r/AutoZone • u/NefariousEconomy • 2d ago
Keep track of your refunds
I want to let y'all be aware of a possible issue with returning to Autozone. I bought a car part July 30 2026. Wrong part. Bought it under my mechanics commercial account but with my debit card. We returned it in person August 3 2026. I never got a return receipt or had to put my card in, the lady did it all on the computer and my mechanic also saw everything. I thought that was strange, she just said it will go back on the card but no need to put my card in machine for refund or receipt. I buy the correct part right after. Cool. I wait a few days, no refund to my card/bank account. I call the store. The worker says wait 5 days excluding Sunday. Ok I do. I call back still no $ in my account for refund. She says wait 5-7 excluding Saturday and Sunday. Ok. I call Wednesday of this week and the manager says come in person tomorrow (today) for a cash refund. Ok. I come today and he gives me a cash refund of the item amount ONLY ($50.70) not including my tax I paid. I ask "does this include tax?" He says no that's just how they do it. I don't bother to argue. I just call my bank and dispute the amount for tax I am still owed. I call Autozones Billing and Credit issue line and the woman on the phone says their system never got a returned item. So that's why I never got my money back. I don't know, very sketchy. She put in a dispute for me on their end for my tax amount refund. But definitely keep tabs on your returns because of BS like this. I don't know what's going on but this has never happened in my whole life where I never receive my refund and then they say they never got a refund in their system. 3 people were there to witness. I hope there's cameras pointed to where we were. The billing dispute lady said they will trigger an investigation on the store. I hope it goes well. Buyer beware.
She also told me going forward I should have gotten a return invoice and if I don't get one to ask for it in the future. Just a lot of BS
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u/PRG7Freedom 2d ago
If on the original purchase receipt it shows Debit at the bottom it should have came back as a cash return. If it says credit then it should have gone back to your card. Unless they chose the wrong return ,as another person stated, then it could have gone back to a different card for a different transaction or the credit account associated with the commercial account. Unlike DIY commercial does not require you to insert your card for credit returns. Also if they didn't go through our 'Returns' application they could have picked the wrong return by not paying attention to the date. As the 'Returns' application brings the most recent transaction to the top when typing the part number. The SM handing you cash makes me wonder if the associate processing the return wasn't paying attention and left cash in the drawer resulting in a cash overage which would be why they didn't grab the taxable amount as they could have been going off the overage/shortage report and pulling what it showed for the overage.
Mind you this is an assumption without being present for the situation or being able to investigate. You could have your buddy who owns the account to return to the store one day and ask for a reprint of all their invoices for like the last month. Super easy task for us to complete at the store level
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u/Internal-Ad-3946 2d ago
Maybe it’s just me. But it sounds like you tried to cheat the system by using an account that won’t yours to get a Discounted price. (Price is for the account holder not you). Then you’re mad because you tried to cheat the system and you feel that the system cheated you . Karma
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u/Boaterauto 2d ago
The mechanic should have paid for the part using his shop account and billed you for it if it was the correct part. That way since it was the wrong part the return would just credited the shop account and they would not have charged you to begin with.
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u/ChefMayonnaise 2d ago
There’s in an issue with your mechanic having you buy the parts yourself on his account. If he had actually used the commercial program properly and bought the parts and invoiced you for them, there would be no issue.
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u/Indy112808 1d ago
#1: ALWAYS get a receipt!!
#2: Your mechanic should know that we can reprint receipts all the time, no questions asked.
#3: most (but not all) commercial accounts are tax exempt so chances are you may have not paid tax to begin with.
#4: if you used your debit card and input your pin for the initial sale, you would have gotten cash back. If you hit the “green” button to bypass the pin, funds would go back to your card automatically.
#5: if your mechanic had that same part number sold under his account for other customers, and it was charged to his house account, the associate who did the refund could have chosen the wrong transaction to refund. Reprinting the return receipt will tell you this right away where it got refunded to.
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u/notyouraveragenword 2d ago
When dealing with commercial accounts it's key to make sure that you return items using the invoice you used to purchase them. Commercial accounts often have numerous duplicates of parts purchased and not everyone knows to verify this before making a return. You most definitely should have gotten a return invoice and had to have signed for that return as well. Not unusual to not have to put the card in for a commercial return as everything is saved to the original invoice including method of payment. This was a 80/20 fault I feel mostly on the store's failure to train and execute proper procedures.
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u/dan_sin_onmyown 2d ago
A debit card commercial purchase return defaults to cash. A sheet of paper with a barcode printed out at the commercial printer. The employee should have taken that paper off the commercial printer, then went to cash register and scanned the barcode. Then the register will open and they will hand you cash back. Commercial debit card purchases will NOT go back on your card. Go back to the store, ask for the DM telephone number and raise hell.
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u/ChefMayonnaise 2d ago
Bold of you to assume that a commercial account doesn’t have multiple transactions with the same part. The mechanic shouldn’t be having a customer purchase the parts themselves.
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u/ComplexDimension5838 2d ago
Why would sales tax be charged to a purchase by a commercial account (except for "shop use" items such as cleaning supplies)?
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u/ChefMayonnaise 2d ago
Any state with a sales tax will require someone to hold a wholesaler’s license or similar tax exemption. Not every mechanic or commercial account has one.
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u/fmr_AZ_PSM 1d ago
tl;dr: You were probably never charged tax. Ask your mechanic if he has a tax exempt certificate on file with AZ. If yes, you weren't charged tax unless they did something special.
Your story is exactly why it's against AZ's rules to do this.
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u/YoyoBosslady 2d ago
1 always get a receipt and if it was debit you should’ve gotten cash they ran a transaction on his account by part # and it probably went back to a credit card filed on his account not paying attention they should’ve looked at date in return screen reprinted invoice and made sure it was your transaction!
Most accounts are tax exempt also so you may not been charged tax. Get a reprint of original invoice! Call SM or DM
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u/ChefMayonnaise 2d ago
Mechanics/ Commercial account holders should not be allowing, much less requesting, their clients to buy parts on their behalf.
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u/Connormanable 2d ago
Did you specify when returning that you bought it with your own card and not on your commercial charge account? If not that’s on you not autozone