O'Reilly Auto Parts

What's the deal with O'Reilly? I know some of you fellows have said good things about them, but my first impressions are Not Good.

A couple of months ago O'Reilly took over the regional Murray's Auto Parts. Now Murray's was never the greatest auto parts store, but they generally had what you needed at reasonable prices, and they were the closest store to my house. Since O'Reilly took over, every time I go in there's a problem. The computers are acting up, or they can't process credit cards, or they can't accept core returns, etc.

Last Sunday I went in to order an a/c compressor for my early '90's Cadillac. I didn't expect them to have it in stock, but I figured they could get it the next day. The counter man gave me a price, I said order it and he started scratching his head. He talked to his coworker and they came to the conclusion that the warehouse didn't have any and they wouldn't be able to order until Monday. Fine. Monday afternoon, after hearing nothing, I called them. The same counter man told me he had just come in and would start working on my part. OK. I call back Tuesday: no progress, he had sent out several emails and had received no responses. Wednesday afternoon, I call again, and he tells me he can't get me the compressor. I go online to Rock Auto, they have four or five different versions of the same part in stock (new and reman from different manufacturers). I pick the one I want, place an order and it's on its way the next day.

It took three days for them to tell me they can't get the part, and Rock Auto has it in stock. Heck, they could have ordered from Rock, got it in three days and sold it to me at a profit. I have resisted buying auto parts on line because I feel it's important to keep the local stores in business, but I'm starting to have a change of heart.

Observations:

1. The single most important quality of an auto parts store is the ability to get almost any part quickly. No repair shop is going to stand for this sort of horrible service. Now Murray's didn't get much trade business, either, but O'Reilly's is going to lose what little business from repair shops Murray's had.

2. Electronic inventory control has been around for over 40 years, long before any of us had email. It is absolutely ridiculous that a store should have to send out emails to run down a part that isn't in stock. I'll bet NAPA doesn't have this problem.

Anyway, is this just a temporary problem as they make the switch, or is this what I have to expect from O'Reilly? If it is, I'll start patronizing the new NAPA store down the road. The drive is further, but I think they know how to order an a/c compressor.

When any company gets bought out it is a nightmare believe me. As the transition takes place many things are not where they should be. Give them another chance in six months or so and see what happens. If you're not satisfied well then you won't have to go back.

You are not alone. It seems like wherever i go the quality of service declines constantly.
I just shake my head and hope they think they have enough business to drive another customer away.

I have never had a problem with them having what I needed. Maybe it is just new store jitters. But It should not take months to work out. I stopped going to Auto Zone when the kid there told me Pontiac Grand Ams were not popular cars And they did not carry oil filters for them.

We've got a new one here and they seem to be ok. I go to automotive supply though because they're closest to the farm and also between where I live and where the farm is. They ussually have what I need in stock, or can get it within a week.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Most of the trouble to me is. Old guys like me are being kicked out and no one is left to train the new kids. My son sent one of his friends to me to help him with his car.Guy pulls up in a 1966 Ford with a 289 in it. Running real bad. Hands me a bag of parts and ask me where do theses go. It was a bag with points and condenser in it. He had no idea what to do with them. The real kicker he was an ASE certified engine tech.

When I worked at a small Ford/Chrysler dealer in southern Iowa, we called them O'Really Stupid. They pay about the same as McDonalds so if they do happen to get a good counter man they don't stick around long.
You have to be careful what you buy from them. Things like starters, alternators, and A/C compressors are on the NO NO list from them.

I agree with Brian Jasper co.Ia.Some stuff you dont get there.After they have been there a while they should be better.Hopefully there will be an old guy there that knows or can figure out what to do.Then you will be able to go when he is there and get what you are looking for.The earring wearing,nose pierced bunch are not going to be much help most of the time no matter where you find them.They are trying to be the Wal Mart of Auto Parts.

I agree 100% that ordering on line is usually much better than from local stores. I bought a Ramsey winch from a local dealer and he said he couldn't trouble shoot it when it quit working He took 3 days to send it back to Ramsey then told me it would be 3 wks. I called Ramsey and they hurried up the repair and returned it in 3 days.

So why should I buy from a local yo yo and pay him extra, when I can buy on line, save money, and send it to Ramsey just like he did if it breaks? I'll never buy from him again.

O'Reillys are all over the place here, and just opened a new store in my hometown, new building and all. It was needed. NAPA had the only game in town for too long.

I've bought parts from O'Reilly for years, and I've only had two problems. About ten years ago, I got a bad A/C compressor and the manager confided they were having problems with compressors, and were in the process of switching to a different rebuilder to solve it. Also got a motor mount once, made in Malaysia or some where, where one of the mounting holes was about a quarter of an inch off. Not a bad average, considering all the parts I've bought from them over the years.

I'd say you have a problem with employee incompetence rather than with O'Reilly, per se.

Like the time I went to our local Case IH dealer to get cups for the lift cylinders on the loader on my H. A young kid on the parts counter went around and around for fifteen minutes, even telling me at one point it wasn't possible for an H to have that model of loader on it. An old pro finished with another customer, walked over, pulled up a micro-fiche, and asked me how many I wanted.

I've been as impressed as heck at our new local O'Reilly's... Much better than the unfriendly Autozone guys...

They've really bent over backwards for me. Plus, I was amused to hear one of the parts guys lecturing a trainee about how he was looking up a part wrong for an old guy with a Ferguson tractor...

He was telling him - "Ferguson! Not Massey-Ferguson, this one was before the merger..."... I was really impressed they even knew what an old tractor was much less anything about the family lineage!

The typical chain parts place will never come close to a good old-fashioned local parts store that really tries, but our local one is sure trying!


Howard

ok fellers heres the deal on parts stores being that i spent a lot of good years working in one, its not the stores name that makes a difference its the counterpeople, a good parts store is kind of like a old time barber shop, when you go into any parts store just spend a few minutes observing and listening to the talk at the counter,if you see a older gent with 14 boxes of parts on the counter and his brow furrowed as he tryes to find a part that will work for a model A car, except that this one has been converted to 4 wheel drive by the guy standing in front of him, and the guy next to him is working on his farm tractor, your in the right place, if you go in and see 3 kids behind the counter and theyre arguing about who has the newest video game or how to fit a semi truck exhaust pipe under a honda while "thump and boom" music is going in the background chances are these guys will have little or no clu how to help you

THATS THE TROUBLE WITH ADVANCE,PEP BOYS,AUTO ZONE..THEY CANT ORDER MOST STUFF I NEED, OR SAY THEY DONT SELL IT. NOW THE NAPA STORES IN LOUISVILLE KY AREA USED TO BE INDEPENDENTS AND COULD ORDER STUFF,BUT THIS YEAR NAPA GAVE THEM A CHOICE TO SELL STORE TO NAPA OR GO OUT OF BUISINESS. SO NOW I GUESS ILL SEE HOW THE SERVICE IS GOING TO BE AT COMPANY OWNED STORES, LUCAS

Its not really the stores fault , Its the squirrel brained guys behind the counter that most of which have no clue about what they are doing. Our local O'reillys in Sherman is pretty darn good, they have several guys in there that know their stuff. They do have a couple of guys I wouldn't ask about stuff for a tricyle for but for the most part its about the only place I will go. Autozone sucks!

I see O'Reillys has merged with Schucks in our area- Schucks is a chain outfit, never been much good- sounds like they won't be getting better any time soon. NAPA is the only place to go here- Owned by a woman who really knows her stuff. I've found if I go in around 8 AM, they can get an unstocked part "on the truck" and I get it at 3 the same afternoon. Doesn't get much better than that.

if you want to mail order from a family business and talk to a real counter person try National Automotive Lines. They don't have much of a website yet and don't have books for farm equipment, but they can get the item if you have the number. I get all my starter and alternator stuff from them at jobber cos.
National Automotive lines

Advance Auto parts, the JUNK auto parts king in the east, gets orders faster than NAPA. NAPA is overpriced, but I still buy from my local NAPA in an emergency.

Pep Boys and autozone I will not shop in.

Hard to call these places auto parts stores anymore. I remember the old days when all parts came though the auto parts stores even the Factory parts were bought threw them by the dealers. Then the factories started their own parts system and the old time parts stores lost a lot of business and the junk stores like Napa, Shucks an so on took over the void. Its not the same old world anymore.
Walt

A while back I took my pickup to autozone to check the code. He brought out an old model code checker, got the code, and said policy didn't allow him to clear it. I knew the guy and he explained the way to clear it by turning the ignition off and on a couple times or whatever the procedure was and then waited while I did it.

After my wiring harness problem last weekend, I took it to O'reillys to check the codes. They just handed me their new code checker, explained how it worked, then told me to hit the clear button when done. I went out, found 9 codes, wrote them down, and cleared them with not much problem.

AZ and OR carry alot of the same brand of stuff so it is hard to find something except their brands. As I understand it, AZ and OR were both started by separate relatives of Sam Wall of wally world. That is why they have their stores so close together.

Walk into our AZ store and there might be 2 guys twiddling their thumbs but their prices seem to be lower than OR. Walk into OR store and there are 5 or 6 techs just busy as can be taking care of the crowd but it seems like some of the stuff on the racks may be a buck or two higher than AZ.

My brake booster went bad in my Mustang. I went to NAPA and Carquest-both warehouse stores. Neither had one in stock, and NAPA said they didn't have one in their nationwide system. Heading bac home, I'm going past O'Reillys and figure why not. They didn't have one in stock-no surprise. BUT he said do I need it today or could I wait till Monday? I asked whats the difference? He said they had in their warehouse (about 10 miles away) one with an attached master cylinder that cost $15.00 more than if I waited till Monday when they could get one out of Springfield, Mo. without a master cylinder. I was VERY impressed with that. Same car I burnt up my power steering pump when a hose blew on the highway. Took two tries with NAPA to get a functional pump, and they both came from Omaha.

I really like it when you walk in a store and the counter help picks up phones that aren"t ringing. Then you know you have a wrong number there..

Back years ago when AutoZone first came to this area, they were owned by Malone and Hyde, the grocery chain/supplier of the Hyde Park house brands. So when I applied there back in the 1980's, I had to fill out a Malone and Hyde application. I was ALMOST hired by them...but they couldn't/wouldn't match the money I was already making working for a dealership.

I found a link that says that AZ was founded by Pitt Hyde...but no mention of any relationship to Sam Walton of WAL*MART fame.
Auto Zone

They get what they pay for...and these places don't pay wages that an experienced parts person can get elsewhere. Thus, they don't get experienced counterpersons.

I cant say how other places work and am not real sure about O"reillys. I was just hired at the local O"reillys as a part time manager now I am 40 and have worked in parts stores and on cars and trucks tractors and lawn mowers all my life. I have watched the younger fellows in the store I just was hired at and they seem to try their best. Most just forget the old adage The customer is always RIGHT! I can say that all they have to do is ask and I will tell them if I know. I for one will work as hard as I can to get the customer the part they need.

Earlier this week I went to my local Napa needing a rebuild kit for a slave cylinder on my 1970's vintage Hahn sprayer. Without warning or leaking the rubber cup failed instantly. Knowing I probably can't get parts for this thing I took it apart and took it in so we could perhaps match up something to work. The young earringed counter guy had no idea what I was holding and when I told him it was a slave cylinder he had no idea what that was. When he looked it up in the book he found that The rebuild kit was not available but he was bound and determined to help me out. So he measured that it was a 1" and went and got a box of old master cylinder parts and started going through boxes until he found something that might work. I thought it might too. So he took the plunger in the back to saw off the end and revove the cup without damage. He then lubed it with break fluid and slipped it on my plunger. Perfect fit. I was back spraying in about an hour and a half. I have the utmost respect for this kid. He was going to try and help me out no matter what it took. If he keeps up with that dedication he will be in much demand and well worth the money it takes to keep him on the payroll.

Hope you tipped him. Kids like that are very rare today. Most are just there for the paycheck.

Thanks everyone for your comments. It sounds like most of you have had good luck with O'Reilly, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

In defense of the counter staff at O'Reilly, it seems they're doing the best they can, and are battling with an unreliable IT infrastructure and supply system. That's not the fault of the local store, that's something the head office needs to fix before it kills the company.

As for their reman starters and alternators, they are selling the Bosch brand, which seem to all come from Mexico. At least it's a name brand, although based on my experience with NEW Bosch parts, I don't expect much from their reman parts. The a/c compressor was a new Delphi unit, which would have been fine if they could have actually procured it.

Regarding the numerous comparisons with AutoZone, well, anything is better than AZ. AutoZone is an auto parts store in the same fashion that Der Wienerschnitzel is a restaurant.

Depends on the store. I'll go 30 miles to one store and get great service. I have two others at about the same distance that I won't return to unless I'm desperate. The one I like hired a couple old mechanics for parts men, and they know their stuff.