AYD HARDWARE

The staff is professional and knowledgeable.  They provide service like your would find in an old fashioned hardware store.  They let you know on the phone if they can help you and when you arrive they know exactly where the part you need is.  They also repair lawn mowers and replace window screens.

This is an original small-town hardware store that also does small engine repairs. I took my lawnmower that stopped work mid-mow and Ayd Hardwark fixed it in 15 minutes. I didn't have to leave it there for two weeks. I didn't have to deal with other mower services that lack professionalism. I am sure they have all of your hardware needs, but I wasn't there long enough to thoroughly check it out. When I need them, I will call for those items because I would rather do business with Ayd than the Big Box hardware stores, with NO sense of CUSTOMER SERVICE. At Ayd's, you will find the salespeople to be very attentive and professional. Having just moved into the area, I am happy that I found this place.

I really want to support locally owned merchants.  The store is immediately outside my neighborhood and the family that owns the store lives in my neighborhood.  My last visit to Ayd Hardware didn't go well. But because the family lives close by and the store is close, I thought I would give it another try.

The work was done within a matter of days. They took my deposit on my credit card, however the cashier went out of his way to make me feel badly because I was using a credit card - it causes him more work and it eats into his margins.  So when I went back into pick up the windows and pay the balance, I handed the same credit card to the cashier, and this is where it got interesting.

The cashier informed me that the business doesn't accept credit cards.  Since when, I asked knowing that they took it four days before.  She says since last spring.  I tell her that's what I have.  She won't take the credit card.  They have the Visa MasterCard signs on the front door - something that merchants who don't take credit cards can't display.  And technically, they still do take cards, but they don't like doing the transactions.  I held my ground.  Finally she swipes my card and tells me that "you don't have to be so mean."

Let me get this straight, I spend $80 in their store, I provide them with a valid (but unpopular) form of payment with them, I get lectured and lied to and I'm the one who is mean?

In 2012-13 we spent close to $500 at Ayd because we just moved to the area from out of state, and they think that complaining about their expenses to customers is a form of customer service and appreciation? 

So to Ayd Hardware, if you read this, I promise that I have learned my lesson.  I will not use my credit card in your store.  Evidently, my patronage is costing you too many pennies.  Now my lack of patronage will cost you DOLLARS.  I am taking my business to Wavery Ace Hardware, or Stebbins Anderson Hardware instead.  They have what I want, and even though they are not the least expensive option, they say "thank you" when I check out, regardless of my form of payment. 

We recently moved to Baltimore and want to use locally owned businesses instead of chain stores.  AYD hardware was recommended by the family who sold the house to us.  What I like about old time hardware stores is that they usually shine on the more non-mainstream the need is.  Our old neighborhood hardware store in Columbus, Ohio (Schrieners Hardware on North High Street) was like that. Employees were glad you came in, knew the stock, locations and understood how things worked. 
On my first trip to the store I was looking for peg board hooks, a hardware basic, and was told that employee didn't think they had any.  I found them on one of the five ailes. I heard that they fixed windows and screens, and we had a bad window on our porch, so I figured they could replace it.
So we took the fogged IGU window in, as instructed.  It was measured and returned so we could reinstall it.  The IGU was ordered and the next day I brought the screen in for repair.  Since my partner had put a deposit on the window, I was asked to place a deposit on the screen work.  They wouldn't accept my debit card because it was under $10 by a dollar.  So the owman asked me to buy something to bring it up over $10.  Instead the manager said they could apply the extra dollar to the IGU.  OK.  THEN the woman at the register lectured me on how much money their customers cost them in the previous year in bank fees and kept trying to get me to agree with her that "now that isn't fair, is it?"  If you have a minimum on purchases with a card, I get that, but don't feed me a sob story and then pressure me to agree with you.
Strike one. 
Then we waited.  And waited. And waited. And waited.  And the estimated date passed. And we waited.
After hearing nothing on either the window or the screen, I stopped in at the store and the manager went down stairs and called to me.  "Does this look like your IGU?" he asks.  Evidently a window pane about the size of ours came in, but no one tagged it, so it had been sitting in their basement for a couple weeks and they had no idea who it belonged to.
So I took the window in, picked it back up four hours later.  What about the screen?  "Oh, yeah..."  The screen wasn't ready.
Strike two.
So we waited some more.
I picked up the screen, but the holding pins weren't installed.  "No one told me." said the screen guy.  What about the work order?
So I was told to leave the screen again.
Strike three happened when we didn't get a call the screen was ready.  So I went to pick it up, and said I hadn't been called, but was it ready?
"Yeah."
So over a three month period, we never received a courtesy call, we were told that we were costing them money on projects over $150, and no one involved with either the screen or window projects ever said thank you.
Yes, they have a beautiful mural on the side of the store, but if they would just clean out the unused displays (like the electrical light display that only has one or two lights, or the kitchen pull display that is mostly out of date) and focus on their origanization and people skills, I might consider them.  But paying customers aren't a burden to a store - and paying customers don't need to hear whining from employees.  And people waiting for things ordered shouldn't be forgotten about. 
When you add in that the store stock is old, the manager doesn't know if they have basic hardware items, and when they do, the customer has to find it, I can't think of one good reason to go back to the store. 
The place is dysfunctional, not charmingly disorganized.