The core charge
Alternators, starters, batteries, calipers: the price on the shelf is not the price at the till. The difference is the core charge — a deposit the store holds until your old part comes back to be rebuilt. Simple at a purchase. Sneaky inside a warranty exchange.
You pay the part price plus the core deposit. Bring the old part back (same visit or later, with the receipt) and the deposit comes back to you. The old part — the "core" — goes to a rebuilder. No old part, no deposit back: that's the deal, and on a straight purchase it's fair. Keep the core receipt line circled until the old part is returned; it's a small loan to the store and the paperwork is the only claim check.
In a warranty exchange you hand over the failed part — it IS the core — and receive the replacement. The trap: a ticket that charges a fresh core on the replacement while the store keeps your failed part. The deposit you paid on the original purchase is settled by the part you just surrendered; a second core on the same transaction double-holds your money. The check is one line long, at the register, before you pay anything: "The old part is the core for this swap — the core from my original purchase carries over." Get the ticket showing core-in/core-out balanced.
The failed part is also your warranty evidence until the claim is approved. Order of operations that protects both: claim approved and documented first (repair order, failure finding), then the swap, then the core balanced on the same ticket. If a store wants the part surrendered before the claim is decided, ask what documents the claim once the part is gone — at NAPA especially, the part goes to an examiner and your copies are your whole case.
Two sister sites live on the calculation side of this same garage. RaceCombo runs the racing and tuning calculators — gearing, tire size, bracket math. RegearReady works out regear decisions for Jeeps and trucks — which ratio, what it does to RPM and the speedometer. Free tools, same house.
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 →