PB Swiss warranty - unfortunate changes

[scottmlew]

I just saw this on the pbtools.us page (this is Count On's webpage):

LIFETIME GUARANTEE / WARRANTY POLICY

All PB Swiss Tools products have an unlimited lifetime guarantee. If an item is broken or is not possible for use after normal wear and tear usage, then it can be returned for a replacement part. In some cases, an exact replacement part may not be available due to design changes or discontinued items. In this case, a customer support representative will contact you with options for completing the warranty return process.

Effective February 1st, 2010: Count On Tools will no longer be accepting or processing warranty related returns. All warranty related returns must be processed by PB Swiss Tools directly.

To contact them about a warranty related return, please use the following information:

(full address omitted for brevity)
CH-3457 Wasen/Bern

So it's good that the warranty has been reiterated as explicitly covering normal wear and tear, but now we need to deal with warranty issues using an overseas POC? That alone will make many warranty claims economically unfeasible due to shipping costs.

 

[48548]

Wow, I have had good luck with the one wera bit holder that had a problem, chads made it right with me. Maybe the place you bought it from would do the right thing and stand behind the warranty.

 

[Monte]

What about the other USA dealers of PB Baumann ?

www.solcomusa.com
www.smallparts.com
www.toollady.com
www.mscdirect.com
www.esgllc-usa.com

 

[MrMark]

Chad's will make it right with Wera, but anyone else and you are going to pay shipping both ways if they can handle it at all.

I have had unfortunate recent experience with this.

 

[FNFS2000]

What about the other USA dealers of PB Baumann ?

www.solcomusa.com
www.smallparts.com
www.toollady.com
www.mscdirect.com
www.esgllc-usa.com

To my knowledge there is only one company importing the tools from Europe(count on) maybe some of these companies will take the loss and process warranty out of pocket? doubtful

 

[scottmlew]

Chad's will make it right with Wera, but anyone else and you are going to pay shipping both ways if they can handle it at all.

I have had unfortunate recent experience with this.

Both ways?

Can you share your story?

 

[Thedroid]

I doubt that any of them will take the loss. That's just one of the downsides to buying exotic tools. I've been eyeing the PB Swiss line for awhile, The Tool Lady is local, and she dropped me off a catalog awhile back, but I haven't bought anything yet. I really don't care about warranty when it comes to any mail order tools. I've bought numerous tools from chadstoolbox, and when there all used up, I'll order new ones. Dealing with shipping, and waiting, and all that just isn't worth it to me. Snap on I'll hold to the fire for warranty because of the high price, and the convenience. Sears also because its easy. Klein I don't bother with, and German I don't even consider.

 

[scottmlew]

To my knowledge there is only one company importing the tools from Europe(count on) maybe some of these companies will take the loss and process warranty out of pocket? doubtful

Does Small Parts not import directly? I wonder what they're doing for warranty service.

 

[MrMark]

Both ways?

Can you share your story?

OK, I purchased some screwdrivers and the Witte MaxPro phillips lasted about two weeks of intermitent use before the tip deformed (just like Klein). I didn't think this was right and asked Chad's what to do. They said send it back. I did and paid the postage. Since this was a relatively cheap item it was close to the throw it away and learn a lesson point on the economic scale of shipping charges vs. worth.

Three weeks later Chad's gets a new one but wants 8.95 to send it out to me. More than I could just buy a new one for.

Lesson learned. They shouldn't have told me to send it back if they were going to charge shipping back. They should have told me to send it to Witte and then I would have just thrown it out.

From now on I will just stick with SO or Sears for anything that might remotely fail or wear out too quickly.

 

[FNFS2000]

I've had one wera warranty with chads and it was shipped from wera to me after a emailed an image of the bad tool. I think there will be different issues when different manufacturers are involved. Knipex I had to mail back and pay for return shipping or have it added to a new order. Most stores won't touch manufacturers warranty at all, so if mailing back and forth in the US is an option given from a store I'll take it over mailing to europe... I'm guessing count one got tired of processing zillions of warranty and not getting very good credit for all thier time spent.

 

[scottmlew]

Although I think it's poor form to ask the customer to pay to send back the defective item, I've grown accustomed to it as it is standard practice nowadays. However, I find asking the customer to pay return shipping (to get the replacement item) to be downright despicable.

 

[Paullew]

I just saw this on the pbtools.us page (this is Count On's webpage):



So it's good that the warranty has been reiterated as explicitly covering normal wear and tear, but now we need to deal with warranty issues using an overseas POC? That alone will make many warranty claims economically unfeasible due to shipping costs.

I want to try some of these screwdrivers out

 

[comedyman809]

if you buy knipex from grainger, grainger will warranty it for life. therefore i do, problem is, they dont sell the entire line of knipex, and i want some knipex stuff that grainger does not carry.

what i do like is graingern msc, and im sure all the supply chains, warranty any tool for 1 year as long as you bought it from them, you dont even have to send them the tool.

i just went to grainger with 4 broken to hell tools and they looked up to seewhen i bought them, they were and within 1 year, and they sent me new tools, they didnt eve want to take the old one from me, and i called MSC and told them that my pair of channellock 338 dikes were not cutting anymore(i cut a lot of wire) and they sent me a new pair next day air. and told me to throw away the old ones.

but knipex stuff is forever with grainger...that i like.

by the way, is Mike Rowe(dirty jobs) still the spokesman for grainger?

 

[Merkava_4]

Effective February 1st, 2010: Count On Tools will no longer be accepting or processing warranty related returns. All warranty related returns must be processed by PB Swiss Tools directly.

Count On Tools?

 

[Monte]

All the companies i listed above are listed on the PBswiss official website as distributors (click)
Somebody has to call all of them and ask about the warranty. I can`t imagine that they seriously think that someone sends a single screwdriver to switzerland all the way from the US... The importers/distributors should be responsible for any warranty claims.... (how they then handle the claims with PBswiss should not be the problem of the customer)

 

[FNFS2000]

shouldn't be, but it is out of the ordinary for a store to service a manufacturers warranty to begin with. Usually a store won't do anything for you past the 30 day satisfaction return period most stores have.

 

[scottmlew]

Count On Tools?

They're the people behind pbtools.us, which seems (based on my informal observations) to be the most popular PB Swiss distributor in the US.

 

[MrMark]

All the companies i listed above are listed on the PBswiss official website as distributors (click)
Somebody has to call all of them and ask about the warranty. I can`t imagine that they seriously think that someone sends a single screwdriver to switzerland all the way from the US... The importers/distributors should be responsible for any warranty claims.... (how they then handle the claims with PBswiss should not be the problem of the customer)

That's what I think too Monte. I understand Chad's problem but the solution is for them to work out a deal with the manufacturer on warranty issues or not carry the item/line. They should be able to handle the warranty claims on behalf of the manufacturer and receive credit for returned items. This should be transparent to the customer. They seem to be able to do this with Wera but not with anyone else. Wera has a US office apparently and drop ships directly to the customer so Chad's does not have to be involved.

What if some Hazet tool breaks? You are SOL as far as I can see.

 

[Monte]

regarding the warranty for german tools i found infos on the samstagsales.com website:

http://www.samstagsales.com/warranty.htm

 

[thk2c]

so i guess there is no longer any reason to buy from Count On Tools. People can just buy from amazon for less money, plus free shipping. The only reason I paid Count on Tools the extra dough was for the warranty. That was a bad move on their part.

 

[scottmlew]

so i guess there is no longer any reason to buy from Count On Tools. People can just buy from amazon for less money, plus free shipping. The only reason I paid Count on Tools the extra dough was for the warranty. That was a bad move on their part.

Yeah, I do feel a bit shafted. I mean, just a couple of months ago I bought like $800 worth of PB Swiss stuff from them. Now if a driver breaks I need to deal internationally?

 

[Vinko]

Most stores won't touch manufacturers warranty at all, so if mailing back and forth in the US is an option given from a store I'll take it over mailing to europe... I'm guessing count one got tired of processing zillions of warranty and not getting very good credit for all thier time spent.

My guess is that one contributing factor to this whole warranty problem is that few "dealers" are stocking distributors or anything but a virtual webpage from which to sell their stuff. Their margins are probably so low, that they don't even want to deal with it. And can't really deal with it.

We benefit by the low overhead of these stores and the way they ruthlessly undercut each other, but we lose out with service. I'm sort of fine with that considering my PB pick set was only $16 through small parts via amazon.

 

[thk2c]

fyi....count on tools has reversed their decision and are now accepting warranties.

Good move on their part. Without the warranty they are just an overpriced dealer.

 

[scottmlew]

thk2c, thx for pointing out the update. Their new policy is certainly better than "no warranty service", but I'm a bit disappointed that there are now shipping and handling fees associated with the return of the warranted items. But, as I said, definitely an improvement.

 

[scottmlew]

Hmmm...reading the warranty form, I see a contradiction with the info on the website. The website says that normal wear and tear IS covered under the warranty, but the form says wear and tear is NOT covered. I wonder which is accurate?

 

[thk2c]

i saw that too....seems like they are going to charge a lot and customers aren't going to get much in terms of service.

 

[alberto]

Since I am in the process of buying PB tools, I looked into this warrantee issue. Since this string was first posted, it appears that they have retracted the requirement to deal directly with PB Swiss in Switzerland:

All PB Swiss Tools products have an unlimited lifetime guarantee. If an item is broken or is not in working condition after normal wear and tear usage, then it can be returned for a replacement part. In some cases, an exact replacement part may not be available due to design changes or discontinued items. In this case, a customer support representative will contact you with options for completing the warranty return process.

Upon receipt, your return will be evaluated and items that fall within PB’s warranty will be replaced. Please allow 2 to 6+ weeks for processing and replacement. To ensure your return reaches us and that we have all information needed to warranty your items, please provide the following:

They have a handling fee, which I think is BS and a few other niggles, but at least they will take the item here in the US.

Alberto

 

[Vinko]

Well, that's good news. I can tolerate paying shipping back, but the prices seems high. I think they should have a reasonable fee. What's odd is there chart for how many pieces constitute what weight. But hey, they're probably worried about warranty eating into their profit. Which is strange, since PB Swiss has a solid rep. and you wouldn't think they'd have many warranty returns. And is there a large second hand market?

Maybe they're worried about the other dealers like Small Parts foisting their warranty customers of onto them?

I "heard" but certainly cannot confirm that PB Tools complained about the great deals Small Parts was giving on tools. PB tools certainly reads these forums and new how much guys here were pointing out what a deal Small tools was compared to PB.

If I were PB Swiss, I wouldn't allow a dealer to sell the tools if he wouldn't deal with warranty also. That's part of the deal of being a dealer.

That said, good news that PB Tools is taking warranty stuff again. Even if I didn't need it, on principle, I wouldn't buy from them if they weren't.