Westlake Ace Hardware — Local services in Cary

Be very careful before you buy any power lawn equipment from this Westlake Ace Hardware store in Cary, NC. I recently purchased a new Craftsman self-propelled lawn mower. This is my factual experience:

It took 3+ weeks to order the mower.

When the mower was delivered to my house, it was not assembled correctly and could have caused serious harm to me. Luckily, I checked and noticed that the 2-sided metal handle was pushed inside the mower deck with exposure to the sharp blade underneath. If I had started the mower, the blade would have hit the metal handle and caused damage to the mower and, from a safety standpoint, was a safety hazard to me.

When mowing my lawn for the first time (about 15 minutes), I noticed that the hard plastic grass bag door was warped and did not fit flush against the grass catcher. This allowed grass and debris to shoot up into my face and eyes during the few minutes when trying to mow my lawn. The staff member who assembled the mower never caught this serious manufacturing flaw during assembly. I could not use the mower any further for safety reasons!

When I contacted Nicole and Richard, the store managers, they stated that their power lawn equipment cannot be returned once a customer fills the mower with oil and gas and uses it even for a few minutes. This important point was never mentioned to me during the sales and purchasing process.

Therefore, my only option was to call the Craftsman Warranty Department. They stated that the closest authorized Craftsman repair shop was in Zebulon, NC - 45 minutes from my home. Three weeks ago, I took the mower to be repaired and am still waiting for the warranted part to come in and be installed. When I showed the repair technician, he was shocked that the Cary Ace Store did not try to correct this issue. He commented, "do they have eyes at the Cary store when they assembled this mower? Did they try to resolve this for you?" When I told him "no", he shook his head in disbelief and said, "unbelievable!"

After visiting the Westlake Cary Ace store again, I spoke to Nicole telling her that I had to drive to Zebulon to get my "NEW" Craftsman lawnmower fixed for a manufacturer flaw issue which they should have caught during assembly. She commented, "Oh, we have a repair shop here, at the Cary store!" No one shared this information with me upfront - only, after the fact.

I called the Ace Hardware nationwide Customer Service number and spoke to a representative. Basically, she offered no help or ways to resolve the issue and sided with the local Ace Hardware store in not trying to resolve this issue in a satisfactory manner.

So based on my terrible experience, the Westlake Ace Hardware sells power lawn equipment that is flawed from the factory, the staff performing the assembly may not catch issues that can cause serious harm to customers, they ignore implementing safety measures (like double-checking the assembly process), don't back the products they sell, and are not honest with customers to tell them upfront that "no returns are allowed." This store is very unscrupulous in their business practices. This review is to let the general public know to use extreme caution when dealing with this store!

If you need power lawn equipment, I suggest that you buy it from a local Lowe's or Home Depot store. I checked and both stores have a 48-hour return policy for power lawn equipment for any reason if the customer is not 100% satisfied with the product. These businesses deserve your business and your hard-earned dollars. Be sure to support them. Not the Westlake Ace Hardware...

Stihl owners: Avoid this place unless you like their mechanics to break your machine and blame it on you (read whole story)

(TL;DR-The “master” mechanic at this store failed to check if her repairs to my fuel tank on my chainsaw were done correctly resulting in my pistons scoring/engine damage. They(mechanic and GM Richard) refused to replace my unit under my warranty falsely stating it was user error after doing an "eye test of damage".)

My stihl chainsaw had a gas leak and it was sent to this store to be worked on by their “master” mechanic (I took it to the ACE of Leesville who didn’t do repairs at their store). It was returned fixed (or so I thought) until within a day of having it I realized it was still leaking. I took it back, it was shipped off to this store again, and it appeared they fixed the problem.

Let me preface with this is the MS 271 farm boss model. I have owned it for almost two years doing some serious work (at times letting it burn a little hot which accrued some burn off on the bar) and I NEVER had an issue with it. I always used stihl’s premixed cans for gas and bar oil. I also always touch up the chain when refueling if needed and I've been operating saws for over 20 years.

So when I fired it up after the first time after repairs within 30 mins it stopped working. I took it to a reputable mechanic at another ace who told me that it could be from them adjusting the carburetor to run lean or issues in the fuel line after replacing the fuel tank. It would have been easy to identify if the mechanic did a cut test after repairs (NOT just run it for a few mins) which is what stihl recommends for their mechanics to do.

I took it back to the Cary location since Corinne, their mechanic, is who did the repairs. I dropped it off on a Wednesday and she told me she would get to it by the end of the following week. I called that Friday, she said she didn't get to it and would do it the following Monday. I waited until THURSDAY and spoke with Richard the GM who said she would get to it that day but might take until the following day due to how much time it takes to assess. Corinne left me a VM within 2 hours of that call. When I called her back she immediately said it was user error that I ran the engine too hot and the warranty was void. I called the following day to talk to Richard (GM) and he said the bar showed signs of wear and the chain was "significantly dull". When I asked what was the standard of measurement to define "user error" versus years of use he couldn't give me an answer. Had they asked me, I would have informed them that all the wear on the bar was from previous use prior to repair and I had ZERO issues with the saw. This clearly was an fraudulently attempt to cover up their own mistakes by not checking their own work to make sure the saw was operating correctly by subjectively stating "user error".

Bottom line is this ACE location is not "your locally owned ACE" but actually a corporate location. They prefer to get as much work through the door and out versus actually actual quality work (especially checking to make sure it was done correct hence why I had to send my chainsaw back to them with the fuel leak). I cannot recommend strongly enough to stay away from this ACE location if you are in need of any stihl product repair (leesville location too since they send their work...

I am so disappointed in this Ace store. We were excited to have Ace move into the neighborhood and as soon as the doors opened we have used Ace rather than travel to the big box stores. The customer service at the paint deparment has been excellent. A service offered by Ace is to repair screens. So I took my screens in, asked how long it would take to rescreen and was told I could have it in about a day, day and a half. I hadn't heard back from them so went in Friday morning to find out if my screens were ready for pick up. There were 2 men at The Hub. One was on the phone, the other started to speak to me. I asked if my screens were ready for pick up. As he was about to go find out, the man that said that had given me a timeline came strolling by. He said he hadn't had a chance to repair them as it had been so hectic . I asked did he know when he would be able to get them done by? Before he could answer, the man on the phone piped up and said "no, they will be done when they are done". I was shocked. The man who was going to do the repair said "hopefully before I go home today" Well that was Friday, today is Monday and still no update on my screens. Extremely poor service and an extremely rude man. We won't be so free and easy spending our dollars at this...