AutoZone

My car wouldn’t start today, it had that click-​click no start situation. No power. I Popped the hood and sure enough, the terminals were coated. Gloves, baking soda, goggles and a scrubber ought to do the trick. I didn’t have those terminal cleaners so I just let the paste sit. That did the work, but it really shows that I need the protectant spray and a few other tools that would have made this endeavor more efficient.
This location had everything I needed. including a fun air horn and protectant.
I recommend this place to those that are pretty sure of what they need, they keep their shelves well stocked with what you’ll need for everyday issues.
I do see how it could be tricky for like 6 people standing in line for help with diagnostics (there’s usually no more than like two people) Some of these guys don’t know how to help with the engine codes and stuff, so do your homework and get what you need. OR pay a mechanic to do your homework, get parts and do your maintenance/​repairs. if you’re a complete novice then that might be your best bet. That doesn’t mean you can’t still get what you need here, I’m just saying that perhaps it’s better to just get the final word on what’s needed before standing in that line only to buy something you don’t actually need.
Pros: everything you need, people that can order what they do not have in stock at this location. The staff is usually friendly too.
Cons: understaffed (not always, today there were four people on the clock) and they won’t always be able to diagnose your car problems.

I needed to buy a new fuse and headlight bulb for my car but have no idea how to check/​replace these things. I came in ¹⁄₂₉ around 3pm. The jerk with blondish hair, glasses, and grey striped shirt was completely unhelpful and extremely rude. He refused to even go outside and take a look because I had no idea what I needed. There were probably 3 other employees working so it’s not like he had to watch the register or anything like that. His attitude sucked and pretty much came off as «I showed up today so I wouldn’t get fired». Lucky for me there is an O’Reilly Auto Parts literally up the street. GO THERE INSTEAD THEY ARE FANTASTIC! Fuse and head light replaced and installed. They also took the time to educate me about my purchases. Worlds difference from my experience at AZ. Auto Zone, with another auto store right up the street I would suggest that you don’t keep employees around that are making you lose business. Won’t be back, not even for an air freshener.

received a quote here on ordering a part.
They provided good info. and printed the quote for me. I did not order the part here, still shopping around.
Shop was clean and friendly.
Funny, O’Reilly, just down the road a few blocks.

In general, I’m not a fan of Auto Zone the store (overpriced and understaffed). But, I can say that 2 out of the 3 times I’ve been to this store with «emergency» car issues they were VERY helpful.
Trip #1 (last year) had a dead battery. AAA gave me a jump start and I drove to Auto Zone, because it was the only place open late in N. Portland. It’s was freezing cold, icy, and pouring down rain. There was only one guy working and he put on his coat gloves walked out to my car removed the old battery and put the new one in. WOW, I was shocked! I had expected to have to do all that myself
Trip #2 (a couple months later) driving down the street in the pouring rain and one of my windshield wipers literally just flies off… zing, gone! I pull into Auto Zone, they’re really busy and only two guys are working. It’s finally my turn. The guys walks over to the rack of wipers, explains the difference between the 3 types that will fit my vehicle, I choose the mid-​range (not the cheapest and not the most expensive). Surprisingly, he doesn’t try to upsell me (nice). Unlike the super nice guy who installed my battery, I asked this guy if he could help me install the wipers he said «no we aren’t allowed to do that, sorry. But don’t worry, it’s easy.» Um ya, okay. What I didn’t mention is that I was on my way to a birthday party when this happened, so I was all dressed up with hair and nails done and now I had to go out in the pouring rain and lean over the hood of my huge SUV in a dress and heels. Ya, thanks a lot for your lack of empathy Auto Zone employee.
Trip #3 (today) — I needed to add coolant to my radiator, but I didn’t have a funnel in my car. I have 3 at home, so I really didn’t we want to have to buy another one. Nice guy behind the counter hands me a funnel, smiles and says «no problem, just bring it back in here when you’re done.» Yay for good friendly customer service :)
Auto Zone is overpriced, but the location and hours are convenient. The level of customer service varies among the different employees.

I went in because my car started to overheat. I was assisted by the store manager Rey, who came out to look under te hood and saw a crack in the radiator (coolant had sprayed everywhere). He advised me to let to he car cool down, buy some JB Weld, add water, and get it home. All of which, he did for me, with the exception of driving my car home. I made it home safely and without issue and am hoping the patch holds until tomorrow morning as I drive it into my mechanic. Even if it doesn’t, based on Rey’s instruction, I’m pretty sure I can fix it myself to get it there. I went in thinking I would just be purchasing some coolant and adding it myself, but I left with a different experience all together and though I’m not happy about the car issue, I’m extremely happy with the service I received this afternoon. thank you so so much.

Tried to get a part and the person said that he wasn’t able to find it. I asked if he was new he told me yes. I asked to talk to someone else and he hung up on me. I called back and the same person answered I asked to talk to a manager and he hung up on me again. The WORST customer service ever!!!

I would not recommend this Autozone to anyone. They have let me down twice now, both times causing me to waste half my day off scrambling to source items that I desperately needed elsewhere and taking away from valuable time that I had set aside to use actually working on my car.
The first time, I went in planning to rent a slide hammer to use to remove wheel bearings. When I worked at a competing auto parts store we kept two or three of these in stock for rental, as with all of the more commonly used tools, so that customers would be able to count on them being available. Apparently this Autozone has only one slide hammer. Now, I could understand if another customer had simply rented it out on this day, but that wasn’t the issue. When I came in looking to rent it the tool was still showing as available in the computer, but it couldn’t be located on the shelf. So, I have to assume it was either lost somewhere within the store, stolen or borrowed by an employee, or actually rented out to another customer but not checked out properly. The counter guy was totally unapologetic, and he returned from the back of the store so quickly that he clearly didn’t look elsewhere for it, rather just saw that it wasn’t in it’s normal spot and that was good enough for him to tell me I was SOL. The best solution he could offer was to drive to another Autozone, way out of the way, and rent it from them. Um, no. I was so frustrated I just went to Harbor Freight and bought one instead.
Incident #2 occurred when I wanted to purchase a front hub. Now, most of the hard parts Autozone sells under their own brands are junk, but oddly enough they do carry Timken bearings, which are very good. After the slide hammer debacle, I called ahead 2 or 3 days in advance of needing the part to make sure it was in stock. It wasn’t there at the time, but I was told it’d be sent over from another store the next day. Fast forward to my day off and I’m at Autozone bright and early to get my part so I can get to work installing it. I’ll bet you can guess where this is going. It’s not there, it was apparently never sent over. Of course, I found this out after a 10+ minute wait in line during which the only other guy working that morning was busy talking to a single customer, clearly a friend of his, about everything in the world –except– for car repair (yeah dude, I speak enough Spanish to know you were BS’ing, not helping him with car parts). And once again the counter guy «helping» me is so beyond unapologetic that I’m actually more stunned at his lack-​of-​giving-​a-​shit-​about-​your-​situation attitude than angry.
There have been some helpful people here in the past, but I haven’t seen any of them recently. It appears that there is a big issue with turnover. That’s probably why as of late there are only ever two people working in a store which is always busy. I’ve come in here at all hours of the day and there are always a few other customers, meaning there is always a wait. Well, I’m done waiting patently just to be told by an indifferent jerk to try another store– I’m just going to go elsewhere to begin with.

It doesn’t matter that it poured today because I was in awe of my new windshield wipers. I won’t mention how bad my old ones were. A hint: I named them Streaky 1 and Streaky 2. Autozone’s parts manager helped me put them on and saved me from what could have been a hair-​pulling experience. I’m glad to see good customer service and expertise.