Harbor Freight Tools

I wished to pick up a $35 folding platform truck, push cart and found it on their website where it listed my local store in Hayward CA as having it in stock.

I drove to the store but was unable to find the item on their shelves so I asked at the register (apparently the only place they have employees at that store) and was told they don't have it in stock and I should try Pittsburg or San Jose stores, the latter has two in stock.

I offered to drive my wife home as San Jose is a long way away, but she didn't wanna use up my entire day driving around so she tagged along. We arrived an hour or so later at the San Jose Story Road facility where I looked on the shelves again and again couldn't find it. So I again asked at the register and was told I should have called to be sure they have it in stock. They looked but didn't find one even though it showed in their system as having several. I was told they thought I could get it at the other San Jose store, so I had them call and they put my name on it so I could pick it up and not worry someone else bought it before I got there.

We arrived half an hour later and were told that they didn't have it in stock. After I spoke to the cashier who had me drive all the way there to pick up this non-existent product their manager came over and told me that I was the fourth person today to try to buy that product and he was thinking of taking it out of their system as so many people were coming in to buy it, but that they had not gotten any from the warehouse in over three weeks.

He then lied to me saying that when the other store called he had told them the item was NOT in stock, I tried to correct him saying he wasn't the one that the other SJ store spoke to, it was the cashier next to him, but he was having none of it.

He asked what I wanted him to do and I told him take it out of his computer system while I wait, but he refused. So I asked him to cut down the display model and sell it to me. But he refused. I got a rain check instead. — Desired Outcome — I am told by the first cashier that I talked to in Hayward that JUST having the model on display shows up as In-Stock on their website, that needs to change. I went there yesterday and the same cashier told me, the bigger unit that I saw had claim tags for you to bring to the register, that these don't indicate they have them in stock. This seems like a GIANT waste of the customer's time in line for checkout.

If you are going to send me to another store, and the inventory is KNOWN to be faulty, don't SAY the other store has it, CALL and see if they have it. This is a GIANT waste of the customer's time to drive all that way and not be any closer to owning the item you are trying to buy.

If you work in a store and you receive a call asking you to put a unit on hold, get ahold of it before committing to having it in stock. This is a GIANT waste of the customer's time, and completely unbelievable that a retail establishment would think it's OK to do this.

If you are a manager and you have an upset customer DON'T tell them that it isn't the other employee's fault that they wasted your day trying to purchase something from this establishment, own up to it. It was their fault and it's plain on your face you are lying. If you want to make a customer feel better about the situation, DON'T lie about how this went down and refuse to take steps to make the situation better.

Acknowledge the issue happened, how it happened, and realize it isn't impossible to make the situation better in the future. If you don't feel you have time it may be because you are getting pressure from your superiors that has led to this situation, get them involved in fixing it! And realize that even though you may not have been at fault in this situation, you enabled this situation by your continue employment in this company, you can make things better by using that leverage to make a change or at least get out from under such a horrible institution.