Rough night at work
May 10, 2011 | 08:58 AM
#24
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From: Over There
Haha it's definitely not the easiest job on the planet. Unless you know everything about every car that's ever been built, as well as boats and small engines, and the numbers for every car part that's ever been built by every company (which I highly doubt), then I'd imagine not every day of your stay at napa was a cake walk.
May 10, 2011 | 09:09 AM
#25
Haha it's definitely not the easiest job on the planet. Unless you know everything about every car that's ever been built, as well as boats and small engines, and the numbers for every car part that's ever been built by every company (which I highly doubt), then I'd imagine not every day of your stay at napa was a cake walk.
Points/Distributor etc. : 69' Nova
End of parts I know my boat has, I know my fuel filter says Silverado/Sierra ... no idea what year though.
May 10, 2011 | 09:23 AM
#26
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It would be much easier if I had all the information to find parts for people, but on the more obscure things like boats, most people come in just guessing. My parts system really isn't set up for boats, and I've only got a few paper catalogs for them. And when I ask them why they don't go to the boat shop for the parts, they tell me the boat shop is too expensive 
.
I also had a guy come in with a racecar needing parts. I could tell the brake pads were GM, so it wasn't too hard to find. He also was using a GM 10 bolt rear end and needed the gasket, that wasn't hard either. Hell even the wheel bearings were easy, even without knowing the application. But the guy needed rotors too, and that is very hard to figure out without an application. I checked everything even close to the applications for the other parts, but people were starting to pile up behind him in line and I honestly didn't have time to look through hundreds of applications for a rotor. It's things like that that make my job hard/stressful. There are many counter people who couldn't look a part and even tell you what it is, let alone know the part number and application. I'm going on 3+ years of experience now working in the industry and I've learned a ton.
I know there are a lot of people in my field that aren't good, at all, hell I work with some of them. But the pay sucks, so don't expect too many educated professional parts people. Why work for pennies at a parts store when you could make $50-100 an hour working on the cars. In fact, I'd say the only position in a parts store that's actually worthy of the knowledge is store manager, which sadly isn't always the case either. I've seen some really shitty store managers.
.I also had a guy come in with a racecar needing parts. I could tell the brake pads were GM, so it wasn't too hard to find. He also was using a GM 10 bolt rear end and needed the gasket, that wasn't hard either. Hell even the wheel bearings were easy, even without knowing the application. But the guy needed rotors too, and that is very hard to figure out without an application. I checked everything even close to the applications for the other parts, but people were starting to pile up behind him in line and I honestly didn't have time to look through hundreds of applications for a rotor. It's things like that that make my job hard/stressful. There are many counter people who couldn't look a part and even tell you what it is, let alone know the part number and application. I'm going on 3+ years of experience now working in the industry and I've learned a ton.
I know there are a lot of people in my field that aren't good, at all, hell I work with some of them. But the pay sucks, so don't expect too many educated professional parts people. Why work for pennies at a parts store when you could make $50-100 an hour working on the cars. In fact, I'd say the only position in a parts store that's actually worthy of the knowledge is store manager, which sadly isn't always the case either. I've seen some really shitty store managers.
May 10, 2011 | 09:32 AM
#27
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From: houston, tx
Haha it's definitely not the easiest job on the planet. Unless you know everything about every car that's ever been built, as well as boats and small engines, and the numbers for every car part that's ever been built by every company (which I highly doubt), then I'd imagine not every day of your stay at napa was a cake walk.
May 10, 2011 | 09:50 AM
#28
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And catalogs are still a large part of the job, if you're competent enough to use them. I would like using my catalogs more if they were a little more up to date, but I'm doing my best to order new ones when I see we only have an older book in the store.
It does take a lot of time to match parts, or to trace through superseded part numbers, which really isn't a huge deal to me. But my shifts are usually with one other person because I work nights, and when the guy you're working with is new and isn't familiar with the computer system and doesn't know much about cars, it can really F things up big time. The job can be really easy sometimes, but there are plenty of times I can think of where I've been stressed out and working my *** off for hours straight trying to get caught up.
May 10, 2011 | 10:19 AM
#30
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From: houston, tx
I can definitely agree with you on that, I love finding a part when the guy walks in and says "oh you probably don't know what this is or can't get it" and I turn around and pick it up off the shelf and hand it to him.
And catalogs are still a large part of the job, if you're competent enough to use them. I would like using my catalogs more if they were a little more up to date, but I'm doing my best to order new ones when I see we only have an older book in the store.
It does take a lot of time to match parts, or to trace through superseded part numbers, which really isn't a huge deal to me. But my shifts are usually with one other person because I work nights, and when the guy you're working with is new and isn't familiar with the computer system and doesn't know much about cars, it can really F things up big time. The job can be really easy sometimes, but there are plenty of times I can think of where I've been stressed out and working my *** off for hours straight trying to get caught up.
And catalogs are still a large part of the job, if you're competent enough to use them. I would like using my catalogs more if they were a little more up to date, but I'm doing my best to order new ones when I see we only have an older book in the store.
It does take a lot of time to match parts, or to trace through superseded part numbers, which really isn't a huge deal to me. But my shifts are usually with one other person because I work nights, and when the guy you're working with is new and isn't familiar with the computer system and doesn't know much about cars, it can really F things up big time. The job can be really easy sometimes, but there are plenty of times I can think of where I've been stressed out and working my *** off for hours straight trying to get caught up.