I bought a car battery 2 years 7 months ago with the 3 years warranty at Autozone. When I bought it the sales person was really nice and made me believe that I got a good deal (Autozone will replace the battery if it dies before 3 years). It turns out it is a bogus deal.
When my car battery died (2 yrs 7mth), I brought it to Autozone in Union City, CA. The salesperson said that he needed to recharge the battery and tested it before he could give me a new battery. So I waited for 3 hours to get the battery charged.
When I come back to get the new battery, he said that the old battery was fully charged fully and I do not need a new battery. I insisted that the battery is bad and there is no point to recharge it and to find it dead again later. Autozone is the only store in California that recommend their customer to continue using a bad battery in the car with a caveat that they will give you a free battery recharge when it dies.
I argued with the salesperson and they said that my altenator was bad. I asked them to test the alternator. They tested it in front of me and everything look good. My car altenator was charging around 13.7 to 14Volt.
So the salesperson continue to switch the test machine until he gets a number 37A, then he said your car alternator was bad because a new one will charge at 97A (even though it was listed as maximum Amp on the new alternator). If the alternator has to recharge the battery at 97A, it means the battery is really bad or it will burn my good battery.
So I continue to argue with him and escalate it to the assistant manager Eugene. Unfortunately, I got a bad assistant manager in this location (Union City). Instead of trying to help me, he just scolded and insulted me in front of other customers and blame the whole things to my car altenator. I left the store feeling humiliated, a big increase on my blood pressure, increase on my heat beat, really upset…..
So the next morning, I found out that I was right and the car battery is almost died. Luckily I can still start the engine. This time I drive the car for an hour to work to recharge the battery and hope it did not die when I am ready to go home.
Luckily, the battery still have enough juice and I can start the car and drive it back home.
I decided to go to Costco to get a new battery on the way home, but on the way there I stop at Autozone in Fremont and pushed my luck there.
This time I pretend to just got a battery problem and I asked the sales person there to test the battery in front of me. While he tested, he told me that my car altenator was bad because the tester show everything test ok.
Fortunately for me and unfortunately for him, the tester machine show “BAD BATTERY” at the end of test and we both saw it. This time he cannot make any excuse and I got a new battery.
Lesson learned: NEVER NEVER BUY WARRANTY CAR PARTS OR BATTERY AT AUTOZONE.
If you insist to buy the auto part there, then you will have to hassle with them later when the part fall apart. If you lucky like me, you will find a new salesperson and you will get your auto part replace at no cost. If you unlucky, you will get a high blood pressure, you have to spend extra money to proof that you are not wrong to them, and still don’t get the auto part replace (another extra money).
This is my last visit to Autozone. Next time I am in need to buy auto parts, I will go to Kragen for sure.
Autozone???….what??? never heard of it!!!!!
One month after this ordeal, my replacement car battery is still running good
my old car altenator still recharge the battery well…… AUTOZONE, DID I TELL
YOU THAT THERE ARE NO PROBLEMS WITH MY CAR ALTENATOR????
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i am sorry you had alot of trouble and i can understand how you feel but i guarantee that is not how all stores handle the these situations…i as a store manager myself feel that you just had the bad luck of dealing with uneducated incompetent workers.
shawn on April 4th, 2008 at 6:29 am | Link
Demand the phone number for the District Manager and Regional Manager. Auto Zone employees are required to give you the number. Make sure you write down the names of any employees you deal with at the store and give those names to the District/Regional Managers. Make sure when you speak with the District/Regional Managers you ask for the phone number of the Divisional Vice President’s office.
If the store refuses to give you the phone numbers, call: All you need to do is call Auto Zone customer service at: 1-800-288-6966. Make sure you have names and the employees know this.
Maz on April 7th, 2008 at 10:35 am | Link
Why do people who do not know how to spell or even type a grammatically correct sentence get on a website and type the way that they normally speak?? If you are going to type something on a website or type ANYTHING SOMEONE ELSE WILL SEE, PLEASE USE CORRECT ENGLISH AND USE YOUR SPELLCHECK!!! SPELLCHECK IS THERE FOR A REASON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
katie holmes on April 16th, 2008 at 3:04 pm | Link
What’s amazing to me is that your car is still running. I have used Autozone for many, many years and have always found thier equipment to be reliable. The best part is, it is not open to interpretation. It’s either good, or bad. As an ASE certified tech, I can tell you that an improperly charging alternator can cause a battery to go bad. When they tested the battery initially, I’m sure your battery was fine, by not trusting thier advice and continuing to drive your car with a faulty alternator, YOU caused the damage to your battery. Next time…replace the stupid alternator and save yourself some trouble.
Jason on April 26th, 2008 at 4:06 pm | Link
Autozone has always provided myself with reliable parts and went far beyond any specified warranty. Autozone customer satisfaction has excelled in my surrounding area. As a former parts sales manager of a competitive store and also as a ASE certified mechanic I realize some customers have little knowledge or understanding of autoparts and rely on the knowledge of a sales person. Also there is a few people who want something for nothing and get very mad when they are confronted with this.
Don on May 5th, 2008 at 9:41 am | Link
If the battery is bad,well,it’s bad….Charge and retest the battery is the only true way you can pinpoint the problem. A discharged battery cannot be tested. And it doesnt take 3 hours to charge a battery unless the chargers are charging other customers batteries….Quit being a drama queen,put your big girl panties on and be patient…I bet they installed the battery for you for free didnt they….Oops,you failed to mention that didnt you? Customers like you they can afford to live without and wish they could give you your old one back and send you on your way…
marcus on May 8th, 2008 at 6:36 am | Link
I had a battery exchange experience on 05/23/08 that I like to share.
By the way, if I make a spelling error or a grammatical mistake,
please forgive me as I only went to the 8th grade. With that out of
the way. I went to have my battery/alternator tested at the Auto-
Zone where I purchased them as one or the other wasn’t operating
correctly. At first the employee tried testing the battery with the
meter off. When that was corrected, the battery indicated “Low
voltage” . Battery was exchanged and I was give the tools to
go change it myself. While I was changing the battery, a young
lady had battery problems also. However in this case a male
employee carried out her battery and waited until I was done
with the tools to install hers. My complaint you ask? If you are
going to do for one, do it for the other or not at all. I was offered
no help even though I’m a senior citizen. Just the offer to help.
Would of been fine. Thank you for your time in reading my
comment.
.
W. Tirado on May 24th, 2008 at 11:17 am | Link
Stop whining. Your alternator was bad. Replacing the battery under warranty would have made no sense. I see idiots like you at stores like Autozone all the time. You think you know a lot about cars but you’re really just a nitwit. You change the facts as your story goes along. First the battery was good, then it was bad. Then the alternator was bad and then it was good. Make up your mind. By the way, genius, battery charging takes 45 minutes to 1 hour not 3 hours. I’ve had the service done before on my Duralast Gold battery with the 3 year warranty.
Denise on July 30th, 2008 at 7:05 pm | Link
i pre ferr auto zone to car dealer ships they give you products that do the job and for a price i don’t mind as much, however it is true that there are bad employees but there are also terible customers if you give aditude , unfortunitly these day you’ll get it back so any how
i find honey additudes will ussually get a sweeter deal than viniger ones also to the seneir citizen i can agree that you should of been at least offered the help , maybe they just didn’t want to in sult you pride tho but i hope you will be offered at least in the future
Zeky on August 28th, 2008 at 1:24 am | Link