i am no longer buying car parts at advanced auto. which has been my go to spot for auto parts forever.

they removed all the code scanners sometime ago...

corportate said good scanners cost 500 to 5000 bucks they cant afford them......

plus advanced has their finely tuned rewards program that get people to spend more money but makes redeeming credits difficult

this kills my desire to shop there

On Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 7:26:09 AM UTC-4, bob haller wrote:
i am no longer buying car parts at advanced auto. which has been my go to spot for auto parts forever.

they removed all the code scanners sometime ago...

corportate said good scanners cost 500 to 5000 bucks they cant afford them......

plus advanced has their finely tuned rewards program that get people to spend more money but makes redeeming credits difficult

this kills my desire to shop there

There are cheap OBD to bluetooth interfaces out now and software
that's available, I think some for free, for smartphones.

For around $35 I got a software package for the PC and a USB
interface for the BMW that gives me pretty much what the dealer
has in terms of diagnostic capability.

They aren't free, but some are more powerful than what AA probably
had and they are cheap enough that they are worth having so they
are there whenever and wherever you need them. If you have that
bluetooth adaptor and your smartphone, you can diagnose it any
time, anywhere.

On Tue, 30 Aug 2016 04:26:05 -0700 (PDT)
bob haller wrote:

i am no longer buying car parts at advanced auto. which has been my
go to spot for auto parts forever.

they removed all the code scanners sometime ago...

corportate said good scanners cost 500 to 5000 bucks they cant
afford them......

plus advanced has their finely tuned rewards program that get people
to spend more money but makes redeeming credits difficult

this kills my desire to shop there

Typical democrat move..no free ****, I am outta here.

On Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 7:26:09 AM UTC-4, bob haller wrote:
i am no longer buying car parts at advanced auto. which has been my go to spot for auto parts forever.

they removed all the code scanners sometime ago...

corportate said good scanners cost 500 to 5000 bucks they cant afford them......

plus advanced has their finely tuned rewards program that get people to spend more money but makes redeeming credits difficult

this kills my desire to shop there

I just called 2 local Advance Autos, an AutoZone and an O'Reilly's. We
now have 3 different reasons, although one of them appears to be incorrect.

1 - You were told that it was the cost of the scanners.

2 - One store told me that the reason for the change was that they would
give the customer the code, the customer would buy the part that they
thought would fix the problem and then blame Advance Auto when it didn't.

3 - The next store told me that he was told that their major competitors
had stopped offering scanning, so they did to. He appears to be wrong.
I called both AutoZone and O'Reilly's and they both said that they still
do scans. When I mentioned to the AutoZone employee that another store
told me that the reason was "customers buying the wrong parts and then
complaining" he felt that that was not a good reason. He feels that with
the proper explanation and understanding, customers should be aware that
the part they buy might not fix the problem. In a perfect world that's
true, but in the corporate world, all it takes is a few customers that
want their money back - no matter what - to have have corporate eliminate
the "problem" with a broad stroke.

If that is the case, then the decision will probably cost them more money
than the "problem" they think they eliminated.

As far as the SpeedPerks rewards, I have never had a problem redeeming
my rewards, either on-line or in the store. In just about every case, the
clerk has voluntarily looked up my rewards status and let me know if
I had any current discounts to apply. That even happens when I start a
chat with an on-line rep. In addition, you can usually get an additional
discount from the on-line rep just by asking. I always start a chat session
and ask a couple of questions to build rapport and then ask "Are there any discount codes that I can apply to this order?" The answer is almost
always "Yes".

On Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 9:03:45 AM UTC-4, DerbyDad03 wrote:

Overall my experience at AA has been good too. Good prices, two
stores nearby, easy online ordering. I had one case where I couldn't
believe what they did. I had an alternator that was about 2 years
old, still under their warranty. They didn't have that same brand
alternator anymore, so I was expecting them to offer me a similar
one. Instead they proceeded to refund me the full purchase price
of the original, then sell me a new one that cost $40 less. IDK
of any other business that would have handled it that way, I sure
would not have. I came out with a new alternator and $40.

Their free tool rental has come in very handy a few times too.
I've borrowed tools sometimes when I couldn't even buy a part from
them for that repair, because they don't carry it. They could
offer a code scanner as part of the free rental plan.

IDK how fancy a tester they had or what it costs, but labor cost
would add up too. They have to pay someone to go do it. And then
I'm sure a lot of people proceed to ask all kinds of questions
as to what it all means, what to replace, etc that could tie them
up for 20 mins. Thinking about it, that part, responding to all
the questions, is probably what gets them in trouble, with some
customers blaming them. The code reader doesn't tell you what
to change, what to fix, it only tells you what codes it sees.
Even for mechanics, it then comes down to experience, further
testing, an process of elimination. I''m sure there are plenty
of people out there that don't understand that.

On Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 9:26:10 AM UTC-4, trader_4 wrote:

....snip...

IDK how fancy a tester they had or what it costs, but labor cost
would add up too. They have to pay someone to go do it. And then
I'm sure a lot of people proceed to ask all kinds of questions
as to what it all means, what to replace, etc that could tie them
up for 20 mins. Thinking about it, that part, responding to all
the questions, is probably what gets them in trouble, with some
customers blaming them. The code reader doesn't tell you what
to change, what to fix, it only tells you what codes it sees.
Even for mechanics, it then comes down to experience, further
testing, an process of elimination. I''m sure there are plenty
of people out there that don't understand that.

According to what I was told, they are not eliminating charging system
checks. (alternator, battery, etc.)

There is probably less labor time/questions/instances of incorrect
diagnosis involved with a charging system check vs. an ECM code.
Maybe more profit margin too.