Comments on: Jeez, how do spare parts counter assistants keep their jobs?

By: Holden Man

Holden Man — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 07:11:02 +0000

I am a spare parts interpreter myself and yes the first question I would ask to everyone when they are walking in to our counter is “what is the make and model and serial number” otherwise we will waste our time. You guys as a customer has to realized that we are not walking encyclopedia and we simply would not know every single parts that are available out there in the market. And yes believe me all customers expected us to know everything, to have everything in stock etc. As a common sense in the business, we would not wasting our time looking for parts that we know are not available/hard to get when we know that the customer is not going to buy it anyway. So without make model/serial number all customers are f***ing time wasters and should be shown the door asap by saying “we dont have such parts in stock / we dont have information on such vehicle”. Yes welcome to spare parts business and next time you go into your local Repco etc please have all the informations handy and please dont try to be a “smarta**e” looking to change this part with that part as we would not reccommend anything oher than what the spare parts manul tells us.
HAPPY DAYS!!!

By: Erin

Erin — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 06:06:20 +0000

I don’t think you should generalise ALL spare parts people in this, there are plenty of GOOD spare parts interpreters out there that ask the right questions and answer with the right answers!

By: Gavin Stanbridge

Gavin Stanbridge — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 06:18:32 +0000

I whole heartedly understand exactly what julian is experiencing here. After visiting all local auto stores in my area, A simple task of supplying a fuel filter with the same diamiter couplings as the one on my Volvo 850 T5R was always met with “make and model and then sorry we dont stock parts for that model” The frustrating thing being that I knew I wasn’t going to be able to pick up an exact replacement, however the ability to use one from another model would of been Ideal if the staff were willing to answer the question I had asked or bothered to put in a little effort and take a look. I’ve worked in many different industrys, and yes customers can be very anoying, but I always go that extra bit further to offer some help. Maybe i am blessed with a little more commonn sense than the average auto parts worker. Regards Gavin Stanbridge.

By: mark

mark — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:38:05 +0000

Yes im very aware they didnt answer the question *DIRECTLY*…………..its still just a case of Julian carrying on like a Bitch, writing about it n all.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:48:51 +0000

Mark, the problem was that the assistant(s) didn’t actually answer his question, despite knowing the answer. The correct answers for “Are there different oils available for steering dampers?” are either: “Yes, and they are over there”, “Yes, but we don’t have any”, “No, but (alternative product) might do the trick”, “I Haven’t heard of any, I will look it up”, or “No, there isn’t”. None of those answers were given straight up.

Instead, the answer was to another question (more than likely “How do I change the characteristics of my steering damper?”) which wasn’t actually asked. It sounds like the assistant was already told that the damper wasn’t actually being used for steering on a motorbike.

A similar situation would be asking about different thermo-fans and being told to change the radiator. An almost unrelated answer was given, when a simple ‘If you look on that shelf to your right…” would have done the trick.

By: mark

mark — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:22:07 +0000

(terms and conditions link didnt work)

Shut up u arrogant wanker Julian! What the hell was the point of this “article” (bitch session)?. Those assistants probably get idiots who dont know what they need (but think they do), coming in all the time…..so it only makes sense to ask questions.

Ever though of that…….Mr. Clever?!