I bought a battery from this store about a year ago. The other day, my vehicle wouldn't start--the…read morebattery was low. I put it on a charger, but it only reached 12.6 VDC and couldn't hold the charge. An hour later, it dropped to 12.2 VDC, and continued to drop.
I swapped in a battery from another vehicle, and it held steady at 12.8 VDC. No issues.
So, the battery wouldn't hold a charge.
I brought the original battery in for warranty. What happened next was honestly baffling. The employee wouldn't even look me in the eye as I tried to explain the issue. He interrupted me and said, "I don't care about any of that. I just test it." I asked, "So you don't want to hear the issue?" He repeated, "No, I don't care about any of that." OK, He doesn't care . . . I guess I just stand here, say nothing . . . wait.
Then he plugged in their test unit and said, "It needs a charge."
I told him it had already been charged. He replied, "You didn't wait long enough--it takes an hour and a half." I explained it had been on the charger all night. His response? "It's your alternator." Oh my God!
I told him I know cars and electronics, and I had data from both the working battery and the one in question. He shrugged and said, "It's policy," with a tone that made it clear he had zero interest in helping. Not once did he make eye contact.
This wasn't just poor service--it was astonishingly dismissive. Do they train their staff in customer service? Do they understand how charging systems work? Do they know the difference between a battery that's low and one that can't hold a charge? Apparently not.
In the end, I was out of luck. And honestly, I could've accepted that, doubted the warrantees on these things are real at O'Reilly's anyway, if I hadn't been treated with such disrespect. When did "I don't care" become something you say to a customer?
The night before I had already priced batteries around town because of my doubts. So it was easy for me to just go down the road. I bought a new battery (for far less than the same one at O'Reilly's) from someone who was actually pleasant to deal with, dropped it in, and everything worked perfectly, tested the voltages, good, load good, started right up, charges good. Problem solved.
Long-term solution? Avoid O'Reilly Auto Parts, especially this location. I've had issues here before, but never anything like this. There is one person there who's decent, but unfortunately, I wasn't dealing with her.
O'Reilly Auto Parts: those warranties they advertise may not mean much if "policy" overrides common sense. O'Reilly Auto Parts Placentia: the "I don't care" customer service model is a bold new strategy... one that customers should absolutely avoid.