Jerry saved our lives! We had a nail in our tire and he taught us how to fix it, doing it for us. What an amazing place, full of hospitality! read more

About me: Age 65, retired machinist, I worked as autobody man during my 20s, turned wrenches since childhood, do all my own automotive work including full rotisserie restorations in my own garage, dealt with literally hundreds of autoparts store counter people over the last 50 years. I've been doing business with this particular O'reilly auto parts in Ottawa IL for at least 6 or 7 years now. I've had positive experiences and rapport with some good counter people there who know something about DIY auto repair. I also got casually acquainted with Jeff the proprietor. I wanted to share in detail some great buying experiences I had at this store in the past few years but space here will not allow. Getting to the issue of this review, on 6-2-25 I called there about several idler pulleys, some were non OEM, requiring source by part # and one was OEM to be sourced by application. On the phone I spoke to a young woman whose name tag I'd see the next day as Rosa. I gave Rosa the part # for an aftermarket pulley. She told me that pulley would be special order and arrive next day. Then to the best of my recollection I also gave Rosa the application for my Chevy truck for a separate OEM idler pulley, which to the best of my recollection she looked up and said it was in stock. I said fine and I'd be there next day to purchase both of them. Then an hour later after digging thru some of my spare parts bins I realized I gave Rosa an incorrect part # for the aftermarket pulley, so I called right back again. This time young man whose name I never got answered the phone. I gave him my name and asked him if he could see my special order for the aftermarket pulley. He said yes he saw the order. I told him to scratch that special order because the part # was wrong and I'd give him some new part #s. He said OK, done, now give me the new part #. I gave him 2 new part #s for 2 aftermarket pulleys and he told me those pulleys would be in next day. I asked how long would the special order parts be held in case I wasn't able to be there next day. He said the parts would be held for 5 days. I said that would be fine, thanks. To the best of my recollection the call ended there and that young man and I never spoke about the OEM pulley that was sourced by application and already in stock. I arrived at the store in person, afternoon of 6-3-25 and spoke to Rosa in person. There were 3 pulleys there for me. 2 were the aftermarket pulleys and they were wrong. There was a cross reference issue because the part #s I gave were for Dayco brand and the pulleys they obtained were Murray. This was no big deal, the pulleys would just have to go back. Then there was a 3rd pulley with a GM tag on the box. I asked if that was the OEM pulley by application. Rosa said she couldn't know that offhand. I replied that she should know because she looked it up over the phone for me yesterday. She insisted that she did not look up the OEM part, that she remembered she only talked to me about an aftermarket part special order. At this point, one of us is misremembering something. I honestly don't think it was me. I have no recording of the conversation. But the matter was trivial, there were no consequences involved. Nevertheless she got very irritated with me over it. After a short back & forth she raised her voice to a stern scolding tone to me, saying "I remember the call and YOU SAID (X) (Y) (Z)" She reminded me of that TV Judge Judy, so I replied, "Am I under oath?" That made her angry. In preemptive projection fashion she declared I was disrespectful when actually she was disrespectful to me first. The she asked for the application. I recited "2002 Chevy Avalanche 1500 4X4, 5.3L engine and added, does that ring a bell?" She got angrier and said "I need to know if it's 1500 or 2500." I said it's "1500, I said that 10 seconds ago and you didn't remember." Then she really got mad, picked op the phone and began dialing. I thought she was calling the cops on me and I was in total disbelief. I asked who she was calling. She said she was calling Jeff to report me. It sounded like she got Jeff's voice mail because there was no conversation after she spoke and she hung up. I humbled myself, I said I didn't really want to argue, completed my transactions and left without further incident. BTW the OEM pulley in question was correct so I bought it. However, If Jeff is going to employ easily-angered counter people who pick up the phone at the drop of a hat to tattle to authority like a high school hall monitor, that is a problem. People with that sort of fragile personality shouldn't be dealing with the public at large. If Jeff endorses this conduct as store policy then there are a dozen other auto parts stores within a half hour drive where I can take my business if he really doesn't want it. Then there is the internet. Thanks for reading. read more

They are pretty good here and price wise they are comparable to others in the area , the employees are helpful and if they don't have what you need they will order it or find another location that has it right then read more