"What a joke this company is. On March 30th I ordered an air pressure blaster and blasting abrasive to use with it. After 10 days I received the abrasive but not the pressure blaster. No invoice, no explanation as to where the pressure blaster was. I had to call customer service to find that it was backordered but was assured it would be there within a week. Two weeks go by, nothing I call customer service and find that it is still back ordered and will not be available for at least 5 weeks. Now I sit here with a whole bunch of abrasive and no sand blaster to use it with. I cancelled the backordered item and will purchase it from a company that knows how to keep items in stock and how to treat customers. Stay away from Harbor Freight mail order."

"BEWARE! They do NOT use Fedex, they use 14 day USPS. Made a purchase with a gift card, and 2 bucks from my bank account. Received email confirmation then all of a sudden it failed auth. Was informed 3 days later. If you got to go cheap and crappy tools, go to a store and avoid the shipping mess.

"Harbor Freight Tools uses FedEx Smart Post, FedEx Ground, FedExEconomy, FedEx Next Day Air, FedEx Home Delivery or truck freight line to ship your orders to you. Harbor Freight Tools makes every effort to ship items the next business day if ordered by 4pm PST. If authorization is delayed in order to confirm payment or prevent fraud, Harbor Freight Tools reserves the right to delay shipments, but every effort will be made to ship at the soonest possible time. Delivery times are expected, not guaranteed. Most non-overweight orders will arrive within the following time periods after they leave our warehouses*:
Standard Ground: 5 - 14 business days" "

"Beware Shipping Charges! I ordered a tool first thing in the morning and paid $45 for overnight shipping as I needed the tool next day. The next day, I received an email that I would be receiving my tool in two days. WHAT! I called customer service and was told the first day is for "processing". I never heard of that and it was not posted on any of the order pages. I complained up a storm but they would do absolutely NOTHING for me. I had to eat the $45 fee. MISLEADING? Absolutely. I will never deal with this company again. They just lost a customer.
Ray H"

"I'm not going to waste more of my time writing all the details of the numerous HORRIBLE experiences I've had both in store and online shopping with Harbor Freight, but I will NEVER, under any circumstances, give them any more business. I thought I had experienced horrible customer service, but Harbor Freight takes the cake...WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER. And, half of their products will break or consistently under perform, I guarantee that."

"I placed an order on 1/1/2012 and used a 25% off coupon of any single item. After 3 days, I got a notice that the item on which I used the discount code was being cancelled and would not be shipped. When I called customer service about using the coupon on one of the items that was NOT cancelled, I was told this could not be done. I asked that the order be cancelled; I was told this could not be done either. I emailed customer service and got no reply, the only reply I got about 4 hours later was an email to tell me the order had been shipped. I suggest if you deal with these THIEVES, you do it in the store only. They obviously have no idea what the words "customer service" mean"

"The manager at the local store refused to honer the discount printed online and taken to be picked up in a local store and on top of that was very rude and not professional.
I will never shop with them again."

"I have purchased goods from HF for years and continue to do so. The quality of the goods are generally a step below Northern Tool, but their prices are generally a step below NT. Some tools work just fine while others leave a bit to be desired. However, I find that going to the store, examining the item and making a decision usually yields good results. These tools, etc. are NOT Snap On, Matco, Craftsman quality tools, but if used by the homeowner they usually serve reasonably well. I would not want to be a professional mechanic and use these Chinese made tools. The store I use in sw Ft Worth, TX used to be the biggest disorganized store ever and assistance was almost non existant, but they have cleaned up their act and are now much better organized and they actually have customer assistants that are helpful. I would not order anything on line without first examining it in person."

"If you are expecting Snap-on or Fluke quality, you need to shop those vendors and pay their prices, but if you are looking for an occasional use tool, theirs fit the bill and usually serve adequately. From air compressor, to sprayers, air tools, measuring instruments their brands have delivered adequately. As for ordering online, they delivered just fine in my sole experience (all others have been from local store) the delivery of a multiple item order and in multiple packages was completed without a hitch from tendering the order to using the tools within one week. No problems."

"This is a horrible place to shop. The shipping charge was $2 more than what was at the time of my ordering and in the e-mail confirmation. Also the free gift that was supposed to come with the order never came. This place is in a mess. If you shop there, be prepared to be scammed and do not be surprised if you find that the actual charge on your credit card is a few bucks more than when you placed the order. They must make a fortune from doing this."

"I placed an order with them online, but at the end of the process, got a message saying my order could not be processed or something similar. So, thinking perhaps it was the browser I was using, I tried again with IE. I got the same results. Then, a day or 2 later, I notice a charge on my account, and received a e-mail saying that not one, but two sets of the items I tried to order had been shipped? I log in to their site online, but it shows no orders under my account. I received the package yesterday, and did not open it. Today I attempted several times to contact them through the toll free number, but always was getting a foreign person on the phone that I couldn't easily understand. Finally, the 3rd time I call, I got someone who I could understand, so I explained my problem. As soon as I mentioned the problems trying to place the order, he cut me off and said It was my fault, I placed the orders, not them, and there was nothing he could do. I immediately asked to talk to a supervisor, and after a few minutes on hold, was talking to a man with a Southern United States accent who agreed to send me a return label and refund my purchase, but advised me NOT TO PLACE ORDERS ONLINE, and instead, call to place an order. "

"These guys are a mess and they didn't publish my negative review of their truck mounted crane. Ordered it, didn't show up, I finally found it through FedEx (label had come off). Told Harbor Freight and they sent another one, had to drill hole in crane because original was in wrong place and buy a new winch locally when theirs failed. Few weeks later FedEx calls and asks what to do with the crane. Even after I gave HF support all the info they hadn't bothered to call. "

"I ordered a wood stove online that was on sale. After a few days, I called as the order status never changed, only to find out it was on back order with a three week lead time until they receive it.
I called back after a few days to receive an update (still no change in status online) only to find out that it was changed to a 6 week lead time.
during my next check up on the status, I found out they cancelled the order and will no longer ship it online.
I requested they honor the sale price at the store, but so far they have refused, and will not even tell me which stores have it in inventory.
Am I asking too much?"

"I've spent thousands on HF over the past two years going from no tools at all to enough tools to do almost anything to my home and cars.

The key with this store is what kind of mentality you bring to the shopping experience.

They're not the most organized store. Don't always expect prompt shipping or even to get some of the items you order at all if they are marked back-ordered. BUT, they have never charged me for anything until they actually ship it.

Don't expect their website to work perfectly.

When I've called them on the phone they have always been very quick and helpful. They usually answer on the first ring.

Don't expect everything to arrive undamaged. I wouldn't order fragile things like light bulbs from them because they will arrive 50% broken. Buy fragile items in store.

However, their return policy has been good to me and their shipping charges are usually extremely reasonable.

Don't expect to get everything from them. Many of their products are absolutely wonderful and some are junk. I found that by using my best judgement to discern the good from the bad and also reading the helpful reviews on their own site I've been able to avoid junk products 90+% of the time. Very well reviewed items tend to be good.

Don't expect to get everything you need from them. Be willing to walk away from junk and high priced items. In fact some times you will have to ignore their $30 item and spend $200 somewhere else.

Same thing goes with price. Some items are priced so low at such great value it's unbelievable and others like their solar panels are above market price. It's up to you to decide what you're willing to pay.

So why shop there at all?
1. Unmatched value on some items. Some things are several times cheaper than any other merchant with no loss in quality. *make good use of their sales, coupons and especially the elusive 20% off coupon*

2. Good customer service from employees online and in local stores. I hope they keep this up.

3. They are honest.

4. Some of their tools are redesigned for the better on a regular basis. I wish they did more of this as well."

"I would never buy from them again. Placed and order and 2 items were not in the box. Had to call and then had wait about another 10 more business days to get them. Gave them the benefit of the doubt. Bought another item and a part was missing. They got my money immediately but I have to wait, since 3/18/11 and today is 4/5/11 for the part. Ludicrous."

"I have been a regular customer of Harbor Freight Tools for about 20 years. Usually, if I purchase an item elsewhere that HFT has available, I have had to pay more for it. Besides the most favorable pricing, HFT has reasonable return policy and has always treated me well. I fully recommend HFT! "