whats going on at harborfreight?

[mrb]

i was in harborfeight earlier looking around and noticed something odd with their ratchets and sockets. They are switching out all the chinese pittsburg for pittsburg pro made in taiwan. The new ones are in more attractive packaging and appear to be better quality, and the prices are 30-40% higher on the new stuff.

 

[Kirbot]

The stuff I saw was the same price.

They even have the old and the new stuff mixed up together on the shelves.

 

[SMKS]

I recently wrote a review of the new socket set. At my store, there was not a price increase. The old sets and the new set were both $24.99.

Link to HF review thread.

 

[mrb]

the individual tools were the same price but i saw new sets that were expensive.

 

[SMKS]

the individual tools were the same price but i saw new sets that were expensive.

My review is of a set. At my local store the new set was the same price as the set it was replacing.

Also, was the old price you were looking at a clearance price? They've been clearance a lot of items.

 

[mrholeshot]

Since they screwed people over on the coupons (not yet expired) on the good stuff I havent cared about going. You go in that place to get a deal and when that stops happening it's just another place to buy crappy tools.

 

[SMKS]

Since they screwed people over on the coupons (not yet expired) on the good stuff I havent cared about going.

But in your ratchet review, you gave a positive review to the HF ratchets. You can still use the coupons on those.

 

[mrholeshot]

But in your ratchet review, you gave a positive review to the HF ratchets. You can still use the coupons on those.

This is true but as good as they are I don't need anymore of them. Hell I didn't need the ones I bought, lol

 

[rayzor32]

the best ones are the multi colored ones exact copies of craftsmans almost except for the paint

 

[wafrederick]

I only ordered one 1/4" air ratchet from Harbor Frieght and surprised it is holding up very well.No problems with it so far for $50.00 and I oil it very well.Have an 3/8 angle drill that is from Harbor Freight,works good since I don't use it a lot.

 

[ZRX61]

I got a 25% off coupon emailed to me today


But they don't have anything I need

 

[Indy_500]

3/8" drive impact shallow sae and deep metric 8 pc. sets are $3.77 along with the breaker bars for around $3 and much more. I'm going again tomorrow

 

[DrkMtnDew]

wandered into hf on friday and the shelves were nearly bare of all sockets, ratchets, breaker bars, etc. there was also big pallets that were being pulled out of the back that had the new stuff on it. didn't stick around long enough to see what all they had replaced, but it was a lot of stuff. i didn't expect something this because they already had some pittsburgh pro stuff on the shelf. anyway probably stop in later in the week to see what the end result is.

 

[Indy_500]

My store pulled all the "clearance" stuff off the shelves and put them on this little rack in the corner of the store. I scooped up the 14 pc. 1/2" drive metric deep well impact socket set for $11, 9 pc. 3/8" drive metric deep well impact socket set for $3, 9 pc. 3/8" drive SAE deep well impact socket set for $3, and the 3 pc. metric socket tray set for $3. They got all new socket trays too, in black, and they aren't missing any metric sizes, but i'll stick with my $3 trays All of the new "pittsburgh pro" stuff is all made in taiwan (vs. china), and it's ALL much better quality it seems. The sockets have much better finishes (MUCH MUCH BETTER!). Haven't seen any wrenches go to the Pitt Pro yet, hoping to see that they do because HF wrenches **** ****!

 

[teicher]

I think they're slowly improving the quality of their tools, or at least some of them, as they become a more viable option for tools. The sockets, the multifunction tools, some of the compressors--a lot of them are of very good quality and certainly better than they used to be. It's not surprising that they treating the coupons differently, I'm sure the profit margins on the new tools are smaller and those coupons really cut into them.

 

[Danglerb]

Crazy bargains, but looks like only a shadow of what it must have been on 26th.

My local store, Orange, Calif. was about 1/4 gone and being redone. All of the locked cases for the air tools came down, a section of the wrenches was gone and semi replaced with a bunch of hex keys that used to be in with screwdrivers. Ratchets and sockets were gutted, some stuff still regular price, like 3/4 Metric set, and SAE next to it was $12.

Spent $15 and picked up 25% 1/1/11 coupon and free set of 6 screwdrivers.

Now I need to go back just to see whats going on, and use the last of my 20% coupons ...