Autobarn

[grigor]

LOL at this thread, probably more so cuz im actually sitting on my ass at work (Supercheap Auto) while reading it

Not Supercheap Cairns?

Might explain it, there's nobody serving so customers walk across the road to REPCO.

[madaz133]

This thread has to be the most entertaining thread I have read in ages. Autobarn doesn't care and the thing is they sell shit loads of stuff to wood ducks who have no idea. so the chances them changing anytime soon are none and stuff all.

[Isola]

So... to add to the Autobarn stories.

I call 4 Autobarns today. Same question to all of them "Do you have any SCREW ON shift knobs? I need one with a ten mil thread"

all of them say "no" except Lawnton who say "Yep, sure do. They're universal fit"

So I ask "It's not those allen key thread ones is it? They don't fit my car, it HAS to be a screw on knob"

"Yeah, they're universal screw on. They have adapters, come on in and we'll sort it out for you"

So I drive out to Lawnton to find those stupid knobs with the 3 allen key threads. The exact kind of knob that doesn't fit my car. The dude says "But they do screw on, you screw the little bolts on and it sits there".

I almost bitched slapped the useless SOB upside the head.

Tried 6 different wreckers on the way home and finally stumbled upon a Navara shift knob. The guy wanted $5 for it, so I bought it and giggled to myself as I put a 4WD shifter on the GTS4.

Autobarn can burn in hell

[spec-V]

im sorry to hear about everyones experiences with autobarn, just keep in mind they are individually owned as they are a franchise.

I will admit there are some staff at autobarns who you say to them i need a Z145A filter and they just look at you with a WTF look.

BUT.. the autobarn local to me is a different story.. The staff there happen to be active in the drift and street scene and know their shit..

Not to mention the ability to buy carbon fibre bonnets, fuel rails, massive intercoolers, intake plenumns, BRIDE seats... nowww thats my type of autobarn

[psi]

I now work at the autobarn in gympie.

The boss is a car nutter, and thats the only reason I joined his team. I know that he tries very very hard to uphold a good name and top rate service.

That said, I have freinds that drive past 3 OTHER autobarn stores to shop with us, same stuff as all the above statements.

Bottom line. Every store is owned individually, You cant tarr all of the brand with the same brush. It doesn't matter what type of shop you look at, there will always be people who dont like something. Prices, service or attitude. Just find a shop you like and get over it!

[Chris Rogers]

Aaron,,

call me. I have somehting I think your fitter will like.

[Danski]

I now work at the autobarn in gympie.

The boss is a car nutter, and thats the only reason I joined his team. I know that he tries very very hard to uphold a good name and top rate service.

That said, I have freinds that drive past 3 OTHER autobarn stores to shop with us, same stuff as all the above statements.

Bottom line. Every store is owned individually, You cant tarr all of the brand with the same brush. It doesn't matter what type of shop you look at, there will always be people who dont like something. Prices, service or attitude. Just find a shop you like and get over it!

I agree and as ive said b4 the autobarn I go to is awesome, The guy that always serves me gives me a discount on all my oils and shiz

[crz33]

i go 2 auto barn all the time and yeah some time it takes a while 2 get the part but thats the price u pay 4 breaking the part in the 1st place.. lol and they never have sold me the wrong part...

[adamskill]

i have only shopped at autobarn virginia. i will never shop there again, and i let as many ppl know as i can never to shop there... sure they are a bit expensive, but if price is a problem go online. sure some of the staff aren't complete experts, but they always tried to help.. my problem was when i bought a faulty product, that was proved faulty, no fault of mine in any way, and when i went to take it back i was treated like a complete piece of idiotic shit by some wanker who "had been a mechanic on race cars for 25 years" and had never seen this problem, there for there must not be any problem. 3 visits to the store to confront the manager were a waste of time, as he had always "just popped out" my phone calls went unreturned etc etc. a customer service nightmare really. but each and every time i went in there staff made it VERY clear that a refund/ store credit would not be an option, it was just too bad, and there is no refund policy on used products..WTF??? all i wanted was to return my faulty product, and get some store credit or my money back, as this bullshit had gone on for over a month, so i went out and got the same product in a different brand (one that works). finally i called the office of fair trading and followed their advice, sending a letter to the store manager. he contacted me a few days later saying that they intended to give me a refund the whole time(f**king lies), and to come in and get it.

[PM-R33]

Out of curiousity what was the item and how was it faulty?

[adamskill]

it was a pnumtic boost controler that didnt hold any boost pressure at all, it was faulty.

[Ty1]

yea normally I just get my oils and fluids from autobarn. I usually go to the one over at macgregor but decided to go to the slacks creek one the other day. The store is friggin huge! And the staff are actually walking around and helping people, not just talking to eachother and ignoring you. They also have there own professional fitting bay which looked pretty cool. And yea supercheap are shit. I once ordered a boss kit through them for a steering wheel which I'd purchased from them and it took a whole month to get it only to find out it was the wrong one! So all up it was a 2 and a half month wait! And just one more thing, I went to repco yesterday to get a ryco z200 fuel filter and the guy serving me was like 'yea that'll be $42! wtf! so I went to an auto shop and picked up a coopers one for $8

[r33cruiser]

I now work at the autobarn in gympie.

The boss is a car nutter, and thats the only reason I joined his team. I know that he tries very very hard to uphold a good name and top rate service.

That said, I have freinds that drive past 3 OTHER autobarn stores to shop with us, same stuff as all the above statements.

Bottom line. Every store is owned individually, You cant tarr all of the brand with the same brush. It doesn't matter what type of shop you look at, there will always be people who dont like something. Prices, service or attitude. Just find a shop you like and get over it!

Not sure if u were working there at the time...But.

About 4months + ago i blew a fuel pump at the skidpan up there. So me and a few mates head up to the autobarn in search for a bosch 040 fuel pump.

We got there and said ''hi shop-keep, i would like to buy a bosch 040 pump please'', I'm not joking, it took him a good 15min to figure out what it was. He ended up showing us the pc screen, while we told him what to type in.

Anyway after about 30min i bought one ($320 RIPOFF) and was on my merry way

LOL also If you go to the autobarn up here set aside atleast 20min to buy a set of BCPR7ES spark plugs

Edited December 24, 2009 by r33cruiser

[MSTRshenanigans]

Autobarn up my way is crap too... they seem to think Lancers are high performance... I mean come on kitted up ES is not HP!

Supercheap for fluids this way... I get filters n bulbs n brake pads from Repco tho.... they have a clue

[32TZR]

i only shop at autobarn browns plains, they actually go out there way to help you, in my AE92 corolla had $2500 of audio gear installed taking all day for them for $200, and recently got a deal getting a $1200 for $700, knowing them helps also, but they are a good bunch of people, i used to go to slacks creek but you couldnt even get served most of the time.

[mad082]

I now work at the autobarn in gympie.

The boss is a car nutter, and thats the only reason I joined his team. I know that he tries very very hard to uphold a good name and top rate service.

That said, I have freinds that drive past 3 OTHER autobarn stores to shop with us, same stuff as all the above statements.

Bottom line. Every store is owned individually, You cant tarr all of the brand with the same brush. It doesn't matter what type of shop you look at, there will always be people who dont like something. Prices, service or attitude. Just find a shop you like and get over it!

yeah i think i posted this earlier in the thread that i bought a remapped 33 ecu off the owner of the gympie store.

as for the prices at autobarn, too many people on here are used to buying stuff from importers, etc who buy stuff direct from the factory etc and cut out the middle man. the actual price that they are buying the stock for is the reason why their prices are so high, not because they are simply ripping people off. a prime example of this: i own a bike store as some of you may know and i had a rep from the company that distributes V drinks come in trying to get me to have a little fridge to sell their drinks. when i looked at the price list the wholesale cost of a can was more than what the local coles, etc sell them for. but when people walk into a shop and see a price higher than what they are used to seeing they just assume that the shop with the higher price is ripping people off.

but on the same token, some people assume that the big chain stores are cheaper too. i went into a goldcross (part of the supercheap brand) bike shop down the coast a month or 2 ago to find out that i am $2 cheaper than them on tubes, and some other stuff i have that was the same brand, etc i was half their price ($25 vs $50). then i went next door to BCF (yet another section of the supercheap brand) and was looking at some little plastic clips that i had bought from my local privately owned fishing shop for $2.50 for a pair and BCF had them for $5.95. but then they were cheaper on some big ticket items, which probably came down to them buying in bulk as their price was below the RRP price listed on the companies website.

also back when the ps2 first came out i was working at toyworld and i bought my ps2 from eb games down the coast as it was $10 below our cost price (i was storeman at the time so i got to see the invoices so i knew exactly what cost price was. it wasn't just my boss telling me it was below cost or anything). but when i was talking to the salesperson they said that they were still making a profit on it at that price. another time target was selling ps2's for $20 less than wholesale and the sony rep advised my boss to go and buy them from target rather than buying them from sony as he couldn't match the price.

[l_uk3y]

The Autobarn local here although there is a couple I wonder about but for the most part they are spot on. One thing is quite a few products they have are very poor quality. Although the salesperson I usually deal with, straight out said. If your going to be doing this. I'll order in the same thing from a diff brand cuz its much better (Silicon Vac hose and larger joiners). One of the other blokes there is actually looking for a part at home probs tommorow and letting me know if he has some spare bits at home because I dont need huge quantitys. (3/4 braided line is not an everyday product), and heat resistant material for under the bonnet. (dont need a huge pack).

My opinions regarding the LOCAL autobarn. For general bits and pieces that arent going to cost and arm and a leg. They are good.

For special orders. Ive found they are expensive on MOST items compared to internet. However they were very competitive when it came to whiteline products. (To the point I bought my swaybars through them compared to the whiteline website). (Same price)

In saying that. Ive been in a few other Autobarns around melb, and thought this is alright at first. However as soon as the first salesperson opened his mouth I couldnt get out of there quick enough. Purely Terrible.

Luke

[maximumrpm]

I HATE AUTOBARN! Because they jack up the prices like crazy, staff seem to be more interested in V8's and they always have everything i need! I swear evrytime i go to the 20% off storewide sale that i'll never go back, but i do, why? Coz they annoyingly have what i need, and one shop has a hot blonde working there.

The Runaway Bay is like that, The bald guy there is hopeless, always bags skylines and goes on about gay V8s...i never shop there anymore, ive had so many arguements with the staff...just retards

[Danski]

im sorry to hear about everyones experiences with autobarn, just keep in mind they are individually owned as they are a franchise.

I will admit there are some staff at autobarns who you say to them i need a Z145A filter and they just look at you with a WTF look.

BUT.. the autobarn local to me is a different story.. The staff there happen to be active in the drift and street scene and know their shit..

Not to mention the ability to buy carbon fibre bonnets, fuel rails, massive intercoolers, intake plenumns, BRIDE seats... nowww thats my type of autobarn

+1

[JPRacing 45]

I have worked in auto parts for the last 10 years.... Worked in and managed Autobarn Stores and other companies as well.

Its easy to complain about the service that any parts salesperson provides but it is almost impossible for someone to specialize in everything.

Most decent auto parts sales people get out of the retail industry because of the headaches that customers cause, the other is the headaches management cause.

Picture this... a customer comes to see you and they tell you they own a Holden Triton Sedan and they want shockies.... this happens on a daily basis. Most cock ups are due to poor information given to the salesperson or the salesperson not asking enough questions.

Experience does cost and some stores wont pay for the experience that a person may bring. That shows in the complaints everybody is expressing.

As for pricing concerns......... I got nothing.

Edited January 13, 2010 by JPRacing 45