Rant: How Can They Not Have This In Stock?

No good deed goes unpunished. My son Mike was going to do me a favor and do a brake job for me on my small SUV yesterday.. He's good at it and it saves me a ton of money. But it's hard to do a brake job when you can't find the parts.

We went to three of the major auto parts stores in my neighborhood. First one had nothing we needed. (calipers, rotors, brake pads). Now this is a big selling, popular vehicle from the mid 2000's. You see a ton of these on the road.

Second place, across the street, had the fronts, but not the rears. Third place had the fronts. But when we opened the box, they were the slightly wrong part. So we call them, and they tell us their Plainwell store is open til 8 p.m (It's a regional thing. We're told they are all open til 8 p.m. on Sunday). Mike's girlfriend says, no, they're open til 7 p.m. We're already half way to Plainwell, so we'll try. Yup, doors locked, sign says 7 p.m. So much for regional hours.) So we go down the road. They're open. But they don't have the parts we need, but one of the Kalamazoo stores does. We still need to deal with telling Mike's girlfriend she was right (Thankfully, the women are kind and show compassion for our pain and agony).

So we get there, and they have it. We open the box. It's the wrong part. Manager is apologetic, and calls another Kalamazoo store. They've got it waiting for us.

So here we are. Car still on jackstands. Most parts are in. The two that were wrong says are ordered and because the warehouse was closed on Sunday, we may be waiting until Tuesday.

Don't most people make their do it yourself repairs on weekends? How do you not have something as basic as brake parts in stock?

No good deed goes unpunished.