Parts Store Fun

[TomoHawk]

Once, at the Nissan dealer, the guy at the eervice desk wrote down 350Z on the work order ( I just wanted a vale job.) Later I got a call from the mechanic because he couldn't find my GREEN 350Z!

The dumb checkin guy wrote down 98 green 350Z instead of 78 green 280Z, then told me on the phone that Nissan never made a 280Z, and I gave HIM the wrong information.

[sblake01]

That's how it is at the dealer I go to. The guys that know have been around since the Datsun days. When they retire, they seem to take the knowledge with them.

[TomoHawk]

Some guys gotta learn the hard way, sir, especially those youngins that are coming up after us. The biggest lessons they need to learn is humility, honesty and patience (in that order! ) and how to LISTEN

gEE... Only 5F in Ohio...

[DeesZ]

My local "parts stores" (Pep Boys, Advance, and the like) are about worthless unless you do your homework first and go in with a part number. My home town NAPA store is quite helpful and often successful on the common replacement parts. I use them often. For the less common stuff I use my local NISSAN dealer (about 30 mi away). I had to work with the parts guy at the dealer a few times to get the guy to work with me. If I supply part numbers to the dealer, the parts guy will gladly search for them until he finds them or determines that they are NLA. He's a young guy (35ish) but actually knows what a 240Z is. We are to the point now that I can send him the part numbers in an email and he'll determine availability and price by return email the same day. From there I order and pay when I pick the parts up. Convenient but not cheap, but where else can you get some of this stuff?

The bottom line, in my area anyway, is that there really isn't any incentive for anybody to give much of a hoot about our needs for Datsun parts. There are so few of them in my area that it simply doesn't pay to cater to our needs. It's no surprise that the kids at Advance Auto (etc.) don't know what the car is... around here they were being born when the cars were rusting their way off the road and out of common use. It's just not profitable. BUT that is no excuse for what TomoHawk mentions "The biggest lessons they need to learn is humility, honesty and patience (in that order! ) and how to LISTEN". This is not just a problem at auto parts stores. I have spent the last twenty years of my corporate career training kids (okay, young adults) and adults alike to demonstrate those qualities and employ those skills. It's simply amazing how un-customer oriented a lot of people are.... not by nature, but by upbringing. It is a pleasure when I find a truly well trained person practicing age old skills. They are a rare find these days.

[TomoHawk]

You can blame Nintendo, XBox, cable TV, DVDs, RPG games, cell phones, the Internet, online shopping & PayPal, etc. for those kinds of people, if you like. Maybe blame their yuppie parents too.

They probably don't even go to church, even once a year, let alone weekly...

fwiw... JMO....

thxZ

Edited January 28, 2009 by TomoHawk

[Zak's Z]

Ya man... that PayPal has really been the downfall of our youth today. Damn them and their easy ways to pay for things.

[sblake01]

Tomohawk, I don't know how you come to some of the conclusions that you come to. Every generation has it's influences. That's all I'm going to say. Like you said, it's just your opinion and no one really needs to hear my opinion of your philosophies (again).