I called in earlier and honestly, this was the best customer service I had from Harbor freight tools! Levi answered and did a stocked check for me an item I need. Answered all my questions, didn't rush me, honestly I can tell this location values and treats their customers very well. I would definitely recommend this place to my friends and family ! Thank you for having such a great team . read more

Yes, I still hate shopping for tools. But after spending a LOT of time in the past 2 years at Home Depot, Lowe's and Builder's Supply, Harbor Freight definitely has the best values. Builder's Supply has the best customer service, but Harbor Freight is second. Let's not even discuss HD or Lowe's because they don't have customer service at all. I'm typically ready for a nap after a trip to Harbor Freight (tool shopping is exhausting) but I'm not mad. That's a good thing. read more

this is the go to easy and easy out hardware store good prices great sales way easier to get to the Home Depot. Check it out.

Manager was very helpful, accommodating our order. it was not in stock and she made sure to follow up with me once order was in. With a great smile. . For that I'm very thankful. read more

Harbor Freight Tools - Hardware Stores Near Me - San Rafael, California

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I asked the cashier if they were gonna be closing because of the tariffs. He replied no that they plan to continue and HF gets some of their merchandise from other countries besides China. I found the employees to be very helpful just to give a little positive note after some of the poor reviews. read more

I have used this Harbor Freight often as they often have what I need at a good price. I didn't get a chance this time as I came on my bicycle just having moved to San Rafael and when I asked if I could keep it inside as I had forgotten my lock. The answer was a no even though I thought I would buy another lock and told the young man so, still no. I have been trying to keep everything local so locally owned Jackson's hardware it is and they were polite and neighborly. Good bye Harbor Freight it was good while it lasted! read more

Love this store ! Harbor freight has consistently improved over the years. Tools used to be very cheesy, but now many of the harbor freight tools are the best thing out there and at very cost-effective prices. Absolutely love this place! Note that many of the negative reviews here are many years old. read more

This branch of HF never opens on time! Every time I've been to the San Rafael store, there are people standing outside the door at opening time and they always seem to open 5 minutes or more late. Is this a game with the employees or do they need a Swiss made clock? read more

Agreed, extremely rude employees. Juan, the (only) cashier, berated me because I was in a hurry to get through the line while he just was chatting with a customer for several minutes while others were waiting in line. read more

I recently discovered the best place to buy tools in San Rafael. I had almost forgotten what customer service was after multiple trips to Home Depot. Kayla and David were amazing. I keep returning to buy more cool stuff for my remodel. The prices are incredible too! They always have stuff on sale and beat Amazon prices. read more

My philosophy: especially hobbiests and DIY, one is never sure if one actually needs a particular tool (I thought I would use a chopsaw all the time; I don't). And without using a tool, one does not really know what is useful and what is important. One does not even know what size is the best (e.g. 6" or 8" blade? 14" or 22" belt) Harbor Freight tools are not the best, but they are the best to begin with. I love my band saw: I'm building jigs for it; it's great. My bench-top table saw is fine when I absolutely have to use a table saw, but my little 4" circular saw and a clamp-guide handle most of my plywood cutting. My drill press and belt/disk sander are on my bench most of the time I didn't read about what I would use most or guess; I know what I do use most. And the tools that I don't use? They were experiments that taught me things, and the "tuition" was reasonable For clamps and hand tools, I can get extras to have on hand and even misuse while I'm learning for the cost of 1/3 of a Woodpeckers Platonic ideal of a tool I'm not a professional woodworker or contractor. My choice of tools affects my hobby, not my job. HB lets me make mistakes and learn without cringing (well, cringe at what it looks like, not what it costs) read more

I am a person that could spend an afternoon roaming amongst tools. Just for fun. I love tools. People complain about the HF quality, but I will always visit San Rafael Harbor Freight first when I need a tool or a gadget and I find that the staff is ALWAYS helpful and courteous. read more

Horrible customer service! Beware if you have an issue and need a refund keep an eye on it, they don't really issue it and then deny any knowledge of agreement to one! Spent almost 500$ on a storage cabinet, when delivered it was the wrong color and there was a big dent in the side! Charging almost $100 for shipping is bad enough, but to pay that much and it show up wrong and damaged is just ridiculous! Will not purchase online anymore, recommend sticking with in store purchases! read more

Go here if you want to find the right tools to finish your project without breaking the bank. Along with many great deals on tools there is some low quality junk. READ the REVIEWS! There are many well made knock off items in both hand tools and power. If you know what you need then try it out. If you want to have your butt kissed don't go, it doesn't happen at HD either IF you can find someone to talk to! Again READ THE REVIEWS on tools you are considering and the dollar really stretches! It takes effort on the buyers part. Isn't that why we go there? read more

If you're low on money, there are some values here if chosen carefully. The shopping experience here is horrible. Just grabbing what you want, paying and leaving is generally unpleasant. People are rude, the lines are not differentiated, Who does the hiring here anyway? Revel in buying quality and stay away from this place. read more

Super helpful staff . Huge variety of low cost tools. A man's heaven. They have so many good product at super low prices.

Mannn 75% of the costumers who come into the harbor Freight Tools in San Rafael are the most Rudest and most arrogant people you'll ever meet. I've never seen so many Adults throw tantrums over a 20% coupon ( that was expired in the first place) or because they THINK they know what they're talking about 55 years old or 7 I can't even tell anymore it's completely pathetic half the time. The other 25% are the coolest people in the world read more

Harbor Freight Tools - Angry Middle aged man. - Hardware Stores Near Me - San Rafael, California

Of the five or six different Harbor Freight stores I've been to in Northern California, this had been the least appealing one. For the most part, Harbor Freight stores aren't much to look at; generic feel with no design. Just tracks and tracks and aisles and aisles of tools. But at least have some lovely people. This one doesn't have that. Of the 5 people I interacted with, the most personable and least grumpy and detached was the guy coming out of the bathroom that showed us how to get in (locker). Cashier? She was unpleasant, acting like it was a personal insult to have to help people. Other cashier? She was no better. Two staff guys I asked where things were - one didn't seem to care and gave me wrong information while the other was rude. Thankfully the store had 90% of what I needed so mission mostly accomplished. I'm also thankful this isn't my "home" store. I do not have any interest in coming to this particular store again. read more

I went to this store today 08/25/2020 at 11:46am to pick up a floor jack Daytona Low Profile Long Reach with price $194.99 as advertised (please see attachment). At the check out, a guy with tag Supervisor helped me out. He was able to look up my email and I do have account at Harbor Freight. Then he asked me if I want to pay for insurance and I said I do not want any of extended warranty or insurance, simply I just want to pay as it is. Then I saw the price for my floor jack was $199.99. I asked him why and he said "oh that's what the price is". I said "no, that is not what I saw from the price tag and I TOOK him to the jack location and show him the price tag". Guess what, he said "oh the price is wrong but I will give you the price". I said "oh so all the price you guys showed here for these jacks are all wrong?". I told him "No, you don't give me the price, that is what the price is as advertised". Then he came back to his checkout station and adjust the price to $194.99. This supervisor is such a liar and dishonest to customers. I gave this store 1 start because of him, the supervisor, otherwise, this store should have gotten a good review. I have attached the pictures of the price tag and receive in case you want to know who the supervisor is. read more

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Like a toy store for adults! You'll enter planning to pick up 1 item and likely leave with more due to the awesome deals! The older gent on the floor is really helpful & polite, rated 3 stars because the cashier Ashley is dry! read more

I like this place a lot because I can get a project done without spending a fortune on tools. I'm no carpenter or electrician, just a homeowner who occasionally doesn't want to spend hundreds of dollars hiring someone to do something simple. Latest example is mounting my TV and hiding the wires in the wall. Mind you, I don't argue with the facts of the bad reviews--the quality probably isn't professional. But I'm not a professional, and if you accept this place on its own terms then it's fine. read more

+2 for cheap prices and -3 because the lady that works there has an awful attitude. Don't treat your customers like crap when all we are trying to do is buy stuff and pay for it. If you can't handle that perhaps this job is not for you? read more

The gray haired sales lady is outright rude!!! Typical Harbor Freight. Well stocked. Most of the staff is congenial but the older lady at the check out is outright rude..... read more

Nothing good from top to bottom, left to right, in store or online. Their employees suck. Their inventory information is never correct, driving me to the store to get something they didn't have in stock but said they did...40 mile round trip is not cheap and they took it as a joke. Their website is so bad & antequated I mistakenly ordered the same thing twice. After almost another hour on hold. I reached someone the next morning, early to cancel the dupe. She assured me I'd receive an email confirming the cancellation. It didn't come, but 4 days after I spoke to her I received the shipping confirmation...FOUR DAYS LATER! HORRIBLE. That doesn't even address 5he issue of the literal CRAP quality of everything they sell. I'm done with them & hope I influence others to be done too! read more

I will admit that I like to shop here. This may be the last tool shop on the left, the store of broken parts, but it fills an invaluable niche. Their prices are unbeatable, even compared to Craigslist. If you follow the old stockbrokers advice (don't buy anything that floats, flies or fornicates) you can find some terrific deals here. Their clamps, wrenches, sockets, and hammers are perfectly ok. You can even buy some of the power tools. Bear in mind that they are underpowered and crudely engineered, but at these prices they are almost disposable. The places is dimly lit, never crowded, and the employees are low on Prozac, but I love to browse the aisles, looking for bargains, dreaming of the higher quality tools I would buy if I could. It is true that you should buy the best tools that you can afford, but these days tools are obscenely expensive, even at Home Depot. Most of them are imports anyway, of only slightly better quality than Harbor Freight. I took a chance with a coupon, and brought home the corded electric reciprocating saw for $21.00. It stopped working after one cut! I considered taking it back (they have a good return policy, which is another plus), Instead I took it apart, and found a loose wire. I jammed it back into the place where it seemed to belong, and the saw is working again. It is underpowered, it quivers and smokes during tough cuts, but it works well enough for my do it yourself projects. Another win for the Harbor. read more

I was surprised. Never having been here before, finally I needed some tool. My expectation is the sales people would be helpful and knowledgeable. What actually happened, was they were friendly, but did not know anything what so ever! They freely admitted they had no familiarity whatsoever with the product I asked them about. That seemed a bit surprising since they are the sales people for a tool company! I purchased two products . One was a torque wrench, which seems to be working OK. The other was a torx bit set, which self-destructed immediately because of its poor quality. I will be returning it tomorrow for a refund. In summary I do not think I will be returning to Harbor Freight. read more

Mostly Shitty products, and definitely shitty return policy. You might pay a little more at Home Depot (down the street), but they generally have better quality stuff and are much more lenient on their return policy. Other good tool options are Craftsman stuff at Sears about 10 minutes away in Northgate Mall, and Osh on the other side of the freeway on Andersen. If you buy a lot of stuff like I do, the return policy at Home Depot (vs Harbor Freight) will save you a lot more in the long run than you could be able to save by buying inferior products at Harbor Freight. I periodically end up with an item that I bought for a project but never used. Home Depot is very lenient on returns, like costco. Even if they only give store credit, you will at least get your "money" back. Harbor freight will just tell you to go F yourself if you are 1 day over their 90 day return policy (even if the product is new in box, unopened). 90 days might seem like a long time unless you are in the middle of big projects that you are buying things for, in which case it can pass by in the blink of an eye. read more

Went here, could not find the item I was looking for. Not a lot of employees walking the floor, was hard to find someone to help.

I come in time to time to pick up gloves and tools for work. The staff here are terrible! Would it kill them to smile? Kayla the elderly woman at the register is snappy and rude as hell!! Stone cold face with the unfriendliest customer service attitude! I waited several minutes as the gentleman in front of me struggled to pull up a coupon on his phone. One of the other employees looking over the lines at the only register open saw that the man was having difficulty and there was more people getting in line. So instead of opening up a register and helping customers or getting another employee to open a register, he simply dd not want to deal with it as he decided it would be best to just walk away and hide in his little office! thanks a million! I only come here because it's inexpensive but I think I'll start going to Home Depot! This place sucks ass! read more

went to return my broken lopper, (yes it broke in one day.) I was surprised to see a guy cutting up FOUR brand new hand dollys before he put them in the trash. He said they were fine, but his boss said to cut them up so nobody could use them. WHY CUT UP and THROW AWAY, brand new merchandise? they had no room in the warehouse for them. I suggested they sell them for $5 each, NO THEN FOLKS WOULD SAY THEY PAID FULL PRICE and wanted their money back, AND it would take a day or two to sell them. I have heard McDonalds throws out food if its not sold within a few hours, but throwing out tools? Go figure.... read more

This is a very inviting, well-stocked, open, bright, and cheap store. As many others have said, this is not where you come to buy quality tools, and I would suggest to not even touch their power tools. But there are a lot of hand tools that seem to be of decent quality and they also carry many hardware items that are possibly worthwhile purchasing. read more

Harbor Freight Tools - Hardware Stores Near Me - San Rafael, California

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I went to buy a light weight hand truck, mentioned that I found a coupon 20% off online and at the same time saw the coupon with a different date. Should be my fault for not bringing coupon but hey, he gave me 10% discount, I found out afterwards, but mentioned he would give me 20%, though a discount is better than no discount. In other words, he lied. Not a loyal company if I should say but their price for no name brand products is pretty good. read more

Hello All, I bought a Predator 2000 generator to take to the US Virgin Islands to help with the hurricane relief effort. There is no electricity on any of the islands and wont be for months ahead. And so generators are more precious than gold because they supply electricity for water, lights and communcations devices. This generator went up in smoke the first time it started up. It never once produced electricity. My neighbor bought two of them, and they were toast in a week. After the expense of taking all the way to the Virgin Islands and back, which costs hundreds, Harbor Freight charged me 100 bucks to "restock" a broken item. DO NOT BUY THIS GENERATOR. IT IS JUNK. AND HARBOR FREIGHT HAS AN INJURIOUS RETURN POLICY. read more

This review is for Harbor Freight Online, not a particular store. I ordered 4 20 ton hydraulic bottle jacks needed for a barn lifting repair project. After waiting 2 -3 weeks, I decided I could wait no longer and purchased the jacks from the local Harbor Freight store. I then contacted the online sales site numerous times to cancel the order and received an email confirmation that unless the product had been shipped, there was no problem. I checked tracking and the product had not been shipped. A couple of weeks later, the jacks arrived even though I had canceled the order. I tried 3 times to call and get a Return Merchandise Authorization but each time, was put on hold and then the call was disconnected. I tried to do the same via email without results. Then I disputed the charge on my credit card and after a month, the card company said that Harbor Freight stated it was a valid charge and disallowed my dispute. I have tried to return these items and don't need or want them. I will never order from Harbor Freight online again. They make it super easy to place an order and provide your credit card information, however, there is no provision to cancel an order once it has taken place. Their customer service is terrible. The local Harbor Freight store is not the problem. They have always gone out of their way to be helpful, but I will probably purchase from my big box store from now on even though it will be more costly. read more

So the tools are kinda cheap but that's the whole point. Collect the coupons and get free stuff. Three stars but it's still my go to place when i'm in a jam for work stuff. read more

This is like the Wal Mart of tool/hardware stores. Most of the stuff they carry is cheap made in China crap. If you want something cheap, this may be the place to go. If you want something high quality that will last, not so much. read more

So far a decent experience here. Good prices, big selection. And plenty of online coupons for 20-25% off.

I've been here a few times, and I have no complaints. The first time I got here I had about $300 in my cart,the lady at the register advised me to sign up to their membership as it would save me money and after paying either $30 or $50 for that I had saved over $60 on my purchase. It's great for buying a cheap electric tool just to see if it's the one you need, I bought 3 chipping hammers cheaper here than I could rent them. They aren't great but they chipped off stucco. They suck for concrete! Great store, love the company. Accept what you get for the price, if you want something that's going to last buy a DeWalt for 5 times the price read more

If you know what you are looking for, and look up reviews on certain items, this place can be great. There are a lot of junky items, but there are also amazing deals. The generators and compressors are 1/9th or the cost anywhere else. Chris, the assistant manager goes out of his way to explain how things work, offer suggestions, and mention other favorite items he would also purchase. I was not so happy with some of the customer service experiences I have had there, but Chris has made it worth going back. He is super helpful, and I am more than happy with my purchases. I have even had to go back and get coworkers and family members the same items I bought, all because if Chris' recommendations. Not to mention the 20% coupons, even available on your mobile phone while in line!, and the free items you get after purchase. I'm a fan, thanks to Chris. read more

If you are looking for crap of something that will break shortly after you use it, THIS IS THE PLACE TO GO.