Harbor Freight — Local services in Winter Garden

I've been thinking about this a while and I think I have to share my experience. The store is great - selection is great - prices great- no problems there. I came in to pick up a new jack for my car during a sale, which of course comes in a large heavy box (90 pounds). They offered to help me load it into my car, which sounded good to me.

My car is a little unique - the engine is behind the front seats and there is a clear glass cover over it (about the size of a windshield). There is a trunk right behind that. I pulled my car to the curb, got out and opened the hatch, and said to the two employees that there was only one way it will fit because of the size of the box, and gestured that it will need to go long-ways, so the box will be in the trunk and resting up so that it does NOT touch the glass. I turned around to close my car door and grab a towel to put under the box and these two employees had already prompted lifted the jack and dropped it directly onto my glass engine cover, and pushed it so that all of the dirt and sand on the box grinds into my glass!

Frustrated, I re positioned the box myself to avoid further damage and drove home, and spent an hour or so trying to polish the scratches out of the glass. I understand it's not normal to have a glass cover in the back of the car, but I just can't believe after my clear instructions and common sense that placing a dirty, 90 lb box on top of glass and then sliding it around would be an action anyone would take.

I'll admit that I did not contact the store or the manager about this incident - because what are they going to do? The damaged glass totals something like $650 and all they sold me was a $100 jack. I don't hold it against the store specifically, but I have to say I'm frustrated to have spent the last 3 years meticulously protecting that piece of glass only to have it damaged in a few minutes by someone else not paying attention.

That's also the reason for the bad rating - if I had loaded it myself, I would completely accept the fault as my own, but that's...

DONT RECOMMEND BUYING ANY SMALL ENGINE HERE the pass 60 max days I have purchased four different generators from this place and not once have any of the staff told me about a open box RETURN policy, nor does it state any open box policy on their website. When I originally purchased my generator, it was new and it had a recall so they upgraded me to a new generator. Which I had no idea. It was an open box staff just help me lift a generator into my truck and never told me nothing about it and I pay the difference second Generator would not stay on and running took that back. They traded it in for third generation and the GFI switches have blown and they kept refusing to trade it out even if it was not 20 days old they kept referring to a policy that is not written out just made up that is just made up and not stated on their websites. The policy they kept referring to was a open box policy which I kept looking for and on the open box. I guess it’s only five days even if it is a generator which is insane because generators are made to last and should have at least a one year limited warranty for a small engine appliance. we went back-and-forth through customer service. Customer service refused to give District managers number I guess there’s no way to contact the district manager they gave me the name of the district manager, and expected me to go buy whatever meth head worker they have working to make decisions who can’t even make life decisions( make it make sense) I have reached out to the district manager via Instagram because there is no other way to contact this man. still have not received a reply. I have to file a complaint waiting on status updates on that. I suggest if you were buying any small engine appliances, be sure to read over the policies and to shop somewhere else where they guarantee their product that they carry and sell. only thing good about this store is the cheap tools that you can replace because they are cheaply made. Hurry and read the website. It says nothing about open box policy before...

Started this horrible experience by finding a 25% off coupon no exclusions in my spam box at 8:30 at night on the last night it was valid. I have not shopped at Harbor Freight in quite some time but am in the market for a large item. I hadn’t considered buying it from them until I saw the coupon. Turns out coupon was only valid in store but it was too late to make it. The next day I went up to the Winter Garden location to ask if there was any way to honor it. When I walked in the cashier was arguing with a customer about an expired coupon of all things. I saw a woman with a supervisor tag so I introduced myself and told her my situation and if there was anything she could do, fully expecting there was not. Now, I read the terms of the expired coupon and it did not have any stipulations about large ticket, toolboxes, certain brands, etc. without provocation she proceeded to tell me they could not accept an expired coupon, and just to inform me it would not have worked on any large value items or tool storage, to which case I showed her the coupon. She said well you should have come yesterday, that was a good one. Then she walked off with no additional offer of help, didn’t try and get me to buy anything, didn’t thank me for coming in, nothing. Again, I want to say I did not expect them to accept an expired coupon, but the lack of customer service or even the basic customer interaction was awe full. Very bad overall experience. I will not be shopping at this location and would be very hesitant to shop at any Harbor Freight...