Posted by David Sherman on Saturday, January 10, 2004 at 1:34PM :
In Reply to: Beep Beep posted by Paul(in NY) on Saturday, January 10, 2004 at 11:45AM :
That's a good one. I went through something similar this week trying to get 3/8" OD rigid polyethylene tubing to replace a broken fuel line. It was in the evening and the NAPA was closed so I was stuck with Schucks/Checker/Kragen/Whatever. I explicitly stated what I wanted and the woman took me to an aisle of chromed-plastic dress-up accessories that included some corrugated split chrome plated plastic wire loom. When it was clear that none of my explanations were getting through, and she didn't know the meaning of "OD", "rigid", "polyethylene", "fuel line" or even "3/8" for that matter, I asked if they had any kind of tubing on bulk spools anywhere, and she said "no". As far as I can tell, these places mostly sell overpriced dress-up "accessories", and a lot of badly-rebuilt starters and alternators to kids who don't know how to troubleshoot their electrical systems.
In a pinch I've been able to get past the "it's not in the computer so we don't have it" idiocy by getting the clerk to let me go in the back and look through everything they have on the shelf. Half the time I can manage to find something that way that will work. Some of the clerks are clearly told to guard the back room like it was Fort Knox, but even some of them will be willing to bring out one of everything and set it on the counter. When all else fails, I try to guess a make and model of something newer that might be in their computer and will use the same part. And of course, always give them an answer to the irrelevant questions because it confuses them too much when you try to explain that the wheel bearings are the same regardless of whether or not the vehicle has an automatic transmission or power steering or air conditioning.
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