I have five cars. I've been buying my batteries and car parts from AutoZone in McHenry, IL, since they opened. I changed to them from O'Reilly's and Advanced Auto. I've never had any issues. They've always been professional, fast, helpful, and affordable. If a battery went bad, they swapped it. This weekend, I got a manager who seemed not to appreciate customers. He was smug and curt with me. When I walked up to the counter, I gave the battery to the kid and told him it was dead; I wanted to swap it. They told me they had a charge overnight. I told him I had charged it overnight myself. It wouldn't hold a charge. The last time I swapped a battery, it didn't need to be charged overnight. At that time in May 2025, I told the guy I charged it didn't work, and he swapped it. I told the manager the story and asked whether it was a new policy. He said the last swap wasn't policy. Okay, now it's policy that they charge it overnight. I explained to him that I had a car sitting in the middle of the road and I needed a battery. So I told them to sell me a new battery, take the old one as a core, but charge it overnight, and let me know if it's really bad. I waited 24 hours and drove back in. Same smug manager. Short with me. Said yeah, we took it, but you gave it as a core. I said, "Yeah, I gave it as a core, but told you to charge it first." He said, " Yeah, but when you give it as a core, we just ship it out.
I had told the guy at the counter twice to charge it for me to make sure it's good. I even yelled down the registers to the manager to make sure you charge it for me. Obviously, he had made up his mind that he was not going to work with me. At my age, I know lots of car guys who are shopping there for parts. That's going to end today. I don't know what the guy's problem was, but the look on his face told me he wasn't going to work with me. I've been buying all kinds of car parts from there. Really like the store. I always like working with the guys there. But this manager, I have nothing good to say about my interactions with him. They could have told me right there that if you give it as a core, we won't charge for it. They didn't. They knew what they were doing. They screwed me out of my $200 battery. Rock auto is cheaper, but I try to support local businesses. This guy wants his store to be on the list of businesses that close in McHenry. I'm happy to help him reach his goal.
Now it's my turn to earn that money back in spades with bad reviews every chance I get. read more