Longtime Customer Goes To AutoZone. Then A Worker Makes Him Walk Out And Go To O'Reilly: 'Please Wait For Cashier'

A car-audio installer who says he’s been an AutoZone customer for more than 20 years says a recent trip for brake cleaner and a cotter pin finally pushed him to a competitor. Now he says he's been converted.

According to TikTok creator OGJustin (@justin_caraudio), that day he walked out of an AutoZone mid-transaction, drove to the O'Reilly Auto Parts down the road, and came away a convert.

The clip is a play-by-play of two very different front-counter experiences. It resonated with an audience that included people who identified themselves as current and former employees of both chains.

Justin's caption puts it plainly: "Customer service and kindness go much farther than you think."

What Happened At AutoZone?

At an AutoZone, Justin says, "Some girl just goes hello and then she goes back and hides behind the batteries counter." He grabbed a can of brake cleaner, hunted unsuccessfully for the cotter pin he needed, and took what he had to the register.

From there it became a self-checkout ordeal. The cashier purportedly walked him to a second register, told him to press "pay now" on a large touchscreen, then "wandered off back to the counter he was at," Justin says. His card was locked and declined.

After he unlocked it, he says the screen said, "Please wait for cashier." The employee came back, closed the window, clicked pay now again, and walked away a second time, he claims. The next attempt returned "transaction canceled." When Justin got the card working, he says the machine prompted him to use a mobile-pay method he doesn’t have.

"I'm gonna go get cash, I'll be right back," he says he told the employee, and left. Instead of returning, however, he drove to O'Reilly Auto Parts.

The O'Reilly Difference

His experience at O’Reilly couldn’t have been any more different.

"I walk into O'Reilly's and this guy's like, hey, how you doing today, what can I help you with," Justin says. When he said he needed brake clean and cotter pins, he says the employee directed him to aisle six and then called out the exact shelf.

Justin says he found the O'Reilly house brand at "two cans for eight bucks," against the roughly $10 he says he’d been about to pay at AutoZone for a name brand.

The cotter pin was the tell. Justin needed an oversized one for an axle-nut castle, and O'Reilly did not stock it either. But the response was different.

"If you could bring me one I could try to match it up," Justin quotes the employee saying. "I might have some in the back, or I can order something if you need."

Justin's verdict: "That's customer service. So from now on I'll be going to O'Reilly's, not AutoZone."

Why The Counter Experience Can Differ

The two auto parts and supply chains are evenly matched in size and reach. AutoZone runs more than 6,700 US stores to O'Reilly's 6,500-plus, per data compiled by ScrapeHero earlier this month. The two are the dominant players in the sector.

Motor1 has covered perceived differences between the chains on customer service before. Recently a Montana customer claimed an AutoZone worker handing her a diagnostic code reader rather than running it drew a wave of "O'Reilly would ve never" replies.

The comment section under Justin's video, which included people who said they work or had worked at both chains, kept returning to pay structure as the reason. A commenter who identified as a former O'Reilly employee, Pro Clean Detailing, wrote that O'Reilly "pay more than AZ and get commission," describing a base rate that rose with store and personal sales.

A self-identified AutoZone parts sales manager posting as Gho$t said he was "with the company for 3 years making two dollars more than minimum wage" and added, "if AutoZone paid more decently, I'm sure the customer service would be a little better."

O'Reilly does run a sales-commission model, though employee reviews describe the payout as small. Whether pay differentials can explain one clerk's warm, helpful service and another's disappearing act is hard to prove with just one trip to a single branch of each chain, but it was the industry crowd's working theory.

The Importance Of Good Service

One commenter corrected the price comparison. Chris Lowery, who said he worked in the industry, said that AutoZone was running a "3 for 10" deal on its brake cleaner that Justin never saw.

For Justin, that just proves his point about service.

"No one told me, and it wasn't obvious. If they put more effort into marketing, proper displays and placements, I would have noticed," he replied. He also allowed that store quality cuts both ways.

"I'm sure somewhere out there is a better AutoZone and a worse O'Reilly's," he wrote in a reply.

Motor1 reached out to Justin via the contact links in his TikTok bio, and to AutoZone and O'Reilly Auto Parts via email for additional comment. We'll be sure to update this if they respond.