eBronc
Sr. Member
OK, this is a rant, and it might get moved - but it is Bronco related.
I have officially given up on Pep Boys. I haven't ever been exactly impressed with their stores, which always seemed to be understaffed and in a constant state of disarray, but since one of their locations is the closest auto parts outlet to my house, I would drop by every now and then for a few things, and it (used to have) a pretty good selection of Grade 8 hardware and Dorman bits and pieces.
No longer. I had been noticing the distrubing trend of less and less shelf and floor space for useful parts (belts, hardware, etc) and more and more devoted to "flash" - (chrome crap, neon tubes, pedal covers, that type of junk), and had pretty much ignored it as best I could, as long as I could go in there and get what I needed.
I can't even do that anymore. I'm rebuilding a Dana 44 front axle (see, I TOLD you it was Bronco related) and converting it over to discs, and several of the studs pressed into the knuckles were in bad shape and needed to be replaced. I figured a few Grade 8 bolts and nuts of the same size (7/16-20, 2" long) would be fine, so I stopped by Pep Boys this afternoon, assuming that the bins of Grade 8 hardware would supply what I needed. Guess what? No hardware. The bins were gone and replaced with....colored silicone tubing. I'm not kidding.
Stunned, I wandered around the aisles, hoping that maybe they had just moved the useful parts to a back aisle or something..but no. Gone. No, I didn't ask anyone where. You kidding? You ever try to get any help from anyone that works there? Please. If I can't walk into a store and find what I need within a minute or two, then I'm obviously in the wrong store.
I left. Never going back. What's the point? They've made it clear they're much more interested in selling useless CRAP to brain-dead wannabes than they are in selling real parts. That's just..sad.
I have officially given up on Pep Boys. I haven't ever been exactly impressed with their stores, which always seemed to be understaffed and in a constant state of disarray, but since one of their locations is the closest auto parts outlet to my house, I would drop by every now and then for a few things, and it (used to have) a pretty good selection of Grade 8 hardware and Dorman bits and pieces.
No longer. I had been noticing the distrubing trend of less and less shelf and floor space for useful parts (belts, hardware, etc) and more and more devoted to "flash" - (chrome crap, neon tubes, pedal covers, that type of junk), and had pretty much ignored it as best I could, as long as I could go in there and get what I needed.
I can't even do that anymore. I'm rebuilding a Dana 44 front axle (see, I TOLD you it was Bronco related) and converting it over to discs, and several of the studs pressed into the knuckles were in bad shape and needed to be replaced. I figured a few Grade 8 bolts and nuts of the same size (7/16-20, 2" long) would be fine, so I stopped by Pep Boys this afternoon, assuming that the bins of Grade 8 hardware would supply what I needed. Guess what? No hardware. The bins were gone and replaced with....colored silicone tubing. I'm not kidding.
Stunned, I wandered around the aisles, hoping that maybe they had just moved the useful parts to a back aisle or something..but no. Gone. No, I didn't ask anyone where. You kidding? You ever try to get any help from anyone that works there? Please. If I can't walk into a store and find what I need within a minute or two, then I'm obviously in the wrong store.
I left. Never going back. What's the point? They've made it clear they're much more interested in selling useless CRAP to brain-dead wannabes than they are in selling real parts. That's just..sad.
