AutoZone rant

Walmart does the same thing. Its good business IMHO. There's too many bad checks being written these days so the retailers need to do something. I would do the same thing if I were a business owner.

Was your check not immediately good? Evidently not, since you would not use your debit card. Several merchants (including the big one, Wal-Mart) are processing personal checks immediately. Soon, personal checks will be a thing of the past. No longer will you be able to hedge a bit of cash till you can make a deposit. Can you blame the merchant for wanting a fair exchange for their goods?

JimG

80' CJ-7 258 CID, HEI 4.56 Gears, Lock-Right F&R 35" BFG MT on 15x10 Centerlines D44 Rear, D30 Front. SOA Dana 300 w/4:1 & Currie twin sticks Warn X8000i w/ dual batteries

00' TJ Sport 4.0L, 5sp

4.56 Gears, TrueTrac rear 33" BFG AT on 15x8 Eagle Alloys D35 Rear, D30 Front. 3" Suspension Lift Warn X8000i

NSF protection is a good reason why a lot of retailers do this, but it's not the only one. It's cheaper for retailers and banks to do an EFT than to process a paper check nowadays, and retailers just scan your check and debit the account the next day instead of waiting three days for your money. At my store, we still take paper checks, but we only have about 60% of the check volume we did two years ago...more people use credit cards and debit cards now. And where we got a bad check about once every three weeks, we now only get one maybe once every two months.

If the sales droid wouldn't give you your check back when you ultimately didn't make the purchase, you should file a complaint with local law enforcement, then tell the store manager that you filed the complaint.

Auto Zone is like the Guitar Center of auto parts. I only go in if I know exactly what I need. Just last week they gave me the wrong rad hoses for a TJ. From now on if I have to ask them to look up a part, I'll go to Napa.

Modern check processing is called "Check 21" and processes checks within two buisness days. The days of "it takes a week" no longer exist.

Autozone lost my business a long time ago, but not for the reason you stated. In this one-horse town, they only hire illegals who don't speak much English, and they give me a hard time whenever I want to drop off waste oil. And frankly, 90% of the products they carry are crap anyway.

You might ask the Manager for the return of the check before you spend bucks to stop the draft. Most are AH's but he may cut you a break. I haven't written a paper check in 10 years because they are a PIA. Debit card or more often, CASH is what happens to avoid hassles like this.

I don't understand that analogy... Are you saying they don't play your tune?

If the kid had said something UP FRONT before I started writing the check, things would have been much different. I could have walked or chosen to pay with a debit card. I elected to use a check; they didn't have to take it. If they don't want to take checks, that's OK. But this switcheroo midstream in a transaction from check to electronic funds transfer leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I generally go to NAPA. Tonight it was dark and I had only one headlight, so I went to the nearest place. I knew exactly what I wanted and didn't need to rely on their 'expertise' to look anything up. I guess I learned a lesson. Fortunately it will only cost me a stop payment fee.

I just installed Cibie H-4s in the wife's XJ with 55/100 watt bulbs. Excellent lighting, far more than you would need for a city vehicle. They cook the deer before they jump in front of you. I have to jam the brakes at least once a day now, the deer are moving down for the winter.

My check was good. It's been many years since I have needed to float a check, LOL!

The fact is, I got neither lights nor my check back. I am not complaining so much that they wanted to pull a fast one as much as I am complaining that they wouldn't give me my check back.

So the guy STOLE your check!?!

I'd have a very firm conversation with the manager of that store. They certainly have a right not to accept your check, but they have no right to steal it!

Jeff DeWitt

Red Jeep wrote:

Most of the time I prefer to use my debit card for purchases over $50 and cash for anything less. If I had planned to buy lights, I would have hit the cash machine before leaving work. I didn't plan on having the headlight go out on me tonight...

My father always said, "Don't get so mad you spend your own money." Maybe by tomorrow I will have cooled down enough to call AZ and talk to a manager. Otherwise I will pay the stop payment fee and figure it was a cheap lesson.

I agree with Jeff. I would have made enough of an issue that the manager would have been contacted if he were off site or I would have called the Police myself. They had no business keeping your check.

The first time this happened to me, i was taken back a little, especially when they handed me my check back after running the EFT. It was pretty unsettling but now I only write about one check every three months. I don't miss it a bit.

You seriously should have gotten your check back. I'd keep an eye on your account to be sure the transaction didn't go through anyway. It just seems like the sales person didn't know what he/she was doing. Maybe your boot up their ass would have snapped them out of it.

Kate (Cranky old Irish woman)

Please run for President of the United States in 2008.

Please?

1. You should have been given your check back, but with the quality of retail clerks these days, I'm not surprised.
2. I have 13 years of banking operations in my past, and I don't like the electronic processing of checks one bit, but we are stuck with it. The BIG banks write the laws. (I worked for a little guy, 8 branches, bought up in 2000.) The first time I had this happen to me was at my doctor's office, with a check for a copay. I was shocked! These days, I pay cash for my copays and demand a receipt. I got used to not getting my checks back with my statement a few years ago, but if I'm going to write a physical check, damnit I want it processed as a check!
3. Having you sign a separate slip was meaningless. I'm 99.44% sure that your bank has modified your account agreement to make that completely unnecessary.
4. I almost never write checks in stores these days. A few go in the mail, one goes for the rent, the rest is debit card or online bill pay.
5. Walking distance from me there is AutoZone and Kragens. The clerks at Kragen's are even more insufferable than the ones at AutoZone, so AZ tends to get my business when it comes to that. For real parts, if I can get there, I prefer the Mom and Pop store that has been around since

1928 and has their own highly respected machine shop. But that place is 5 miles away, and if the XJ ain't running, I'm stuck.

Best Regards,

DAVe

I've got a good one for ya.

While I was out doing errands this evening I stopped by a phone company store to pay my bill.

They accept only checks, debit and credit cards, they do not accept cash!!**

The manager did mention I could go down the road to the Sunoco station and either buy a money order or the Sunoco is authorized to accept payment but charges a $1 fee to do so...

**I can pay cash if I drive downtown to the main business office during business hours, none of the non-ghetto locations will accept cash in payment.

Guitar Center is widely derided by most pros because of the sales-drones and their attitudes. On the flip side they ususally do have the best prices anywhere, but most of the folks that work there are clueless. Imagine a large group of rock musicians providing customer service...

Demand that the Auto Zone reimburse you for the stop payment fee if they do not give your check back. What the clerk did was illegal...keeping your check without giving you the merchandise. Remind the manager of this.

Kate, Irish??? Whood a Thunk!!!

Or you can remind the local police department.