Never Use Lake Nona's ACE Hardware and interact with Assistant Manager STEVE, here is why; on 3/12/2019 I decided to call the store because I needed to make a decision about my lawn edger due to its struggle to start. Since I had to repair or purchase a new edger, I wanted to find out from ACE what was needed to take a look at my edger before deciding. The person that answered the phone told me that in order for them to take a look at it that it would be $30, they would call me in a few days to tell me what was needed to be done to it, then 'if' I decided to fix it then my $30 would apply to the final cost of repair. Now my problem with Lake Nona ACE Hardware and Assistant Manager STEVE, I decided to take my lawn edger in for evaluation on 3/13/2019 for the $30. Then, on 3/20/2019 my wife asked me if I'd heard back about the status of our edger, curiously I told her No. So, I drove by and asked Jay (the employee who actually does the service) about my lawn edger and after he searched through a stack of papers that seemed to be work orders for customers with other pieces equipment needing service. Jay told me, after taking my work order sheet of paper from near the bottom of the pile, "you are next in line", huh!
Then, on 3/23/2019, my wife called since our lawn started to look un-manicured, once got someone on the phone she let the person who answered know that she was concerned because we had yet to hear anything about our lawn edger. They told her that they would find out what was going on and someone would call us back, that callback never happened! Then, on 3/27/2019, STEVE called and left me a voicemail letting me know that they were 'finish' with my lawn edger. My first thought was, "how could they be finish with my edger when no one called me to approve any repairs', because we were still in the decision stage of buying versus repairing.
So, after borrowing a neighbor's edger while without our edger, I went by ACE on 4/2/2019 to pick up the edger to find out I had an additional $40.28 added to the cost of repair of an old edger. Before I paid it, I felt compelled to let the management at ACE Hardware Lake Nona know the flaw in their process when providing this service to customers. STEVE was the person they called to the front of the store to speak with me. I told STEVE my concern that no one called me before they repaired my edger and his solution was..." we can take all the parts out that we put in it and give it back to you not working because it wasn't cranking when you gave it to us". After looking at him confused and telling him that he must not have cared to hear anything I just said, I told him that his response was very upsetting. One, because they did not give me the opportunity to make decision on if I wanted to take that additional $40.28 and put it towards a brand-new lawn edger which more than likely would have been purchased from that store. With my frustration and STEVE's lack of caring, I asked STEVE; "if my neighbor asks me where to take their lawn equipment should I say NOT to Lake Nona ACE Hardware because they will just charge you without asking if you wanted the service or not?" STEVE started to change his tune and point the blame with excuses, that frustrated me more so I paid that money and stormed out unhappy. I was unhappy because being an 18 year resident of the Lake Nona area, I wanted to used the smaller community retailer to support outside of the big box store but Lake Nona ACE will not get any more of my support and I will surely let those who consider using this store and service know that they should reconsider Lake Nona ACE Hardware as an option because they will treat you how they want to treat you not how you should be, especially STEVE! read more