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Harbor Freight Tools

Engaged employer

Nothing done is ever enough, no gratitude for work done and to few employees. - Assistant Manager Harbor Freight Tools Employee Review

1.0
22 Jan 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

1. Full Medical Benefits 2. Employee commission for warranties and Inside Track Club Memberships sold 3. Decent entry level pay for Assistant Managers

Cons

1. Company pushes VERY VERY hard each employee and manager to sell warranties which are most of the time 50% the cost of the item. Failure to make daily 1.75% or higher sales goal on these warranties is met with harsh criticism that you are too dumb and incompetent to sell them to customers. 2. Assistant Managers are Glorified sales associates, maintaining, setting and pushing all freight with very little help and harsh criticism for not meeting company goals on time. Although company asks for 8 people to unload trucks you are left with 3-4 including the on duty ASM to complete which is an impossible task to unload a 54 foot truck in just 5 hours and push it to the floor. 3. District Manager excepts no excuses and details company policys but doesn't except fact that a store may be short on associates to help because in the end Payroll is more important and warranties and Inside Track Club memberships are #1 priority because its free money for the company. 4. NO OVERTIME, but explicit demands to do tasks which are impossible to complete within given guideline of time again because of lack of employees and payroll. 5. Assistant Managers are told they will work 40 hours a week, more like 30-32 hours a week after lunch taken. Short 6-7 hour shifts 5 days a week rather than 8 hour shifts 5 days a week. 6. Poor organization of information to support tasks due in stores. Company tries to roll out information but it becomes held up with Store Manager or DM and then is brought to associates attention after due date and associates are held accountable for information that wasn't provided prior to task needing to be completed. For example Store Manager receiving email from District Manger while store manager is off. District Manager calls and complains to ASM's and writes us up for not completing something that we had absolutely no access to at anytime. 7. NO PROMOTIONS: for all employees are considered to do all tasks in store positions that are to be filled such as warehouse manager remain empty as Store Manager suggests everyone needs to be sharing that job, this leads to poor management of the team as they do not know who to look for to complete unloading of the truck or tasks. Store Management refuses to place people in postions and give higher pay. 8. PAY FREEZES: I have worked for HFT for 2 years, and 4 reviews have come and gone. I have received a 98% review each time however Store Manager and DM have refused any pay raises to any ASM yet have given to other stores in the area. This is due to again not meeting excessive demands for daily sales of warranties of which customers do not want to spend 30-60% the cost of the item they are purchasing on a warranty that covers the product for only 1-2 years and covers NO accidental damage.

Explore other reviews about Harbor Freight Tools

5.0
23 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

love it best place to work

Cons

no cons nothing to complain about

4.0
16 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great benefits, fast paced environment, good teamwork. I liked the hours, you get an education about tools, whether from your coworkers or the customers. And speaking of the customers, they were on the better side for retail. Most are down to earth and easy to converse with.

Cons

Supply chain issues, many parts would never be replenished, despite being featured, advertised, and on display. That would often lead to tensions with customers. Aggressive time constraints on tasks. Sidewalk sales, holidays, and also coincidentally inclement weather days, can be quite busy and therefore stressful. Especially if there's call outs, but if you have a good management team, you'll have good staff that will want to work for them.

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