Len’s Ace Hardware

I rarely write reviews, but when someone goes beyond my expectations, it needs to be said. So, here it is. My mother and I went into Len’s to purchase a new Toro lawnmower. The associates put the new lawnmower together for us, filled it with gas and showed us how it worked. (Our previous Toro was a little different as it was 18 years old or so.) Not even a week later I cut the grass in the back yard. So as to not run out of gas while I cut the front lawn, I then filled the tank (which still had some gas in it). Well, after I shut the lawnmower off to put the gas in it, it wouldn’t start again. I called Len’s and they said to bring it in. When I told then I couldn’t lift it by myself into my truck, they sent a guy out to pick it up. They said they’d look at it and it would be a few days. I explained that wouldn’t work for me because I was going out of town in 2 days for 2 weeks and needed to get the grass cut. Long story short, they got it fixed THAT DAY and brought it back to me! It turned out that the gas I put in was old (however, it worked in our snow blower this past winter and it wasn’t new then either). In any case, they cleaned out the carb and put fresh gas in it once again and the lawnmower has been great since. I can’t say enough about the lever of customer satisfaction and service I received at Len’s Ace! THANKS, LEN AND CREW FOR CARING SO MUCH ABOUT CUSTOMER SATISFACTION!

This is the hardware store of choice when I’m in Addison and need to fix something at my parents house. I love it because it’s small enough so that you don’t have to wander aisle after aisle to find something, yet still holds a lot of inventory so that many of your hardware needs are met. Plumbing, painting, lighting, electrical, lawn care – you can find a lot of your upkeep and repair needs here.
Customer service has always been friendly and helpful. They don’t condescend or treat me like «some girl» looking for a DIY project either – like I’ve been treated in some big box hardware stores. Anytime I’ve needed assistance I’ve been helped with professionalism and genuine interest. And if you visit on a Saturday – they have fresh popped popcorn for free to all their customers!
Along with hardware items, there’s some fun random stuff – like tons of PEZ (my son loves that!) and a nice display of about 20 kinds of old-​time flavored soda – how fun is that?

Just moved into the area and needed some more paint, which I had already purchase in another Ace location in Arlington Heights. My trip to this Ace was very different from the one in Arlington heights. The men who was working the paint department was extremely helpful. He explained to me all there is to know about paint, and even made some recommendations which have been very helpful. He also introduced me to Wooster products to paint with and OMG it sure made a difference. The people here were friendly and I will definitely keep coming back for all my new home projects!

Been going to Len’s Ace for the last 25 years. NEVER ONCE disappointed! They have people there who REALLY know their stuff. Tom behind the counter is a wealth of knowledge. Marylin at the registers is always there to help in any way possible. The store is well stocked and very organized.
DON’T FORGET TO GET YOUR POPCORN!!!

The best Ace in the Chicagoland area. All the people who work there from Peter to Tom to Anthony to Dee and Angie and Rick, just to name a few, all extremely knowledgeable in there own perspective areas and beyond. Its awesome to walk in there and within seconds someone is there asking you what you need help with finding. I recently purchased a plexi glass table top that was perfectly sized to my specifications. Thumbs up Peter, wonderful job.

This is my local Ace Hardware. You can find everything you need for DIY and they even have a shop to fix your snow blower which I recently went here for. They have an option to pick up and drop off if you can’t bring it in to get it fixed.
You can also rent equipment for your DIY projects here as well, which my Addison location offers Full Rental sweet!
They did some updates of their outside façade since I’ve last been here. The parking lot is a bit small so watch out for cars coming in and out of there. The inside still looks a bit outdated, but it’s like a neighborhood feel. I think on weekends they pop popcorn for the customers to munch on while shopping around. Apparently, there’s a lot of locals that come here as I ear hustled of workers saying hello to customers by their first name, that’s cool. Maybe it’s because they have Senior Special Discounts for those over 62.
Customer Service is pretty good and overall a nice experience. You can also get a 10% off your order if you went to the near by Jewel, yeah check in the back of your receipt. They were so nice to take my coupon, after the fact they processed my snow blower repair bill.
Overall, I never had a bad experience at this location. Get what you need in a fix, friendly workers young and old. I’ll be back soon, I’m sure:)

Hands down, the worst experience I have ever had in my life. I dropped off a Craftsman lawn mower for a tune-​up and blade sharpening on ⁴⁄₂₈ and was told it would be roughly 2 – 3 weeks. 3 weeks came by and no phone call so on ⁵⁄₂₂ I called and was told by Brian that the part they had been waiting for had not come in however it should arrive early next week. No phone call (again) from Ace the following week so I called and spoke with Rick (store manager) and he claimed he would look into it. He said a cable had been ordered and their supplier kept sending them the wrong one. He suggested I call back the following Monday (I did) and I was told it had not come in. I then told them to just make sure the lawn mower ran and when the cable came in, to call me and I would pick it up myself and hook it up. I received a phone call from Brian on ⁶⁄₀₃ saying my lawn mower was ready to be picked up. So I show up on Saturday (⁶⁄₀₆), pick it up, bring it home and lo and behold, it does not start — the cable which was on order was a key part for starting the engine! So NOTHING had been done to it — no tune up, no blade sharpening, NOTHING! So Len’s Ace Hardware had my lawn mower for 38 days and did absolutely nothing to it other than remove the mystery cable that was supposedly on back order. I called back and unfortunately Rick was not in and would not be available until the next day which was too bad because I wanted to share with him the wonderful experience I had. I then took the mower and dropped it off at Northwest Lawn & Power in Itasca and they had it done and delivered it to my house 3 days later — obviously they were able to solve the delay of the mystery cable in a much shorter time span. In short, all I can say is that I am in sales and if I treated my customers in this fashion, I would be out of a job. I will make it a point to promote Northwest Lawn & Power in the future and tell everyone about the wonderful experience and pack of lies I was given by the employees of Len’s Ace Hardware — all I can think of is the old Ace commercial with John Madden where he says «Ace is the place for me» — he must have been senile when he said that or else he broke into a fit of laughter once the cameras stopped rolling. I wouldn’t bring my mouse trap to be oiled by this outfit.

One of the best hardware stores I’ve ever been to.
Yes, Ace in general can be a little more expensive than big box hardware stores, but the personal service and expertise of the staff more than makes up for it. Tony (in paint) is always fun to chat with. They have popcorn most weekends and sometimes they’re grilling something up out front.
Len’s Ace is great!

I gave it one star because of their impressive inventory. Lived in Addison many years. Len’s used to be known for being helpful, the place to go for everything. Now, it’s just a bunch of miserable, crabby old men who don’t believe a woman belongs in a hardware store. You have to beg for help. Send your husband or boyfriend. If you don’t have one, go to Home Depot.

I have been an Addison resident for 10years and I always go to this Ace locations. Everyone is great and always willing to help me out during any of my home projects.
My grass died after the nasty snow last year to find out that when we were shoveling the salt melted from the ground and seeped into the grass and killed it. I didn’t have to remove all of my grass to get it back to life. They gave me the perfect mixture of seeds and other things that I needed to get it growing. This saved me a lot of money!

There is one employee that I’ve come across that has always gone above and beyond to help. In fact he doesn’t even know it but he completely helped me get rid of bees burrowing in my brick and he’s helped me rejuvenate my crappy lawn! I’ve had a screen fixed here and have bought paint for my front door. Both great quality. I like the ‘local’ feel of this Ace and they just expanded it and it looks really nice now. Anything that spruces up Addison is a good thing! I will always go back here.

This review is for service on a mower.
The store itself is Ok. You’re going to maybe pay a bit more than a big box for your doodads, but you should know that ahead of time, I would think.
Anyhow, this mower repair.
My mower stopped wanting to mow, so I called around to find a place to fix it. This place is near my workplace and I’d had them sharpen the blade a week or so prior and bought a new plug, etc., as part of spring prep.
I thought I’d give them a call to see if they could fix it. Sure can, bring it on in, they said. So I did.
And the fun begins.
Dropped it off on a Wednesday. They indicated they were backlogged a bit, so it might be a few days. Ok, no problem. They called the next day to give me a quote.
220.00 for a carb, new pull system, some oil and new front tires. 170 without the tires.
The tires were a throw in but I figured I’d get them done as long as it was in for service, so I told them to go ahead and do them AS LONG AS IT DIDN’T DELAY THE JOB.
I was very clear on this point and that I needed this thing back, as I was starting to see big cats hiding in my grass. Thinking they were hunting for my dogs, whose asses would be kicked pronto by a big cat with hunger pangs, I made it clear I needed it back ASAP.
No problem, I was told, these wheels would not cause a delay. Rock on, I said. And I waited. And I waited.
The next Wednesday rolled around and there were elephants along with the big cats roaming the pampas-​like expanse that used to be a finely manicured lawn, so I called to see where my little grass chopper was.
«Well, everything’s here but the wheels», I was told, upon which a tiny vein in my eye burst, spattering goo all over my desk. «Those come in Friday, so it should be done Monday, give or take.»
Ummm, the hell with the wheels, I said, and explained, again, that I actually needed to get this done and out. Ok, I was told, we’ll throw the carb on and it will be ready tomorrow.
Well, it was, of course not ready tomorrow, but Friday it was, so I chased myself on over to Len’s to retrieve my chop-​chopper.
Aaaaand I was handed a bill in such a garbled format that neither I, the service person, nor the cashier could actually tell what exactly was on this thing. What was clear was that it was well over 170.00.
After a few minutes of detective work we determined that those cursed wheels were still on the bill. Fine, they took them off. We’re still @ 199.00. Well it turns out that they sharpened the blade, again, for which they charged me, although I didn’t ask for it, gave it a tune-​up, which I also didn’t ask for, nor was it part of the quote, and there was a bunch of stuff they told me was ‘miscellaneous’ and for which nobody actually knew what the basis was, but showed up as dollars and cents anyhow.
Given that I’d been given an actual quote for work I’d actually authorized I made my displeasure quite clear. I kind of thought knowing how much the cost would be before getting something done was the whole purpose of getting a quote.
Anyhow, after holding up the line for what seemed like an hour in the checkout lane to figure out exactly what I was paying for, I finally gave up and paid for things, some of which I still have absolutely no idea as to what they actually were.
This always makes me a decidedly unhappy consumer. Something about being charged for no-​one knows what after getting a quote for a job tends to put me off my lunch, but I’m funny like that. You may not care, but I’ll let you decide.
This was such a complete hodge-​podge of disorganization and murky billing that I probably wouldn’t go back there for service.
However, to be fair, I only ended up eating 30 bucks in mystery charges, and, although that irritates me, the mower is fixed. I’m going with 3 stars instead of just panning them, because they did get the job done and it’s not like I feel they were blowing me off or not trying to get this done, so it wasn’t a totally lousy performance either.

Two stars, because I hate the fact that they keep the nuts/​bolts/​screws behind a counter. I don’t know if theft has been an issue or what, but I like to dig around to find what I need. The guys working behind the counter are knowledgeable, but slowwwwwwwwwwww. I usually get annoyed waiting for my turn at the counter. Once I finally get help, the come back with something I don’t want. I ask for a different part and I’m told they don’t have it. I drive to the Roselle store, and sure enough, I find what I’m looking for. It gets old. The funny thing is, the Roselle store is owned by the same person and ¹⁄₃ the size. I guess I just really like digging through the screw/​nut/​bolt bins myself.
On the bright side, it’s a good old-​fashioned hardware store and the guys here know what they are talking about. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, stop on by. If you know exactly what you want, you may save some time going elsewhere. Personally, I like the industrial-​Ace store located on Devon (MIller Industrial).
Pro Tip: There’s parking in the back and a back entrance. It also happens to be closer to the parts counter.

This is my local Ace, and as a fairly new homeowner, I’m there relatively frequently. There are two types of customer service/​salespeople, near as I can tell; the teenagers who are friendly but don’t know much, and the semi-​retiree older men who know tons, but won’t help without pulling my leg or acting like I’m the dumbest guy who’s ever walked in there. I’ve gotten so I’ve found 1 – 2 people I feel like will help me out, so I generally get what I came for nowadays, but it’s taken some trial-​and-​error. Prices are a little higher for some items than the big box stores, but 10% off coupons are easy to find, including on the back of receipts from local groceries.

A sound Ace Hardware with good, if something short of great customer service. They are very friendly and will try to answer your questions to the best of your knowledge, but I’d prefer if they actually led you to the product instead of telling you where it is located. Ron S. is spot on in pointing this out.
The management would do well to guide employees to stick with the customer until they have truly found what they’re looking for, as customer service is what is supposed to set an Ace’s apart from your big box stores. Still, if pressed for help, they will provide you with great customer service, it would just be more welcome if it came naturally.

Len’s is pretty good on the customer service front but I’ll admit to being spoiled by my old Ace Hardware in the city. (See my ‘Art of Service’ list.)
The guys at the service counter are helpful but I get a little too much of the «Oh, you can find that in aisle 7». This is one of the reasons I avoid Home Depots at all costs. I don’t want to spend twenty minutes searching an aisle for something that ultimately isn’t in stock.
Don’t get me wrong, the staff have always been attentive and they carry a great selection. Service is good but I wouldn’t call it great.

Staff is attentive and polite. They truly have everything and the carhart apparel selection is amazing. We have ACE a few miles from us, but we choose to go to Lens. We always find exactly what we need.

Very knowledgeable and friendly staff! Has a good selection of everything you might need as well. The guys in the back will cut pipe if you ask and hey know their stuff! Also a great selection of work clothes and boots for construction workers. Good location too

Great, Great, Great. These folks really get it. I needed repair on my lawn mower and they did it at a reasonable price and exceeded expectations in customer service. Also, a great rental department. I recommend this wonderful gem for all your hardware & rental needs!

HOLY CUSTOMER SERVICE!
Free popcorn when you walk in. Complimentary coffee. Friendly, Knowledgeable staff. I feel like a commercial.
After breakfast we decided to go there to pick up a few things.
1^st, to plumbing. Our ACE friendly associate WAS A PLUMBER! yes I’m trusting his advice. And NO he didn’t recommend the most expensive product!
Then to lawn and garden, another friendly associate. Are these ppl being fed happy pills? I love it!
Then we had some keys made. My bf had a ninja key made, I had T-​I-​double Gur-​er.
Checked out.
On the walk to the parking lot all we did was talk about about great they were in there. We’re coming back there for everything!