box it back up and return and attempt to exchange it for the next part they thought was faulty, and get real pissed off when we wouldn't take back the greasy installed part. Those guys always made my day.

 

I have never understood why anyone would call a International truck a 'binder'. I have real horse drawn cornbinder that belonged to my grandfather. It was manufactured by John Deere

 

Binder story reminds me of the farmer who bought a clutch for his grain truck in the fall. Come springtime, he calls raising hell because the clutch won't work. Upon inspection, a rat nest was determined to be the culprit. At least farmers know how to apologize when they are wrong.

 

Hate to say it but I may be that guy sometimes. My hands get working but the brain stays asleep. It often needs the jarring effect of doing something stupid to get it going, which requires a public humiliation or drawing some blood.

 

I think if i would have developed a product called a "cadillac coverter", I would have sold quite a few of them.
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Or if i sold parts for Buick Sentras.
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Me: is your car the 1.3 or the 1.5
Customer: probably the 1.3 because its not very fast.
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Customer: I bought this starter here and it went bad
Me: Do you have your receipt because it doesnt look like one of ours
Customer: I don't but i know i bought it here.
Me: Sorry, your gonna have to find the receipt. We dont carry that brand starter.
(insert 5 minutes of customer yelling at me here insisting he bought it here)
Me: (quiet)
Customer: Well...who carries these starters. I already tried Napa, Autozone and Kragen. (idiot)
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I can go on and on with these stories but I dont type that well. haha

 

there are morons on both sides of the counter for every business you can think of. yesterday I was the moron customer at the computer store. I don't know if the guy helping me was a moron or not, because I had no idea what he was talking about.

 

I was the night parts manager at a Porsche+Audi store...........one evening a middle aged, harried looking black woman came in and said her husband was trying to fix the brakes on her car and had sent her in for a wheel cylinder for it. I asked her what kind of car, she replied "it's a blue one".........I tried several different questions to determine exactly what kind of blue car she had but to no avail. I asked her if she could call her husband and ask him, or if I could. At this she blanched and visibly shook, so I went and got a wheel cylinder for the most common 4 dr Audi made and sold it to her............I never heard back so either I got it right by accident or she was just too scared to come back......pity, that.

 

^That's why my wife does not send me to the sewing store!

 

A liitle sideways from the topic, but same idea..... I was a claims adjuster in greater Boston and had a guy from Mattapan call in his auto accident claim. I asked what kind of car he had. He said " a FoeDoeDeuce and a Quay". I ask a again and he repeats, FoeDoe Deuce and a Quay. While looking up his coverage, I ask, Would that be the Buick Electra 225? He said yes. Four Door Deuce and a Quarter.

 

Most of the problems come from the customers lack of knowledge about their vehicle - for insatnce when I worked at a chain parts store, a guy came in that needed a part for his newer Ford truck, so I asked him what size engine it had.

"350" He says.

I tell him that can't be right, maybe it's a 351? "No, it's a 350" he says. I tell him Ford didn't have a 350, he must be mistaken. "I know what the hell size motor I have!" He gets all indignant and inists I go out and see for myself.

"See, it says so right on the fender - F350"

At the Pontiac dealership an elderly lady came in and asked for parts for her "Pontiac Gooley"

I said "I never heard of that one - maybe I better go see for myself"

It was a 6000LE

 

One of my first jobs was workin' at Auto Zone back in the day . I had a guy lookin' for spark plugs for his diesel truck... I just shook my head and walked to the back room. Even at a young age I knew better than to talk to a dumbass....

 

I love you Pete...


I've been a counter guy, a customer and now in wholesale... so the counter guy is the customer.

I'm going to start a thread on that.

I had a guy talking about his small black Chevy. He went on to say it was balanced and bluepainted. I said to him "what color is your blue painted small black chevy?" He said "orange"

I have others but nothing I haven't posted here before.

I had a guy ask for lifters for his 94 Caprice. I asked if it was hydraulic or hydraulic roller. He said "naah man, I need to lift the car. You know... lifters."

 

And , yet another, well know urban myth that hundreds claim happened to them. Still waiting for someone to post the one about the dumbbell who came in looking for parts for his "Undo". I enjoy it every time I hear it

 

OK it's a 1941 Packard special, need plug wires for the 350 v 8

 

Yup, sold a guy some brake shoes once, comes back in 10 minutes later needing a return spring, 5 minutes later he's back for a hold down spring, etc. I finally comment that he must live really close by. He just looked at me funny and said "No" That's when I noticed he was doing a brake job in the parking lot, using a BUMPER jack to hold it up.

Also had a guy come in and asked for a 'really skinny' funnel. I brought him back a transmission funnel. "No, smaller than that" he says. I asked what he was trying to do and he says "I'm TRYING to put put oil in my car"

He was trying to pour it down the dipstick hole.

 

Years ago when I was in the business (just before computers), we had a high school kid working the floor. A customer comes in , stereotypical redneck, kid says "can I help you?" customer looks him up and down and replies "fuck no, you're stupider than me"

 

Was he a young guy? Could have turned into a M.I.L.F. situation!