An Advance Auto Parts customer was irate after reviewing their post-purchase receipt.
The customer, who goes by Fred (@fredpimpstone2008) on TikTok, shared footage of their bill of sale. In the clip, they detail how they purchased a single bottle of coolant for their vehicle and nothing else.
However, the sales note indicates that a charge for an additional product was appended to their total—one that Fred says he never asked for, let alone received.
In the clip, he shows his receipt, and, indeed, there is an $18.99 bottle of coolant listed on it. But right above it, a nitrile glove is listed for $1.49. Bringing his total, with tax, to $21.71.
“Tell me why I’m sitting out here, waiting for my car to cool down so I can … put coolant in it. And I look at the receipt ’cause I was about to scan it on Fetch. All I got was coolant. That’s all I got, all I asked for. He charged me for a glove as well for $1.49,” Fred says.
The Advance Auto Parts customer continued: “First of all, $1.49 for a single glove is insane. Second of all, I didn’t ask for, nor receive, the glove. So, why am I being charged for [expletive] I didn’t ask for?”
1 Pair Of Nitrile Gloves = $1.49
It appears that the type of gloves Fred mentioned in his video is indeed offered at Advance Auto Parts. A single pair of nitrile, disposable gloves is sold by the retailer for $1.49. Oftentimes, they’re located near checkout as a last-minute reminder/impulse buy. This way, folks working on their vehicle can protect their hands as they go about their business.
As for why it was added to Fred’s total without his consent, folks who replied to his video said this is a sales tactic used by the chain that is rooted in attempts to drive profits.
“Thats How We Get Our Upsale Percentages Up. I Hated It”
One woman who says she works for the chain wrote, “I also work for Advance. They just want our numbers up and if we don’t, we’re getting written up or potentially terminated.”
She also added, “Actually my manager has told me that would happen if we didn’t do that for each week. He has terminated other workers from different locations.”
Another person corroborated what the aforementioned commenter stated. According to them, extra charges are a staple of the retail industry. But they did praise one chain in particular for not adopting it. “They care more about attachments and ACP than anything. I wish parts stores could be just parts stores, the only one left really is O’Reilly they don’t care too much about attachments,” they wrote.
And another person who claimed to be an Advance Auto Parts employee said they, too, are being encouraged to add charges to customers’ bills. “They are trying hitting numbers. Currently my entire store threatened write-ups over this BS,” they wrote.
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It’s Not Just Advance Auto Parts
Other popular auto parts retailers have been accused of the same practice. A Reddit user who posted to the site’s r/AutoZone2 sub writes that they “used to work at AutoZone.” After returning to one of the brand’s locations as a customer, they noticed that, like Fred, a charge had popped up on their receipt for an item they never asked for: a $2 grease bag. What’s more is they said this occurred on two separate occasions.
A different user in a separate post on the same sub said they, too, used to work for AutoZone, and management asked them to “sneak Witt items into people’s orders.” Furthermore, they say that their bosses specifically told them to “just scan it and give it to them. Don’t ask, just don’t do it.”
This order, the commenter states, immediately set off alarm bells in their mind. After being instructed to do this, the former AutoZone worker states that they first asked customers if they wanted any “brake lube or bulb lube” with their orders. But supervisors soon got on their case for doing so, so they just applied these charges without asking despite not feeling right about it. “I hated the place and managers I was working for,” they said.
Others who replied to the post said that they’ve heard of this practice occurring as well. One stated that this ultimately threatens other stores that don’t engage in this money-grubbing tactic. Their metrics are then stacked against top-performing stores, raising the bar in dishonest ways.
Motor1 has reached out to Advance Auto Parts and AutoZone via email and Fred via TikTok direct message for further comment. We will update this story if they respond.
