I spent hours calling around trying to find a spark plug wire kit for a 2005 Hyundai Accent. We…read morewere in a difficult situation: we needed to replace the spark plugs and wires to hopefully resolve a check engine light issue so my son can get his car through inspection before leaving for college. Because, apparently, cars have an excellent sense of timing, we couldn't wait several days for the parts to be shipped.
I called the AutoZone on Mt. Rose. They didn't have the wire kit in stock, but I spoke with one of the store managers, who was very helpful. He told me they could have the part transferred from the Spring Grove store and available at Mt. Rose by 9:30 the next morning, saving us the drive from Red Lion to Spring Grove.
To arrange the transfer, I was asked to pay for the order in advance. Since I also needed spark plugs, a socket, and a few other items, I spent time on the phone putting together the entire order and paid for it by credit card.
I was told I would receive a call the next morning. By 1 p.m., I still hadn't heard anything, so I called the store.
The woman who answered was immediately defensive and told me the order had never been called in to Spring Grove, so there was no way it could have arrived.
Okay. Great. That certainly explained why the part wasn't there, but not WHY the order I had already paid for hadn't been handled or what I was supposed to do about it.
At no point did she clearly explain what had happened, so I initially thought she was implying that I was somehow supposed to have called Spring Grove myself. I had to keep asking increasingly basic questions: Who was responsible for making the call? Why wasn't it done? And, most importantly, what exactly am I supposed to do now?
Eventually she said, "Whoever took your order never called it in."
So I asked, "So the order was messed up?"
Her response: "I didn't personally mess up your order."
Fantastic. Mystery solved. I had not, in fact, accused her of sneaking into the store the night before and personally sabotaging my spark plug order.
Obviously, I meant THE STORE had made a mistake. At this point I was much more interested in what AutoZone planned to do to fix the problem than in establishing which individual employee should receive personal credit for it.
Unfortunately, there still didn't seem to be much interest in actually solving anything.
Her suggestion was that I "just" drive to Spring Grove.
Except I had already paid Mt. Rose for the entire order.
So now I found myself explaining why driving from Red Lion to Mt. Rose AND Spring Grove to collect three simple automotive parts defeated the entire purpose of arranging the transfer in the first place. Apparently I had accidentally signed up for an AutoZone scavenger hunt.
I finally told her to cancel the order so I could handle purchasing the parts myself. I still have to verify that the refund was actually processed.
And here's the best part: when I called the Spring Grove store directly, they told me the transfer HAD been called in.
According to them, Mt. Rose was then supposed to complete the process so the item would be included in the morning shipment, and that step was never done.
So the order was mishandled, the explanation I received was apparently incorrect, no one took ownership of the mistake, and I was offered essentially no help resolving a problem with an order I had already paid for.
I ultimately purchased the parts from the Spring Grove location because I needed them that day and didn't have much choice.
Otherwise, after this experience ... particularly the complete lack of ownership, problem-solving, or even a basic "Sorry, we messed this up, let's fix it" ... I won't be shopping at AutoZone again.
On the bright side, I now know significantly more about AutoZone's internal part transfer process than I ever wanted to.
