VS
Valerie Smithson
Feb 28, 2026
I was a steady customer of this autozone, they had helpful staff, and I had only good things to say about my experience here, until now. My past experience is the only reason they got 2 stars instead of one. My boyfriend had gone and bought a spark plug and a coil here, because we weren’t sure which one my car needed, and they said if we didn’t need the coil ($85 dollars) and as long as it was not installed, we could return it. Well, before we replaced the spark plug, we made sure it fit inside the coil, we did this before installing the spark plug so we could
Check the fit while the spark plug
Was completely new and untouched, when we saw it fit properly inside the coil, we put the coil back in
The box as we were going to see if the issue resolved without the coil. It was. The new coil NEVER even touched the engine bay, or another part that had been used, was not dirty or anything. We went to return the coil, as $85 is a lot of money for us rn. The first employee was processing the return, no issue, but needed the managers Password or approval for the return, and when he came
To put it in. The manager looked at the coil and said we couldn’t return it because it had been installed. My bf politely explained that it had not been installed, that we had just checked the fit of the brand new unused spark plug in it, before installing only the spark plug, to make sure it fit so we didn’t find out after trying to put it in the car. he said that that’s considered installing it…. And he wouldn’t take the return because he “couldn’t sell it now that the di-electric grease was gone” (it was still there, it had just been smeared on the inside, which would happen when the next person installed it anyway. Mind you, you can add more di-electric grease if needed, but it was still there, not gone, just not in the untouched lump it would have been if we hadn’t checked the spark plug fit in it. he said they won’t return it that way because then they (the company) have to pay for the di-electric grease to add to it as well, to resell it. Which is ridiculous because it was not gone, and even if they did have too, I’m sure those packets are less than 10 cents at cost for them. He could have just asked that we pay for the packet of grease, which is maybe a few bucks at retail, but he just refused the return all together. Mind you, that Same manager a few months prior told me (a girl) that if the relay I bought didn’t solve my issue after trying it, I could return it even if I had installed it. Obviously my BF got frustrated because it had NOT actually been installed, and the fact that he acted like
He couldn’t resell it, because a pea size lump of grease was not in its original lump it had been in when the manufacturer put it in there. I had bought a different coil at oreilys not knowing that my bf had got this one and there they told me that as long as it was still clean, even if I had installed it for one turn over to check if it fixed the problem, if I cleaned it up, I could return it. I did because we already had this one.
Someone (the manager) was obviously in a bad mood, and decided that corporates 10 cent di-electric grease (that really didn’t even need to be replaced) was more important than a lifetime return customers revenue for years to come.
I would not be upset if I bought a coil and the grease inside had been touched by a brand new, clean never used spark plug.
if that was the policy, maybe tell your customers that, instead of saying “as long as it is unused and uninstalled, you can return it” maybe just tell them if it’s opened, you cannot return it. That way we don’t buy it before knowing we need it. Last time I checked, installed was when you actually take the part and put it into the engine and secure it with a bolt.
next time you buy, that if you just touch 2 brand new parts together, any evidence of that contact may cause the manager to refuse to accept your return because they are in a bad mood. But if he’s in a good mood that day, like he was when I bought a relay, and your a girl, you should be golden 🙄
