True Value Hardware

Love this local hardware store! They have everything and are so helpful. Recently I stopped by with a running toilet issue and they new immediately what the problem was. I purchased the repair kit and with their encouragement made the fairly involved repair-​esp for a female! No more running toilet which cost me $ 14 vs $ 100 (or more) for a plumber. Thank you!

I so desperately want to make this my go-​to hardware store. But I can’t. The owner is FANTASTIC — knows her stuff, is super helpful and all-​around wonderful. But the guy she has as a manager? Wow. I could not be less impressed. He really is as rude and unhelpful as the other reviewers say. After my experience there this weekend, I’ll go to Lowes or Home Depot first and use this only as an emergency back-​up. Sad.

I bought a tool here but it ended up malfunctioning every time I used it, so I wanted to return it. In TVH’s defense their return policy is clearly stated by their registers but I did not notice it when I made the purchase: you can only return brand new unopened items. So yes, my mistake; however, Home Depot and Lowe’s have flexible policies and as such seem to care more about satisfying their customers. It’s no wonder these smaller stores are going out of business. Bottom line, shop at Home Depot or Lowe’s as you never know when you may need to return something.

The staff here can be hard to locate, though once you do find them they are helpful. My main complaint with this store is the prices — it may be more convenient to grab hardware or supplies without having to go «off island,» but the markup is really ridiculous.
To illustrate: you can buy a sample size (pint) of Behr paint from Home Depot for three dollars, but today when I went to purchase a pint of black paint from True Value they charged me a whopping ELEVEN dollars. A slight markup for convenience is one thing, but charging three times more for equivalent products seems crazy.
Long story short, it’s probably worth the savings to take the time to drive to the Bellevue Home Depot.

Slow service if a man or a dog is in the store. I was told that paint matching was an art and no one was working today that could make a gallon of paint color match. I don’t know why I continue to try, I have heard that the service is bad but I keep hoping. True value is commonly referred to as No value guess I am beginning to understand why. Sigh, so much for supporting local businesses.

I would give this place ”five stars’ but I heard most of those are not read.
The staff is quite helpful here, not like one of those huge box stores.
I had this problem hanging a bird feeder, and one of the guys who worked there came up with just the right kind of pivoting hook, for only a few dollars.
He spent about five minutes with me, helping me figure out what I really wanted. I also have gotten really good basic supplies there, like potting soil, digging tools, and such.
They have miles of screws, nails, and such on one wall, it looks like a very complete selection.
I like having a hardware store close by, as do not really like driving to a big box store 20 minutes away every time I need a trowel, a nail or some paint.
No plants, but they do sell seeds, and mulch, potting soil and regular fill dirt. Their prices seem OK to me.
Warning, there is a couple of friendly dogs there who belong to the owner, who will figure out if you are carrying dog biscuits. I carry them because I don’t have a dog of my own, and these two dogs became my new best friends. They are good dogs, and ignore you if you don’t pet them.

The new store is way bigger than it looks (deep and narrow). I’ve gone there for years, and they have 95% of what I need. The people are helpful too.

We recently bought a 1 gallon can of black paint at this store. My bf put the paint on his passenger seat and it tipped over partially in the seat when making a turn and the lid SLID right off! It didn’t bang into the door or anything and the lid just came right off. The black paint went everywhere in the front of the car. All over the seat, down the door and in the carpet and started oozing out the door. We turned around and went right back in and let them know they obviously didn’t hammer the lid on because it just slipped right off. The manager let us know it was a new employee that mixed the paint but then said «Paint can lids just come off all the time». Umm NO. I’ve been buying paint for 10 years in the Seattle area and no lid has ever just come off unexpectedly, especially when it wasn’t dropped or anything. Usually I have the hardest time trying to pry the lid off, not the opposite. If his claim is that their lids just randomly come off all the time then there should be a HUGE sign saying «OUR PAINT CAN LIDS COME OFF SUPER EASILY!» at the front of the store or they should put clips on their cans of paint so the lids DONT come off.
We took it to the auto cleaner around the corner and he said there was no way to clean this out and the carpet had to be replaced. The bid is over $ 1100. Their insurance only paid half since they say it was «he said/​she said». I have been trying to call the store every day and speak with the manager to get them to pay for the other half since it was indeed their mistake but they just say hes out or give me the run around. I called both Lowe’s and Home Depot and their policy is to ALWAYS cover the cost to clean/​repair the damage as long as it occurred before you got to your destination (ie in the car) as it was clearly a lid closure issue. If the owner or manager doesn’t respond I will be taking them to small claims court for the other half of the bill.
I’ve been going to this store monthly since 2007 as a Property Manager of an apartment building on Mercer Island but if they do not remedy the situation by paying us for the other half ($ 580) I will cancel our account and take our business to a company that takes care of its customers and doesn’t try to put the blame on the customer for a mistake that was clearly their fault.

I’m surprised by the last review because the employees in this store have consistently been nothing but helpful and friendly to me whenever I go in. It’s a small store so they don’t have the selection a bigger store has but they have offered suggestions as to where I might find things when they don’t have what I need. I like to go here because I want to support local businesses and because it is so convenient not to have to go into Bellevue or Seattle.