Bait and Switch warning - Ace Hardware Chastain! Normally we love this store, where we have been loyal and regular customers for more than 16 years. However today's unusual and aggravating experience at the store has prompted us to find another favorite hardware store.
Here is what happened - as loyal customers, we received Ace's Cyber Monday in-store coupon by email, and added a stop at the store to our long list of stores to visit over the heavy holiday shopping weekend. Parking at the store was crowded and the lines in the store we long, but we like to support small businesses and this store is one of our favorites, so we waited patiently and eventually reached the front of the line. When we presented our Cyber Monday email coupon for 15% off, the cashier told us that she would not accept it - she said that store owner, Michael Harwell, had just implemented a new policy, and would not allow cashiers to accept Cyber Monday coupons from customers' emails unless they were hard-printed by the customer on paper. We pointed out that the coupon makes no reference to the need print to paper, and in fact the coupon gives cashier instructions for how to scan directly from the email screen. The cashier seemed embarrassed and called for a supervisor to make an exception. Surly supervisor, J.J., came to the cashier desk and also refused to honor the emailed coupon, citing new orders from the owner. He said that to get the promised Cyber Monday discount we were holding in our hands, we would need to leave the store, drive home, connect our cell phone to a printer, print an image of the coupon to hard paper, return to the store with a paper copy of the email from Ace, and only then would he refund the amount of the 15% discount - those were the specific orders of store owner, Michael Harwell. While this seemed to be a colossal waste of time, and very stressful on a family on day three of tiring holiday shopping, we were counting on the discount Ace promised us. (Not a single other store in Atlanta we visited refused to honor their own emailed coupons - only Ace Hardware Chastain). So we went home, figured out how to connect a cell phone to a printer, printed the cyber coupon to hard paper, drove back to Ace Hardware, drove around their parking lot to find an open space, went back into the store, and stood in a long line again to get to the same cashier. When we reached the front of the line she then told us that she is not trained to do the discount adjustments, and pointed us to another line of customers waiting for "Customer Service". We then went to that line and waited to be served. When we reached the front of that line, the cashier at "Customer Service" also could not make the adjustment, but she called for supervisor, J.J. Once again we had to deal with this unhappy, and notably unfriendly, supervisor - J.J. made the $14.00 adjustment without ever uttering the words please, thank-you, sorry for the inconvenience/long waits in line, or even so much as making eye contact. He seemed to take some delight in having made us waste so much of our holiday shopping time to get the $14.00 discount which brought us into the store. As retired people, the discount was important, so we patiently jumped through all the hoops that J.J. required, but it was a bit off-putting to be sure. We will not be back.
The sad part of this story is that we have been Ace Hardware fans for decades and regular customers of this location for more than 15 years. Until today, when we have thought of Ace Hardware, we have thought of great, friendly service, experienced advice, well stocked selection of merchandise, competitive pricing, local neighborhood small business to support etc. Now, however, when we think of Ace Hardware Chastain, it will be hard to forget the ugly experience with employee J.J., and the completely unnecessary, stressful, and silly way in which he made us waste an hour of our time just to get the discount that Ace promised by email. Years of customer loyalty can be destroyed with one terrible experience - today we had ours at Michael Harwell's Ace Hardware Chastain. read more