Customer Service at AutoZone??????

I think AutoZone needs to take some lessons on customer service. I bought a battery for my motorcycle from the East Peoria AutoZone about 3 weeks ago. I got it home, filled it with the electrolytes, chaged it up, installed it and voila; my motorcycle is operational again after the long winter. It would be nice if that was the end of this story. Last week, I go to start my motorcycle and it just clicks a couple times. That sound doesn't bode well for the health of my battery. But that is a easy fix, right? I just hook it up to my battery charger for a day or 2 and voila, it's operational again right - wrong. Still more clicking. I jump it with the minivan and it starts right up. I let it run for 1 hour at idle to try to juice it up. Still nothing.

I'm still ok with everything that took place above. I can see where a battery can become disfunctional. So, I take the dead battery to the AutoZone that I purchased it from. Their policy is that they just won't replace a battery unless they attempt to charge it and deem it dead. "OK, fine, you hook it up to the charger and I'll be back in 4 hours to get my new battery." (4 hours later) I come back to AutoZone and they deem the battery dead and begin the process to replace it with a brand new one. But of course, they don't have any in stock. It is now 8:40pm and the closest AutoZone that "supposedly" does have it in stock closes in 20 minutes and is 20 minutes away. So I decide to wait till Tuesday and have another AutoZone replace the battery at lunch time.

I'm STILL ok with everything that took place above. But now we are getting to the source of my frustration.

I take the dead battery to an AutoZone in Peoria and give them the run-down of what's happened. Their response should have been: "Ok, let's see if we have that battery in stock to replace it for you." Their response was: "I bet the other AutoZone didn't charge it correctly. We need to charge it ourselves." I think they give themselves way too much credit for the ability it takes to charge a motorcycle battery thinking that they are the only ones that can do it correctly. Any way, I am getting too wordy here so I'll skip some details. (1 1/2 hours later) I'm walking around AutoZone while they are charging my battery. I ask them to bring it up to the front counter and test it for me. They do and the test shows that it has not gained any charge in the last 1 1/2 hours. And of course they don't have one in stock as well. They call around to all AutoZones in the area and no-one has one in stock. I had to get a refund and go to Advanced Auto Parts to get the battery, which the manager at Autozone called ahead for me.

Moral to this story: I don't think there is a moral. The employees at that particular Peoria AutoZone just don't get the whole customer service concept.