Pastime Hardware — Local services in El Cerrito

I came in a few days ago needing a sledgehammer. I was directed to a certain area of the store where the sledgehammers supposedly were. I bought the one that was there. I took it to my job. I used it in an attempt to break up some concrete- eventually I found the tool to be fairly ineffective. I took the tool back a few days later because I have other things to do besides return a tool that didn't work. When I get there the manager asks, 'did you use this, Dude?' . Without skipping a beat or waiting for me to answer he then replied quickly- ' if you used it you can't return it.'

I didn't appreciate being called dude. Being called nothing at all would have worked fine just a simple -did you use this? would have worked fine.

Also, it was a $60 tool. That does affect my budget. To think that Pastime Hardware is going to suffer greatly because they honor their return policy is hard for me to believe.

This is the exact stuff that drives people into the arms of Home Depot. Sure, some people take advantage of a return option. That happens. If the manager had shown any interest in engaging me I would have explained that I felt that the employee had mislead me to buy the tool and that I just wanted to return it and get a different sledgehammer to him and ideally he could have gotten a sense that I wasn't just somebody taking advantage of a return policy.

It all gives me good reason to avoid shopping at Pasttime. They may have saved there profit on the tool that they sold me but it may be the last dollar they...

Negative, Negative experience. I purchase supplies for three properties in the east bay, I have been going to this ace for 20years. I have been there twice in the last week and spent up to 500.00 in those two visits alone. I noticed in each of these transactions the manager from the front office needed to be consulted. The first time he acted like he was very put out that we were purchasing the items we wanted and stacked them by the front and said, "It is all yours" , and walked away, no thank you, no further assistance. Today I wanted to buy some insulation from the back room. The clerk and I noticed there was no sign listing the price, she took me to the front to ask the manager (a different person than the first one). He came out and while walking to the back of the store muttered how it was so obvious that the price must be in the scan. I told him it was on a shelf 8ft. up with no sign. He said we do not really want to sell this stuff and jerked in down off the shelf and said all you have to do is scan it. I said I do not work here as he carried (a huge bundle) to the scanner on the wall. He got the price to read after trying twice, put it on the floor and said, " If you want it.. carry it to the front and pay for it and walked away, again no respect or common human decency." When I got to the front he was standing around joking with a friend/customer laughing as I hauled the thing through the check stand. I will try never to...

My frequent "go to" local hardware store. A great place to get personal help to be sure you have the right solution for your problem/project although as noted by others, sometimes some of the clerks/help fall a tad bit short but overall they are very good.

Was just there on Jan. 4 needing screws to put my over door back together and got great help. I like that I can buy just a few screws as needed and not a whole package as I would have to elsewhere...

They have a lot of cool, useful household items and some very nice home storage items. I like their hours staying open until 9 on weeknights and 7 on Sundays... (UNlike the ACE store near my Oakland home, which closes early on weeknights at 6PM and at 4PM on SUNDAYS?!? which to me is NOT at all realistic for many of their customers who work.) It has a small business feel but provides big box store range of merchandise and I can find pretty much everything I need and discover useful things while poking around. Decent prices and I have had pretty good experiences with the ACE labeled products. The Store Manager is very present and ensures all goes well and is very helpful as well. Plenty of floor staff. Sadly, they seem to place very VERY little value on cultural diversity in their staff/hiring which in this district is really UNfortunate and borders on.....racially narrow outlook in a multicultural world and that is a problem. Other than that pathetic point, I do...