Napa warranty from noncorporate stores?

Cubey · Jul 11, 2022

Does anyone know how Napa handles warranty on parts, if you buy from a noncorporate store?

I know returns for online purchases can't be done to independently owned stores, only to corporate stores, but what about buying a part from an independent store and warranty claiming at another independent store? Can that be done? Napa corporate isn't a good source of information, unfortunately.

Danielle · Jul 11, 2022

I ran into this during the rally in new Hampshire. I had purchased a part from my local franchise and the one in NH gave a really hard time replacing it. I offered to pay full price difference (mine is a commercial account) which the owner finally let me do. He got his $37 and I got my part.
I think it is at their whim. The commercial accounts are definitely not transferrable.

Kind of off topic but since you travel a lot, you should get a commerical account with some of the big chains. Carquest/Advance are everywhere as well as AutoZone at least on the east coast. Would save you time and you can go online and do your own parts availability searches and because it is a commercial account they will also most likely deliver and shuttle parts from other branches for you.

Cubey · Jul 11, 2022

Danielle said:
I ran into this during the rally in new Hampshire. I had purchased a part from my local franchise and the one in NH gave a really hard time replacing it. I offered to pay full price difference (mine is a commercial account) which the owner finally let me do. He got his $37 and I got my part.
I think it is at their whim. The commercial accounts are definitely not transferrable.

Kind of off topic but since you travel a lot, you should get a commerical account with some of the big chains. Carquest/Advance are everywhere as well as AutoZone at least on the east coast. Would save you time and you can go online and do your own parts availability searches and because it is a commercial account they will also most likely deliver and shuttle parts from other branches for you.

Yeah, that's about what I figured. Napa is the worst of the chains, due to that. They have the most locations but they also don't actually honor warranty across all stores. Kind of bait and switch, really.

I don't need parts THAT badly to lie and say I have a business and get a commercial account. Usually it's only a 2 day wait max, it's just I don't want to hang around for two days or more to get a vacuum pump right now due to the summer heat. I could have gotten a replacement by Wednesday for the $37 at O'Reilly, which might have been the smarter option but oh well, I wasn't pleased about the $10 charge and long wait for a direct replacement, or pay $37 for a faster replacement. Really crappy business practice.

The nice thing about buying online from O'Reilly and Autozone is you can return to any store, no screwing around with finding a corporate store. I bought a power steering pump online from O'Reilly and it was assembled wrong so I returned it to a store, rather than trying to fix it and risk voiding warranty. The booster I bought from AutoZone on ebay and they allowed me to return the core in store.

Carquest stores are like Napa, franchised. Not a good option either, unless they do blanket returns. The Advance stores are all corporate, as I understand it.

Booyah45828 · Jul 12, 2022

Advance, o'reilly and autozone are all corporate.

Napa and carquest are franchised.

Napa should be able to warranty that so long as you have a receipt. They might buck around about it, as they're not making anything by doing it, but they aren't losing anything either. When you purchase a part, you should see if the store can print your current mileage on the invoice, as certain part warranties are mile and time sensitive.

Farmer Rock · Jul 12, 2022

All Napa stores I have dealt with, honored warranties or returns no questions asked. It didn't matter if I was dealing with two different franchises on either end of an exchange, as long as I had the receipt. My local store on the other hand, never asks for a receipt from me, because we're buddy buddy at this point,lol.

Rock

Cubey · Jul 12, 2022

Booyah45828 said:
Napa and carquest are franchised.

There are Napa corporate stores, marked as "NAPA Auto Parts - Genuine Parts Company" on Google maps, but they only seem to exist in big cities/metro areas. I got stuck with that $30 oil filter head I haven't used for the trans rebuild (couldn't find a good place to mount it) because it was a Napa online order and no franchise store would take it back, they all said I'd have to return ship it or take it to a corporate store. And yes I tried asking at multiple locations to see if maybe I'd find one who'd be willing.

Idilarry89 · Jul 13, 2022

Cubey said:
Yeah, that's about what I figured. Napa is the worst of the chains, due to that. They have the most locations but they also don't actually honor warranty across all stores. Kind of bait and switch, really.

I don't need parts THAT badly to lie and say I have a business and get a commercial account. Usually it's only a 2 day wait max, it's just I don't want to hang around for two days or more to get a vacuum pump right now due to the summer heat. I could have gotten a replacement by Wednesday for the $37 at O'Reilly, which might have been the smarter option but oh well, I wasn't pleased about the $10 charge and long wait for a direct replacement, or pay $37 for a faster replacement. Really crappy business practice.

The nice thing about buying online from O'Reilly and Autozone is you can return to any store, no screwing around with finding a corporate store. I bought a power steering pump online from O'Reilly and it was assembled wrong so I returned it to a store, rather than trying to fix it and risk voiding warranty. The booster I bought from AutoZone on ebay and they allowed me to return the core in store.

Carquest stores are like Napa, franchised. Not a good option either, unless they do blanket returns. The Advance stores are all corporate, as I understand it.

So the car-quest thing! ALL car-quest AND Advance will honor the warranty from each other. the deal is you HAVE to keep the receipt, as an indy CQ we have no way of tracking customer information like the corporate stores like advance and speed perks. But if you buy a part with a warranty at my store in South Dakota, and you need to return or warranty it in say, Florida even an advance will be able to handle that warranty. If they say they cant, they are misinformed. And I, as an Independent if something is bought at Advance and fails I take care of the warranty, I just need a copy of the receipt to tun into corporate in case they reject the warranty return. which, funny enough, hasn't happened yet. We have been a car-quest store since the 90's when they bought American Automotive, and this particular store has been privately owned since the late 30's so we have no corporate ties.

And you would be correct, All Advance are corporate, but not all Car-quest independent (yet).

Doc Niver · Jul 28, 2022

Quit dealing with napa when they tried to charge me $30 shipping on a $10 part to get it in in 2 days.
They refused a warranty for a starter because it was purchased from a corporate store.

Trevtron · Jul 30, 2022

I work for a local jobber, a good store will honor warranties. NAPA gets a reimbursement from the manufacturer on defects.

They also have the latitude to to say no if fraud is suspected.

Napa warranty from noncorporate stores?

Cubey

Van dweller

Danielle

No, it's not finished

Cubey

Van dweller

Booyah45828

Full Access Member

Farmer Rock

just a fella' without a 10mm socket

Cubey

Van dweller

Idilarry89

Registered User

Doc Niver

Registered User

Trevtron

Supporting Member

Similar threads

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Members online

Share this page