SK/Great Star is alright

[qqzj]

I had a broken SK ratchet sitting in my garage for a few years. Last year, when I heard SK was bought, I got concerned. So I emailed SK asking for a repair kit. They asked for pictures. Once I sent the picture, they told me that they no longer had the repair kit for that particular ratchet. But they could send me a new replacement if I sent my broken one back. So I did. Took a chance. After almost 6 months, I finally got the ratchet back! Pretty happy about it. Initially, their emails was from skhandtool.com. The final one is from shopvac.com. I saved the email. Kind of has historical significance.

The old one was a higher tooth count one. The new one is the basic version. But that is okay. I always thought it would be nice to have the iconic SK round head, now I have one!

 

[AA/FC]

I wouldn't say that is very good. First, they asked for pictures as proof.... then required the old one back before they would send a replacement...... then SIX MONTHS LATER you received a ratchet of lesser quality than you originally sent to them.

Usually most tool companies take your word for the broken tool and immediately ship out a replacement of equal or better quality than the original.

 

[qqzj]

I know. But given that they obviously aren't doing very well, this is not bad.

 

[AA/FC]

I know. But given that they obviously aren't doing very well, this is not bad.

Well, not in my opinion. lol.

 

[m6z]

Certainly better than a stick in the eye.

 

[AA/FC]

Certainly better than a stick in the eye.

Or a poke in the balls with a sharp stick...

 

[finn]

Pretty good, in my book.

They really didn't have to give you anything, and that looks like a serviceable ratchet. Considering they moved everything to a different facility three states away, and had a change in ownership, their response was actually not bad.

I waited longer than that when Matco was consolidating operations. In the end, they came through, too. Frustrating at the time, but I smile every time I use the ratchet they sent me as a warranty replacement.

 

[toddmorr]

Agree with finn, all things considered not bad at all.

 

[joel_400]

I will have to say I agree that's not bad. There for a while I had a friend who worked at a parts store that sold SK. Used to be you carried in a handful of sockets, ratchets, and extensions and got all new. Then they changed hands and policies. He then had to send them in and they decided what to replace. If a socket had rust it was nonreplaceable. Certain ratchets they would sell you a kit for but wouldn't warranty them. I'm glad to hear that the new owners are at least honoring the old company warranty. Since my buddy passed away I no longer deal with that parts store so I haven't even tried to get anything warrantied. Dad thing is I had bought alot of SK stuff through them.
Joel

 

[zendriver]

Usually most tool companies take your word for the broken tool and immediately ship out a replacement of equal or better quality than the original.

The one time I warrantied a Snap On socket, I'd swear they had some lie detection program running in the background, as they pestered me with Questions, just a few years years ago.

"when did you purchase the socket?"
"sometime in 1976"
"do you have a receipt?"
"no, I don't have any receipts from 45 years ago"

Yippee, they did ship out a new one without a return of the broken one.

 

[NFH2740]

I can't think of a single time in the last 15 years I did not have present a broken tool or a picture for replacement. Fraud is rampant.

 

[finn]

The one time I warrantied a Snap On socket, I'd swear they had some lie detection program running in the background, as they pestered me with Questions, just a few years years ago.

"when did you purchase the socket?"
"sometime in 1976"
"do you have a receipt?"
"no, I don't have any receipts from 45 years ago"

Yippee, they did ship out a new one without a return of the broken one.

I went through that interrogation when I warranted a SnapOn roto ratchet for flaking chrome. Sort of tried to make you confess to all the crimes and misdemeanors you were guilty of since elem school.

In the end, they did ship me a new SnapOn roto ratchet, and when I asked for a 3/8” drive repair kit a couple of years later, they sent it with no further interrogation.

EzRed wasn’t as good of an experience. The ratchet that failed ended up not being in their catalog anymore, and they had no parts. Basically said something to the effect of “it ***** to be you”.

I really don’t let Warranty be a consideration on anything I purchase anymore.

 

[AA/FC]

I have warrantied several GearWrenches and some Husky ratchets made by Stanley. I've never had to provide proof, and I've never had to return the broken tool...

The GearWrenches were some of the original ones from when they were originally made in Taiwan and GearWrench had an office located in the US. That was a simple 5 minute phone call and I had two new wrenches in the mail about 4 days later.

The Stanley ratchets were Husky branded but were identical to the MAC Micro Tough ratchets, which are my all time favorite ratchets. I like them better than my SO Dual 80 ratchets.

 

[threewood]

No repair kits for their ratchets
Six month turn around time on replacement.

 

[woody 73]

Funny story, but sometimes lady luck is on my side; just this week I went to a garage sale and the elderly gentleman had passed away and they were selling all his items in his garage. Truth be told he only had a dim lightbulb in his garage, and I had to keep running outside to see what tools he had. As luck would have it, I bought his 3/8 SK ratchet for $2.00 dollars, and a 1/2 Williams ratchet for $5.00 dollars.

 

[Bubba Fett]

Funny story, but sometimes lady luck is on my side; just this week I went to a garage sale and the elderly gentleman had passed away and they were selling all his items in his garage. Truth be told he only had a dim lightbulb in his garage, and I had to keep running outside to see what tools he had. As luck would have it, I bought his 3/8 SK ratchet for $2.00 dollars, and a 1/2 Williams ratchet for $5.00 dollars.

That's yet another reason I ALWAYS carry a flashlight with me.

 

[joel_400]

That's yet another reason I ALWAYS carry a flashlight with me.

Ive been shopping the early Sunday flea market long enough...good deals are gone before the sun comes up usually...and my damn flashlight always seems to malfunction or batteries die when I need them most. I've gotten pretty good at finding the good tools in the dark! Haha
Joel

 

[KnurledNut]

@qqzj
The DT80 kits show in stock.
See if they will send you one.
https://sktools.com/products/3-8-drive-dt80-ratchet-mechanism

 

[ohhimark]

Had 3/8 offset handle palm control ratchet warrantied 2-3 years ago, they didn't have parts for it, so they had me send it in for exchange for a 3770, think it took about a week total. Earlier this year they warrantied a cracked socket, only asked for picture verification and I had the new socket in 3-4 days.

 

[VolvoRyan]

Odd that they wouldn't have repair kits. But whatever.

Honestly, I like the old school ratcheting mechanism better than the DT80 in the 3/8". I've three standard handle SK ratchets: a 1970's round head with a DT80 kit, an LP90, and a plain-ol' 40 tooth round head that I bought brand new in 2021 when SK's sale to Great Star was announced. I use the 40-tooth more than anything. If it fits.

-Ryan

 

[tarbellb]

ratchet broke
didnt have replacement parts
had to send proof
waited 6 months
got a lesser model back

why'd they go out of business again?

 

[finn]

ratchet broke
didnt have replacement parts
had to send proof
waited 6 months
got a lesser model back

why'd they go out of business again?

You forgot the lines:

company has new owners

old facility closed

new plant open three states away.

 

[zendriver]

Now days, the fact they responded at all is almost awesome.

 

[Steve_P]

I don't understand why SK brings out the haters here like they do. I swear that someone could post tomorrow that they emailed SK last week and said they needed a rebuild kit for a ratchet, got one in 5 days, and there will be at least one post with something negative to say about SK. Yes, I have plenty of SK, but I'm not a "fan boy" as I hated my LP90 ratchet and sent it back.

And I realize that six months is a long time, but they were essentially out of business during that time. Either way, like I said above, if you posted a positive encounter like I typed above, someone will still find it necessary to **** on SK. Oh well, carry on.

 

[AA/FC]

If someone posted a positive encounter, I would've agreed. However, the original post in this thread was NOT positive. Period.

When did this world become perfectly content, and even start praising mediocrity? Nowadays NOBODY has to do their job correctly because there is ALWAYS an excuse of "It was good enough", or "Not bad considering the situation", or "it was an accident", etc....

The service he received from SK sucked. SIX MONTHS to send out an F'ing ratchet? SIX MONTHS! I can't believe anyone is defending that conduct. That is exactly the mentality and type of customer that allows companies to treat customers with terrible service and get away with it, over and over. It's that type of mentality that has allowed companies to completely slack in their efforts to at least try to keep customers happy.


There is NOTHING wrong with calling things out for what they are. SK's service IN THIS EXAMPLE sucked.

And for the record, I have never bad mouthed SK on this site since I joined in 2010. In fact I have purchased a bunch of their tools years ago.

 

[zendriver]

If someone posted a positive encounter, I would've agreed. However, the original post in this thread was NOT positive. Period.

When did this world become perfectly content, and even start praising mediocrity? Nowadays NOBODY has to do their job correctly because there is ALWAYS an excuse of "It was good enough", or "Not bad considering the situation", or "it was an accident", etc....

The service he received from SK sucked. SIX MONTHS to send out an F'ing ratchet? SIX MONTHS! I can't believe anyone is defending that conduct. That is exactly the mentality and type of customer that allows companies to treat customers with terrible service and get away with it, over and over. It's that type of mentality that has allowed companies to completely slack in their efforts to at least try to keep customers happy.


There is NOTHING wrong with calling things out for what they are. SK's service IN THIS EXAMPLE sucked.

And for the record, I have never bad mouthed SK on this site since I joined in 2010. In fact I have purchased a bunch of their tools years ago.

Great Star has owned dinosaur S-K for a whopping year and a half, they likely have workers/parts shortages, probably multitudes of folks digging up every **** S-K tool they own, for "warranty" replacement, (before it's too late) etc. We're making excuses for them.

Maybe this'll help them get it together

 

[davethorik]

I broke a Proto 3/8 ratchet, the mechanism not the handle or anything. I emailed SBD asking for a rebuild kit, they just sent me a whole new ratchet. I know apples and oranges, but I think not having a sku for rebuild kit and not having to mess with warranty are possible reasons for this change. Or I could be wrong.

 

[BlakeTheCarGuy]

I’d be upset had it taken that long to get a replacement. Even more upset at the hassle of having to send it in. Especially since I use my tools to make a living with. I’ve not had to use the SK warranty since before the change of ownership. But when I did it took them a little while but I didn’t have to send anything back and I had extras so I wasn’t upset but if they would of had me send something in then wait that long yeah I would not be happy. And not be happy at the fact I received a lesser product either. Had they sent a nicer version that would of course been a different story.

 

[Rinspeed]

I broke a Proto 3/8 ratchet, the mechanism not the handle or anything. I emailed SBD asking for a rebuild kit, they just sent me a whole new ratchet. I know apples and oranges, but I think not having a sku for rebuild kit and not having to mess with warranty are possible reasons for this change. Or I could be wrong.

I had a fairly new 1/4" Proto ratchet that the mechanism was never right. Emailed SBD and they said send it in, also had a broken metric hex bit socket so I sent that in as well. A week later I had a new ratchet and not one hex bit socket but the whole 7 piece set. Pretty impressed with them. I have a bunch of the SK round head ratchets and the few times I needed a rebuild kit they just sent them out no questions asked, sad they don't have rebuild kits in stock now days.

 

[Fedwrench]

At that the end of the day, all that matters is that you're happy with the replacement ratchet and the process.

 

[AA/FC]

Great Star has owned dinosaur S-K for a whopping year and a half, they likely have workers/parts shortages, probably multitudes of folks digging up every **** S-K tool they own, for "warranty" replacement, (before it's too late) etc. We're making excuses for them.

Just another excuse! None of Great Star's inventory problems are the customers fault, or problem. The customer was NOT told they had a lifetime warranty "IF we have your replacement item in stock". All of the background trouble going on within the company is irrelevant to the customer.

If Great Star wanted to take over the company and continue to honor the old SK warranty... then honor the warranty! OR, tell everyone the old SK warranty is no longer being covered under new ownership and DON'T honor the warranty. Either way is fine.... but just do it right without a bunch of BS excuses.

Excuses! Damn, I'm sick of excuses! Is ANYTHING ever ANYONE'S fault these days?

 

[zendriver]

Just another excuse! None Great Star's inventory problems are the customers fault, or problem. The customer was NOT told they had a lifetime warranty "IF we have your replacement item in stock". All of the background trouble going on within the company is irrelevant to the customer.

If Great Star wanted to take over the company and continue to honor the old SK warranty... then honor the warranty! OR, tell everyone the old SK warranty is no longer being covered under new ownership and DON'T honor the warranty. Either way is fine.... but just do it right without a bunch of BS excuses.

Excuses! Damn, I'm sick of excuses! Is ANYTHING ever ANYONE'S fault these days?

Whatever, I learned as a child

"lower your expectations far enough and you'll never be disappointed!" Dumb as it sounds, it's almost perfect for todays world.

If you don't think you are being treated right by S-K, contact

Deepak Jaising​

President of the Company. Maybe he'll give a ****.

Nobody loves giving giving tools for free, so "honoring a warranty" probably does not mean **** to them as well.

Sorry, it's just real life.

​

 

[AA/FC]

Whatever, I learned as a child

"lower your expectations far enough and you'll never be disappointed!" Dumb as it sounds, it's almost perfect for todays world.

If you don't think you are being treated right by S-K, contact

Deepak Jaising​

President of the Company. Maybe he'll give a ****.

Nobody loves giving giving tools for free, so "honoring a warranty" probably does not mean **** to them as well.

Sorry, it's just real life.

​

It's not me.... I'm not the guy who was satisfied waited 6 month for a replacement ratchet, of lesser value. lol. I don't need to contact anyone. lol.

I was just simply commenting how everyone seems happy to accept ****** service from a company, and how ****** service has become the norm today. With any company, not just tool related. It just happens to be tool related in this example.

The quality of service (in general) over the last 5-10 years has drastically gone down. It was REALLY bad when everyone started using COVID as their excuse to be ******. That quickly became the gold standard of excuses for EVERYTHING negative, and we were all expected to just accept it. Some companies are STILL using that excuse today as if it's March of 2020 all over again. lol.

You could serve some people a **** sandwich today and they would come up with an excuse why "it wasn't that bad, considering the situation"..... Hey, at least the **** sandwich had a few peanuts in it. lol.

Contacting the same company about their ****** service doesn't do any good. They didn't care about their customer the first time around, why would they care now?

Don't get me wrong, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and if someone is happy with mediocrity, that's fine. But don't tell the rest of us that we should be happy with it, too.

 

[zendriver]

It's not me.... I'm not the guy who was satisfied waited 6 month for a replacement ratchet, of lesser value. lol. I don't need to contact anyone. lol.

I was just simply commenting how everyone seems happy to accept ****** service from a company, and how ****** service has become the norm today. With any company, not just tool related. It just happens to be tool related in this example.

The quality of service (in general) over the last 5-10 years has drastically gone down. It was REALLY bad when everyone started using COVID as their excuse to be ******. That quickly became the gold standard of excuses for EVERYTHING negative, and we were all expected to just accept it. Some companies are STILL using that excuse today as if it's March of 2020 all over again. lol.

You could serve some people a **** sandwich today and they would come up with an excuse why "it wasn't that bad, considering the situation"..... Hey, at least the **** sandwich had a few peanuts in it. lol.

Contacting the same company about their ****** service doesn't do any good. They didn't care about their customer the first time around, why would they care now?

Don't get me wrong, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and if someone is happy with mediocrity, that's fine. But don't tell the rest of us that we should be happy with it, too.

A lot of people seem to be very unhappy these days, maybe for these very reasons.

Hope that works out good for them, it doesn't seem like it, the ones I know.

It was an old unused ratchet, turned in to a Chinese conglomerate, finally getting a mediocre replacement. Maybe the OP viewed it as a minor miracle.

 

[scooby074]

SK could have pulled a GM and said "your warranty was with old SK". The fact they still went good for it, especially since they were moving to a new location means Ill cut them some slack.

 

[Steve_P]

If someone posted a positive encounter, I would've agreed. However, the original post in this thread was NOT positive. Period.

When did this world become perfectly content, and even start praising mediocrity? Nowadays NOBODY has to do their job correctly because there is ALWAYS an excuse of "It was good enough", or "Not bad considering the situation", or "it was an accident", etc....

The service he received from SK sucked. SIX MONTHS to send out an F'ing ratchet? SIX MONTHS! I can't believe anyone is defending that conduct. That is exactly the mentality and type of customer that allows companies to treat customers with terrible service and get away with it, over and over. It's that type of mentality that has allowed companies to completely slack in their efforts to at least try to keep customers happy.


There is NOTHING wrong with calling things out for what they are. SK's service IN THIS EXAMPLE sucked.

And for the record, I have never bad mouthed SK on this site since I joined in 2010. In fact I have purchased a bunch of their tools years ago.

SK has been functionally out of business for 6+ months; during that time, they've existed in name only and have apparently produced nothing new until recently. Do you not accept this?

I am not defending this level of service for a functioning company. But until recently, SK has not been a functioning company since the sale. IMO it's tough for them to send out a replacement when they don't HAVE anything to send out because they're not actually producing products. Accepting that it's impossible to replace something, when you don't have anything to replace it with, because you're not a functioning company, and not producing products, is called reality IMO, and not praising mediocrity.

 

[CHI_Tool&Die]

I'm happy to know that the warranty exists and that customer service exists. I haven't had a need to talk with SK so I'm glad someone has provided an answer. A big part of me wishes that SK would get their sh*t together but then there is a small part of me that just wants SK to fade into the night with whatever dignity it still has.

 

[Rinspeed]

At that the end of the day, all that matters is that you're happy with the replacement ratchet and the process.

Actually, at the end of the day SK is just a tool company. If they come back strong great, if they don't who gives a ****. For the prices they have charged the last ten years their tools kinda **** anyways. I have hundreds of their tools made from fifty years ago up to three years ago. The newer stuff is an embarrassment to what was once a great company.

 

[jcbarry]

I’d be upset had it taken that long to get a replacement. Even more upset at the hassle of having to send it in. Especially since I use my tools to make a living with. I’ve not had to use the SK warranty since before the change of ownership. But when I did it took them a little while but I didn’t have to send anything back and I had extras so I wasn’t upset but if they would of had me send something in then wait that long yeah I would not be happy. And not be happy at the fact I received a lesser product either. Had they sent a nicer version that would of course been a different story.

I'd be upset if I had to use SK.

 

[AA/FC]

SK has been functionally out of business for 6+ months; during that time, they've existed in name only and have apparently produced nothing new until recently. Do you not accept this?

lol.

Did you not read my other posts?