Poor Quality on New SK Wrench Set

[bushmechanic]

I saw HJE a couple of times in this thread...

They don't exactly specialize in retail-ready shipments. Indeed, their main focus is, as they themselves state: Surplus, Liquidation, and Closeouts.

You are going to get duds from a place like that. It's the way of the world. Attempting to save money in such a manner is a hit or miss affair, just as manufacturing can be.

The difference is, manufacturers don't offer their big box of extras with a few mistakes tossed into the mix for proper retail sale, and neither do large distributors.

Order it from SK directly or another proper retailer, and I'll bet things like that won't crop up too often...

HJE might be a bunch of nice people serving a great purpose, but that doesn't make them a place to find top quality tools every single time you place an order. You're going to get some blemishes and mistakes.

 

[Skin]

Move over Craftsman, GJ has a new whipping boy! Shame on a new facility having QC issues during mass manufacturing.

If people who got tools with no issues posted these stupid threads would be outnumbered 100 to 1.

 

[Kensgarage]

Speaking of Proto. I bought a 1/2" SAE crowfoot set for about $550. Functionality wise they are great, very thin, nice detent, and the the radius drive allows plenty of torque. But, the finish on them leaves alot to be desired. The dents on some of them .....must have been hit by a chisel. Wavy chrome, etc. Not the kind of jewelry I'd expect for the price. But the finish is gonna go to hell no matter what from working. These SK wrenches have a bit of functionality problem though

Funny you mention that. My Proto crowsfeet are like that too but the open angled(and other) wrenches, ratchets etc. are a complete mirror.The crowfeet aren't what I'd call satin either. It's like they went from a 80 grit to a 600 to give it some shine and left for the holidays.LOL

 

[John in OH]

I saw HJE a couple of times in this thread...

They don't exactly specialize in retail-ready shipments. Indeed, their main focus is, as they themselves state: Surplus, Liquidation, and Closeouts.

You are going to get duds from a place like that. It's the way of the world. Attempting to save money in such a manner is a hit or miss affair, just as manufacturing can be.

The difference is, manufacturers don't offer their big box of extras with a few mistakes tossed into the mix for proper retail sale, and neither do large distributors.

Order it from SK directly or another proper retailer, and I'll bet things like that won't crop up too often...

HJE might be a bunch of nice people serving a great purpose, but that doesn't make them a place to find top quality tools every single time you place an order. You're going to get some blemishes and mistakes.

I don't think this assessment of HJE is accurate.

True, in years past, HJE wasn't a retail supplier, but with the increase in internet sales I believe they are becoming a more traditional marketer. Also, they only recently (within the past few years) picked up the SK tool line and I've certainly gotten the impression that SK items they sell are new and direct from SK, not "Surplus, Liquidation, and Closeouts". I have not seen anything to support the argument that the SK products supplied by HJE are anything but first-line tools.

Why do you believe that SK products supplied by HJE are contaminated with "blemishes and mistakes"?

 

[wvrailroader]

I saw HJE a couple of times in this thread...

They don't exactly specialize in retail-ready shipments. Indeed, their main focus is, as they themselves state: Surplus, Liquidation, and Closeouts.

You are going to get duds from a place like that. It's the way of the world. Attempting to save money in such a manner is a hit or miss affair, just as manufacturing can be.

The difference is, manufacturers don't offer their big box of extras with a few mistakes tossed into the mix for proper retail sale, and neither do large distributors.

Order it from SK directly or another proper retailer, and I'll bet things like that won't crop up too often...

HJE might be a bunch of nice people serving a great purpose, but that doesn't make them a place to find top quality tools every single time you place an order. You're going to get some blemishes and mistakes.

There was no attempt by me to save money by going through HJE. As a matter of fact, including shipping, I could have gotten this new in the wrapper wrench set from amazon for at least $15 cheaper from Amazon. I wanted to support a family run business rather than a large conglomerate, as well as a business that has helped out GJ members and one that supports American manufacturing. This was not a surplus, liquidation or closeout. I also purchased a SK SAE angle wrench set at the same time, which was a closeout item and guess what - it's perfect. Others have had quality issues with SK items which were not ordered from HJE.

This thread was not started to run down SK or HJE. It was started to find out if other members had problems such as this and to get opinions on how I should handle the issue. The wrench set with issues came still wrapped in the factory plastic with absolutely no dust on it. The label was bright white, not yellowed. This leads me to believe that this set may possibly be from the Ideal era.

 

[Davefr]

I saw HJE a couple of times in this thread...

They don't exactly specialize in retail-ready shipments. Indeed, their main focus is, as they themselves state: Surplus, Liquidation, and Closeouts.

You are going to get duds from a place like that. It's the way of the world. Attempting to save money in such a manner is a hit or miss affair, just as manufacturing can be.

The difference is, manufacturers don't offer their big box of extras with a few mistakes tossed into the mix for proper retail sale, and neither do large distributors.

Order it from SK directly or another proper retailer, and I'll bet things like that won't crop up too often...

HJE might be a bunch of nice people serving a great purpose, but that doesn't make them a place to find top quality tools every single time you place an order. You're going to get some blemishes and mistakes.

I disagree!!

I can't imagine SK would knowingly send any dregs to HJE. And defects like this would be scraped inhouse.

 

[wvrailroader]

Here are the depth measurements in mm I took on the wrenches earlier compared to other wrench sets I have:

Size SK Challenger Gearwrench
6 6 6* -
7 5 8 8
8 7 9 8
9 8 11 10
10 10 12 11
11 11 14 12
12 12 14 13
13 13 16 14
14 15 18 15
15 16 19 17
16 17 19 17
17 18 20 18
18 18 22 18
19 21 22* 22


* - Craftsman Industrial

There is a noticeable difference in depth of broach, especially on the smaller wrenches.

 

[bob15]

I saw HJE a couple of times in this thread...

They don't exactly specialize in retail-ready shipments. Indeed, their main focus is, as they themselves state: Surplus, Liquidation, and Closeouts.

You are going to get duds from a place like that. It's the way of the world. Attempting to save money in such a manner is a hit or miss affair, just as manufacturing can be.

The difference is, manufacturers don't offer their big box of extras with a few mistakes tossed into the mix for proper retail sale, and neither do large distributors.

Order it from SK directly or another proper retailer, and I'll bet things like that won't crop up too often...

HJE might be a bunch of nice people serving a great purpose, but that doesn't make them a place to find top quality tools every single time you place an order. You're going to get some blemishes and mistakes.

You do realize that they are getting the same tools that other places are getting such as amazon? The SK tools they are selling, same as Wright, are newly manufactured unless they say otherwise. Companies are not going to say this wrench isn't perfect so we will send it to HJE and this is perfect so we will give it to amazon.

The OP's wrenches are screwed up, but how many of you have actually looked at a 1,000+ wrenches or any other item a day for 100% inspection? After the first 100, it can get old, parts begin to look the same. People can screw up....it happens. Or do all of you live in glass houses?

The breaker bar with the chrome flaked off, that could have happened in transit. E-mail SK if it bothers you so bad....or just use it. It will get scratched and dinged up anyways.

Now, there are 3 wrenches and one breaker bar in question, yet they produce and sell thousands of items each day. PPM doesn't look that bad after-all.

To all the SK nit-pickers out there, do you guys actually use the tools and get them scratched-up and dirty? Or just buy them to stare at them?

To all the perfect people who are bitching about SK's QC, what would you say about this:

 

[Davefr]

The OP's wrenches are screwed up, but how many of you have actually looked at a 1,000+ wrenches or any other item a day for 100% inspection? After the first 100, it can get old, parts begin to look the same. People can screw up....it happens. Or do all of you live in glass houses?

You don't use people to 100% inspect:

 

[wvrailroader]

Sorry about the poor chart above, I can't figure out how to get the spacing right lol. You can pretty well get the gist of the problem from it, though.

As I said before, it was not my intent to bash SK. I probably should have known that by starting this thread, it would bring the SK haters bandwagon to town I know that mistakes happen and that the response from the manufacturer determines where I go from here. I am sure SK will take care of this. I have a good bit of SK tools, from wrench sets, ratchets, sockets, etc. and plan on continuing to buy SK items as I need them. I actually found a fairly local SK vendor a few days ago and they have pretty decent prices and plan on buying from them if I need something.

 

[bushmechanic]

You do realize that they are getting the same tools that other places are getting such as amazon? The SK tools they are selling, same as Wright, are newly manufactured unless they say otherwise. Companies are not going to say this wrench isn't perfect so we will send it to HJE and this is perfect so we will give it to amazon.

I agree with the rest of your post, so I'll just address this bit.

No, they're not deliberately sending junk to places like HJE or Amazon.

Surplus stock exists, both at the factory and at the distributor, and even at auction. I deal with it on occasion, and work with someone who's run several businesses based on this model.

I also deal with two people who formerly worked quality control in similar manufacturing facilities. If it can be sold safely, it's not scrapped.

When enough random inspections of a batch don't quite pass muster, that batch is often pulled for bulk sale if the defects aren't terminal. You'll have a few bad apples in there, but generally the issues don't affect most of the batch.

If the faults are too bad and too frequent, they won't sell them at all. Most of the time, though, that isn't the case.

Even on Ebay you can get a solid supply of brand new tools, but they will most likely be coming from one of these sources. I buy pallets and crates myself, on occasion. I just inspect them individually before sale.

I don't sell the duds. The inspections are time-consuming, though, and that turns me off of buying bulk overstock too often. It's just a pain.

One cannot expect HJE to personally inspect every item they sell. It's easier to give out the SK phone number and be done with the affair every few orders. Most of the time the flaws are so slight nobody will notice, anyway.

Now, you're not going to see too many tool truck brands pop up with these issues, and that's because problems tend to be handled internally or informally.

You can even run across a manufacturer that will kill a batch rather than releasing it to protect their brand identity, and thus almost prevent consumers coming upon quality issues entirely.

There's a massive industry revolving around seconds, overstocks, and things of that nature. It's unfathomably huge, but few people ever notice it, and even fewer know when they're buying from such stock.

The Internet has expanded it greatly, as well as amplified the word of mouth effect of any issues encountered as a result.

Hell, I've got $15,000 worth of audio for my home theater that's made up entirely of refurbished units and factory defects. It all works fine, but god forbid any of it hit a boutique store shelf. People would flip their wigs over some of the minor cosmetic issues.

There was always a risk I might have ended up with a performance issue, but I took that risk, and didn't encounter any.

I purchased every last bit of it directly from the manufacturer via their own bulk sales division.

Yup. You can do that if you find the right telephone number and talk your way past the right people.

 

[jeremy v]

To all the perfect people who are bitching about SK's QC, what would you say about this:

I don't like owning/buying tools with problems, but for some unknown reason I don't mind mistakes in the field of stamp collecting. If anyone happens to have one or more of these junky upside down airplane stamps I will do you a favor and take them off your hands for you. If they are the newly printed ones you can just change them out yourself at the Post Office, but if they are the originals the Post Office will no longer honor their warranty so I will warranty them out for you and send you brand new equivalent stamps instead. I'm a nice guy what can I say.

 

[rice rocket]

You do realize that they are getting the same tools that other places are getting such as amazon? The SK tools they are selling, same as Wright, are newly manufactured unless they say otherwise. Companies are not going to say this wrench isn't perfect so we will send it to HJE and this is perfect so we will give it to amazon.

The OP's wrenches are screwed up, but how many of you have actually looked at a 1,000+ wrenches or any other item a day for 100% inspection? After the first 100, it can get old, parts begin to look the same. People can screw up....it happens. Or do all of you live in glass houses?

That's not how QC works at all. Plant managers know almost exactly how many defects there are in the hands of the public, a regular sample will tell them that.

Each process and machine is inspected on a regular cycle, failures are counted, and a decision is made if that's an acceptable amount of defects leaving your factory. You cannot optimize every process to zero defects, so there is a balance struck weighing the amount of investment needed to lower the defect rate to an acceptable amount, and the projected gain in sales from having a lower defect rate.

The "send them back to SK" response is all too common here, so while the tools themselves have potential to be useful, it seems pretty clear SK needs to make a pretty big investment into their manufacturing.

 

[rice rocket]

I've posted this elsewhere, but here's my SK impact set, 3 or 4 in the set of 12 are broached very off center. Want to take a bet which ones fail first?

 

[rice rocket]

This one is cute too:

Here's something that I discovered last night.

I had ordered the imperial ball hex drivers from SK Day last September, and tossed them into my toolbox not thinking to check them before I had to use them.

Well, turns out, the 5/16" one barely has a ball-end to it. I thought it must be a manufacturing error and pulled up Amazon's page on it someone else had the same complaint. To boot, even the picture shows that it wasn't cut right. I thought it was a QC issue given the widespread complaints of QC fails, but now it's clearly an engineering fail as well...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002SR39Q/?tag=atomicindus08-20

My set:

 

[rice rocket]

And from the Amazon review:

 

[Jarhead0408]

I'll chime in here as well instead of making a new thread. If you need pics I can provide them.

Last S•K Day (2014) one of the items I ordered was a set of sae offset line wrenches. Unfortunately the largest wrench in that set had a pretty good amount of chrome missing from one end. I contacted S•K and asked if I could get a RMA number and not have to pay shipping since it was a brand new item. They sent me an RMA which included free shipping.

Now here is where I'm at fault, I stuck the wrench and the RMA paperwork in the side pocket of my car and forgot to send it out. That's my fault. Fast forward to September of this year and I found the wrench and the paperwork again. Sent the wrench off September 28th. I finally received the replacement Monday. That's right. It took 7 weeks to get a replacement. I'm glad I'm not a tech.

Sooo, I open the package up right there on the porch while I'm thinking in my head: "I hope they got their chrome issues worked out." Nope. I open the box, pull out the plastic bag, and before I even open it I see something wrong. One end of the wrench is discolored. Sort of a bronze-ish color. I'm guessing they didn't "cook it" long enough?

Open the bag up to take a closer look and find that not only is it discolored, but there are several chips in the chrome where they broached the corners inside the wrench. It won't be long before they'll start to rust; just like the original wrench.

To top it all off, in the midst of this we have this years S•K Day with our very own HJE and Co.

Hoping that last years issues have been worked out I place a small 2 item order.
One of the items was S•K's 5 piece oil filter cup/socket set. Upon opening it, I find one cup/socket missing completely, and another one that is dirty. Not dusty really, but with actual oily grime on it from use. It was the only one of the cups out of the set to be grungy like that. The rest of them were spotless.

Jori was very helpful in getting my replacement cup out for the missing one. Got it today (thanks Jori!).

But I'm not even sure I want to sent the line wrench back in anymore. I mean, I sent the first one back in attempt to let them get it right. They replaced the defective wrench.........with another defective wrench! Do I keep playing this game of round robin and hope one day I get a wrench with the chrome intact?

S•K is generally a good deal for what you spend on it. That being said, I've got many choices when it comes to buying tools. U.S. made and Taiwanese. This is three times in a row they've messed up my order. At what point do I move on???

Rant over...

 

[kwoswalt99]

Maybe it's time we go with Pittsburgh.

 

[Jarhead0408]

This one is cute too:

I'm going to have to check that out. I have that set too.

 

[jrobb316]

Maybe it's time we go with Pittsburgh.

Go nuts.

If i'm going import i'm going sunnex/gp. Pretty rare I do, but its happened.

 

[kball]

The small SK wrenches I got last year during SK day looked the same as the OP's. I thought I was going to have to replace them as well but first I put a nut in the open end of the wrench, and although looking very short and cut off, reached all the way around the nut. So I figured, what the heck, it may not look great but it will work fine.

 

[anndel]

Thanks all for sharing your experiences. I was going to order the SK X-Frame SAE set but I think I'll order the Snap On set instead. I needed a ratcheting combination reversible wrench and was looking at the SK X-Frame.

 

[bushmechanic]

The small SK wrenches I got last year during SK day looked the same as the OP's. I thought I was going to have to replace them as well but first I put a nut in the open end of the wrench, and although looking very short and cut off, reached all the way around the nut. So I figured, what the heck, it may not look great but it will work fine.

Their wrenches always look shallow as hell, but once you use them you see it was a design decision.

Not saying the others weren't screwed up, but all the SK designs look shallow. They grip just as well as anything else.

 

[cbracer]

Yeah, I really wanted to like SK especially with a big company like Ideal behind them. They still have a couple of nice items like their flare nut wrenches, but for normal wrenches and sockets I shop elsewhere. If you contact them or who you bought them from I'm sure you can return or exchange.

 

[bob15]

You don't use people to 100% inspect:

All depends on what part/item you are looking at. Many of parts that we have that requires a 100% search are done by hand. Many times a microscope is needed. Equipment costs to try and do it with a machine would be astronomical.

 

[uart]

The small SK wrenches I got last year during SK day looked the same as the OP's. I thought I was going to have to replace them as well but first I put a nut in the open end of the wrench, and although looking very short and cut off, reached all the way around the nut. So I figured, what the heck, it may not look great but it will work fine.

Maybe they are meant to be a little shorter, but I'm certain that the OP's 7mm wrench wasn't formed properly, it wont reach all the way around the nut.

Most wrenches that I've measured are usually just a little bit deeper than they are wide. The op's 7mm one is significantly less deep than it is wide.

 

[Flivver250]

SK isn't just having a QA/QC issue if there are repeated blunders passing through their hands. Their tooling, machinery or personnel must be out of whack too. I have been lucky in my purchases from them I guess as I have not noticed any bad product and I have bought some extensions, 1/4 sockets and some other sundry tools from them in the last year. I am certain they will take care of warranty claim and I hope they get their production process in hand. It is my general belief that repeated quality issues are a good indication they have poor production management. It is a people problem. Machinery can be adjusted and repaired. Careless employees can be corrected or replaced. Multiple returns demands management pay attention to trends and correct. That is their job.

 

[pepi]

Pretty weak looking wrenches, they know better. What make anyone think the next set of that run will be any better? Just saying

 

[Hiball]

Thanks all for sharing your experiences. I was going to order the SK X-Frame SAE set but I think I'll order the Snap On set instead. I needed a ratcheting combination reversible wrench and was looking at the SK X-Frame.

Good choice, because you really would have been disappointed when they showed up, the X frames aren't reversible as of now.

 

[SK Eric]

I have a couple of emails to the higher-ups at S·K about the broaching and the chrome issue. I expect to have a meeting with them later today to address these specific issues.

First: it goes without saying that this is not the quality that we expect from ourselves and we will make it right. To to OP, and breaker bar purchaser, and the other posters in this thread, please call us at (800) 822-5575. We will of course take care of you and replace your parts.

Second: This is not HJE's fault. The parts in question are, from what we can tell, not old stock from pre-IDEAL days. We own this, and as I said above, we'lll make it right.

Third: I want to follow up on all of the issues addressed in this thread to be sure that you get the quality that you and we expect from S·K. Please feel free to PM me or for faster response, send me an email at [email protected] and I will be sure to chase any loose ends down.

I don't know yet what happened here, but it should be clearer after I meet with folks later on. Again, this is not, and should not be a part of the S·K story. We'll take care of you, and we'll address the underlying issues.

 

[Conductor562]

Thanks all for sharing your experiences. I was going to order the SK X-Frame SAE set but I think I'll order the Snap On set instead. I needed a ratcheting combination reversible wrench and was looking at the SK X-Frame.

If you're open to spline drive, the Proto ratcheting combos are the nicest available IMO:

http://http://www.protoindustrial.com/en/news/Pages/Proto-Ratcheting-Spline-Combination-Wrenches.aspx

 

[Conductor562]

I have a couple of emails to the higher-ups at S·K about the broaching and the chrome issue. I expect to have a meeting with them later today to address these specific issues.

First: it goes without saying that this is not the quality that we expect from ourselves and we will make it right. To to OP, and breaker bar purchaser, and the other posters in this thread, please call us at (800) 822-5575. We will of course take care of you and replace your parts.

Second: This is not HJE's fault. The parts in question are, from what we can tell, not old stock from pre-IDEAL days. We own this, and as I said above, we'lll make it right.

Third: I want to follow up on all of the issues addressed in this thread to be sure that you get the quality that you and we expect from S·K. Please feel free to PM me or for faster response, send me an email at [email protected] and I will be sure to chase any loose ends down.

I don't know yet what happened here, but it should be clearer after I meet with folks later on. Again, this is not, and should not be a part of the S·K story. We'll take care of you, and we'll address the underlying issues.

Good deal Eric. Owning up the issue and doing your best to fix it is all anyone can ask and goes a long way toward boosting consumer confidence. I like that you were quick to relive HJE of any responsibility as well.

Very classy response

 

[Vortaku]

I have a couple of emails to the higher-ups at S·K about the broaching and the chrome issue. I expect to have a meeting with them later today to address these specific issues.

First: it goes without saying that this is not the quality that we expect from ourselves and we will make it right. To to OP, and breaker bar purchaser, and the other posters in this thread, please call us at (800) 822-5575. We will of course take care of you and replace your parts.

Second: This is not HJE's fault. The parts in question are, from what we can tell, not old stock from pre-IDEAL days. We own this, and as I said above, we'lll make it right.

Third: I want to follow up on all of the issues addressed in this thread to be sure that you get the quality that you and we expect from S·K. Please feel free to PM me or for faster response, send me an email at [email protected] and I will be sure to chase any loose ends down.

I don't know yet what happened here, but it should be clearer after I meet with folks later on. Again, this is not, and should not be a part of the S·K story. We'll take care of you, and we'll address the underlying issues.

Eric, way to jump in and handle things. I like that unlike some people here you don't care about pre-ideal. It is a defect on a product of your company. Way to take it to the chest and attempt to fix it.

Sent from my ONE A2005 using Tapatalk

 

[rice rocket]

No offense, Eric, but these complaints have been pretty consistent for quite a while, and span quite a large number of product lines. If it can't be associated to one worker or product line, then it really points to a corporate culture problem at SK. I understand that you're just one mouthpiece for the company and aren't pulling the levers to make the changes necessary, but the breadth and duration of the problems shows that SK is unwilling to make the investment in product quality.

I've seen the plans/photos for the new plant, but building new plants doesn't build better products if the same people steering the boat.

I, among many here, would love to have a trusted brand, that is made in the USA, with USA sourced materials, where I can buy basically anything to fill my toolbox and have it satisfy my expectations without having to research every single item to see if it's a quality piece at a not-Snap-On price. Unfortunately, that isn't SK.

 

[Loscaldazar]

Rice Rocket,

The vast majority of complaints have been for stupid issues: only some sockets are painted on the interior, dents UNDERNEATH the chrome (they don't bubble wrap each socket throughout the process, they get forged and are dropped into a giant bin of other sockets- a few dents in the exterior, underneath the chrome, is nothing new for any tool company and the larger the tool, the more likely it is to happen) or even complaints about water marks (from the final washing process) on the chrome (which is something that is present on pretty much every brand of USA sockets I've ever gotten).

There have been legit complaints, flaking chrome and now this wrench broaching issue.

If it puts it into perspective for you, Snap On still hasn't figured out how to broach all their flare nut wrenches on center and it's been 7 years now since the problem cropped up.

 

[woodstockva]

No offense, Eric, but these complaints have been pretty consistent for quite a while, and span quite a large number of product lines. If it can't be associated to one worker or product line, then it really points to a corporate culture problem at SK. I understand that you're just one mouthpiece for the company and aren't pulling the levers to make the changes necessary, but the breadth and duration of the problems shows that SK is unwilling to make the investment in product quality.

I've seen the plans/photos for the new plant, but building new plants doesn't build better products if the same people steering the boat.

I, among many here, would love to have a trusted brand, that is made in the USA, with USA sourced materials, where I can buy basically anything to fill my toolbox and have it satisfy my expectations without having to research every single item to see if it's a quality piece at a not-Snap-On price. Unfortunately, that isn't SK.

Every single manufacturer experiences manufacturing defects....even Snap-on.

The ironic thing is that out of the thousands of people who are satisified with their SK tools, the very few who decide to make GJ posts about "poor quality" seem to sway public opinion about the overall quality of an entire company.

SK Eric has obviously brought this complaint (which could have been solved by calling customer support) to the management.....and has offered to fix the situation. I dont understand what else is expected?

I think that people should realize that it is not robots in China building these tools.....it is Americans.....the same Americans that people complain about losing their jobs when a company packs up & moves overseas. You cant have it both ways.....you will not have "zero defects" coming out of any process that is not entirely automated. That is why companies have warranties & also why retailers have return policies --- if you arent happy, get it replaced and/or return it....but ruining a company's reputation & questioning the entire management/workforce over a defective wrench is nuts.

 

[1982fxr]

No offense, Eric, but these complaints have been pretty consistent for quite a while, and span quite a large number of product lines. If it can't be associated to one worker or product line, then it really points to a corporate culture problem at SK. I understand that you're just one mouthpiece for the company and aren't pulling the levers to make the changes necessary, but the breadth and duration of the problems shows that SK is unwilling to make the investment in product quality.

I've seen the plans/photos for the new plant, but building new plants doesn't build better products if the same people steering the boat.

I, among many here, would love to have a trusted brand, that is made in the USA, with USA sourced materials, where I can buy basically anything to fill my toolbox and have it satisfy my expectations without having to research every single item to see if it's a quality piece at a not-Snap-On price. Unfortunately, that isn't SK.

many of those threads are for pre-ideal and tool polishers complaining about...they don't even know what. Some are legit--like this one, many if not most are bs. About $25,000 in SK sold in that other thread and only a bad wrench here or there, it happens.

Then taking that hyperbole and commenting on the culture at SK...get your meds adjusted dude.

 

[rice rocket]

Rice Rocket,

The vast majority of complaints have been for stupid issues

I posted other items that I had in the past, like off center broaching on sockets, under-machined ball end hex drivers, etc. When I'm 3 for 4 for defective items, over a few years, it really doesn't leave me wanting to spend more of my money on SK products.

 

[Brownsfan]

I have a couple of emails to the higher-ups at S·K about the broaching and the chrome issue. I expect to have a meeting with them later today to address these specific issues.

First: it goes without saying that this is not the quality that we expect from ourselves and we will make it right. To to OP, and breaker bar purchaser, and the other posters in this thread, please call us at (800) 822-5575. We will of course take care of you and replace your parts.

Second: This is not HJE's fault. The parts in question are, from what we can tell, not old stock from pre-IDEAL days. We own this, and as I said above, we'lll make it right.

Third: I want to follow up on all of the issues addressed in this thread to be sure that you get the quality that you and we expect from S·K. Please feel free to PM me or for faster response, send me an email at [email protected] and I will be sure to chase any loose ends down.

I don't know yet what happened here, but it should be clearer after I meet with folks later on. Again, this is not, and should not be a part of the S·K story. We'll take care of you, and we'll address the underlying issues.

This right here is what sets SK apart. I will still give SK my business in the future. Some of the SK complaints on here in the past were just unreasonable. These are legitimate. SK will make it right.

 

[rice rocket]

I think that people should realize that it is not robots in China building these tools.....it is Americans.....the same Americans that people complain about losing their jobs when a company packs up & moves overseas. You cant have it both ways.....you will not have "zero defects" coming out of any process that is not entirely automated. That is why companies have warranties & also why retailers have return policies --- if you arent happy, get it replaced and/or return it....but ruining a company's reputation & questioning the entire management/workforce over a defective wrench is nuts.

It really doesn't matter who or where products are being made, automated or not, any large scale manufacturing company knows exactly how many defective products leave their factory. It's basic statistics and math. If your QC engineer measures 1 failure for every 1000 items, and sell 10,000, you have 10 QC fails out there in the market somewhere.

So when the plant manager goes back to the executives and says, well we had a QC fail rate of .1%, a decision is made whether or not this is acceptable amount of failure or if more money needs to be driven into process controls to make this line better.

Given that we're looking at more than a handful of products that are poorly manufactured, it doesn't seem likely that it's one man asleep at their broaching station, it really runs deeper.


Also I'm not sure why you think I'm out to ruin their reputation? The products speak for themselves, good or bad. It's not like customers who bought the underbroached wrenches wouldn't be disappointed in the product they received if we hadn't pointed it out, it sets the expectation properly for the customer or potential customer. Not pointing out the lack of quality doesn't make it go away; hopefully it gives them incentive to actually make improvements so we don't have to continually sweep this under the rug.

I for one, would love to be able to buy more SK. I have ~$200 worth from last SK Day, but haven't bought more due to the amount of defects I got. Hopefully that's not the case in the future and I won't have to say that.