AutoZone

Dear AutoZone:

I write to bring to your attention to and request your assistance with an issue I have with the service provided by the store manager and an assistant at your Rogers, Arkansas, store. My experience began with returning a Duralast Gold automotive battery that I purchased about 15 months ago, but that recently went bad.

Initially, I was met in the store by a young man that may have just been hired only moments earlier. After a few minutes of explaining my need to the young man, an older gentleman stepped in to assist him and me. I believe his name was Russell (or Rusty, as I later learned). He was awesome, and the type of representative your company needs more of.

He quickly took charge of the matter, reviewed my receipt, and explained that while he wasnt able to find me in the system, it would not stop them from taking care of me because the battery was stamped (or stickered?) to only be a year and a half old, which was well within the 3 year full-replacement warranty. He explained that they first had to try to charge the battery to fully test it, but that if I would come back an hour or so later, the night manager would take care of me since he was about to get off work for the day. Aside from me having driven an hour west to this particular AutoZone because it was the closest store with the right battery in stock to then be told I would have to come back later, after I timed the trip so I could make it to a work-related meeting an hour south of there - which now meant I had to add a two-hour round trip to go back to the store into the equation - I was reasonably satisfied. That, however, was the end of my good feeling toward AutoZone.

Now I mentioned that Rusty couldnt find me in the system.

Thats because the body shop that repaired my car replaced the battery for me and they gave me the receipt. The phone number on the receipt that itemized the Duralast Gold battery was for The Collision Center, hence the phone number for the battery returned back to them even though I was the purchaser through them. Make sense? It did to Rusty.

So I went back to the store later that evening (after my two-hour round trip to make my meeting) when I met the night shift manager, Victor, to follow-up on everything.

I dont mean to be mean-spirited or ugly towards anyone, but trying to speak with him in any meaningful way was difficult. Not because he had difficulty with the English language or anything like that, but because he just kind of stared blankly into space and was hardly responsive to any stimuli. Sounds weird, I know, but only because it was. Nonetheless, after he acknowledged that he did confirm my battery purchase in the system, he proceeded to question on whether or not it was really bad because it took a charge before he gave me another new Duralast Gold battery.

(To clarify, I explained my recorded voltage drop when a load was put on the battery and that an ASE certified mechanic independantly confirmed the same.) Curiously though, Night manager Victor told me repeatedly that he didnt know that the replacement battery he held behind the counter would be any better, and he actually tried to talk me out of swapping my battery in the first place for that reason, which was nonsensical because the battery I brough in was a worthless paper-weight. Needless to say, I took the battery he gave me and left. He didnt give me any exchange receipt or anything, but I assumed that must, oddly, have been standard operating procedure.

So this is where it really goes downhill. When I got home I discovered the battery only had 11.4 volts.

I realize its not entirely unusual for a new battery to need to be topped off, but this was unusually low. This is when I also saw for the first time that I had been given a battery that was manufactured 4 years earlier. Really? I exchanged my bad 1.5 yr old battery for one that was just one month shy of being 4 years old.

From Autozone??? Needless to say, I wasnt excited about this development at all. Nonetheless, as politely as I could possibly have been, I called and spoke with the store manager, Steve, the following Monday and explained the entire situation to him. His response was that because the battery wasnt under my phone number, they shouldnt have exchanged it at all and that if I had any problem in the next year and a half to just show the same receipt I brought in, but that he would not make any promises as to whether or not they would honor any warranty in the future for the reasons he just stated and that I would just have to take my chances.

Is that how your managers are trained to deal with customers and to back your own warranties?

For starters, even recognizing that the full replacement warranty is for 3 years, dont we all want a replacement battery that is at least as new as the one we purchased as we all should reasonably expect a Duralast battery to last considerably longer than the warranty period. Right? As a customer, I really expected Rusty to smile (as he did) and give me a replacement battery that was manufactured sometime in the past year or two, like my original battery, or newer. If he didnt have one, an offer to get one for me would have been expected.

Dont you think?

As it stands now, I have a battery that is already well outside of its warranty period, nearing the end of its life expectancy, and that I can only get replaced if I get lucky enough to have someone do me a favor to get rid of me.

Doesnt this seem like something that AutoZone should care about resolving? Please and thank you.

Brent Bryant

520 Madison 8593

Huntsville, AR 72740

(479) 957-****

Besides being rude and disgustingly incompetent you people take money and do not provide a service or a product you steal and you have stolen my money time and reputation you have *** me along for my parts for over 2 weeks I paid for express delivery everything else nothing has gotten to me on time nothing has gotten to me and working condition not once the one thing that I was expecting today was wires and now you're telling me it's going to be another God damn weak before I can get them after I've already waited since last week till today because your employees can't take initiative and call the hubs and make sure that they have the parts you know who does do that Advance Auto you know who else does that O'Reilly's you know who else does that Napa you know who doesn't AutoZone your manager and I recorded it and I promise you you'll get to hear it I'll put it on Tick Tock and I'll give you the link and you can watch it and hear it yourself and I can show you how this idiot and yes I will say I will be rude now that he has been rude and nasty that idiot couldn't even do his job as well as a man that just started the man that just started and answered the phone and he explained sir I am sorry we messed up what can I do to help you I explained and he said well let me speak to my manager sir and I will see what I can get done the manager gets on the phone blames everybody else rather than taking responsibility when it was your manager who made the order in the first place but yet the order was put in Wrong by an employee didn't seem to look it up who made that order did they? You screw people over daily you take large amounts of money you give subpar parts that don't even last to the warranty time and then you find any way you can to get out of pain or keeping to a warranty your word means nothing your estimated dates of delivery mean nothing there is zero quality zero common sense and zero quality employee I take that back you have a good man that you just hired there at that AutoZone you need to *** can fire that one that was on the phone with me and you need to put that one you just hired in his position because he knows how to do that job better than that one does you keep hiring people at this location that are rude and I'm supposed to take it and smile and then speak lovey dovey and nice grow up if you talk to someone a certain way you're going to get it back when you make excuses and you screw people over this is what you're going to get don't be so soft apparently he cannot handle his job so you should get somebody that can now what I want is I want a full refund for everything I bought and I want an apology from that manager for that ill treatment I got from his ignorant *** I don't know maybe train them better instead of making them managers maybe teach them some a bit of respect maybe teach them how to do their jobs properly so people don't have to keep dealing with problems especially when people are counting on those parts that you keep screwing me out of

I've had a bad few days. Don't have much money I've been trying to get my other car fixed for my family.

We have lost our house due to scam artist and fake paperwork. This was my last few dollars i spent on that battery. The car broke down yesterday in the middle of street and had to tow the car to the hotel we are staying at right now. I needed this battery more then anybody knows.

But i go pick up the battery after we was told it was ready for pick up by employees there. I get there about 1140 or so and I'm told by this funny guy "bro your battery blew up so your out of options or you can buy a new one" with a smile in his face. That pissed me off. Calmy i told him more then 1 once i didn't wanna talk to him any more and i told him to work on not smiling when your giving a customer bad news!

I did that 1st . I was mad but i still wanted to know if i had options because that battery was all i had. The employees had no compassion. No empathy to just not be rude and smile like it was funny i lost my battery.

I told him politely stop smiling and shut up. His response was "Dude i can smile" if i want too ". That was so disrespectful to say to customer when i just felt like life is kicking my *** right now i needed this battery to work.. majorly.

But no courtesy was giving to me as a customer on just human side or being a man. He kept talking saying smart mouth *** and i was ready to put my hands on him. But i didnt and i Def gave him a piece of my mind. I composed myself the best i could.

But i told him i don't wanna talk you anymore and to please stop smiling. 1st before it escalated. He didn't listen and i almost lost it. You never know what someone else is going through which is why a manager is supposed to know how to handle comflict and manage customer service and situations.

It was a free charge for the battery and I'm thankful for that from AutoZone .

It's not that. My day got worse when he said that and i lm left wit no car now and this dude thought that was the best time to laugh and smile and not listen to my requests to get out my face.

last weekend my home burns down so this week i'm living and working from myh truck so i'm in Autozone every day this week. They didn't have what i was looking for today so i went to O'Reilly's.

After a few minutes the manager approaches and says I can't be there I have to leave. Autozone contacted them sending pictrures of me shopping there and photos of my truck stating that i'm going store to store stealing speakers and parts and hiding them in my coat. I'm 47 years old, and i own a reputable A/C service company that's family owned and operated for the last 35 years. I've never shoplifted or stole, not even in my youth.

I was just in that autozone tthe night before and engaged in conversation with the staff while I bought some wire connections, as i have every day this week that i've been in there. Bought a torgue wrench earlier and yes i did buy a 4ft long 13inch wide sound bar with 4 speakers mounted in it but far too big to hide in a coat and i have reciepts for every single time i was in there. Absolutely no conflict or even harsh words between me and their stafff so whatever provoked this is beyond me but it's been quite an attack on me and my family's reputation..My ability to buy parts for my truck which was my service truck has been hindered. They included the employee i had with me helping me get the part i needed so he's devestated and won't leave his house as he was already struggling with manic depression.

I've never been in this situation so i'm not sure the right course of action but I'm starting here.

My business felt this, my family and myself, and my friend and employee..This is a small town and there's only 3 automotive stores around...Reputation matters here more than anything so for this to happen, especially the week following me losing everything to a fire is just beyond devastating. Hopefully this gets to the right person that can straighten out the Mineola, Tx store.

I lost my home to a fire last weekend so i've been living and working from my truck as I own a small A/C company which means i'm doing a lot more business with Auto Parts Stores than usual. I've been in Autozone every day this week usually spending $40-$80 a day, $280-300 this week, on whatever makes the truck more comfortable until I can find somewhere to live.

Well today I stopped by O'Reilly's there in my small (pop. 4,700) hometown of Mineola, Tx to see if they had something I couldn't find at the Autozone the night before. Well, the manager there informs me that I'd have to leave because the Autozone had notified all the stores in town that my employee, whom i was with, and I were going autoparts store to autoparts store and robbing them. He then had his employee bring over a phone and pull up a cell phone pic of me in Autozone shopping with an employee of mine and then another pic of my trucks tailgate but nothing that remotely appeared to be shoplifting.

When I asked what I allegedly did I was told that I was stealing speakers and hiding them in my coat along with other parts..and that i'd have to leave O'REILLY'S and wasn't allowed there..2 of these employees and this very store were customers of mine, the entire shopping mall Autozone is in, i put the HVAC systems in and I was born and raised in this town and repairing A/C here for over 35 years. I've never shop lifted or stole from anyone not even in childhood and up until now had a solid and well liked reputation. My employee Ron was an honest older man in his 60's but has some confidence and depression issues I was hoping to help with working with him but now he doesn't want to leave his house. I'm still in a bit of shock from this.

Could've called the police if they thought I was stealing? But going for my livelihood when there was nothing but pleasantries exchanged and my purchase..what the *** is wrong with people.