Advance AUto Parts website?! RaNT

Mod Edit 7-26-18  Proceed with caution.  This is a nearly 8 year old thread that was revived by a spammer.   JW

Is it me, or is their website the biggest POS on the net? I mean, it's dog-ass slow to begin with, and it 'forgets' your order, so you go to checkout and your 6 items magically became one again, then you look up something and it'll find it once, but not again!!! And that stupid window ALWAYS pops up asking to enter your vehicle info, which isn't too helpful when you're looking for a physically smaller battery than what the car CAME with... Their online promo codes kick so much butt though!!! You can knock $35 off any order over $85 - *IF* you can make it to checkout successfully! It's like some horrible video game that you can't stop playing!!! GRRRRR!!!!!!!!

Isn't the new site just like one of the "Action 52" games?

Now it's ignoring my promo code!! It says it was 'successfully applied', but the price doesn't change!

OH!! And it stops the order because it says, "One or more of your items can not be shipped", even though I specified that I'm going to pick them up!!!

This is MADDENING!!

Can't be as bad as I want a price for a optima battery for my F250 diesel and it says the battery(ies) I have selected don't fit, even though I pulled the exact numbers I needed off of Optima's site.

In my email, the standard reply was to call the 800 number and they could get me a price.

Email below:

Dear You,

Thank you for your email and we apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced while visiting our website.

Advance Auto Parts values your business and we appreciate any feedback or suggestions you have. We will forward your feedback to our design team for further review.

In the meantime I suggest that you call our Advance Auto Parts customer care center to search for the battery or any other parts needed.

If you have any further questions or concerns please reply back to this e-mail or contact us directly at 1-877-ADVANCE (238-2623).

Thank you,

Goon Ecommerce Webcare Team Advance Auto Parts 1-877-238-2623

From: Me Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 12:09 PM To: webcare Subject: Parts selector/selection

Why am I forced to search via vehicle when I already know the part number of the item?

Case in point, I was looking for a price on an Optima battery for my F250. I already know that any of these batteries, 8002-002, 8004-003, 8012-021, and 8014-045, fit my application, but I can not search via part number as your database clearly states, 0 items available to fit my F250. This is just one instance out of many problems I have had to jump through hoops of this nature to get what I needed. It is absolutely maddening, on top of wasting my time, every time I have jump through those hoops and end up with the same result of "0 products found for "X"".

Calling the store is ultimate frustration, as it is the same thing as attempting to use your site. "Year, make, model? Sorry, nothing is available." Heaven forbid should they actually try and use the part number I already have to look up what I want or even a paper catalog that is available for them to use.

Is the option of just looking up the part number without the part fitting that exact vehicle or an option to clear the cookie holding the previous vehicle going to be available?

Thank you for your time.

Me.

Names not used to protect the innocent and stupid.

Brian

Advance blows chunks. Find the locally-owned independent store with grunge on the floors and tons of stuff in stock.

I fully agree Advance's web site blows chunks. AutoZone and O'Reilly's aren't much better. Pep Boys is a complete joke unless you want APC bling. OTOH, NAPA and Rock Auto both have excellent sites.

Javelin wrote: Advance blows chunks. Find the locally-owned independent store with grunge on the floors and tons of stuff in stock.

or at least a nearby warehouse that will let you have it same day.

Javelin wrote: Advance blows chunks. Find the locally-owned independent store with grunge on the floors and tons of stuff in stock.

You know, there is NONE of that kind of stuff here in SW Florida. And I didn't really realize just how bad it was until I took a business trip to Seattle - THAT place has all kinds of stores/resteraunts/businesses that are based right there. It was really eye-opening.

Have you ever gone on a cruise to Cozumel? The port is like a little chunk of the US dropped on the edge of Mexico - FL is like that. This place started off as a sandbar, and they just trucked everything in.

There is one store I haven't tried, but I think it's just a different chain I haven't heard of.

Anyway, I tried a different computer, thinking my old Dell was suspect, but it didn't seem to make a difference. That site sucks. But I did get $30 off of what would have been $90...which helps.

where in SW fl? i know where that shop is in Naples.

Ft. Myers. I work in Naples, though. I don't know what THAT shop is, I guess.

Another example of how awesome Florida is... My C4 speaker/amp needs a couple capacitors. No prob, right? Radio Shack? Sure, so I head down there and they don't have them. 4 MORE RADIO SHACKS LATER, zilch - they all have exactly the same inventory. Chains, man...everything is a chain down here.

I'm from Florida, and the chains is one of the many, many reasons I moved up here to Washington.

And surprisingly, yes, I have been to Cozumel by sea. In an 87' USCG Cutter

MikeSVO wrote: Ft. Myers. I work in Naples, though. I don't know what THAT shop is, I guess. Another example of how awesome Florida is... My C4 speaker/amp needs a couple capacitors. No prob, right? Radio Shack? Sure, so I head down there and they don't have them. 4 MORE RADIO SHACKS LATER, zilch - they all have *exactly* the same inventory. Chains, man...everything is a chain down here.

Mike, have you checked any of these local NAPA stores?

http://www.napaonline.com/Locator/Results.aspx?Address=&City=&State=FL&ZIP=34101&st=STORE

Naples and Ft Myers both have multiple locations.......

Javelin wrote: Advance blows chunks. Find the locally-owned independent store with grunge on the floors and tons of stuff in stock.

I would love to but if the DeLorean would make it to 88 mph I would be looking for an auto part store in the first place

MikeSVO wrote: Ft. Myers. I work in Naples, though. I don't know what THAT shop is, I guess. Another example of how awesome Florida is... My C4 speaker/amp needs a couple capacitors. No prob, right? Radio Shack? Sure, so I head down there and they don't have them. 4 MORE RADIO SHACKS LATER, zilch - they all have *exactly* the same inventory. Chains, man...everything is a chain down here.

"The shack" has been going corporate and losing all the "hobby stuff" for years... and losing their core business. Now that they were bought out by Best Buy.. expect it to get worse

I ordered stuff on-line from Advance last week for in store pickup and got 20% off. No problems...until I got to the store and they couldn't find anything about the order. I wasn't even in their computer. They would put in my phnoe number and I had no record. I've been buying stuff there for years. I smell warranty issues down the road. Later that same day had to exchange one of the shocks because it was defective. I had to go to another store to pick it up. It was so stupid what I had to go through it was almost funny.

BTW I thinks Sears has the worst website.

Thank you posting this. I tried to use their site and ended up sending them a nasty email about how it sucks.

It took forever to navigate it, and I never did get the information I wanted. That got me searching for the "contact us" button and the "your site stinks" email. No response to my email. Go figure.

In reply to MikeSVO:

well then, here's your new parts store:

John Collins Auto Parts 5598 Shirley St Naples, FL 34109-1810 (239) 597-1725

it's in the industrial complex north of pine between goodlette and airport.

wow, that made me miss FL.

MikeSVO wrote: Another example of how awesome Florida is... My C4 speaker/amp needs a couple capacitors. No prob, right? Radio Shack? Sure, so I head down there and they don't have them. 4 MORE RADIO SHACKS LATER, zilch - they all have *exactly* the same inventory....

I needed a diode for my Z- went to the local Radio Shack, which is about 2 miles away. They didn't have one, but the computer showed another store, which was 14 miles away, did. I asked if they could have it sent over- "Nope." I asked if they could order one if I pre-paid for it- "Nope. You're just gonna have to go to the other store."

As for the parts websites, try to find a cheap paper 5" round speaker. As much as I dislike the local AutoZone, their website found my speaker, and correctly showed that my local store had a pair in stock. The PepBoys and CSK websites either required the year/make/model, then found nothing, or only displayed the more "expensive" brands.

Another simple part that will give the chain stores fits is a universal muffler. When I worked at one I figured out why, only half of the boxes were marked with the actual sizes, the rest had non-descript part numbers. The search engine is junk in this case as well.

I wanted a 2.25" turbo muffler, and the woman on the phone flat out refused to find one without the vehicle. I even asked for someone else to look at the boxes in the back, no help.

That is what Iike about my local NAPA. I took an accessory belt that was non stock on the car. Took the belt in, in a few minutes I had a new belt with perfect fit.

Wally wrote:

Javelin wrote: Advance blows chunks. Find the locally-owned independent store with grunge on the floors and tons of stuff in stock.

I would love to, but if the DeLorean would make it to 88 mph I wouldN'T be looking for an auto part store in the first place

The typo was not lost on me, Walldo...

Doc Brown.

I was looking for a part for my new truck at AutoAnything the other day. They didn't have quite what I needed, and I had the manufacturer part number in hand. After I'd been poking around for a moment, a live chat window popped up to see if I needed help. Here's what happened.

07:14:00 AM [Keith Tanner] I'm looking for part 222500 from Steelcraft (running boards for 2010 Dodge Ram 2500 crew cab). I can't find it listed on your site.
07:14:19 AM [Edgar] Hello. Thank you for contacting AutoAnything. My name is Edgar.
07:14:28 AM [Edgar] Hi Keith. Let me look up that part number for you.
07:16:27 AM [Edgar] If you change the vehicle to 2010 Dodge Ram 1500, crew cab, that's the vehicle that we have that part number listed for.
07:16:53 AM [Keith Tanner] Great, thanks for the help!
07:16:56 AM [Edgar] Is there anything else I can help you with today?
07:17:04 AM [Keith Tanner] Nope, that should do the trick.
07:17:11 AM [Edgar] Great. Thank you for shopping with AutoAnything and have a nice day.

The site then emailed a copy of the transcript to me so I'd have it on record. When I checked out, the manufacturer part number was listed so I confirmed this was correct.

Okay, now that was impressive. Problem with the site, solved in 3 minutes, and now I'm a happy customer telling other potential customers. It doesn't hurt that they have killer prices and free shipping, but it's that service that'll bring me back. Yes, I'm taking notes The parts shipped the same day and I'll have them tomorrow, and the promo code they'd emailed me was applied without a hitch. It's good to see a company paying attention to customer service instead of just low prices on commodity items.

So if you're looking for a particular Optima battery, I have a suggestion for where to go!

Arg!

Had to replace my radiator, which cost more than $100, so I should get that $50 free promotional.

Not.

Logged in just fine. Once I placed the order on the radiator, it logged me out. Conveniently, I could not log back in. Had to create a new account to order the radiator, which meant I no longer could receive the free $50.

After the order was placed, I was able to log back in as me on the original account.

Zombie thread, canoe deleted

I read through this whole thread without realizing it was from 2010. Which is funny because the advance auto website still sucks major ass for the exact same reasons listed eight years ago.