Our AutoZone Nightmare

In September 2012 we planned a Christmas vacation to Bonita California, arriving on December 22, 2012 and departing on December 28th, 2012. We prepaid for a campsite as we were meeting friends and family for Christmas camping style. In order to have a safe trip we had a lot of work done to our truck costing us close to $4,000 to make sure we would have a safe and incident free trip

On September 23, 2012 we dropped our truck off at an auto repair shop to have the transmission replaced. Our mechanic told us it would take about a week. AutoZone shipped our mechanic the wrong transmission the first week so it took an additional week to get another transmission and a few days more for it to be installed. We felt safe and secure that all was well with our truck and it would have no problem on this trip.

We left for Bonita California December 21, 2012 at 4 a.m. about ten hours later we stopped in Yermo California for the night and planned on leaving early the next morning. The morning of December 22, 2012 we were once again on our way to Bonita California. About an hour and half into our drive as we were passing through Hesperia California and climbing into the San Bernardino National Forest just south of the Oak Hills Drive in Hesperia we saw smoke spewing heavily from our vehicle. We immediately pulled over and turned the truck off and noticed the liquid pouring out of the transmission so we called our mechanic and said “What the Heck”. Meanwhile we called for a tow truck. Our mechanic said since the transmission is under warranty he will call AutoZone to see how to handle the problem. An hour or so later still on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck our mechanic called us back and told us to have it towed to the nearest AutoZone until he could get an answer as to where to take the truck for repair. This is when we found out the new transmission we purchased had actually come from Hesperia. Now we thought this is a bit bizarre. At the same time we were told that AutoZone will pay for the towing, which ended up costing us $300.00 with a generous 30% discount.

When we arrived at AutoZone the manager was very helpful. He had us tow the truck to Garcia’s Complete Auto Care for repair. Almost three hours had passed by now and we had to leave our trailer in the AutoZone parking lot while we took care of the truck. Garcia’s told us that AutoZone had contacted them and will cover all costs. After Garcia’s had diagnosed the problem we were told by AutoZone they would have a transmission sent to Garcia’s by Thursday, December 26, 2012, but we had to be at our camp site within 24 hours of the reservation or we loose our spot and our deposit of $250. We called our mechanic back and he called AutoZone in Utah. We were then told to rent a truck to pull our trailer and AutoZone will pay us back for the expense. Being in a small town on a holiday weekend right before Christmas we were unable to find any truck rentals available only big box moving trucks. So we had our trailer towed to a KOA campground in Victorville California to spend the night. Luckily our tow truck driver was especially kind and stuck with us most of the day and even gave us a bighearted 30% discount otherwise towing would have been so much more. We paid the campground for three nights while waiting for the truck to be repaired costing $82.17. At this point we really didn’t feel we had any other option or choice and felt extremely stranded and we were going to miss and loose out on precious time with our with family and friends at Christmas and our camping deposit. Marooned in the middle of nowhere with no vehicle to get anywhere all we could do was wait for the truck to be repaired the day after Christmas December 26, 2012. This is not how we had planned our vacation, feeling stranded and close to hopelessness we had to come up with a plan.

Now it was just about sunset on the evening of December 22, 2012, it had been such a very long day so far and as we sat in our trailer in a strange place we came up with the idea of calling a nearby Chevrolet dealer Victorville California and explained our dilemma. Our only and last option was to try to buy a new/used truck to be able to get to our destination and spend Christmas with family and friends we had not seen in seven years. The dealership was very willing to try and help us out any way they could. To make a long story short they came to our campground and picked us up and took us back to the dealership where we found a 2004 Chevy Silverado 2500HD with low mileage in excellent condition which they were able to sell us. We were not sure how we were going to pay for this new truck but planned on selling the old truck to help pay for the new truck and hoped it would all work out. This seemed like a good plan and it would get us to our destination before Christmas.

We returned with the new truck to the repair shop to retrieve our mountain bikes, tow hitch, generator and compressor only to find the repair shop was closed and our truck was locked up inside so now we have a truck and no hitch. It is getting really dark now so we returned to our campground and called it a night. This is when we realized we had not even had anything to eat today; exhausted we had dinner and went to bed.

In the morning we had to purchase a new hitch and ball from AutoZone for $73.00. When we asked the girl behind the counter if we borrow a wrench to attach the ball to the hitch she said, “No, you will have to purchase the $90 wrench”, which we only needed to use for three seconds. She was very rude and short and not very helpful in locating parts when we asked, we had to ask for a manager. The manager was very helpful and knowledgeable and he lent us a wrench to attach the ball to the hitch. So with the hitch and ball attached and on the truck we returned to the campground and hooked up the trailer and checked out. We only used two of the three nights at this campground loosing $32 and they said they could not give us a refund. Leaving Victorville we continued on our trip to Bonita California reaching our destination in four hours without incident and without our mountain bikes, tow hitch, generator or compressor. We lost a day of our prepaid campsite in Bonita California valued at $36, arriving only a day late we were able to keep our reservations. Luckily our family and friends reported our dilemma and the campground said if we arrived only a day late that is all we would loose but two days would have cost us the entire site.

On Thursday December 26, 2012 we called Garcia’s in the late afternoon to check on the status of the truck and the transmission had not been delivered. If it had been there Garcia’s told us it would only take five hours to change it out. We called our mechanic again and he calls AutoZone again. Our mechanic tells us the transmission is on a truck out of Phoenix Arizona and should be here in the morning on Friday December 27, 2012. So we planned on picking up the truck on our way back home to Utah on Saturday December 28, 2012.

It is now Saturday, December 28, 2012 and we are leaving to return home to Utah from Bonita California. On our way through Hesperia California we stopped by Garcia’s only to find out they still did not have the replacement transmission. We call our mechanic again and AutoZone tells him they will have a new transmission there by January 2, 2013 being there is another holiday weekend. We now have no choice but to unload our belongings from the old truck into our trailer and leave the truck until it is repaired as we have to be back at work Monday, December 31, 2012. At this time we have been away from home one week and one day.

We keep checking the status on the truck throughout the next week or so and the transmission is finally delivered and replaced on Wednesday, January 9, 2013. It took nineteen days for the truck to be repaired and our truck is 636 miles and nine hours away. Our mechanic tells us AutoZone is making arrangements to have our truck delivered to us in Utah so we don’t have to pay for the fuel or drive the eighteen hours it would take to retrieve the truck. We say that is great news saves us a lot of money and time.

It is now twenty-seven days later January 17, 2013 and we still have not seen our truck. Our mechanic says AutoZone is working on delivery. We are trying to be patience, but we really need the truck back here in order to sell it. Early evening on Friday January 18, 2013 our mechanic called and said. “AutoZone will not be delivering the truck to us we will have to retrieve it ourselves”. Now on day twenty-nine Saturday January 19, 2013 we made arrangements for the truck to be delivered to us by a transport company costing us $500 to be delivered on Monday January 28, 2013. Arrangement of delivery only took us a couple hours. We really don’t understand why it took AutoZone so long to make arrangements for delivery or why they decided not to.

AutoZone through this whole ordeal kept promising things and not following through. Now because of this incident we are deeply in debt and behind on bills which in turn will affect our credit not to mention it put a big damper on our vacation as we were not really able to relax and be worry free about the outcome after all the broken promises and delays.

Summary of our costs:

Towing	$300.00
Victorville Campground	$82.17
New Hitch and Ball	$73.78
Bonita Campsite Loss	$36.00
Truck Transport	$500.00
Total	$991.95
New Truck	$16,937.00
Total	$17,929.95

Summary of repair time (at no fault of Garcia’s repair shop all on AutoZone):

Broke down	Saturday, December 22, 2012	Day 01
Truck Fixed	Wednesday, January 09, 2013	Day 19
Truck Home	Monday, January 28, 2013	Day 34

AutoZone has failed to refund anything and is now going after our mechanic and an AutoZone employee as the point of blame and cost of replacing a faulty transmission. We bought a product and the product was faulty and under warranty. Yes it was eventually replaced but the residual costs of it all are the responsibility of AutoZone’s faulty product, NOT THE FAULT of our mechanic or the AutoZone employee, or ours.

AutoZone has absolutely the worst customer service we have ever seen and the more you complain the worst it gets. Failed to find any good comments about AutoZone when googled online either, just a lot of complaints both by consumers and employees.