The Secret to YOUR Success

roadwarrior

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Jul 12, 2020

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Long Island Watch

Today I'll share with you what I feel is one of the most important aspects of running a business. It is something I have practiced since I opened in 2003.


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To the Harbor Freight Community:

I'm writing to apologize. I often reach out to tell you about Harbor Freight's commitment to quality and all the investments we've made to deliver quality tools at the lowest prices. Your trust matters deeply to me and I'm proud of how far we've come. So when we have a product recall, it hurts.

A few months ago, we recalled our Pittsburgh 3 ton and 6 ton steel jack stands (SKUs 56371, 61196 and 61197) due to a manufacturer's defect. We asked customers to return them and receive a gift card that could be used to purchase replacement jack stands. I felt terrible about that recall because you should never have a concern about the safety of any of our products.

Today, I feel even worse. I'm disappointed and embarrassed because we've identified a welding defect in a small number of the Pittsburgh 3 ton steel jack stands (SKU 56373) that replaced the recalled jack stands. We're now adding these jack stands to our recall. Unfortunately, this defect wasn't discovered during the initial recall investigation. If you own these jack stands or any of the jack stands in our original recall, whether or not you have had an issue with them, please stop using them immediately and bring them back to your local Harbor Freight Store for a full cash refund or store credit (see details here).

We have investigated all of our other Pittsburgh 3 ton steel jack stands (SKUs 56371, 56372 and 57308) as well as the Pittsburgh 6 ton steel jack stands (SKUs 56368, 56369 and 56370) and Pittsburgh 12 ton steel jack stands (SKUs 56374 and 56375) and did not find the defect. Although none of these other jack stands are being recalled, if you own any of them and have any concern whatsoever, please bring them back and we'll give you a full cash refund or store credit for those as well.

I want to apologize to all of our customers. While we've dramatically grown our team of engineers and inspectors, and intensified our tests and inspections, I assure you that the lessons learned from this will drive further improvement.

As the owner and founder of Harbor Freight, I want you to know that we stand behind every product we sell and that safety will always be our top priority.

Sincerely,
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Eric Smidt
Owner and Founder
Harbor Freight Tools
 
ALL companies WILL make mistakes... The difference between a GREAT company and a BAD company is...
HOW THEY HANDLE THOSE MISTAKES.

Example:

Let's say I order a watch from company #1 (good co.) and another from company #2 (bad co.). Unknown to me, let's say both companies have a logistical problem (UPS/FedEx missed a pick-up or some other delay), that will delay the delivery by a week.

Company #1 will call me or otherwise contact me to inform me of the situation. No problem.
Company #2 will wait for me to call them when the purchased watch fails to arrive. I am pi$$ed!

I have started 3 LLCs in the past 11 years. First one closed, second one was sold and the third is on-going. None of them had or has "Customer Service" as a goal in the mission statement. I run from customer service. It is a red flag! In all three of my companies the mission statement had or currently has in it:

"To build a RELATIONSHIP with our vendors AND CUSTOMERS to achieve the shared goal of CUSTOMER SATISFACTION".
 
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