Harbor Freight Tools

After a very frustrating phone call, HF Response: "We only will ship to a freight forwarder IF it's going onto Canada or Australia." Beyond mind boggling. Requested a refund for my Insider Tracking Club fee (as it is of NO USE) - HF Response? "You would need to go back to the store you got it at." The reasoning, the lack of customer care, IS PATHETIC.

Sent in a request to the HF customer service email address gained from their website. A few days later response was the tires are on backorder with no firm or estimated date as to when they would be received. I sent a response what was HF plan for trailer owners until the tires were received, a response was never received. This is not the level of customer service expected when tires are a critical component of a trailer, where a failure can be a major safety incident. The recall notice from HF is called: Trailer Recall - NHTSA Recall Number 17V-638 dated Nov. 24, 2017. The date is now Feb 17, 2018, HF has not provided a solution as yet.

I've seen customers walk out after seeing how I was treated and talked to trying to use a coupon, and I'm 65 years old. If your Managers don't have any respect for the elderly, then people begin to walk out. Others don't want to have to argue with a Manager who treats his customers like he is the "BOUNCER" in a bar. I have followed your sales solicitations in emails, and in your mail out catalogues. You lie to your customers about them being such a blow-out sales and they save so much percentage wise... but it's the same old prices you have all the time. There may be one or two items that are cheaper but most all are the same old prices. Only difference is, is that you have stopped your customers from being able to use the 20% coupons on one major item if it is one of the so-called sale items.

So your gimmick is simply to make you more money. Tell the unsuspecting customer you're having a blow-out sale, that they can save up to 75% or more on all items, and you have the 20 and 25% coupons in the add but you won't allow them to be used in the sale. Just a sales gimmick to get the unsuspecting customer to come in and buy.

I went to the Conroe, Texas store after it had been open a few months. The check-out clerk would not allow me to use the 20% coupon with an electric drill, said it was on sale but it was your normal everyday price. Then she called the Manager up front. He came up there like he was the bouncer in a bar, dressed like a Harley Biker, got right up in my face and in my personal space, hollered at me and called me a liar. You had about 15 customers standing in line at the 3 stations to check out. As they watched and listened to how I was being treated and talked to, not to mention physically threatened... you could see they wanted no part of the Biker Manager, and saw that they also would not be allowed to use the 20% discount coupons that they had in hand. They began to leave their baskets at the counter and walked out of the store. I told the Manager I would never come back in that store again. His reply was "Fine, leave."

I called the Corporate office and asked to speak to the District Manager over the Conroe, Texas store. They said he, Jeremy **, was on vacation. I then asked to speak to the Manager taking his place during his absence. She said it was Rob ** but she would not transfer me or give me his number to call him. She said she would send him an email and see "IF" he would step in and call me back.

Mr. ** did call me back a few days later after I called a second time and a third time for him. He listened to what I had to say about the treatment in the Conroe Store. He said to go to the Lufkin Store (closer to me) and he would called ahead and tell the Manager there to give me the discount. All I would need to do was to carry the receipt with me. I did as he instructed but when I got to the Lufkin store, no one knew about my situation, not even the Manager and he flat refused to do anything the District Manager said for him to do.

I then called the return number of Dist. Mngr. ** and put him on speaker phone in front of the Store Manager to allow him to hear that I was not lying. I asked Mr. ** why he didn't call this Store Manager like he said he would. He gave some excuse but then said, "I'll call him and tell him to do what I told you I would do over the phone." I said, "Here's the Manager standing right here, let me hand the phone to him and you can tell him now." I left the phone on speakerphone.

Mr. ** told the Store Mngr. to do as we had discussed on the drill and a multi-position ladder. The Manager hung up my phone and began to work on the cash register to make things right. I thanked him and left, but after getting about 10 miles down the road, I told my wife to look at the sales receipt and see if the Manager did everything right as per the District Manager. He did on the drill, but charged me full price on the ladder, even after the Dist. Mngr. instructed him too.

I turned around and went back to the store, asked the Manager why he refused to follow the instruction of the Dist. Mngr. He said, "He's not my Manager. My Manager is Jeremy **." I replied to him that Mr. ** is on vacation and Mr. ** is handling this in his stead. I asked him to call the District Manager back and tell him he refused to obey his instructions. What he did was call Dist. Mngr. Jeremy **. I asked him to put the call on speaker so I could hear and he did. Mr. ** ran me, the customer down and said NOT to do as Mr. ** had instructed. Then I asked the Store Manager to let me speak to Mr. ** and he handed me the phone. After our conversation, he agreed to tell the Store Manager to follow Mr. ** instructions.

This is all appalling treatment to your customers. I have bought a lot of high dollar tools from your store, but now I refuse to pay my hard earned money to a Store that would treat me like your Managers and District Managers have done. They've lied to me, insulted me, threatened bodily harm to me, harassed and embarrassed me in front of other customers, and charged me more than I was supposed to be charged. I have seen in the News where your organization has been sued for false advertising and pricing to your customers. You just don't seem to learn even after being taken to court.

In these two circumstances, I went through the lower process of calling your Corporate Office, making the District Manager aware of the threatening and wrongful treatment, trying to get this resolved at your local level. Only to have to call again and again, being lied to by District Managers, and humiliated by Store Managers, and them not following the directives of the Dist. Mngr. I will not use your local level complaint to handle things ever again. It will immediately be escalated to the Local Police Department and the Local News.

If I ever go back into one of your stores, I will have someone with me to video everything that is said and is done by your staff, especially if one of your Managers threatens bodily harm to me and gets up in my face invading my personal space. The local Police now call this a Terroristic Threat. I will immediately call the Police, file a complaint of threat and bodily harm, I will take the video to the local News and see if they want to put your Store on the 5 O'clock News. The publicity you get will hopefully do justice for the treatment you give to many of your loyal customers.

I called customer service 4 times over the past 6 months and each time I have to sit and be put on hold for 20 minutes before I get aggravated and hang up. I buy tools from them in the past year and a 1/2. I have spent a lot of money I norm that 1 of you their biggest customers but I probably dropped a $1000 there and it's the worst piece of junk I've ever seen in my life. And trying to get ahold of somebody at their customer service member to complain about it forget it you get somebody they say always as a product complaint or a store complaint and when you say product they switch you to a deadline that you sit for 20 minutes to get nothing. I was reading something from Harbor freight this is a buy quality tools they buy quality crap at this point I would rather pay 10 times the amount that have to do with any more of their stuff.

How can such a large company send out beautiful glossy fliers advertising an item with such a limited stock? Do they think they can dupe customers into the stores, not having sufficient advertised items, expecting us to buy other items? And to have salespeople put smirks on their faces as they tell us they are sold out and no more will be shipped in? Sorry! Well, I'm sorry too. When 3 out of 4 experiences with Harbor Freight are not pleasant I won't shop with them again.

So since I didn't show the receipt or proof of my purchase the manager refuse to take my return back knowing that every time we purchase any products at the store the cashier clerk ask for your phone number, knowing that is records under your phone number, very bad customer service for a return of their own product and very poor training of the manager... They can keep their products and sell them to someone else but not to me, I learn my lesson... Be careful buying poor quality products from them, you're just wasting your money!!

I called the firm to find out they were on backorder. Never told this while ordering and was given no alternatives but told it would be the 10th of Nov. I was unhappy but what can you do. No offer to compensate for my time or delay. System is installed and on 11/20 after still not receiving the parts I called and told the parts were actually not available until the 14th (second strike). Now I am told that the product was shipped on the 16th but will not be delivered until the 22nd (third strike). This is over a month after my card was charged. No apology. No offer of any sort. I buy a ton of product at the stores but the online part of HF is deceptive and misleading in their practices. DO NOT USE THE ONLINE SERVICE AT Harbor Freight. I am very disappointed. Never again.

Updated on 10/20/17: So, today October 20, 2017 I received an email from the store manager. It was a letter of apology and stated I should not have been charged the restocking fee and should have been refunded the entire amount in cash as used in my original purchase. So, there's hope for anyone else out there that experienced the same or a similar situation with Harbor Freight. I am now once again a satisfied customer of Harbor Freight and I will continue to do business with the company.

He said, "Our computer system won't do that." (RIGHT) He then said, "Just add it up yourself and write it on the receipt." I said "I have never heard of this before," manager said, "I can get you a receipt with a total but you will have to pay tax." Looking at the staff I analyzed them and said to myself (no to savvy) I told them I would take care of it. Beware of Harbor Freight. They have hidden charges, like text coupons that cost you money per text, restocking fees on returned defective product, discounts that don't apply but leads you to believe it does, be very selective in what you buy, (it won't last).

When this was happening, I looked at the register display and show the merchandise was at regular prices. I asked why and the clerk asked what color was the sale tag. I thought that was strange but I told her orange. She said “o that is a in store something." I asked the manager and he was not interested and at this I requested to refund or cancel my purchase. I did not want anything. The manager was very uninterested and appeared not to care. He never answered but said “wait 2-3 days and see if the charge hits your card. If it did, just come back and I will take care of it." I ask how he would take care of it when I have no proof. This manager was a real “deal”. I told him if this is how he treats customers on their very first visit, I could imagine how he would treat them if they had a warranty problem or another in-store problem.

The manager did not respond as if he could care less. He motioned with an expression of “I don’t give a **” attitude (pardon my language but this word describes the type of attitude). This manager could have handled this easily by giving me the sale prices and then telling me the store policy was and how I could get the sale prices in the future but no, I just made a substantial enemy of me when it comes to Harbor Freight. I will go out of my way to discourage anyone I meet to even visiting the store much less buying anything. Before I wrote this note, I have already send out a lot of negatives on your store. I will continue to copy and paste this review into any retail customer review sites that I can find and also to the city chamber of commerce of which I have a strong standing. I think you can tell I am furious and if it is on my card, know I got to go back into the store and talk to this “idiot”.

Follow-Up: 9/30/2017, the cancelled purchase was posted to my credit card on 9/27/2017. On 9/30/2017, I contacted an assistant manager (Kyle) by phone. He advised the store manager was not on duty today. He took my information and advised he would contact the accounting office and see if they would make an adjustment. However, I told him about how the store manager could have avoided this by giving me the sale prices but there was no response from Mr. Kyle. Still not much improvement in CUSTOMER NO SERVICE from this company. I have not received anything from this company at this point. If I do, I would update this review. There was no receipt from this purchase because the computer system crashed and there was no way to get a receipt. However, I have a print document from the credit card showing the purchase.

I am stunned as I was paying Harbor Freight almost $97.00 per generator to have them shipped to Miami where the people there would sign for them and then forward them on to St Croix yet Harbor Freight refuses to ship them. I pleaded with them to please tell me what I could do to get the generators out and they ignored my email. Anyone wanting to help the people in the Caribbean needs to be aware of Harbor Freights policy and their apparent refusal to bend on it no matter how dire the situation is down there. I tried twice to order and they cancelled my orders both times because I needed to use a forward carrier to the US VI's. Thank you.

When it was finally my turn to unload my cart I noticed I was being checked by a supervisor named John. He asked my phone number and I let him scan my membership card. Before he started scanning my items he proceeds to tell me, "Your membership can't be found in our system." Now I paid my one year membership only 43 days ago and I told him that. He says,"Well it must have been longer than that because your membership is inactive" and wanted me to pay for a new one when I just paid for it a month and half ago. I told him, "I know my membership is active. Since you can't find my info and I am buying 300 dollars in tools could you please give me at least a discount?" He laughs and tells me, "If you don't have coupons you will pay full price."

Now I know he could have given me a discount so I got upset and left the store without my items and thought that was not very professional of John to do me that way. I go to the one off Bells Ferry all the time and get a discount all the time when I buy a large amount plus my membership discount. I am very disappointed in you Harbor Freight should really check into your management team over in Canton. Tell them customers like me pays their salary so if you want my return business need to make this right. I would not recommend anyone go to the Canton store because it's the worst customer service I ever experienced in a Harbor Freight in the state of GA.

Called 9/7 spoke to Erica (she sounded drugged), she said it shipped 9/5, that FedEx is slow to update the info. I said, "pls call FedEx to verify, I really need this for Saturday, we are getting a hurricane." She puts me on hold for awhile comes back on & tells me, "It shipped 9/5 it shows a Saturday delivery date," she'll credit the freight charge, I said I don't care about the credit, I just need the generator. Again, she stated, "It shipped 9/5, you should have it Saturday." I just pulled the tracking, FedEx picked it up from Harbor Freight 9/7 at 4:30pm & today, 9/8 it's in City of Industry, CA... bloody, LIARS. Whats wrong with these people??? I could have ordered this from a different company & had it by now. Deceptive LIARS.

I just called & spoke to AJ (supervisor) I gave him all the details, his response when it arrives refuse it. I said, "We were going to use this for my husbands mom, she is on oxygen, thank god she left the state." "Sorry, we will refund you" & he'll listen to the tapes. I said, "You're liars & it's wrong, I could have ordered this from a different company & rec'd it on time, you lied." We'll refuse it, sorry. BEWARE - This company will lie just to get your sale. The delivery date has now been changed to 9/13. They even sent me an email order confirmation that shows a ship date of 9/5 & it shipped eve of 9/7, that's just wrong. They really screwed us big time, LIARS!!! This is just wrong!!!