AutoZone Auto Parts — Attraction in Santa Clara

It def feels like the manager Angel lied to get me to come into the store and would not even apologize when confronted.

My car battery was completely dead and I wanted to find a place that would do complimentary battery installation on the spot. I called around and chose this AutoZone location (even though it wasn't the most convenient) because Angel (supposedly looked up my car model and) told me her team can do free battery installation in the afternoon when they are fully staffed provided I buy the battery from them.

I arrived at the agreed upon time only to find her out on break and the staffs insisted they could not do the battery installation for my car even though it's a common Japanese car. They then said my options were to 1) go somewhere else or 2) buy the battery from them and go to the tire shop next door (and pay extra) to do the installation. With a car that required a starter kit to start each time and waste time pressing into rush hour I felt trapped to do 2). I then found out the tire shop next door doesn't actually do battery replacement and spent the next 30 mins calling around shops near by that do.

In the meanwhile Angel came back from her break. I told her I would've appreciated her letting me know if her team wouldn't be able to install the battery for me when I called in she shook it off and said "we never know if we can actually do it until we see your car" - her staff never saw my car - he looked up my car model and told me he can't do it, which is what she supposed should've done when I called in.

I ended up paying a lot more to get the battery installed, wasted a lot of time coming to this location and feel completely scammed. Very disappointed in...

I needed spray paint to fix a car scratch and, after some YouTube research, found the right color code. I visited several stores along El Camino in Sunnyvale/Santa Clara to find the paint the same day.

At two nearby O’Reilly stores, I received great customer service—especially the one near Wolfe—though neither had the paint in stock. Unfortunately, my experience at this AutoZone was frustrating enough to warrant leaving a review.

Upon entering, I approached the counter since I knew the paint needed to be looked up by color code in the internal system. The lady at the counter initially refused to assist and directed me to the aisle to search for it myself. I explained I had a color code she could potentially look up—something the O’Reilly stores had done—but she dismissed it, insisting that O’Reilly part numbers wouldn’t work there. I clarified it was a universal paint code (Duplicolor PerfectMatch and many other paint brands use this color code), but she became frustrated, refused further assistance, and walked away.

Another employee attempted to help but did a brief, incorrect search and showed me unrelated paint products on his screen.

This experience suggests one of two issues: either AutoZone’s system isn’t designed to look up paint by color code (which O’Reilly’s can do), or the employees lack the necessary training for paint matching—despite the store carrying Duplicolor products. Possibly both.

Ultimately, I wouldn’t recommend this AutoZone (or others) for any product that requires a code lookup. O’Reilly or even Amazon might provide a better experience for car...

My partner showed up to autozone becuase her battery was not holding a charge and only worked when it was jumped.

Autozone checked the battery and said that it was a good battery even thought it did not hold a charge. They said they could charge the battery but that it would take 3 hours to fully charge. We asked them if jumping the battery would work. They said yes but that they did not have a jump for the battery. So I drove over to help give my partner a jump. Afterwards they retested the battery and it was constantly losing charge.

Then they proceeded to say it was a bad alternator since the battery was losing voltage so quickly but that the battery did not have enough charge to test the alternator.

Took the car to Honda and they said it was not the alternator and that if it was there would be clear signs that there was an alternator problem (ie battery charging lights and noises). They replaced the battery and the car turned on after being turned off for a while. It was a bad battery not a bad alternator. Glad we got a second opinion.

This was a little disappointing becuase I have had my battery and alternator checked by other autozone locations and never had an issue getting the information I needed. This is why I recommended my partner get the battery checked...