First the oil change place; NOW..........!!

[newexplorerguy]

WOW;
I just cannot believe these blithering idiots around here!!!!!!!!!! My last post was about the little moron at the oil change place right?
Well; yesterday I go over the hill to the Kragens parts store. I pick up some brake fluid and some grease for the caliper slide pins. I walk back to the parts counter and tell the guy I need caliper slide pins for my explorer. Now keep in mind, there are two of these idiots behind the counter and one of them is selling front pads and rear shoes to some other guy for his car. The moron looked at me with a blank look and then tried to sell me two remanned calipers!!!! I tried to tell him that all I wanted was the slide pins. He "consulted" with the other bleeding idiot behind the counter and then after the two of them looking in the computer for about five minutes; told me "oh, those are special order only; takes about two-three days and they are $14.00 each".
I wonder if he ever figured out why I was laughing so hard as I walked out the door; leaving the items behind that I had already picked out?
Why me? Guess I'll just have to go get some at the dealer sometime in the next day or two.
George

 

[taxx]

sorry about your luck. I run into crap like that now and again!

 

[Luv2explorer]

Holy crap thats funny!!! Dont you just love stupid people??

 

[aldive]

Oh does that make me wish for the good old days when the "man" at the parts store darn near knew the number of every part they sold.

 

[mattadams]

LOL $14 each?? Holy crap! It's a bargain at twice the price! . I've come to not expect the auto parts store employees to know everything about cars, theres no way they can, they make $8 an hour and the more qualified people that know everything have been let go because they wanted more money (and deserved it!) but I would at least expect them to know the difference between a caliper and a caliper slide pin, thats not rocket science.

 

[taxx]

Is the caliper slide pin the same as the fill hole for my headlight fluid?

 

[hinkle_e]

YEP!!! While you're filling the headlight fluid, you might-as-well change the muffler bearings too

 

[taxx]

Do those have to be changed or can you re-pack them for some more life?

 

[hinkle_e]

they are re-packable, however I recently swapped mine for a nice chrome set

 

[taxx]

anything has to be better than the cheap ford ones I am using now made out of yellow pine.

 

[DocVijay]

Now let's not start this sillyness again. Must I remind you of the blinker fluid post?

 

[taxx]

alright I will stop , don't want to upset anyone ore ruin the original point of this thread.

 

[CADDYBILL]

You guy's will get a kick out of this.
Dead Link Removed

 

[taxx]

710 HA! That is friggin hystarical!

 

[newexplorerguy]

Hmmm......

Well;
I think I will just have to go right back there sometime this week and (making sure the same two guys are working); ask them for a new high-speed flutter valve. Not the low-speed one, you know; the high-speed flutter valve.
Or maybe eight cans of compression, the red cans; not the yellow cans. The yellow compression is just no good; you gotta get the red cans. Thats the good stuff.
Back when I had my first job after leaving high-school; I drove for an auto parts store. Those parts guys back then new what the heck they were doing. Most of them had all the popular part numbers memorized! Thats a lot different from these days of
Q: Hi there, you say you want to work here, well what makes you qualified to work here as a parts man?
A: Well; I put oil in a car that was'nt mine once.
Reply: You got the job, kid; you start right now at minimum wage, just stand in front of this computer here and sell those parts!
(new "parts guy"): "uummmmm..........computer? uuummm......uuuhhh....
George

 

[kandtholman]

O.K. the only reason I am posting is because my second job is with Checker Auto, which is related with Kragen. Its not the parts guys fault always. We have an inventory of like 8 parts for the same item and they are then split with other categories for parts. The second guy atleast found what you wanted even though it was an outrageous price. Working for a parts store has its advantages because you can earn your ASE certification in Parts. That guy was prob. very new. Sorry your experience was bad.
Kurt

 

[newexplorerguy]

Hi Kurt

Kurt;
Thanks for the reply. I know that not all of the guys are like this guy was. I have to say that I have also run into some parts guys at Kragen's that knew what they were doing; and not all of them were guys! This same store in question used to have a young lady working there that new what she was doing. I called her for a MAF for an IROC that I used to own. She new exactly what part I was asking for; set it aside for me (they only had one in stock), and even gave me a little bit of a discount because she new that I had been in the car industry for a while myself (one year driving for an auto parts store and eight years building motors and doing machine work at an automotive machine shop in San Francisco). She even knew to ask me if I had the appropriate tools to do the job (and she knew which tools those were).
My problem with the guy I dealt with the other day was, he was'nt even sure if he would be ordering the right part! His comment was "well; the computer shows a couple different things, we can order them, but you'll have to pay for them first and if it's not the right part we'll order something else". That's why I left the place laughing! (more like laughing and crying at the same time). Oh, for the good old days when you could go to a parts store and tell the guy what job you were doing and he knew exactly what you needed!
George

 

[kandtholman]

That cleared it up a little. That is not what we do at checker. We make sure its the right part before odering.
Kurt