Ace Hardware

Full review
I ordered a water heater blanket from Ace Hardware in early December 2005 and chose the in-store delivery method. It's now mid-January and I still have not received my item. Customer service has been practically non-existent.

At other sites, you order and after some delay the local store calls you or someone sends an email that your order's ready for pick up. This is not how Ace Hardware appears to do things.

Items marked for in-store delivery are placed with the order the local store placed for themselves. There is no tracking information and the store's are not notified that customer orders have been included. It is the customers responsibility to let the local store know something is being shipped there. The local store is under no obligation to contact customers about orders that do arrive. Customers must, essentially, harass the local store employees until orders pop up out of the rabbit hole.

Their policies on canceling orders and refunds are just as bad. Since the item is not on backorder, I have no say so in canceling it. From what I can get out of them, I will eventually be charged for this item even if I don't receive it and will have to take it up with my card issuer.

If by chance it does show up, I can only return it for store credit minus fees for this and that.

Bottom Line:

Items get lost in the mail, this is true. However, Ace doesn't seem to give a rats behind about it. Either way, they get their money and that attitude is quite apparent.