Harbor Freight — Local services in Salem

I bought an obd2 scanner at harbor freight after an employee assured me it would work on my 2005 volvo after I had specifically asked him if he was sure because I had read online that I needed something called Vida/Dice for my car. After I checked out, I noticed on the receipt that it said there could be a restocking fee if I returned the item, immediately asked the cashier what that meant & was told that a lot of people will buy things and return them after they've used them kind of like a rental program therefore if I return the item and it is not defective, I would be charged a restocking fee of $63. Ok, i wouldnt be doing that so shrugged it off. After scanning my car, the reader suggested I replace the fuel pump (cost me $483) and then it suggested I replace the fuel pressure sensor but my car still didn't work and so I paid an ase certified mechanic to fix my car and was told that the scanner wouldnt properly diagnose my car and in fact, there had been no need for the fuel pump purchase at all and for future reference i needed to buy a dice unit for my volvo cause this scanner would not work for my car as promised by the harbor freight employee. The scanner would also get stuck on "tow module" sometimes when scanning and would have to be unhooked from the car for a few minutes and then hooked up again to work. I went to return it since it had barely been 2 weeks. As soon as I got to the register, I was treated like a thief, even though I had MY receipt and MY debit card. I was told it wasn't defective so I went out to car and ran a scan and sure enough it got stuck on "tow module" and I showed the cashier it was defective. Then he changed his reasoning again, told me that an employee would not have told me I could return it if defective without the fee. I asked to speak to the lady who told me that, he said she was in back and he would not waste her time or his to bring her out front to argue with me. I asked to speak to manager, he said you are. I was sick to my stomach. I had never had a problem returning anything at harbor freight in the past 10 years so I had felt confident in the employees suggestion to buy that particular scanner (that ended up costing me an extra $484 for a pump i didnt need) andI had trusted harbor freight to have my back if anything went wrong with it . Now, I felt like I was being ripped off. The product was defective! No other product in the store could do what vida/dice does for volvo cars, I would not have bought it in the first place if I had known that but needless to say, I did buy it. I paid for it, and it didn't work correctly, was defective nor did it work as described for my car. Item was returned in less than the required time frame for a full refund return, in original packaging, with original receipt etc. Sadly, I feel like harbor freight knowingly restocked a defective item to sell to another unsuspecting customer and stole $63 from me with a smile on their face. They did not keep their customer satisfaction promise, nor follow their own policy. As quoted from their web site. "RETURNING ITEMS PURCHASED IN STORE

If for any reason you are not satisfied with an item purchased from Harbor Freight Tools, you may return the product within 90 days for a full refund or replacement, whichever you prefer. The limited warranty term is 90-day beginning on the date of invoice. You must provide the original receipt to receive an...

Some deals to be had if you are careful, but don't be fooled, you have to be aware of the many exceptions on coupons, most of the really good stuff they sell can not be bought with a coupon, and those items can be purchased at other places like Walmart/Amazon/Fred Meyer/Home Depot or Lowes for less quite frequently. They have a very dubious "sale" marketing style that likely breaks laws on the regular, and employees can be amazingly stale or even rude. I bought an item from the Salem store and the female employee (with a neck tattoo to complete the stereotypical grump checklist lol) couldn't be bothered to say hello OR thank you. Many items are simply cheap junk and the free with purchase items are a total gimmick. They are not worth the claimed values EVER. They are usually on par with something from the .99c store. Free, but if it gets you into the store and you buy even a few bucks worth of cheap junk to get the item then you have lost, not won. I'm just saying it pays to be price concious and aware of the many items that are actually over priced or sub par at HF vs the items they sell that are priced fairly well. There are some, especially some floor jacks and some hand tools. Some items like paint guns that can be used with coupons can be a good deal. So in closing this novella I will say I do shop there sometimes, because every now and then a good bargain can be found. I do not shop there for the friendly old school customer service that doesn't...

I normally come through here whenever I need tools, cleaners, etc. I even just had a ton of tools stolen from my truck and came back to HF to replace them all - spent around $1300 in the last month or so alone. and I’ve never had a bad experience - until today. Came through this morning after watching a bunch of videos online about the ICON G2 flex head ratchets. Going to chemeketa soon for auto and thought they’d be nice to have instead of spending the tool truck money for snap-on or Matco. The ICON ratchets in the aisle were all locked up but the endcap ones weren’t, and I had grabbed a 1/4” and 3/8” of the G2 before heading over to look at some of the other options like the indexing Pittsburgh ones. An employee named Sean came over, said the ICON were supposed to be locked up and practically ripped them out of my hand and walked away. I said “well hold up I’m gonna go check out right now” and he yelled back (while still walking away) “okay just get in line”. Then he was the one who checked me out and again was still super rude at the checkout. I understand if they’re supposed to be locked up and weren’t, but there was a nicer way to go about it. I’ve never felt like a criminal shopping at a harbor freight, and I don’t know why you’d apply for a customer service job if you don’t want to provide customer service. But I’ll just go to South from now on or order online. I gave 2 stars instead of 1 because the ICON ratchets are...