Craftsman Warranty Stinks
- Thread starter russ01915
- Start date
four.cycle
Well-known member
PelicanPines said:
who knew?
ndnchf
Well-known member
I took a broken 3/8" ratchet back to the loca Sears a couple weeks ago. The sales guy looked in his drawer of replacements, but didn't find one comparable. He walked over to the rack of new ones in the package and gave me one of those - no problem. I think you got jacked around.
WittHay
Well-known member
Same here, no more Sears Canada. Last stores closed in January. They were good at warranty exchanges though. Bring in your old ratchet and get a new one in the same drive size off the rack
I don't think they rebuild ratchets or sold kits in 15 to 20 years. Just straight exchange
Musicinabottle
Banned
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2016
- Messages
- 3,371
I'm not sure attacks are being mounted, but the thread is definitely being seeded for responses such as yours. (In case you didn't get it, the person you're responding to is/was well aware of the Chinese production.)
Yeah, I was just saying..........
vssjim
ALLIANCE MEMBER
the bad part is even the kits a china scrap now
vssjim
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I'm sure that was when Sears Canada went to all imported stuff ratchet kits went away because of cost of a taiwan ratchet was low and replacing was cheaper than stocking all the kit part numbers for all the years.
finn
Well-known member
I stopped by our local Sears Hometown store this morning to warranty two Craftsman / Western Forge screwdrivers. I have had them in the truck door pocket for a month or so, but have been reluctant to bring them in because of all the negative posts on this site.
Boy was I wrong.
The young lady was cheerful and even enthusiastic, for lack of a better word.
They didn’t have the exact replacements, but came back from the stockroom with one a little shorter and one a little longer and asked if they would be ok.
No problem for me.
The store was clean and well stocked with appliances, snowblowers, and tools.
Not much foot traffic, but it was four degrees and a near whiteout, and there weren’t many cars on the road either.
The Hometown stores are independently owned, so that may make a difference from what you guys report.
Interesting that there was a bigger selection of Dewalt power tools than Craftsman, and probably a 50/50 split between Craftsman and Husqvarna snow blowers and lawn tractors.
Boy was I wrong.
The young lady was cheerful and even enthusiastic, for lack of a better word.
They didn’t have the exact replacements, but came back from the stockroom with one a little shorter and one a little longer and asked if they would be ok.
No problem for me.
The store was clean and well stocked with appliances, snowblowers, and tools.
Not much foot traffic, but it was four degrees and a near whiteout, and there weren’t many cars on the road either.
The Hometown stores are independently owned, so that may make a difference from what you guys report.
Interesting that there was a bigger selection of Dewalt power tools than Craftsman, and probably a 50/50 split between Craftsman and Husqvarna snow blowers and lawn tractors.
I once took in a ratchet to Sears (a raised panel), and the lady pulled out a box of rebuilt ones for me to choose from. She said I could pick anyone. I ended up getting a professional one with the nice shiny handle. It wasn't perfect -- had a couple minor scratches.
I don't have CM tools anymore. I gave them away to a couple needy people. My budget brand go to is Tekton, Stanley, HF, etc. if I don't wanna break the bank. Though I have a mostly complete set of SK and older Powr-Kraft tools.
I don't have CM tools anymore. I gave them away to a couple needy people. My budget brand go to is Tekton, Stanley, HF, etc. if I don't wanna break the bank. Though I have a mostly complete set of SK and older Powr-Kraft tools.
+1
People have got to let this go.
GM don't make Pontiacs no more.
MTV don't play videos no more.
Please don’t. I love reading these type of thread. And then seeing how many responses it gets before someone post another one.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Lassen Forge
Well-known member
Imagine my surprise when I went to buy me a new Oldsmobile, because I found out Packard went out of business... 
I still remember there were Stude Avantis coming out of somewhere after the rest of the line had been dead for years... now, you want a company that built a hell of a pick-up, and then accounted and economically hosed itself to death? Still breaks my heart...
I still remember there were Stude Avantis coming out of somewhere after the rest of the line had been dead for years... now, you want a company that built a hell of a pick-up, and then accounted and economically hosed itself to death? Still breaks my heart...
RAS61
Well-known member
They're going out of business, so in a few months the store will be closed and the sales clerk will be out of a job, your experience is pretty much what I would have expected. Years ago it was almost impossible to find someone working at Sears that knew what they were doing or cared, forget about it now.
four.cycle
Well-known member
WittHay said:
^ In the fall of 2015 I had to go over to Sears at the Tacoma Mall to exchange a pick tool that had broken - they told me I had to bring in the whole kit because they couldn't just replace the single unit.
I stood there and waited about 30 minutes for one of the sales people to help me because the other two employees working in the tool department (one of whom was the department manager) were farting around trying to rebuild a pear-head ratchet.
The one thing that can be drawn from the comments in this thread is that the level of service and inventory selection varies wildly from one store location to another.
CJ7VFR
Well-known member
This pretty much sums it up.
There are two Sears stores near me, and both are about 15 miles from my house, and both are anchor stores in malls.
One always seems to have good employees that know how to do actual exchanges of broken CM tools. I take in a broken whatever, and if there is a new on the shelf, I get it. If there is no new one, they say they can either rebuild it (if it is ratchet), or they say to go to the other store to see if they have what I need. I like this store, and the people who work there, but it is small, and getting smaller every day, and they have less and less tools for sale.
The other store, which is bigger, and has way more inventory in it, at least for now, always seems to have employees working in there that are just putting in time, and don't know how to do anything. There is only one guy that works there now that seems to know anything, and he only works one day a week. So if I have to go to this store, I go when he is there.
But it is so true about how the stores can vary so much, even down to the services they provide, even though they are both Sears stores.
Jim
RAS61
Well-known member
About 8 years ago after we moved to SC I went to an anchor mall Sears for a tool chest on sale - after I finally got someone to help me I had to walk the Sales Assoc through the process of ordering the one I wanted (none in the store) and what the final price should be. That store is now closed.
Soon they'll all be closed, so they won't be an option in the future. It will be interesting to see if BD will continue to warranty the old tools and if they have any plans to improve customer service.
Soon they'll all be closed, so they won't be an option in the future. It will be interesting to see if BD will continue to warranty the old tools and if they have any plans to improve customer service.
Indeed, warranty on CM old tools should prove interesting. How is SBD's customer service now? I would assume it to be better (or at least more consistent) than Sears' current rendition of customer service.
Funny, they were probably made by Stanley in China...weren’t they the same era as the legendary tri wing ratchet?
mikebaker1129
Well-known member
Yes they were! They made the Husky line for Home Depot around the same time.
Parrothead
Well-known member
^^^ This ^^^ They're playing out the string and they know it. I was in Sears the other day checking to see what if anything was left and well, lets say it was a ghost town. They did have two workers in the tool department, and one was sitting behind the cash register on a stool playing on his phone. He was happy to chat, but had no desire to do anything more than that. You can look at the store and know it's done, as an employee you'd have to truly be an idiot not to think the same.
Coach James
Well-known member
I read a lot of people say they bought C-man for the warranty. I never did. I bought them because, for years, they were the only place to buy tools unless you got them off a truck. The hallowed "mom and pop stores" never had much in the way of hand tools. The tools at the auto parts stores were limited and very expensive. So it was mostly C-man or nothing until the other big boxes came along.
Coach
Coach
crewchief888
Well-known member
^^^ this
yea it was either CM or maybe SK of you could find an auto parts store that sold them.
or take your pick from a tool truck.
there was a HUGE difference in the quality of CM tools vs anything cheap/inexpensive.
a lot of the less expensive tool lines have truly upped their "game" in the past few years.
30 yeas ago, try to find a full polish, longer combo wrench.. about the only choice was something off a tool truck...
