They will try hard to up-sell you by lying about the fit of a part for your car.
on October 23, 2014 I put an order online for For In-Store Pickup of two windshield wiper blades. They showed to be an exact fit for my car on the website, and showed to be available to pick-up on the store.
On October 27, 2014 My wife went to pick up the order and was told that they didn't had them on the store. The employee offered to transfer them from another store to be picked up there by the next day.
On October 28, 2014 My wife goes again to picked them up only to be told by another store employee, for a second time, that they didn't had them.
He then mentions to my wife, that even if they had them, that the part we ordered wasn't going to fit on our car, even though the website claimed they were an "Exact Fit" for it.
He suggests to cancel the online order and tries to sell her another ones priced three times more.
Sensing something was not right. I called Advanced Auto Parts 1-800 Customer Care number to complain about the situation from outside the store.
The customer care person calls the local Advanced Auto Parts store. After three minuted on hold he tells me that the part that I ordered has been conveniently found by the store employees while we were outside.
I returned to the inside of the store and indeed my order was there, even though I had left the store just minutes ago.
I asked the employee why he told us earlier that the part wont fit our car if it wasn't true, as comfirmed by the Customer Care person. To our surprise he kept insisting that it wasn't the correct part.
I called a second time to Advanced Auto Part customer care number to ask what to do because I was still being told that the ordered part won't fit my car.
I wanted to know what to do, either open the package and trust the website, or the employee about the fit for the car.
The Customer Care person puts me on hold to have a short discussion with the employee about it. He then take me out of hold just to ask me to try to put the wipers on my truck with an authoritative voice.
After I was able to successfully put them on the vehicle I was told by the Customer Care person on the phone, and I quote "Just get the hell out of that store"
I was able to deal with a dishonest situation like this from knowing about auto parts.
But I find it unfair that people who put their trust on companies like Advanced Auto parts for their needs may be getting ripped off by selling them something unecesary based on their lack of knowledge. read more
