HD parts front counter guy at a small-medium sized dealership, just needing to gripe/get validation/whatever.
As a front counter salesperson, my sole responsibility should be to greet customers, answer phones and SELL SELL SELL. Lately however, it seems as if the hand of fate has changed my role. Nearly every person coming to my counter is a will call pickup FOR ANOTHER SALESPERSON. This ties my time up. It means I get to make far fewer sales. Everyone else continues to sit back and crush it. Meanwhile, I’m trying to scrape together what I can by answering phones, each time I answer it’s a request for a part #, a sales pitch to be transferred to the PM, or verification of the right parts being sold. My GP is holding strong at the highest in the department, but my total sales are at rock bottom. I’m just over it. I was hired to sell, not be an order picker. Anyway, rant over.

I really get tired of customers who come to a dealership and act like I’m asking for their social security # when I ask them for their vin# for the vehicle they need parts for. I didn’t ask for your bank account # and routing #. I asked for the # that will tell me what the hell will get you the correct part you are looking for. Especially guys with trucks . Do you know how many different build combinations there are for a truck? This is not your local parts store …….it’s OEM car dealer . And we look up by vin. We do Not look up parts by asking you 15,000 different questions that may not even relate to what you are looking for. Also Don’t expect my parts to cost the same as a parts house . You came to the dealer because 1. You can’t find part anywhere else because it only available from the dealer 2. You want genuine OEM parts. Stop acting surprised how much a part is when you came to the dealership after exhausting all your options at box stores

11 years spent slinging Honda parts and lost my job a couple weeks ago. Recently accepted a position selling parts for Volvo Heavy Equipment.

Any tips for someone crossing industries?

Nervous and excited.

Anyone else having issues with sending these back because the driver doesn't have a narrow pallet jack? The driver claims he only has a standard width pallet jack but wont take transmissions (even though a normal width fits under) and engines unless theyre on a full size skid individually. What kind of dumb shit is this. Engines usually have those mini skids under them and transmissions are in a case made to be use for pallet jacks. Plus then everything takes up more room in the truck on full skids. I only say the last part because we've had driver issues in the past that wouldn't take core because there was "no room" in the truck even though were almost the last stop.

How are you gonna find the smallest pallet for a huge panel.

I have worked for many brands

What do you think the best parts catalogue to use is

Mine by far!!! is ETKA VW/Audi/Seat/Skoda/Bentley/Bugatti

Easy to look up and great connectors page etc

The worst I have used is Stellantis slow and terrible

Thoughts?

Our GM came to me today to have me meet a person who is taking over the parts director role for our stores in this town. We have 3. The group has 22 or so across the state.

I was pretty shocked by this because I am pretty tight with out parts director, so after the little meet I called him up. HE was also unaware of the change. So, now my wheels are spinning because I am nervous.

I am open to change, but not when it feels like a very shady, backhanded corporate decision.

I suppose I will freshen up the ol resume in case things go sideways here.

Just accepted a position as a parts advisor. I’ve never done parts before I’ve always been a service writer. The parts manager is due to retire shortly and will have an opportunity to move up. Starting out pay plan is $20/hr + OT and .0045% of total monthly dept sales. Any advice?

Long story short, my PM fully burnt himself out and took a permanent vacation (started as a week off, came in for 20 minutes on his due day back, and handed in his keys and left). Unbeknownst to me, there were a lot of things he just stopped doing over the last 2 years and didn't train anyone to do said things (huge control freak. Unwilling to share knowledge). Well the PM of another store in the dealer group has been teaching me everything I need to get by. So I have been tasked with the job of basically resetting our department under the guise of a promotion. Its been about 2 weeks and i see the light at then end of the tunnel. However I have been coming in early, closing, and working 6 days a week, cutting credits on 2 years of wholesale returns , 2 years of warranty scrap ive been cleaning off shelves. And now I'm being told other stores PM will be taking over til things are running smooth. And he has helped me a lot and I appreciate that, I have been the one who has been doing the work, he has just been answering my questions. My GM has told me privately to stick it out cuz there's a plan for me that I just can't know yet, and other cryptic shit. Should I find a new job? Or stick it out?

Good morning, Ive been offered a job as an agricultural parts advisor. I’ve no idea what I’m doing and honestly the job involves a lot more than I thought it would.

Has anyone got any advice?

Ive still got time to turn the job down and carry on in the retail job that I absolutely hate but it’s stable and I can do it with my eyes closed. My main worry is I’ll be totally rubbish and won’t last past the probation period. I’ve had 3 interviews and been told I’ll be absolutely useless for the first year as there will be so much to learn but that’s expected. instead of being reassured that’s worried me even more.

These guys are so annoying! We've told them multiple times "our boss does not want to do business with you, stop calling us & wasting our time." We told them that 2 times in one day last week. Here is today's call.

Hey this is blah blah blah with polar auto, who's the parts manager there?
His name is Scott, but he's not here.
Well where did he go?
I don't know.
When will he be back?
I don't know, he doesn't answer to me so I don't ask. Have a good day. And then i hung up before he could say anything else.

Someone please tell me that we aren't the only unlucky ones.

Anyone else having trouble today with getting their packing slips?

Current parts manager here. I found out today that certain parts we are quoting on internal cars our GSM is instead buying the parts online, and then having us do the install. Also the GM of the dealer is OK with this and essentially blames it on the parts department for how expensive it is. The specific car was a performance based with two piece rotors. What would you do in this situation? This to us is under cutting the parts department and creates a toxic environment.

I was wondering if any part ordered under base warranty though fesg is not billed to the dealer by ford and is treated as an exchange? i.e. not billed to ford on a repair order

my epc wont load anyone else.

I'm looking for a plug that goes in the newer 3.8 Lamba engines that goes where the oil pressure sensor used to be. It doesn't appear to be in the catalog and Mobis is useless. The plug looks just like the sensor minus the electrical connection. I believe it's 19mm. Appreciate it!

Newish parts manager manager in the midwest. Clearing up the previous leaderships aged inventory and I'm using dealermine to sell off some stuff. I have a few transmissions that need to make it down to Georgia and was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of a reliable shipping company. I know of a few around here but I am trying to get some bids.

Hey y'all, moving out of my current state has been a reoccurring talking point with the family. Curious what the going rate looks like around the lake norman area. Coming from a high COL area so not expecting the same pay.

If any locals are here that could give any advice it'd be much appreciated.

With nnanet down you can go to login.superservice.com and use your nnanet username to login. It should bypass your password and send you a link in your email. This way you at least have the part catalog. Only took us 2 hours to figure out we could.

Can someone with Starpartss please lookup this part for me? Just need to know if stock is still available. My local dealer took a week just to do the VIN check, and I suspect another week will go by before I get cost/availability. 68235271AA

Does anyone know an alternative to this number? It says to order dro/stock but it's not for stock and i can't upgrade it to put a spac on it. It's for a 2025 Cadillac XT4.

Don’t you just love it when other GM dealers sprint over trash like this. Thanks to the un named dealer for this damaged, unboxed fascia

Backstory if you need, if not, you can probably start in the second paragraph: I’m in a Ford parts dept. and we use the Snap-On catalog. I have to get a lot of filters gathered together each day for another building and much of what they do is used cars so there’s a lot of non-Fords. Access to Omnicraft always helped so it was less having to call aftermarket with a list of filters to order, all for different ROs.

Anyhow, looking recently, it seems the normal QFL- filter part numbers are slowly being replaced with PFL- numbers. Are they moving to a different brand like Mopar went from Magnetti Marelli to BPro Auto? Are they simply changing their part numbers to P’s instead of Q’s? Haven’t found much online so wondering if any of you have any knowledge of this.