Harbor Freight Santa Clara Screwed Me

I decided I wanted that $60 solar “briefcase” from Harbor Freight that was shown in the video in this article:

https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2021/05/29/compact-portable-solar-power-inverter-battery-kit/

So I looked on line. Found it at the local Harbor Freight:

E. San Jose, CA
1775 Story Rd Ste 130

Store Info
In Stock

Make My Store

Santa Clara, CA
Store Info
In Stock

Make My Store

Santa Clara, CA #349
5241 Stevens Creek Blvd
Santa Clara, CA 95051

408-247-1806
Store Hours:
M-F: 8:00am-8:00pm
Sat: 8:00am-8:00pm
Sun: 9:00am-6:00pm

So I dashed over. 2 were on the shelf. BOTH open packages with ragged tops / closures. I ought to have just stopped there and left. But wanted closure.

Took it to the front to check out. Decided just to make sure that the entire set of 4 cables was in the box. Nope. Only 3, and missing the one that goes into the “Go Power” device.

OK. So I say “Hey, it is missing the cable I need.”

What follows is a clerk from the next register over (bigger “pudgy guy”) saying “it only comes with two, see the picture.” But I know it comes with 4. Plus there are 4 on the back of the box picture, and THREE in the box. How can “comes with 2” mean 3? Then there’s the picture and listing on the wrapping IN the box saying and showing 4. OK…

We go around about a half dozen times: “Is 2. Is 4. Is 2 see picture!. Is 4 see other picture!”. Eventually I tire of this as it is in front of other clerks and customers.

I say “I’m going to trade this for the other one”.

Clueless Argumentative Clerk says “I don’t care what you want…” after which I quit listening… and said back “Yeah, I know you don’t care what the customer wants, but either I get all 4 adapters, or I don’t buy it”.

The other one on the shelf had all four adapters. So on to check out.

This was just the beginning…

I get home, and spouse asks where I went. I get the box for “Show and Tell”. Out comes the “Briefcase Solar Panel” in plastic wrapper and paper end mounts like it has never exited the box before.

I open it to show…. and the hinge is broken and the thing is two separate parts not connected by a hinge. It is flat out BROKEN.

OK, I hop in the car and head back.

Turns out they close at 8 now, not 9 like everywhere else and forever. I get there about 8:40. Three people inside. A tap on the door. “Pudgy Girl” at the back of the shop sees me, and runs to the back so as not to have to deal with anything. “Bigger Pudgy Guy” who I think was the jerk giving me grief earlier comes to the door. I explain “It is broken, I’d like to swap or return”. Now at this point he could just open the door, find the one on the shelf, if it is good, hand it too me, and be done. But Nooo….

~”We’re closed. Don’t even have any registers. They are all in the back… Come back tomorrow at 9 A.M. when we open.”

Not pleased, but I go to my car anyway. I’m getting ready to bail when I see the Night Auditor / Closing Manager come to the register and start to close it out. I know what this is because I’ve done it. So first off, “Pudgy Guy” was too clueless to just handle the problem via a swap, then he flat out LIED to the customer about registers already closed out and gone.

But it gets worse…

So I go up to the door and waggle a finger at “Pudgy Guy” and point at the guy closing the register and say “Not going to look good on the internet…” and go back to my car.

Now I’m not sure how much they can see out the door. It is well lit inside and getting dark outside. But about this time “Pudgy Girl” comes to the front. She talks to Pudgy Guy and with her mask off does the laugh bend over thing. I can read lips OK due to the deafness, and while I could not get all of it, I’m pretty sure Pudgy Guy was saying something like ~”That was the guy upset about {the product} earlier and I just blew him off”. She had a good laugh about it as did he.

So, to recap:

Harbor Freight #349 at 5241 Stevens Creek Blvd, Santa Clara, CA 95051; tried to sell me a product missing parts, derided me in front of other customers and staff for saying it was missing parts, even when demonstrated that the other box had all 4 adapters, was dismissive, sold me a flat out physically broken unit, didn’t want to do a slightly after hours exchange when that was all it would take, and then decided to have a laugh about it.

Now I ask you: Does that sound like a well run store to you? Does that sound like somewhere that cares about The Customer?

FWIW:

I may be very biased. In our restaurant, we often closed at 9 PM, but when someone came to the door and said they had no dinner and just wanted whatever we could do; we opened the door, and made them what we could make. The Grill takes about 1/2 hour warm up, and the friers about the same, so deep fat fried and grilled were out. Plus things in the steam table. But we could usually figure out something to make. Grilled Cheese in a skillet or a cold sandwich. Something being better than nothing.

So my POV on Customer Service leans rather strongly toward “Do not piss off the customer”. Maybe that is old fashioned now.

So tomorrow, about 9 AM, I get to go back a 3rd time and ask for “The Manager”. Then, when some “20 Something” gets trotted out, ask if “They have Profit and Loss responsibility or are just a MINO (Minnow or Manager In Name Only)? Then explain that the Saturday Night Crew are clueless and a PITA to the customer, and this customer wants some degree of satisfaction (working product or money back) and that the story is “up” on the internet with the ending to be written by said Manager (or MINO)…

But at this point I can only state:

DO NOT under any circumstances buy ANY product from Harbor Freight in an opened box without taking EVERYTHING out, inspecting it, and assuring both completeness and that the product is intact. Clearly Harbor Freight does not care about selling you boxes with missing part or broken crap in them.

Tomorrow we find out if they have a tiny bit of clue about Customer Relations importance, or if they don’t mind at all having this crap be normal business operations.

Stay tuned, more to come…

UPDATE / Epilog:

The “Morning Crew” were more clueful than the night crew. A bit terse, not quite brusque. No fuss, just “stand in the line” and a point at the 6 foot markers in the aisle of tools.

I had paused in the entry about 6 feet from the clerk to ask “where to I take returns” and she was not interested in any more words than necessary…

OK, I stand “over there” about 30 seconds, she finishes that customer, I step up: “Return. It is broken”. I hand her the receipt, she does the register stuff, spits out a “receipt for return” and I sign it. Only quibble was that she required my phone number for a return. OK I guess, though I usually do not give it out. Then someone from the back was called with the “ok to hand out cash” register code. Then drawer open and… not enough cash.

So a few minutes were spent getting folks with money authority to scare up the bucks. I walked out of the store cash in hand.

Thanks to YMMV on the original story for catching that they lied on the box.

It is called a “13 watt” panel, but even if you take the peak volts at 24 (undoubtely open circuit) and the peak amps at 400 mA (clearly not open circuit), and doing a multiply…that is only 9.6 W so they still have to fudge it somewhere.

For that reason I went for “cash back” instead of replacement.

So all I’m out is the gas for 3 trips to the local Harbor Freight. I did get a nice chunk of camp rope for $5 out of it. So there’s that.

I’m still going to look for a modestly low cost 12 VDC with car adapter panel that I can use to trickle charge my car. Typically one will sit in the driveway getting sun for 1/2 a day right in the windshield, and not driven for a month or so. Sometimes the battery gets a bit low and I swap it into use and another one goes to the holding space. It would be nice to keep that battery topped up. But not necessary. I’ve been doing it via rotation for many years.

When car camping, I’ll just keep using my inverter and expect to recharge while driving. That, too, has worked for years. IF I ever end up in one spot for a week or two, I’ll just make sure to run the engine for 7 minutes every week ;-)

One other minor note:

I’ve been to a few other Harbor Freight stores and the staff were much more friendly and helpful. It looks like it is just this one in this area that is brusque and rude about customers. So not going back to this one.

I’ll drive the extra 5 or 10 miles to the one in South San Jose or further north (they must have one somewhere near Milpitas…) The Story Road one is an option, but that area is of less than savory reputation. “King & Story” was an intersection known for fights, violence, etc. some decades ago. I’ve not heard such in the last 2 decades, but that could just be me not following the news about local gangs. In any case, I only go there if there is no other option, otherwise I avoid the area.

With that, I’m going to put a dachshund on my lap, have a fresh cup of coffee, and crinkle some money in my pocket ;-)

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