Advaned Auto parts GENIUSES!!

Guess I've been lucky in my dealings.

I've read the horror stories and heard even more.

The Advance I've been dealing with for the past 4+ years has been aces. Allison, my commercial parts pro has gotten me what I want, when I want it, at prices that make me money on the sales. She's called other stores, including NAPA and Carquest, if I've needed the part that day. She's called the dealerships getting me DOI's, saving me a lot of time having to make multiple calls.

If the system doesn't show a part or a number she digs for it until she gets me the part I'm after. That includes going to the paper catalogs or even calling the manufacturer to see if the number is still good. A lot of the time she's eaten the drop shipping price to get me the part in a reasonable amount of time.

I've advocated this many times on this board and on others. If your building your antique or multiple antiques, talk to the manager about setting up a commercial account because of the number of parts you're going to need. It gives you a direct number to the commercial desk and gives you a scaled discount (the more parts you buy, the more you save), bypassing the guys on the retail desk. It also allows you to build a better rapport with just one person, instead of having to worry having to deal with a different person every time you're in the store.

This helps. I've been dealing with the manager of the new store local to me for the past 20+ years. The radiator I bought in Horseheads for my F150 sprung a leak. Well, with pulling the trailer I've been thinking of upgrading to a bigger one anyway, for the extra cooling capacity. I call the Watkins store, to have them check a part number I've pulled up online. In stock.

Now, will they warranty the old one for the new one and I'll pay the price difference. Hank, the manager gets on the phone. Sure, but he needs the invoice to make things easier. Call Allison in Horseheads, she pulls up the invoice out of history and faxes it to Hank.

I get down there, Hank does the necessary paperwork on the warranty and drops the price on the new radiator to match. It's a $30 difference between the two, that I don't have to pay, to cover a mistake I made, for ordering the smaller radiator to begin with when I started putting the truck together, knowing I was going to be hauling **** all over the place.

Hank swings the computer screen to where I can see it and asks, "Who loves ya, Robert?" He wouldn't have done that for just anyone and chances are, if you've been a dick in his store before he'd rake you over the coals for even suggesting the idea of warrantying one part out for another, just paying the difference.

You can't get that kind of service when you're doing nothing but bitching out the person behind the counter.

So, the folks behind the counter don't know as much as you know. TEACH 'EM! It makes them better at their job, helps the next guy in line, and you don't come off looking like a know-it-all asshole just there to start a fight.

I've been wrenching on cars for 20+ friggin' years, professionally. I don't know every part that's available for every car and have to rely on the parts guys to help me out.