6.8K views
New Reviewer
10 comments

Harbor Freight has always had very poor customer service especially if you try to contact them at their Camarillo, California headquarter about problems with Internet orders and now it's almost impossible to get someone on the phone. In large print on their website they list a (800) phone number for problems but that number is disconnected!

You have to be a little tricky and call their phone number to placing orders and then tell them you have a problem or want to check tracking on an order. After you finally get someone they will *** you around reading back every work on the order (name, address, phone number, email address, item you ordered, item number, order number) until you are about to explode and then try to get a straight answer as to what happened with your order. In my case they showed the item shipped and order completed (I needed the item quickly so paid for FedEx EXPRESS shipping). They led me to believe item shipped but FedEx said they never received the shipment from Harbor Freight.

After I started yelling on the phone the guy said the item was backordered from CHINA! It never shipped, the order was never completed, and they had no idea when it would arrive from China but they sure charged my credit card immediately. This whole thing took more than a week. I told them it was too late and I didn't need the tool any more so cancel the order and refund my credit charge and the guy said they would.

I AM STILL WAITING FOR THE REFUND! Not only that, but for the past couple of months I've noticed that their local warehouse store is not restocking. I've been in at least six times in two months and each time there are more bare spaces on the shelves and the employees keep getting less friendly and less helpful and fewer in numbers. Now, in some areas such as hand tools (hammers, etc.

) and plumbing the shelves are about 30% empty. In my experience empty shelves not being restocked and unhappy, surly employees point to a business that is going under. I would not order on the internet or phone again because I don't want to get holding the bag when they go out of business. Also I suggest that anyone wanting to get something from a local Harbor Freight store call them before making the trip (if anyone will answer the phone).

Everyone I know agrees (and has for more than 20 years) that Harbor's tools are junk but they are CHEAP and if you break one you can just throw it away. One more thing, I've seen them having sales on small electric generators (gas powered).

They bring the things in (or did) on pallet loads but I also see many people bringing them back within a week and saying that they worked once and quite or never worked at all so you can pretty much guess they are *** and not worth taking home even if they only around $100. Unfortunately Harbor has put a lot of smaller discount tool joints with their low prices and now, in many areas such as mine, they are the only game in town.

Location: Los Angeles, California

Do You Have Something To Say ?
Write a review

Comments

chat-icon

Please avoid publishing any personal information and promotional content

You will be automatically registered on our site. Username and password will be sent to you via email.
Post Comment
Guest

Reading all of this has me worried. I probably shouldn't have ordered from Harbor Freight on line.

I ordered Sunday and the package is still sitting in Industry, CA nearly 4 days later per the Fed Ex shipping info. Must be waiting to get a full truck before they head out. I like Harbor Freight though.

Fed Ex never works out very well. UPS will get the job done.

Guest

I enjoy harbor freight tools and that's coming from a "diesel mechanic" and I use them for my job all the time, just cuz you had a "bad experience" with them doesn't mean everyone else does. And "knowing" that their tools are "cheap" you clearly tried to purchase them anyway, so who's fault is that??....

YOURS and YOURS ALONE!!!! Lol. And I highly doubt they will ever go out of business.... You must be ret**ded for thinking that *** Yea their tools are cheap I agree, but when push comes to shove....

And your tool breaks.... Your not out $100+ and not only that but 90% of their tools have a LIFETIME WARRANTY!!!! So who the *** cares if it breaks.... Go get a new one!!!!

Lol. I for one know tools aren't cheap, and i thank harbor freight for making tools affordable to us Americans.... Who aren't spoiled little *** head like you are. Cuz mommy and daddy don't support me, and every tool I buy...

I pay for. So get a life fool... And if you don't like it then don't shop their.

Simple as that. Lol

Guest

All electrical items from harbor are ***, on line ordering is ***, customer service is ***, employees are ***, this being said, you can't beat prices for small hand tools and sundry items. Buy at your own risk.

Be a smart consumer, :grin not a whiny baby! :cry

Guest

order a hitch from harbor freight and recieved a call that it didnt go through and asked for my credit card. so i called the 800 # and gave them a new one then a 2-3rd call asking for my cc # spoke to a supervisor who said he canceled my order was j=charge on both cc and now have 2 orders calls asking for my cc # were fraudulent from people that work there taking home phone #'s kept saying they were from california they were from india or philippines asked to speak to a american supervisor and said it didnt mater what nationality i was speaking to well it does to me i want to speak to someone in the usa not someone lying that they are in use went to dispute it with Bank of America and quess what some one online with broken english. should call the BANK OF INDIA AND BANK OF THE PHILIPPINES TIRED OF THIS BRING BACK OUR JOBS I WANT TO SPEAK TO A AMERICAN IN THE GOOD OLD USA

Guest

Just an update. Harbor is evidently not going out of business but you'd think they were if you ever talk with the people at their HQ.

Since my VERY BAD experiences with their mail order I decided to shop at the local store ONLY! If they don't have an item in stock I just get it somewhere else. I think we all know that most of their hand tools are junk BUT they are also dirt cheap! I've gone through several of their $5 tubing cutters.

The cutting wheels usually break soon but at $5 it's cheaper to just buy another than paying the shipping on repair parts. If you want tools that will last forever don't go to HF!

Guest

No surprises here. It all starts at the top and Harbor Freight's exec management has virtually no regard for its employees at headquarters so why should any be expected in the field?

This of course translates into bad customer service. Sr. Managers and Directors are regularly fired with no warning even when many work long hours to hit many high priority goals that seem to shift weekly without enough people to attain them anyway. As a result, there is a lot of wasted work, burnt out employees and people who work there out of fear for losing their jobs vs. trying to build a great company.

This attitude rolls down hill and poisons the people who want to do well but are paralyzed by the whims of leadership that doesn't know how to lead at all and thinks that by doing everything faster, they will provide the best experience for their customers when in fact, they achieve the opposite.

It starts at the top and what can one expect from an owner who kicked out his own father (who had founded the company) in order to assume the top spot. He and the chief of operations only care about opening as many stores as possible over the next 6 or so years with as little amount of people as possible and with the biggest pack of lawyers to protect them from the many questionable business and employee relations practices.

Too bad. It used to be a fun company that made a good profit and cared about its own back in the old days of 5 plus years ago. How hard is that? After all, all it does is manufacture cheap tools in China and sell them at a high profit margin to low budget consumers. They are managing to screw that up good, mainly because people are afraid of the execs. So, expect more and more bad customer experiences folks!

Guest

I work at Harbor Freight. I can tell you the way the system works is highly disorganized.

For whatever reason, the retail stores cannot inform the warehouse of what items are needed.

The warehouse ships the items as they come in--this is what we were told. Sounds like a major problem in my opinion.

Guest

Thanks for the comments. Yes, there are far too few employees and getting fewer all the time it seems but that is not why the shelves are not stocked.

I've checked on a number of items lately and was told that they were backordered or discontinued and even the manager had no idea if or when they would arrive. Same story when I called the headquarters. This was very surpriseing because the items that I checked on are big sellers so something is going on.

Last week in hand tools there was only ONE long handled sledge hammer in stock (I bought it), many of the other hammers were unavailablej or just a couple on the shelf. This is obviously not a problem of no available to stock the shelves, at least at the Lancaseter, CA store and this is the only store within more than 70 miles, no competition.

Guest

I'm going to take an educated guess on why the shelves are not stocked. In the last store where I was employed (there was a total of three Harbor Freight Tool stores in the entire state, our being the busiest) There was a TOTAL of 16 employees, and I may be being generous, I know that at times it was less..

That was to be split over the course of the entire workday, not counting the days off and not counting how many of them were part time and couldn't get anymore then 21 hours a week.

Shelves are not getting stocked because of lack of employees there to stock them. Harbor Freight isn't going out of business, not any time soon, they hardly put out enough money to keep a store functional.

Guest

Harbor Freight is not going out of business. The owner makes $500,000,000.00) in profit every year (yes 500 million) by selling junk from China to fools like us.

Why would he go out of business? It's the American way.

Harbor Freight Tools Reviews

  1. 129 reviews
  2. 92 reviews
  3. 55 reviews
  4. 42 reviews
  5. 27 reviews
Harbor Freight Tools reviews