Well I for one can understand your frustration, but when parts stores do not want to pay experienced help, then that only leaves the High School kids or just out of High School kids with little to no knowledge of older cars. But I on the other hand am one of those guys behind the counter, and get really tired of smart a$$ed customers that don't have a clue as to what Year, Size Engine, or even What Kind of car the Moron is even driving!!! Then you have some who ask for that intake gasket for a 350, then I ask what year and get the response it doesn't matter their all the same, or ask for a spark plug for a lawn mower and say it doesn't matter they are all the same,ok whatever but I hate to tell you they are not all the same if they were then why do they have so many different ones!!!
I agree some of the questions that the computer ask are really stupid like if you are looking up a sensor of some sort it will ask you if the bed is a stepside or fleetside what in the he!! does that matter? Or if you are looking for a Transfer Case motor it will ask if the truck is 4 wheel drive or 2 wheel drive, I haven't seen many 2wd's with a Transfer Case!! And another one is when it asks what size engine you tell it 454 then it will if it's gas or diesel!!! So as a parts guy that has been doing this for years you learn what to ask and what not to, unlike the fresh out of High School help, trust me I know because I have to work with these guys everyday because management has ran off all of the old and experienced help and this is all they can find for what they want to pay!!!