Oh, I don't think that's quite what this is. It might be a "bash stupid people who are working as counter staff" thread. All of us have probably had experiences with excellent, knowledgeable counter staffers who've pulled rabbits out of hats to come up with parts everyone else has said are unavailable, or who have solved longstanding problems with other-than-specified parts that fit and work better, etc. Such a counter staffer is worth his or her weight in gold (i.e., it's worth shopping at their store even if the prices are a little higher because you are getting your extra money's worth).
But in this thread we're mocking the useless chain stores and the Taco-Bell-reject incompetent counterstaff. Not the new ones who aren't ripe yet -- scroll up and see how a potshot at a newbie counterwoman was scotched -- but the dumb ones who don't know or care a thing about auto parts. I think it's possible to have a thread like this without it being a slam on all counterstaff.
If you would have just bought your parts at a local independent parts store where the experienced counter people worked you wouldn't be in the mess you are in
AMEN to that. For years I have been preaching the importance of buying parts from stores where they sell actual parts, not the part-shaped garbage they sell at places like Autozone.
I've been doing this for thirty years, I'm paid extremely well for what's in my head