Napa

[Glenn B]

I have to laugh. You guys that have more than one choice.... and complain about it. Some of us have NO other option that the one single parts place here... NAPA. Anything else is phone or internet orders. You live in a place that supports multiple vendors... be happy about that.

As to bashing NAPA... bash your local owner instead. He/she is the one hiring those that seem to have no clue. NAPA is fine, as a corp. Good stuff. I have worked at them in various capacities. How good a NAPA is is just like any other parts place... only as good as the parts guy at the counter. Some ore good, some truely suck.

If you NAPA sucks, tell the owner. Sure, telling the internet is easier.... but bitch at the owner. If they eventually learn that hiring kids is a bad thing for business, they may learn. Where I worked, no Counter man would get the job unless they had shop experience. Anybody can be a parts boi...and brag about it. But a GOOD parts Man is hard to come by.... and they will not work at the cheap rates they can hire "parts bois"......

 

[Ludakris]

I have to laugh. You guys that have more than one choice.... and complain about it. Some of us have NO other option that the one single parts place here... NAPA. Anything else is phone or internet orders. You live in a place that supports multiple vendors... be happy about that.

As to bashing NAPA... bash your local owner instead. He/she is the one hiring those that seem to have no clue. NAPA is fine, as a corp. Good stuff. I have worked at them in various capacities. How good a NAPA is is just like any other parts place... only as good as the parts guy at the counter. Some ore good, some truely suck.

If you NAPA sucks, tell the owner. Sure, telling the internet is easier.... but bitch at the owner. If they eventually learn that hiring kids is a bad thing for business, they may learn. Where I worked, no Counter man would get the job unless they had shop experience. Anybody can be a parts boi...and brag about it. But a GOOD parts Man is hard to come by.... and they will not work at the cheap rates they can hire "parts bois"......

I agree... on all accounts.. which is why i am not in parts anymore..
I guess i am spoiled, with in 1/2 mile radius I have 2 dealers (one jeep, one dodge), a pep boys, an advanced auto, a Home Depot, a Mom & Pop Hardware, an 84 lumber, and 1 mile up the road in either direction another Jeep dealer and an AutoZone..

 

[tchase]

please dissregard this

 

[tchase]

wow, i never knew how lucky we are in our little town of Coldbrook. i work in a shop and buy a lot of parts. we always try to find the cheapest part for our customers, when time permets. withen a 10 minute drive we have the choice between:
three Napa stores
a Auto Choice(90percent of the time the cheapest brake parts)
a Carquest
Canadian Tire(last resort, longest hours)
and the dealers (a Chrysler Dodge Jeep, a Toyota, a V.W., a Ford, a Mazda, a Nissan and a Honda dealer. by the way these are all in eyesight of each other with about six used dealers around them, and two independant repair shops just down the road.
i almost forgot theres also three junkyards (Shaffers, Phoels, and Harold Reeves)
id almost say Coldbrook would be the car capital of N.S.

 

[rstarch345]

Seems to me that a significant issue is being missed.

If you do any fabricating on your vehicle, you can go to a NAPA or Federated, the the counter man that you are looking for ziffendittle that is 2 inches longer and a half inch wider that the stock part. They will dig out a book or go back to the shelf and pull out a dozen parts that come close to what you are looking for.

I tried that at Advance, Autozone and Pep Boys and I got an attitude.

Yes, NAPA or Federated may keep bankers hours, but just like the bank, if you want to do business, make the time. Since they spend so much time helping me with fabrication projects, they always get first shot at my business.

For what its worth!!

 

[UNCC_99XJ]

I actually have good luck with napa....or maybe thats cause our family friend works at one and cuts us a deal.....like the battery i picked up for $45 this past weekend.

but even when I don't go across town to his store and I run right up the street they're still pretty good about giving me the right stuff the first time.

As for autozone, The one by my work doesn't know the difference b/w a XJ and a ZJ....lol.

 

[bajacalal]

I have found their parts to be quality, except for electrical parts.

Remember, NAPA unlike the other stores like Kragen, AutoZone, PepBoys are not all corporately owned, they are franchised and locally owned so the selection of parts and service varies a lot. Their parent company seems to have very loose control over each franchise, in comparison to say, Burger King. Here the Encinitas place has great service, can answer obscure "I need a non stock part" question and I know the people there well. But the Oceanside store has a much larger inventory on hand but the worlds worst service.

 

[bjoehandley]

I had a "parts guy" (part boi wouldn't quite fit this twit either) at a Pep Boys ask ME (the one asking for parts) if the manifolds, turbo, efi, etc from a Chrysler SOHC 2.2/2.5 turbo 4 would fit a Chevy 2.2 pushrod 4 engine in his Cavalier (complete with gray plastic bumpers, factory 14" wheels and hubcaps, fart cannon and big aluminum wing) when I went to get parts for my Lebaron (I think it was plugs and an O2 sensor or brakes pads, can't remember for sure.) I think this guy was a UTI student too :gag:

 

[churky89]

Maybe there was a merger between NAPA n O'Rielys,cause I always get the line..."Nope we don't have that part in stock,but I can get it here in bout 2 days"
I need it now,not 2 days from now...........

 

[Pat]

I have to laugh. You guys that have more than one choice.... and complain about it. Some of us have NO other option that the one single parts place here... NAPA. Anything else is phone or internet orders. You live in a place that supports multiple vendors... be happy about that.

As to bashing NAPA... bash your local owner instead. He/she is the one hiring those that seem to have no clue. NAPA is fine, as a corp. Good stuff. I have worked at them in various capacities. How good a NAPA is is just like any other parts place... only as good as the parts guy at the counter. Some ore good, some truely suck.

If you NAPA sucks, tell the owner. Sure, telling the internet is easier.... but bitch at the owner. If they eventually learn that hiring kids is a bad thing for business, they may learn. Where I worked, no Counter man would get the job unless they had shop experience. Anybody can be a parts boi...and brag about it. But a GOOD parts Man is hard to come by.... and they will not work at the cheap rates they can hire "parts bois"......

exactly...having one bad experience with one guy at a parts counter is by no means reason to get pissed at the store itself and definitely no reason to bitch about the company. can be applied to any business. and as far as hours, you can't please everybody...maybe they feel like they make enough money to close early? if that is the case, i imagine most would do the same.

my experience with napa is always a good one, and i feel like their parts are higher quality.

Pat

 

[RichP]

exactly...having one bad experience with one guy at a parts counter is by no means reason to get pissed at the store itself and definitely no reason to bitch about the company. can be applied to any business. and as far as hours, you can't please everybody...maybe they feel like they make enough money to close early? if that is the case, i imagine most would do the same.

my experience with napa is always a good one, and i feel like their parts are higher quality.

Pat

I look at it this way, at a local chamber meeting the two local lumber yards/hardware stores were bitching about how badly home depot hurt them when they opened. I asked if they lost all their contractors and the answer was not really, it was mostly the homeowners, not nearly as many on saturdays anymore. All I could think of was 'you dufus, they leave for work before you open and get home after you close so of course they were limited to sat mornings, home depot allows them to go there AFTER they get back in the area, have dinner and get stuff for their weekend projects'. What I said was you may not be able to match Home depot for their massive warehouse size but you sure as heck can match their hours. They are still opening at 7am and closing at 4 mon-fri and 8-12 on sat.... one of them *used* to be open on sundays but when the son took over from the father he changed that. The old man knew better which is why the old man always drove a Mercedes and the son drives an explorer..
For me, It's common to go out on a service call at 9pm, my customers come first...after all, they write the checks....