Hillcrest Ace Hardware — Attraction in San Diego

I’m not the biggest on writing reviews (and I’m in the customer experience industry 😬), but this was stellar from the phone call through checkout. Called on Thanksgiving and asked for pest control product. The person who answered was awesome. I could tell she verified her colleague downstairs was available before transferring me to him (there will be no waiting for 15 rings and someone answering confused why you are calling at this ACE). I was immediately greeted when I arrived and she (the person who answered) remembered me. She gave me detailed directions to the specific location of the Diatomaceous earth. (I’m sorry I don’t remember her name, but she was like the lobby greeter at a 5-star hotel.)

I head downstairs, thinking I would go find the product based on her directions, but no! Enters Jeff. I could tell he had just been radioed by his colleague and he turns to me and asks “Diatomaceous earth?” Say freaking what!!! I worked in hotels for 8 years, including 4-Diamond hotels. This is how we did it when guests would arrive. Valet radio in to front desk or the bellman introduced the guests to front desk. This is ACE hardware though! (Now you see why I’m sitting in my parking space writing this right now.)

Jeff continues to go above and beyond helping me with every inquiry I had.

The “lobby greeter” enters again after I go upstairs poking around at all the amazing products I never expected to see. She says “I see you found the Diatomaceous earth.” She also later sees me looking at the comedic towels and recommends the coasters too. Again stellar.

The nice lady who checked me out (with a total of 3 products when I only came for one) was very nice and explained how the ACE hardware stores are franchised and the owners wanted to bring a different experience here. Well they definitely did.

This was one of my top customer experiences I’ve ever had in my life. Completely unexpected and this team and the owners can teach CX to other businesses. This is 5-Diamond Service. Thank you for this. I’ll be coming back for all the other non-traditional, but practical and community-relevant...

The people are helpful. There is a large selection, and it reminds me of the hardware stores that were ubiquitous before the big box stores. For these reasons I would like to take my 8 y/o daughter and 9 y/o son into the store as I shop, so they can experience what it was like for me shopping with my dad when I was a kid. However, when I did take my children into the store a few months back, my daughter who was right next to me at the time, picked up and asked me about a pornographic doll. I haven't brought my children back to the store and I have avoided shopping there myself until last weekend. I did find the pipe fittings I was looking for, but the offensive giant erection toys were still there. In addition to that, right at the cash register there were tiny hands holding up a middle finger. I wouldn't consider myself prudish, but I would like my children to understand that there are certain places and at a certain age they might enjoy some bawdy humor, but at 8 and 9 they are too young to understand where and when it is appropriate. If they are bombarded with this sort of thing at a everywhere even the hardware store, it is undermining these principals. I know it is not my store, and I only have the right to comment on this, and shop or not shop at Ace Hardware. I would never want to force an owner of an establishment to have or not have anything other than what they decided was right to have on their shelves, but I would ask that the proprietors of this store to consider whether it is worth losing even one customer for the sophomoric, obscene, not very clever, gag items they have on...

I'm a handyman and live nearby, and I've been here so often that most of the employees at least recognize me. But there's a relatively new (maybe a couple of years) floor manager who has no customer service skills. My once 5-star review (below) is now a 1. Every other employee is great - polite, friendly and helpful, almost to a fault, as were previous managers. But this one clearly doesn't care about loyal customers, nor does she have the ability or desire to fake it. This store has been my favorite, go-to hardware store for 6 years, and is now my last resort. I won't go into detail here, but I had a manufacturer coupon, and a "rewards" coupon, both of which were valid and should have been applied to my purchase, but weren't. No genuine attempts to make it work, or apologies. And when, in frustration, I said, "just forget it," and started to leave the 5 items I'd spent almost an hour selecting on the counter, her response was, "that's your choice." She's right. It's also my choice to shop anywhere else, whenever possible, and I will. My previous review: Excellent customer service, great inventory of items and very pleasant shopping experience. A little pricey, but not outrageous. Parking can be a bit of an...