Add to parts store employees. Genie in a bottle.

Adding to the posts below, it's hilarious to hear of all the people that believe all problems can be solved by a 'genie in a bottle'. Case in point last year about this time I was in Autozone picking up a couple parts and a couple kids came in in a rice rocket. Seems they ran over something and the car was leaking "red stuff". One of the counter guys proceeded to explain the virtues of Lucas transmission sealer. Don't get me wrong, that stuff works good for a transmission that is getting tired but not mechanically damaged. Being my usual 'helpful' self, I mentioned "I doubt that will help your problem". One kid promptly said 'butt out a**hole!" I held up my hands and checked out. As I left I noticed a large puddle had formed under the car. I made another stop while I was in town. And on the way home, at the intersection about a mile south of the AZ store were to those kids standing next to the car they had obviously just pushed out of the intersection. I don't know if the counter guy managed to peel a $25 bill off these suckers or not. But being my usual friendly self, I waved as I pulled away from the light.

Another reason why I avoid AZ like a plague.

You and me both. Little story about smart a$$ kids. Had one kick me off of a job one time. Because he said I didn't look smart enough to fix it. His day went down hill from there.

The man they sent out was on the phone with me asking me how to fix the problem. When the kids boss showed up. He wanted to know why I was not on the job. Because he had told them to send me and no one else. Our man told him what had happened.

So I go back out to the job site. The kid and his boss went into his office. All I heard for about twenty minutes was screaming and someone pounding on a desk. Kid never bothered me again.

so what you are saying is that "Overhaul in a Can" from JC Whitney might not actually rebuild your engine while you drive?

Good story, I like it.

Christopher

My local NAPA store closed recently. It seems they let go all of the old experienced staff for young and cheap labor. I had used that store for 20+ years and knew most of the guys. Got great service and could do most everything over the phone and only make one trip to pick up parts. These new kids had no clue so I was having to make a trip in to see if they had what I needed and then order it and go back later. In disgust I started going to a NAPA store in a nearby community. It took about a year for the local store to go broke. You would think they would be smart enough to know that the staff makes the store, when they screwed that up you would think they would hire experienced staff back rather than going broke. Corporate logic I guess.

Makes me wonder how this country is going to function in another 20 or 30 years. Some people can't seem to put the high school mentality behind them. Most younger people that I see employed in fields such as retail seem to have poor attitudes with people that are not of a similar age as them.

What I don't understand is how all of these parts stores can stay in business with such a small volume of business. Within 10 miles of me in a mostly rural area are a NAPA, O'Reilly's, Auto Zone, Advance, and an independent shop. The NAPA and the independent are the only ones that seldom have more than 1 customer at a time. The NAPA is busy all the time, and the independent has a machine shop which means they have a steady flow of starters, alternators, cams, cranks, and heads. Try taking a generator off an A John Deere to Auto Zone for an overhaul and wait for the blank look on the kid's face.

It starts at home. Bad work ethic (and many other "problems") starts at home, with parenting or lack of it. Not the schools. Not society. It's our problem. Teach your kids respect for others and a solid work ethic. Throw in a little desire to be the best and things will be better for all of us. Show me a bad worker, student, etc. and most times I can show you bad parents or no parents.

Reminds me of a time when I was a Ford Service Manager.

A couple of kids brought an old Pinto in with the oil drain plug in the oil pan loose. We ran the car up on a hoist, drained the oil, threaded a new oversized self tapping plug in, put new oil in, and drove it out.

When the kids picked it up, they threw a fit. They said we should have saved their old oil and put it back in. I finally took the price of the oil off the bill just to get rid of them.

A month later, they pulled the same Pinto up on a tow strap, trailing a stream of engine oil and parked it right outside the showroom. They'd obviously run over something and poked a hole in the oil pan. They came in and tried to claim we'd damaged the oil pan when we had it up on a hoist a month before. I told them that was not possible, that it had not been leaking when it left back then, and even if we had damaged the pan, it wouldn't have taken a month to show up.

They argued and they argued. Meanwhile, the oil slick under the Pinto is getting larger and larger, and running out from under the car across the concrete in front of the showroom. The kids finally left in a huff and left the Pinto set, saying they were going to talk to their attorney.

We went to move the Pinto and found they'd taken the keys, and the steering and shifter were locked. The Parts Manager knew a way to stick a small screwdriver behind the steering wheel and defeat the lock on the steering and shifter. We pushed the thing out behind the shop beside the dumpster on some crushed rock where what oil was left to drip would soak in.

The Pinto disappeared overnight a couple of days later. It took two bags of "oil dry" to clean up the mess in front of the showroom.

Back a few weeks ago, one of my employees was having troubles with his air conditioning in his truck. It's an 06 Dodge 2500. The FIRST place you should look for AC leaks in a Dodge is the evap coil. (VERY high incidence of failures) At any rate, it's hot out and "Gomer" doesn't want to spend $750 to have a shop fix the leaky coil when a $17.99 can of "ALL PURPOSE LEAK SEALER AND AUTO AIR CONDITIONING TREATMENT" from Advanced Auto will solve ALL his troubles.

Yeah right....

One can didn't stop the leak, so can #2 goes in. Then more than 3 cans of R134A. Still no cold air.

Long story short, Gomer spent $80 @ the parts store on miracle cure in a can stuff that did NOTHING to solve the problem, THEN spent that $750 and ANOTHER $300 to have the dash disassembled, a new coil installed, THE SYSTEM FLUSHED to get the "stop leak" out, then charged and put back together.

The reason why those parts guys have so little trouble selling snake oil in a can? Dumb CUSTOMERS who want to fix a $1000 problem with a $10 can.

On the flip side I have a Zetor that had been
diagnosed as needing a new injection pump by an
'expert'.One can of Seafoam and it runs like new
sooooooo the worms turns both ways.

bought a 2000 GMC 3500 van last year once it got warm outside the air didn;t work. charged it with 134a good air, couple of days later no air. went thru the summer charging it when I wanted to haul the grand kids in it probably 4 or 5 times total. last time picked up a can of sealant at WalMart because SWMBO was with me and insisted on it. I said no way would it work needed a new condensor as that was what the dye showed. Had an early warm spell this year and needed the van so couple cans of 134a and away we went. Van has had cold AC ever since.
In this case the genie in the bottle did work

Ron

Hey I don't put a lot of faith in snake oil, but some times it works. The tranny was slipping on my 99 Astro. It only had 248,000 miles on it so it couldn't be wore out yet. I could get the thing super flushed and the pan dropped and filter change etc for about $125.00. Or I could get it rebuilt right for about $1,500.00. I figured that I didn't have much to lose so I flushed it and 10,000 miles later it shifts like a new one. I know guy who don't get that far on a rebuild.

20 or 30 years? Heck, I'll be surprised if we don't see a major meltdown in 20 or 30 MONTHS.

My Grand-dad, Newt, was a mechanic from back in the 1920's on. Newt didn't have much faith in what he called "mechanic-in-a-can" solutions. Two exceptions Newt actually did use were Rislone for noisy lifters, and Hastings CASITE for cleaning up badly carboned-up valves. Never used the Rislone myself, but the CASITE stuff worked great on the 351C in my '72 LTD when I owned it. Probably can't use it that way anymore on these catalyst-equipped cars.

And my daughter had good luck using Lucas power-steering additive to quiet a noisy power steering pump on her first car, an '86 Cougar.

Corporate logic is, you MUST cut labor costs no matter what. Folks who sell cataloging systems tell store owners that their system is so simple, anyone off the street can operate it and look like an expert. So gullible store owners take that as gospel, and start getting rid of experienced counter men [and women--known a couple of outstanding parts people who were women] so they can hire in minimum wage punks and start reaping the "benefits."

Then when profits start going into the tank because the inept counterpersons are ordering wrong parts and driving business away, it's really easy to fire said minimum-wage punk and replace him with another minimum-wage punk with even more tattoos and piercings, and less automotive knowledge. And the cycle builds, until the owner either wises up or goes broke.

So how do you fix that? I don't see court-ordered parenting classes, or parental training in morals and values, as someting we'll be seeing anytine soon.

As individuals, we can only fix the situations in our own households. Might try to mentor the kids in the neighborhood, but good luck with that these days.