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I am looking for people who are buying stuff from Ace Hardware.

My girlfriend recently purchased one of those large, heavy-duty industrial exhaust fans worth 7,499 PHP which turned out to be an unnecessarily large expense, which we have been trying to have replaced or refunded. The item was purchased with a BPI credit card, so at the time of purchase no receipt was given because it had to be attached to the credit card printout and submitted to their Head Office.

So all we had was the invoice from BPI. Ace could have issued a credit memo allowing us to consume the entire amount anytime and at any Ace branch, like a gift cheque, renewable monthly. As poor luck would have had it, because we did not have the receipt, we now have to consume the entire amount at the same branch within the month.

All we had to do was to find 7.5k worth of stuff and we’re all good. It’s that simple, right? Wrong. Unless you’re building a house there is very little you can buy at Ace Hardware that’s worth spending money on. Either that, or I am probably the most un-materialistic or the king of penny pinchers. Let’s take a look at all the cool and useful stuff I’m actually interested in buying:

  • Black & Decker steam iron - 1000
  • Dowell oven toaster - 1000
  • Mini industrial fan - 1000

Which brings us to a grand total of *ka-ching!* 3,000 Philippine pesos!!! Woohoo. So I am left 4,499 pesos to spend on stuff and I do not want to spend on stuff I 1) probably will not use or stuff I can get elsewhere 2) at a much much lower cost or 3) at a similar or higher cost but better quality.

I also never realized how pale Ace Hardware’s product line is compared to Handyman’s until now.

So, anyone planning to buy anything from Ace Hardware anytime soon? I seriously need to reclaim credit. Isn’t it so sad that as a consumer living in the Philippines, you have to go through so much trouble on a purchase when in other countries you can return and exchange goods with no questions asked, with cherry on top?

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