Harbor Freight Tools Reviews

Cons

We don’t have enough great people working for us. Being the company is opening a new store every two days.

Cons

Competitive work environment amongst associates.

Cons

Not enough hours, not school friendly, few opportunities unless you’re willing to throw out everything else in your life except work. Bad assistant managers and supervisors who have it in their heads that an “I’m the boss” mentality will get them anywhere in life and will produce results with entitled high school dropouts.

Cons

There were more cons than pros which led me to quit after three months. The on boarding process for new employees sucks more than any other job I've had. I had no trainer. Walked in on the first day to no idea what I was doing. They didn't even tell me to enter in through the back of the store because it was truck day, so i looked dumb from the start. Simple details and information they didn't even have the decency explain. Absolutely no communication, no time to write anything down on processes, no one-on-one training with supervisors. Other co-workers would just try and help me along as we went. There were never any clear instructions. The only "training" is 4 hours of watching videos which seemed to be helpful until you actually start and it's nothing like the videos at all. Don't be surprised if they start you on truck day which sometimes ends up being 14 hours long of heavy lifting and stocking.

If you're on the logistics team you might as well not even have the title of logistics because you have to do sales team responsibilities too. Not to mention you're given all these responsibilities the first week while on a part time schedule and they expect you to know how to do everything by the end of the month!?? You're also paid the same amount as the sales team, but end up doing more work. They think being able to earn commission while being on logistics makes up for it, but it doesn't. You still do more hard work. AND for example you could be stocking, start helping a customer, sell them on getting the extended warranties, but when they go to the cash register the cashier will often steal your commission on it by not putting in your numbers despite telling them you sold it to them.

To go more in depth about your responsibilities, you're pretty much thrown to the wolves. Logistics team you'll be expected to do it all. If you don't want to break your back and want a less load of work just apply for sales (still sucks, but slightly better). Sales only answers phone, cashier, greet, and try to sell. Logistics you do all that and then you do replenishment, pricing, planograms, truck, and recalibration. HFT tries to promote safety and safe lifting, but you usually can't get any assistance if you need help with heavy stuff. If you're not going fast enough they'll yell at you no matter how heavy of items you're moving. They don't want to pay for extra hours certain tasks take (such as truck unloading), so they pressure you to the point of dehydration to get everything done in the allocated time. The warehouse is a mess of products piled high always falling over and spilling. You'll also have to locate stuff in that mess quickly to deliver up front into customers cars. In stock and inventory reports are so off because of this mess and disorganization. So another store could tell a customer on the phone we have an item in stock based on report, but when they get there we actually don't have it.

Managers will be on you 24/7 to talk customers into buying certain products so that the cashiers can then talk them into joining the HFT coupon club for more money. Managers goes as far as lying to customers and telling them they're HFT club members themselves and that they've bought certain items. Telling them all of it is so great so they'll purchase it. Then laugh about their schemes when the customer leaves. It's disgusting. It's no surprise they pressure you to sell all the extra warranties and club catalogs. The tools are so cheap and low quality there needs to be other sources of profit for this company. The amount of returns is insane because it all breaks so easily. Speaking of which, doing returns on the system is so complicated and their cashiering system is just bad. I've worked as a cashier at other places and HFT has probably the worst system to work with. Regular transactions is okay, but returns is too long and overcomplicated. You'd think for as often stuff is returned it would be much more simplified.

ALSO! Cant forget about the parking lot sales!!!!! Where they put a bunch of sale priced products that were literally that same price a couple weeks ago outside. As logistics you will get to stand outside as "security" in all sorts of weather. You're not aloud to have a water with you on 90+ degree days or even a chair to sit on while you're standing in the same spot for hours. It's so that bad customers have literally walked inside the store and told the manager how cruel it is to leave employees in that heat for hours with no water or chair just to watch over some cheap tools. Couldn't that time be spent on productivity??

This place is crazy and goes through employees so fast. Within my first week they lost 2 employees for the same reasons. HFT was a joke. Ask a question to a lead or management? They yell at you and make you feel like you're worthless. Need help with a customer to get them more specific information about a particular product? You're on your own!
I asked questions when needing help (which was encouraged), but when I did I received the most vague answers ever & was told to basically figure it out. They're very demanding in lecturing employees about good customer service, but when trying to get customers complete and accurate information for their needs no one wants to step up even though they have more experienced in the specific product departments. Obviously everyone has different knowledge and experience on different types of tools. So for example why would I not ask a supervisor 10x more familiar with trailer parts to give more information to an interested customer than just trying to wing it myself? MAKES NO SENSE.

Anyway, I struggled trying to get the hang of this job for longer than I should. It was a waste of time. I was studying my bachelor of logistics at this time (graduated now). And it was still too crazy of a job despite knowing logistic processes coming in. Probably because I was tricked into it being told I would be doing logistic things, but instead spent half my time trying to sell people junk that I don't know much about.

I wish this review was available when I was reading them on here. Unless you're really good with selling, know about EVERY single tool out there, and can pick up anything (physically or knowledge wise) very quickly I suggest not working here. I just wanted a part time logistics job while in school. I was being considered for full time supervisor as well, but left before pursuing that.

Don't get me wrong there were a few really co-workers there that really did their best to help and would help answer my questions. The problem is they were regular part time employees. They did not have time to be assisting me. That is what supervisors and management is for and TRAINING. Not to mention being on a part time schedule you do not work with the same people all the time, so I didn't have these useful people around every time I worked. So probably 3/20 people were actually nice and helpful.

This is all based on my location in Illinois by the way. I have done inventory at another HFT store in Wisconsin and the atmosphere and store overall was 100% different. So organized, clean communication, and knowledgable instructive leaders. If you're happen to get into a good store with better management it may go smoother than my experience.

Cons

Constantly changing the name of the games and having to pistachio to get anything done way to close on the hours

Cons

Not enough cashiers during busy days especially on week ends

Cons

There were a few managers that had a bad attitude towards me.

Cons

If you are hired in as sales or logistics? And want to move up into mgmt? SORRY! Not gonna happen unless your SM or DM likes you. But if your a drug addict off the street applying for a supervisor position? Your good! When your hired in, you CANNOT move up in the CO. because we "don't know the whole store " and that is 100% ridiculous. But apply for spvr OUTSIDE of the CO. And your IN. The senior sales must TRAIN supervisors? Senior Logistics must TRAIN supervisors? I'm pretty sure that the poster outside of work promises future employees the opportunity to move up in the company. Total LIES.

Cons

Not enough hours to live on

Cons

You have to deal with irate customers from the east of the USA. The pay can be better than 14.00 an hour, managers dont really promote you.