The beachhead questions
Your battery died after its free-replacement window, and the counter quoted you a prorated credit — a number from nowhere, take it or leave it. Except the number isn't from nowhere. AutoZone publishes the formula — in a business-to-business warranty document that has never once been handed to a customer at a counter.
From AutoZone's Starting & Charging Nationwide Warranty document:
Prorated credit = (remaining warranty months ÷ total warranty months) × the price you paid.
Three inputs. The price you paid (on the record). The total warranty months (printed on your paperwork for your battery line). The remaining months (total minus months used since purchase). If the counter's number doesn't equal this formula on these inputs, the question is not "can you do better" — it's "show me your math."
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Price paid | $180 |
| Total warranty (printed) | 60 months |
| Months used at failure | 45 months |
| Remaining | 15 months |
| Credit = (15 ÷ 60) × $180 | $45.00 |
If the counter offered $25 on those inputs, they are not using the published formula — or they're using different inputs (a lower price, a shorter total). Either way, the worksheet settles it: same inputs, formula applied, number compared. The free checker on this site runs this math on your real numbers — pick AutoZone, battery, your line, and enter the price and total months.
Proration only applies after the free-replacement window. ProPower: 1 year free. ProPower Plus: 2 years. ProPower Ultra, AGM, Duralast Gold: 3 years. Inside the window, the remedy is a replacement battery, not a credit — and a store that opens with proration math inside the free window has skipped a step. One more era trap: a replacement battery's clock runs from the original purchase date, so measure from the first battery, not the current one.
Formula and free periods: AutoZone "Starting & Charging Nationwide Warranty" document (autozone.com), checked Oct 20, 2026. The formula is verified for the ProPower lines the document covers; where a line's proration isn't in the published record, the checker labels its math illustrative instead of verified — the house rule is flags, not inventions.
Not sure which wall you hit? The free checker sorts it in a few picks — chain, part, purchase date, your proof, and the store's own words — and gives you where you stand under the written policy, the proration math where it applies, the exact next counter move, and the ladder above the store. Run the checker →
The pages above are the map. The kit is the paperwork: the word-for-word counter scripts, the per-chain playbooks, the worksheets, and the complaint templates.
One payment, yours to keep. You do every step yourself — at the store, on the phone, in writing; we never call a store for you. See everything inside the kit →