Who's right summit racing or me?

[dubds10]

Last time and only time I ever had to do a water pump was on my '72 Blazer. It had a motor swap and we weren't sure which one it was. Took a guess at O'Reily's only to find out it was wrong. Went back with the new one and broken one and got the right one the second time.

No money to exchange, just swapped to the new one. Simple as that. Unfortunately there were 20-30 options when I went in and we honestly had no idea which would be correct since it was a crate motor. Some places it just depends on the sales person, but lots of companies do bend you over on restocking charges. You obviously just got the wrong person that day.

[special-K]

It wasn't used. It never spun a single rev. It was installed based on the assumption that Summit listed the correct part for the truck. It wasn't until the next step, installing pulley/fan that one would realize the company that sells the part doesn't know what they are doing.

I would never mail order such a part. I guess I'm lucky. My NAPA store has countermen who know their business. The same three guys have been there for over 10 years and they are all in their 40s or later, except the manage who we have pretty well trained after 10 or more years. There counter guys (more like 20 years) and knowledgeable customers set him straight at first, but he has come around to being very good at what he does. If you try to ask Tom (oldest) a mechanical question he'll tell you, "I'm not a mechanic", but you tell him what you need and you will walk out with the right part. They take very good care of me and I am not a significant account at all.

[70STOVEBOLT]

I am not sticking up for Summit or any other company, but un-used and un-installed are considered the same thing. I have been a parts man for a heavy duty diesel engine rebuilder for the past 27 years (we also sell parts over the counter), so I see both sides. We have taken parts back when a customer "self-applicates" a part and finds out it was wrong after installing, but will charge a 10-15% "restocking fee" since the part is no longer technically new and the gaskets (if required) will need replaced. I have also taken back parts that were uninstalled and not charged a fee if the part was on the shelf. Having said that, I almost always look up my own parts on a company's website first and then go in and give them a part number for what I want if it's a local place. Rarely have I gotten the wrong part, unless the "parts catalog" was incorrect, as in this case. The only time I don't look up my own parts is when I deal with my local NAPA store. Like the guys at Tim's store, they have all been there for a long time, and they are familiar with the parts they are selling for older cars and trucks. The big box store counter people will always ask for the application, engine size, etc because that is how their computer systems are driven, and they usually are not familiar with older vehicles.
Finally, online parts catalogs are not guaranteed to be correct. If you read the fine print most of them have a disclaimer stating such.