Thanks for sharing the story.

I wonder why people buy parts from places like Autozone that are 'Durastart' brand (?) and cost 40% more than something from RockAuto - but then I met an employee a while back helping some woman (pretty much living out of her truck) get her taillights working and fixing other stuff - and realized that some of these employees make a personal connection to customers, who are then customers for life.

I will still buy dealer parts for my Toyotas (given the shoddy aftermarket crap out there) and install them myself, but I see room for 'helpful Walmarts' and 'helpful Autozones' regardless of the real or perceived quality of the parts they sell.

Agreed - write a letter to the store manager thanking him for creating a culture where helping the customer is seen as valuable, and mention the employee by name.

Steve

 

With all this said I hoped you checked your alternator as well. Some times they stop putting out and drain the batteries as well.

 

I am glad to see people who are still going out of the way to help others, I will say I work at Autozone and have formed a bond with some of our customers and even had a few call my managers about how much I am helping others so it is always good to hear when someone takes time to tell us how we did good especially when most people just want to fuss about the long lines or whatever it is irritating them. Some of the customers that are repeats only come to us because of how we try our best to help people and do what we can at times to go above and beyond for them.

 

FWIW the batteries I referred to in post #2 lasted until March 2014, so I got about 5 years out of them.

The batteries never failed to start the truck, I felt it best to replace them when cranking voltage dipped under 10v on a regular basis. Replaced with same Wally World item.

 

Nice story, but I think offering any additional advice is pretty much a waste of time at this point considering this thread was started in July of 2010. If he had to check the alternator or replace the other battery, I'm sure it's been done by now. And the nice tech in the story has likely moved on as well, so no need for letters to Wally world.