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Unknown Parts Counter Guy: DB Counter Guys Give All Of Us A Bad Name


Unknown Parts Counter Guy: DB Counter Guys Give All Of Us A Bad Name

While reading through comments from last week’s post (oh, yes, I do read them!) I saw one particular post about idiotic counter guys. I honestly have been trying to avoid that subject, mainly because it’s overdone, mostly because I work with good people at my store (ok, 80% are good people, but still…) and mostly because a lot of my material is based upon input or actions from the customer.

Just when I decided that I was not going to write about other counter people, I get handed the Holy Grail of Idiocy this week.

It started with a customer needing headlights for a 6v system. Not that common anymore, but I was able to locate them and order them. Customer, who had driven well out of their way to my store, is very appreciative when he picks them up. Next day, customer has an epiphany: “Maybe I should stock up on a couple more lights.” He goes to another store to try to buy more lights. He has the part number from the box, and I told him to just use the part number, and they should be able to get it. I got a phone call two days later from the guy, asking if I, by name, would order more, because the people at the other store “can’t find their ass with both hands.” As I’m to understand it, three counterclerks refused to help, and the one that did had no clue what they were doing.

Funny as that retort is, it’s sad, because it means that the customer has a bitter taste in their mouth about ordering parts from a store. While I shine in his eyes, overall he’s going to avoid parts stores, and we may have lost a lot of business just because of word of mouth. Not good. And it reflects not only on that store, but that company in general.
Now, if you think that one’s bad, try this: Customer orders over $500 in brake parts for delivery the next day. We don’t have some of these parts in my store, so I check inventory. Our sister store nearby has everything we need, so I put in a request for parts transfer for the A.M. This means that first thing in the morning, their delivery driver is going to have a form with a list of parts to pull. Once he’s got everything together, he will hop in the delivery vehicle, haul everything to my store, and everything is okey-dokey. Except, when I showed up at 3pm the next day, the customer was at the counter, furious, looking like he was ready to eat glass, demanding to know why the parts didn’t show. I intercepted the customer (without clocking in or my uniform on) to find out what happened. A very quick investigation determined that not only were the parts not delivered, they were not pulled. I defused the customer by telling him that I would personally go get the parts for him right now, and informed the other store that the parts had better be ready to go once I got there. As I was storming out the door, I heard one of our newer employees mutter, “Oh, f*ck…he’s gonna kill everyone there.”

I’m known at the other parts store as “that one asshole”, and for good reason. Every time I show up there, I’m pissed, usually because one of their screw-ups has interfered with my job. When I walked in, I bypassed the counter and walked back to their delivery shelf…and saw the parts request still in the printer, untouched. No parts on the counter, either. Ok, fine, I’ll do it my-damn-self. I started ripping the parts off their shelves, and was almost done when their assistant manager demanded to know what the hell I was doing.

The result of that was a monumental ass-chewing, one I’m sure I’ll hear about from the district manager shortly.

Now, you’d think that’d be the worst of it, but no, not even close. THE NEXT DAY, in fact, one hour before closing, we get a call at my store. Customer is in desperate need of having a set of Super Duty rotors turned, and the other store had told him that “their rotor technician” had gone home for the day and that there was nothing anyone could do for him.

I can’t speak for all parts stores here, but in mine, you learn to do everything, and that includes turning rotors. The only excuse that is viable for anyone is that haven’t been trained on the lathe yet, at which point it is prudent that you don’t turn rotors, lest you gouge them to nothing. At the other store, they have two new people. That leaves seven individuals who can turn rotors. Out of the workers that night, there were no new people, and one who has about 30-ish years of experience doing this gig. And it was the old-timer who told them no. I cut the rotors. I gave the guy a discount on the labor just because of the bullshit he had to put up with. I stayed until an hour after close finishing up daily tasks, and I sent my coworker home just a little after he was supposed to leave.

There are good, knowledgeable counterguys out there, guys. Trust me. They are just harder than hell to find anymore.

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33 thoughts on “Unknown Parts Counter Guy: DB Counter Guys Give All Of Us A Bad Name

  1. Brent

    You are one of the few left, man! Dealing with inept counter people has just about driven me to deal with websites like RockAuto almost exclusively. At one of my local parts stores, I think they hired directly from the local McDonalds. I’m not sure if some of them were even qualified to be fry cooks!

  2. Matt Cramer

    “As I was storming out the door, I heard one of our newer employees mutter, ‘Oh, f*ck…he’s gonna kill everyone there.'”

    When I read that, I pictured you storming out the door with the axe and paper bag from the picture.

  3. Andy

    As a former parts counter person i always try to give the benefit of the doubt when getting parts……some try harder than others….but now i look it up online and order for store pickup…bypassing the store people all together.

    1. 440 6pac

      While I haven’t worked in an auto parts store I have been in more than my share. From what I have seen 99.999% are idiots. That might even include me at times.

  4. 38P

    Dude, are there any happy stories in the auto parts business? Or is nearly everyone who walks through the door an “idiot?” Just askin’

    1. John

      Sure there are, but who wants to read about the guy that came in, asked for a part, got exactly what he wanted & left happy?

    2. TheSilverBuick

      I am blessed with two good parts guys and a decent old timer at the local NAPA.

    3. tigeraid

      I would say the vast majority of CAR GUYS who walk through my door are happy stories and work out great. The vast majority of my garage customers I would also classify as happy.

      The problem is, those stories don’t stick in your mind like the idiots do. 😉

    4. Tony Sestito

      There are happy stories, but they are RARE.

      For instance, working the parts counter has gotten me deals on cars and parts, and has helped me make connections and friends over the years. One of those instances was a time when a guy came in and asked for some gaskets for a Pontiac engine build he was working on. He started dealing with another employee who couldn’t help him, and I stepped in, busted out the catalog, and ordered the gaskets he needed. He was impressed, and I kept in contact with him. That led to a free Pontiac 400 short block and rotating assembly that now sits between the fenders of my Trans Am.

      Of course, those instances were sparsely sprinkled between the immense stupidity of dealing with the public and other stupid co-workers, but they were possible.

  5. 440 6pac

    I reckon I blessed then. At the store I trade at they have two very good counter folks. They will even stay late for me if I call ahead. Something I try to avoid because they’ve already put in a long day dealing with idiots.
    One of them can be the best person you ever dealt with or the worst. It depends on your attitude when you walk in.
    This is a locally owned store and I’ve never had any real problems there. Crap like you just talked about is why I avoid the national companies.

  6. Scott

    I have been on both sides of the counter and have to say I wish you were in my neighborhood. I have a locally owned parts store a block away but only go in there when I need something I can grab myself. If I need parts I drive across town or go online. Very little customer service to be found anymore.

  7. GuitarSlinger

    Hey ! If its any small source of comfort … Idiots these days are to be found in every profession … from Janitor – to Parts Counter and right up to the Medical professionals we all depend on . Hell .. the worst of the worst being the majority of the so called ‘ trades people ‘ [ plumbers – electricians – auto repair – lawn care etc ]

    For me … I’ve come to the point in my life where I recognize Idiots abound these days .. so therefore Vote with my checkbook …. doing business where doing business is reasonable … and because I have the money and mobility to do so [ I’ll drive a few miles out of my way … or pay a little extra to bring someone in from a distance in order to give my business to folks who know how to DO business ]

  8. The Big Al

    In the problems you mention in this day is not what I call bad counter men. They are just lazy no good employees, and anyone with a left side brain should be able to accomplish the task at hand. What you get when all your paying is min wage. Below what the local burger joint pays!

    I have over 30 years of real parts counter work, cut my teeth into it at the age of 15, back in the late mid 70’s when you stood in line to get ya parts. Long before the “RETAIL” stores of today.

    Whats missing is parts people who have been trained and learned how to find out just what is in the customers hands.

    The most valuable tool in a parts mans bucket is a venders “BUYERS GUIDE” a full illustration of all the parts carried by the brand. A competent cross over list. And some basic knowledge. and a list to call the manufactures, and in some cases even they have no clue.

    You can walk into most parts stores and ask for a belt measuring tool and they will look at you stupid!
    A real parts man knows most all brands of belts and what the number mean on a belt.

    I have seen the hole process of the implement of the PC, and it works and saves thousands of dollars in time and inventory management. IT HAS NEVER BEEN ABLE TO CAPTURE THE REAL PARTS MAN CAPABILITIES TO FIND A PART! NEVER HAS!

    Now the crossover information is corrupt because of copy cat info. All the copies are using the same info in referances. If one company as a misatke, they all have the same mistake.

    A trick and example, customer walks in with a tractor fuel filter! (today this would make 99.9% of the counter go into panic mode)
    1. cross the number! Does not cross, Then cross the number with a different brand, then take that brand and cross it back to yours. Might be amazed!
    2. break out the manufacture buyers guide amd meassure it up.

    You would be amazed at how many times I have found part numbers and if we were out of stock, send the customer right back where he came from to get the part! Nothing in the parts business pleases me more. I hate loosing the sale, but I love bouncing on the competitors knowledge of stupidity!

    Knowing what your looking at, and how to find it.
    This is a true counter man, and there are many many! they just won’t work for nothing. They are valuable in many ways, they bring confidence to the store, they make the store money, they become the root of the neighborhood.

    And what happens to them? They go to a chain store and the first thing they do is make them managers and take them completely out of the rim of the heart of what the store is about.

    Every parts store needs a parts guy, not all of them on the counter needs to be, they need a ace look up guy that can watch the counter help everyone on the counter make the sale. Pay him a decent wage, a bonus one what he sells and a bonus on what the store sells. And along the way many some of his counter guys will learn how to be better parts guys.

    We are rare, and a dieing bread that corporate bean counters can not understand.

    Al

    1. tigeraid

      Cross-referencing is a dying art. Online cross-refs are just as useful though.

      I’m 33 and been in the business 8 years. I’m equally comfortable using computer resources or the book. The only thing I hate more than counter men who only use the computer are countermen who only use the books. Everything they do takes four times as long. Being stuck in the past is just as stupid as being stuck in the future.

      But again, the vast majority of counter guys in my country are educated and know wtf they’re doing.

      AND they’re paid way, way more than minimum wage. Which definitely has a lot to do with it.

  9. tigeraid

    Really sounds like the auto parts industry is more of a horror show down in America. We still have good hiring practices here in Canada. We still require automotive knowledge. I can count on less than one hand the number of “bad” parts counter guys I’ve worked alongisde.

    The real question is, what’s the ratio of actual idiot counter guys the public is encountering vs. the number of good counter guys that were just having a bad day, or chose not to help you because you were a dick, or couldn’t help because you didn’t give them right information? I suspect the latter is a much higher number than the public thinks.

    As I’m sure UPCG would agree, there’s sort of an unwritten rule that when another counter guy has a customer in front of him and is helping him, it’s best not to interrupt and say “hey did you try this? Did you look in this catalogue? Did you ask this question?” because it makes the guy look like an idiot–whether he is or not. Unless he asks YOU for assistance.

    I’ve only made one exception, because I’ve only had one really bad co-worker. A part-timer who was also a driver, who covered the counter a few times a week. If he couldn’t find a part, on the first try, in the computer, you didn’t get it. And he’d make absolutely sure to ask whether it has A/C, whether it’s an SE or an ES, and whether it has sunvisors or not, and anything else irrelevant to the proceedings..

    So I made an exception with him to always interrupt and tell him try looking here or there, or here’s the part number, or why don’t you do a quick internet search. Otherwise I just saw angry customers and profit go walking out the door.

    That’s kind of the exception up here though.

    1. The Big Al

      “”As I’m sure UPCG would agree, there’s sort of an unwritten rule that when another counter guy has a customer in front of him and is helping him, it’s best not to interrupt and say “hey did you try this? Did you look in this catalogue? Did you ask this question?” because it makes the guy look like an idiot–whether he is or not. Unless he asks YOU for assistance.””

      BS, I agree it needs to be done in a professional respectful way.

      In my stores that i ran, if you send a customer out the door empty handed without checking with someone else, follow his ass out the door!
      Even I have been tough a thing or to from a rookie or a pro counter guy.
      leave your pride at the door, help the customer!

      IMHO
      AL

      1. tigeraid

        Yeah but my point is, with rare exceptions, all of our counter guys generally know what they’re doing. So yes, there’s an unwritten rule that you let the man do his job. It’s only the completely useless guys you stop and help.

        But I do feel your pain if the majority of your counter guys are bean counters and button pushers and only have one parts guy handy to actually help find things. I think I’d be a lot more likely to jump in and help n00bs in that case.

    2. Parts Guy

      The ratio is sadly pretty high, mainly because of the pay, but also because there has been a trend since at least the early 1990’s to actively discourage kids coming up through school from a hands-on kind of job. In my schooling, I was in the last of the metalsmithing and woodworking classes before the districts shuttered them for computer labs under the guise of, “That’s outdated, that’s dangerous, the students don’t care”. Even worse were the auto classes, where every burnout and dreg in the school went to kill an hour of the day, and where the teacher either didn’t care, supported those morons or, in one very notable incident of mine, was using the shop for a tidy little profit and actively discouraged students from working on their own cars, but rather the beaters he picked up at auction so he could flip them.

      1. tigeraid

        We’re of the same generation give or take one, then. I too was in a killer, killer automotive program in high school. The entire tech wing, in fact. I took every single woodworking, metal working, electrical, welding and automotive class I could, and then tutored for a couple of thing. Now it’s hard to find a high school that even HAS an automotive program.

        That’s a whole separate discussion for another day. Guys like Mike Rowe are thankfully starting to put together programs to raise awareness for the lack of skilled trades people. Our society has spent the last 20 years telling kids they HAVE to go to University and get a big cushy office job, and that working with your hands is for schmoes and poor people. And now we have millions of unemployed people (in both our countries) with no skills and tons of open trade positions they can’t fill. It sucks.

        1. Parts Guy

          Absolutely. I was in all of them and was in some sort of shop class until my Senior year of high school. The push was really big to move to electronics right then, but a few teachers had held out.

          It’s a damn shame about the current state of skilled labor vs jobs. There are only a handful of people I know that do something hands-on anymore, and I remember while I was in college, everyone being stunned (and some appalled) that I would work with my hands, even coming to class with greasy hands because I had an hour or two to wrench between classes.

    3. Parts Guy

      The ratio is sadly pretty high, mainly because of the pay, but also because there has been a trend since at least the early 1990’s to actively discourage kids coming up through school from a hands-on kind of job. In my schooling, I was in the last of the metalsmithing and woodworking classes before the districts shuttered them for computer labs under the guise of, “That’s outdated, that’s dangerous, the students don’t care”. Even worse were the auto classes, where every burnout and dreg in the school went to kill an hour of the day, and where the teacher either didn’t care, supported those morons or, in one very notable incident of mine, was using the shop for a tidy little profit and actively discouraged students from working on their own cars, but rather the beaters he picked up at auction so he could flip them.

      As far as not interrupting, that’s allowable and encouraged. Most just can’t because they either don’t know or don’t want to step on toes.

  10. gfish

    I was in the automotive aftermarket 25 plus yrs was lucky when i started to have a older parts person teach the correct WAY OF CUSTOMER RELATIONS and to count change after the transaction. This was before PC,s all catalog and cross reference material and the buyers guide, Just loved to read each issue of Counterman

  11. gfish

    Addition to my rant the parts people at the box stores most do not have a clue about vehicles in general they are only there for a paycheck nuff said

  12. 75Duster

    I just transferred to another auto parts store because the one that I was working at had a 25 year old manger who wanted to hire kids out of high school with no automotive experience, since he transferred to my old store sales have plummeted and us older, experienced parts countermen/ drivers are moving on.

  13. dnavideoproject

    Figured I’d chime in my 2 cents here. So, I go to my local Carquest (known here still as Western Auto) and usually I talk to a clerk that is generally never busy (4 clerks are in this store at any given time and he is always the one never busy for a reason). He’s an older guy, maybe early 50’s. Claims to be a Ford tech.
    Anyway, I love coming to this guy to listen to his bullshit. I’m the first to admit I don’t know everything there is about parts or cars or really anything. However, this guy just feeds customers the bull. I’ll give you an example. Went in there to buy some spark plugs, brought one with me- clearly just an old plug (badly worn electrode, no oil or anything) and instead of just going and getting me 8 spark plugs to make the sale, he starts in on telling me that this happened because of my wires. I explained I already have new plug wires, just need the plugs and he asks a simple question “Are your wires all straight and pretty or are they bound together?”
    “None touching.” I replied and he tells me that I need to wrap them all together. He told me that if I ever look at power lines that there are wires wrapped around the big thick ones to cancel out interference. So I need to wrap my wires together cause there is too much interference to create a good spark.

    So in other words, even though I spring for a nice set of 9mm plug wires, I’m still doing it wrong because my wires aren’t twisted together.
    I love listening to this guys stories.

    Also, this same guy turned a pair of rotors for me. He called me about 15 minutes after I dropped them off and told me they were done. I swear to you guys I could put a needle on these and play a record on them they were so grooved. I asked him if he could turn them at maybe a little slower rate so they would turn out finer and he told me that the grooves are there to help with friction.
    Oh man. He took $5 off for me and I threw them on my car anyway, but damn.

    Sometimes you just have to enjoy the bull you go through to get some parts.

    I know there are still quite a few excellent parts guys out there, but sometimes I prefer talking to a terrible one just to get away from the automotive world for a little while.

  14. gfish

    Counterman’s creed
    I work behind the counter in a automotive store sometimes I’m called genius sometimes much more. I claim I’m no mechanic yet when the job goes sick the mechanic comes and asks me what makes the damn thing thick I’m supposed to know the numbers of nuts,bolts and gears for every car more more than forty years I’m a engineer and machinist and why not,O my lord I’m supposed to an Edison combined with Henry Ford. But life would be a pleasure and i’d grin from ear to ear if the customer would only tell me The Make Model and Year

  15. Toolman

    My favorite and most memorable moment: walked up to the counter of my local large parts chain, told the kid behind the counter I needed front brake calipers for a 1968 Mustang. His reply, “Ok sir, now who makes the mustang?”

    DONE! GONE! OUT THE DOOR!

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