Small talk can help though. I used to work retail.
Its not what you know…but who you know.
Hey, I didn’t make em, I just sold 'em. GoldLine was one step better than the white box, but below Moog/TRW.
You can still be my friend Pauly.
I actually went to Pep Boys yesterday because it was getting close to 9pm and I needed to replace my wiper blades that ripped up from the ice. I went to the store in North Buffalo. There were 2 people working counter, an older man and a younger girl. And there were 5 guys hanging around the repair area. I walked in and didn’t get greeted. I walked up and down a few isles to find the wiper blades. I had to go up to the counter to check if I got the right blades since there was no Trico book to be found near the blades. The older man was helping out a guy and myself and another customer were waiting for someone to help us for a while standing in plain view.
The girl finally came and helped us out, but I wanted to be out of there 5 minutes ago already, but I needed to check if I got the correct lenght blades. I will admit for you leg humpers, she was a cute girl. But the customer service there isn’t that great compared to other parts stores. Convenience got the sale this time.
I try and get as much as I can from Lakeland 1) because I like supporting local businesses and 2) I still “work” there enough to get the discount :ohyeah:
I agree, that place has kinda gone down the shitter, rarely do I go in there, and like what most of the others said I only go there if its a real emergency, but even then I’ll drive the extra 1/2 mile down the road and go to Advanced. At Lakeland, we seem to be hiring all of the disgruntled Pep Boys employees lately, and the sad thing is that they REALLY know their stuff about cars and the parts business, but Pep Boys treats their good employees like shit i guess.
I know what you mean camarojoe.
I would be standing at the parts counter waiting to be served while kids/who ever was working there would be talking to one another, tossing bolts back and forth or hiding waiting for me to walk away.
I go to NAPA, Car Quest, etc and even before I get my 2nd foot in the door im asked how im doing and what I need…in a greeting tone w/o attitude!
Too bad I dont have myself or access to one of those little spy cameras. Id go to many different parts stores and compair the results
I just had to go do the same thing, same store, same lack of a trico book.
Instead of asking them about the trico blades, I just used the bosch book, looked at the lengths of the wipers, then bought that length in the trico winters.
I had to get a rear view mirror adhesive kit too. Found that in isle 11 
I’ll do anything I can to aviod talking to people in there. Anywhere for that matter.
i hate them, when i went there to get new brakes put on, they totally fucked up one of my rims. long story short the guy that took off my rims and threw them to the ground, knocking off the wheel out off balance. when the rims were off he took his sweat ass time changing the brakes, and sat on my rims every 10 minutes cause he was a fat ass and he also spilled his drink (snapple) on my car. took over 2 in a half hours to just change the FRONT brakes. i never had them change the back cause i didnt want to wait any longer. when i started driving my car home i realized that they fucked up my alinement when that fucker threw my rims to the ground. went back the next day an bitched to the manager and all they gave me was a free alinement. and i told him to look at my rims and he said that “how do i know that you didnt do that”. After that i never will go back, and i tell anyone that i can that they should not go there.
how did throwing your rim effect the alignment? did throwing the rim magically turn your tie rod? no wonder he didnt take you seriously
cause the weights on the rims broike off ( he threw it like he was trying to see how far he could throw it), and he triped over my tire (that he put there) and as he was falling he grabed onto my rotor and hung on it for a minute or two.
OK. That would be balance.Wheels get balanced to get rid of shakes not aligned.Second what would pulling on the rotor do? I agree you had a not so caring tech.which is the problem with this industry.i however think if you don’t know how to do the job you should not comment on how it was preformed.
edit:
i go to advance in warsaw. i know all the guys there and many have been there for years. occasionally ill get a phone call from the store with a question about 80’s and 90’s chryslers. 
Brian
i think the carquest guys on southwestern are pretty knowledgeable, but their prices are pretty high there. I think ive gotten more WRONG parts than Right parts from advance in south buffalo, but i really like the napa warehouse on wehrle or whatever it is, place rocks.
if you guys ever need parts come see me, bigtymer, layzie, or jkuzz28 at advance auto on the corner of abbott and ridge.