Three strikes for Sauk Centre location. As a rule of thumb, even though their prices are generally higher than their competitors, I appreciate the variety most Ace Hardware stores contain, but in my most-recent interactions with the Sauk Centre location, they really missed the mark. Earlier this year I bought a few tubes of caulk for a project that was a couple hours away. When I went to use the caulk, I found that only one of the tubes was viscous and the rest were rock-solid. Upon inspection, all of the dates on the caulk tubes were over a year old. From this experience, I learned to buy perishable items from stores with higher product turnover rates. Next, about eight weeks ago I dropped something off for minor service (a two-hour job at most) and was told it would be "ready next week". Five weeks later, after hearing every excuse in the book (including "there are several people ahead of you") it was ready for pick up. Within the first couple of days and minimal use, the service they performed had failed, and when I brought it back in for warranty, I was told that "there are several people ahead of you" and that I was "going to the back of the line" and that it could take as long as the first time. In my opinion, warranty work should be their highest priority, so I brought it to their competition. From this experience, the Sauk Centre Ace Hardware has been crossed off my list of vendors and is not a business I will recommend to friends or family in the future. read more
