I recently had to replace the battery on my mother’s corvette. I took the battery out, threw it in my jeep, and headed to Advance Auto Parts. I’ve used Advance Auto Parts for my battery needs for a while now, due to their close proximity and overall speediness. They test it, tell me it’s bad, and I purchase a new one, leaving the old one behind. Takes about 5 minutes. Things went a little differently this time.
I waited in a line of 3 people. Once at the front I told the employee, a very tall african american male, that I needed to have the battery tested. In the past they would take the battery to the back of the store to test it. This time he pointed to a small testing unit near the front door. He took the battery to the tester and I followed. He hooked the battery up, said it would take about 2 minutes, and went back to his register to help another customer. I stayed with the battery, watching the timer slowly count down from 2 minutes to zero.
About 10 minutes later he comes over to get the results. The monitor read error. He muttered something about the battery being different than most, flipped a few switches, and returned to his register to help another customer. The tester again counted down from 2 minutes and again resulted in an error. Another 10 minutes go by before he walks over to check the new results. Again he mutters a few words, flips switches, and returns to his register. I, again, remain with the battery.
At this point I’m quite aware that the employee has no idea how to test a battery, at least not this battery. It’s been twenty minutes and I’m still no closer to learning my batteries fate than I was when I walked through the door. But I’m patient, and I’m confident he’ll eventually figure it out. There’s only so many switches.
And I’m sure he would have, if he had ever returned. After 10 more minutes went by, for a total of 30, I was ready to leave, but it had become amusing to see just how long it would take, if ever, for him to return. Now understand, I was only 30 feet away from him, in clear view. Even closer, maybe 15 feet away and in complete view of me and my battery, was a short brunette woman who appeared to be the manager. At about the 45 minute mark another employee returned from lunch and walked right past me into the employees area. The three made small talk before he disappeared to the back of the store.
At the hour mark I was no longer amused. I walked across the front of the store, in front of every employee, and checked out the prices of the battery I would need, just to get an idea of what amount I’d be spending. I then walked back to the front door, in front of every employee, unhooked my battery from the tester, and left. I thought about talking to the manager, but confident she was one of the 3 who had ignored me for an hour, I had little hope it would do any good.
I took the battery down to Battery Source, a new business that specializes in batteries (and only batteries) of all kinds. I had the battery tested and left with a new one within 5 minutes. Add the time it took to get the battery out of the corvette, and put it back in, the job took 20 minutes. Due to my experience at Advance Auto Parts and the extra driving, it took 2 hours.
Even though it’s the most convenient auto store to my home, I won’t be returning to Advance Auto Parts. Neither will my mother, nor my girlfriend. All it takes is a few employees that don’t care and years of goodwill vanishes.
On the other hand, Battery Source has a new customer.