CO
Chris O'Shea
Oct 6, 2025
Lousy customer service and weak management. Paid for vacuum pump & A/C manifold set loaner at the Newton store since they didn't have the pump in stock, but Conover did. Arrived at Conover, opened the pump, and no oil was included. O'Reilly's always comes with a bottle of oil, but whatever, the Conover AZ sold me a $10 bottle of vacuum pump oil, I just wanted to be on my way so I could get back to working on the car.
Ended up discovering my compressor was bad before vacuuming and filling the system, and AutoZone.com had the compressor at a decent enough price and available for next day delivery to my house, so I ordered it. Because it would be a couple of days before I'd be ready to charge the A/C, I returned the tools to the AZ in Newton where I had paid for them, and they took both back without issue. Because the oil was purchased separately and at Conover, they had no record in their computer and I had lost the receipt. They said to bring it back to Conover.
Drove to Conover, went in and explained the situation to the first grey-shirt who greeted me. Rented the tools a couple of days ago at Newton but picked up the pump in Conover. Discovered when I picked it up that oil wasn't included, was sold the bottle of oil. He made a comment that led me to believe he thought the oil came with the pump too but went ahead and scanned the barcode to see if it would come up in their system. It did.
He went on explaining that they couldn't do a return w/o a receipt, and since he didn't see the transaction by my phone number, there wasn't much they could do. I pressed, asking him to look up recent sales of that item and that it should be easy to find that way. He tried telling me that it wasn't showing up, he turned the screen to show me.
Right there on the screen, 10/3/25 (3 days ago). Asked him to look at that transaction, that it should have just been the oil, and it was. Grand total: $10.71.
He then tried quizzing me as to how I paid for it, and when I told him, he accused me of "you saw it on the screen". I pulled out the card, but because I had paid with my phone (tap to pay) the #'s don't match the card itself (Apple Pay). Explain that, then the other grey shirt comes over to join in.
The two "managers" kept on pushing back, talking about how they could get fired for doing the return and "how do they know it's not someone else's receipt?"
I made some remark about how this shouldn't be so difficult, that they could match it up with the time of purchase at Newton and then pick-up at Conover, and that for a $10 return it seemed like an awful lot of trouble.
Manager 2 kept saying "I never said we couldn't..." type stuff, contradicting the first manager who said they weren't able to despite having the transaction # that matched the date I gave them and no other factors that would lead one to be suspicious. If I told them I only bought the oil on that date but the transaction had a bunch of other items on it, fine. That wouldn't add up. Everything should have been perfectly clear though. Besides, what do they think? People are going around cooking up elaborate return schemes for a sealed $10 bottle of compressor oil that goes with their rental tools?
"AutoZone Is Committed To Customer Satisfaction" is what the sign at their front door says, yet two managers couldn't put a little common sense and customer service skills to work for a $10 return?
I worked for AZ years ago and had some good memories there. I worked for O'Reilly years later and even after leaving, continued to be somewhat loyal to O'Reilly, but these two AutoZone's are a little bit closer (even though not by much) to my house now, and I've been going to them for little things here and there.
After this evenings experience, I will drive out of my way to shop at any other parts store if at all possible. Stunning, how a simple $10 return could take a customer who was warming back up to AutoZone and turn him into someone who will share this story of ridiculous "customer service" and short-sighted management with others, probably for years to come.