Defective Wright Tools wrench set

[sportwagon]

So I finally decided to pull the trigger on the Wright 15 piece full polish metric combination set (#952) from Amazon. After all the positive comments here I was eager to get rid of my cobbled together set of combination wrenches, some of very poor quality. So I was surprised when I opened it up to inspect it to find two wrenches with flaws, one very minor, but one VERY major. The minor flaw is some small defects in the chroming on the 11mm wrench (only concern is long term corrosion resistance). The 19mm wrench, however, arrived with a very obvious crack in the wrench itself! This despite the tag saying "Proudly inspected and packed by Clock #452". The crack was obviously there in manufacturing, as there is no evidence of any usage of the wrench (jaws perfectly clean, no scratches, etc.)

Beyond that there are a few appearance issues. There were a few wrenches with what looks like "water marks" on them, but they don't clean off with water and a micro fiber towel. And the 22 mm wrench, on the tips of the open end the chrome is not shiny, but dull in appearance although it is smooth to the touch. This really isn't what I expected.

I tried to contact Wright via their "contact us form" on their website on Thursday, but they never got back me probably because they didn't get the message as the form gives an error message when you submit it

CDO.Message.1 error '8004020c'

At least one recipient is required, but none were found.

/thankyouV2.asp, line 132

(I didn't try and debug it, looks like their "sendto" script needs to be updated with a proper target, and it failed on multiple different browsers)

Friday I tried their facebook page which says they respond to messages very quickly, so sent them a private message, but heard nothing there either.

I guess I will have to find a window of time on Monday to call them on the phone, since I would like to hear from them how this badly damaged set got through quality control. I am also hoping they might be able to offer some assistance rather than taking a **** shoot on sending the set back to Amazon and hoping the exchanged set is good (not to mention they are now out of stock, so no idea how long it will be till I would get the replacement).

If anybody has any better way to contact Wright Tools I'd love to hear about it.


(More complete set of full size images are here as the some of the images were too large to post here)

 

[firworks]

That's horrorfying! I hope you get to contact them and get things sorted out. I thought there was a Wright Tools distributor or rep or something that used to post on here. Foxracing maybe?

 

[Skin]

I know in the anti-social digital age electronic communication is preferred but honestly a phone call would get you a wrench in the mail in no time.

Quality issues happen to everyone. I actually find that kind of neat especially with the chrome looking so great.

 

[sportwagon]

I know in the anti-social digital age electronic communication is preferred but honestly a phone call would get you a wrench in the mail in no time.

Quality issues happen to everyone. I actually find that kind of neat especially with the chrome looking so great.

I'm not anti social, my work schedule just doesn't easily allow phone calls during normal business hours, being able to post questions at odd hours (just like I just did) is a great help. But as I said, I plan on trying to find some time on Monday to call them.

And yes quality issues happen to everyone, which is why you have inspectors. I don't have any issues with the the minor blemishes making it past the inspectors, I'm sure they don't have much time, but a completely cracked wrench? It was obvious even in the tool roll.

 

[wagon]

dude it's a safety feature. if you overtorque the wrench, it breaks in half so you don't round the bolt off.

call them, I'm sure they'll take care of it. I have that kit, and I really look for reasons to use it. the tools are flawless. once it's fixed, you will LOVE the set.

let us know how it goes!

 

[sportwagon]

dude it's a safety feature. if you overtorque the wrench, it breaks in half so you don't round the bolt off.
!

Great answer! I'll be sure to ask them about it when I call them!

 

[1foxracing]

So I finally decided to pull the trigger on the Wright 15 piece full polish metric combination set (#952) And the 23 mm wrench, on the tips of the open end the chrome is not shiny, but dull in appearance although it is smooth to the touch.

If you really purchased the 952 set it only go's to 22mm so I'm not sure how your 23mm was included. Call them on the phone (1-800-321-2902) and I'm sure they will take care of it.

That's horrorfying! I hope you get to contact them and get things sorted out. I thought there was a Wright Tools distributor or rep or something that used to post on here. Foxracing maybe?

I don't work for them but am a big fan of their tools and work down the street from their plant.

 

[espyking83]

You have to watch Amazon, some of the 3rd party vendors like to mix in or piece together open box items without giving accurate descriptions. It's never happened to me buying Wright tools, but it seems like every other time I buy Armstrong, Proto, or Wiha from an Amazon 3rd party vendor.

 

[sportwagon]

If you really purchased the 952 set it only go's to 22mm so I'm not sure how your 23mm was included. Call them on the phone (1-800-321-2902) and I'm sure they will take care of it.
.

Whoops sorry, thanks for catching that, it was late and I hit the wrong key on the keyboard. It is a 952 set and you are correct the largest wrench is 22mm. I'll edit my original post

 

[sportwagon]

You have to watch Amazon, some of the 3rd party vendors like to mix in or piece together open box items without giving accurate descriptions. It's never happened to me buying Wright tools, but it seems like every other time I buy Armstrong, Proto, or Wiha from an Amazon 3rd party vendor.

It seems you have to watch Amazon 3rd party vendors for a lot more things than tools. Lots of counterfeit flash memory cards and I am sure other things. In this case though, it was bought directly from Amazon (e.g "Sold by Amazon.com LLC")

 

[babylou]

The 19MM can pass inspections sans cracks and crack later while just sitting on a shelf. This occurs due to the presence of residual stress within the wrench that was not removed during the heat treatment process or due to the chroming process. The issue will occur due to poor processing but can rear its head periodically with good processing.

Determining when the crack occurred is easy. Is chrome within the crack?

 

[babylou]

Now that I look at the photos closely I think the crack occurred prior to chroming so indeed the wrench passed through inspection with the flaw.

 

[T45]

Amazon will fix this for you if Wright does not...I think you will be in good hands either way. Best of luck.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Wow, I guess this is why they have a warranty, just in case. I am sure they will take care of you...

 

[rt dak]

If you bought it from Amazon they will give you a hard time. I bought brand new sealed Wright 1/4" metric sockets on a rail. The were mismatched in appearance and the majority were missing the detents. Wright bascially told me "too bad". They were the last Wright tools I bought, went with Proto.

Here's the link to the thread I started... http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=132526

 

[drink]

Never seen anything like it from a factory.

 

[Davefr]

Last time I had to warranty a Wright tool they just told me to mail it in.

Unlike SO, they don't seem to require pre-approval to mail in a tool for repair/replacement.

 

[organ]

If you bought it from Amazon they will give you a hard time. I bought brand new sealed Wright 1/4" metric sockets on a rail. The were mismatched in appearance and the majority were missing the detents. Wright bascially told me "too bad". They were the last Wright tools I bought, went with Proto.

Here's the link to the thread I started... http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=132526

 

[iScream]

It's funny that wagon started a thread 6 days ago to complain about Proto/Wright then a 5 year old, unused account named sportwagon wakes up yesterday to start a thread complaining about Wright.

Just a coincidence, I'm sure.

 

[T45]

Worst case is you put in in the mail and send a flat rate box back to the supplier for a refund. That's not very much downside risk. It ***** if you needed the tools for a project tho. The delay (and tying up money) is a hassle. But nothing to get defeated by in the long run.

 

[sportwagon]

It's funny that wagon started a thread 6 days ago to complain about Proto/Wright then a 5 year old, unused account named sportwagon wakes up yesterday to start a thread complaining about Wright.

Just a coincidence, I'm sure.

Yeah coincidences can be funny (saw his comment in this thread and noted the id, but I haven't seen his other thread) But I am not in any way related to wagon. I had just created the user id years ago because without having an id, you can't see images in forum posts, and I was researching all of the geobarn builds on this site, but never had a reason to post.

If you follow the link in the first post you will end up on my google+ page (google forces all of your photo albums on google+ now) and you can see that I definitely own the set in question so I am not just trying to beat on Wright. In fact from all the positive comments on this site my plan was to start rebuilding my toolbox with their products, we'll see what happens when I call them tomorrow.

 

[wagon]

It's funny that wagon started a thread 6 days ago to complain about Proto/Wright then a 5 year old, unused account named sportwagon wakes up yesterday to start a thread complaining about Wright.

Just a coincidence, I'm sure.

completely unrelated, I assure you.

PM a mod, ask for the locations the IPs originate from.

if we were one, don't you think that one would have picked completely unrelated names? I'm sure you do.

 

[wagon]

secondly, I did not complain about wright one bit, and my issue with Proto was completely resolved. if you want to talk ****, be upfront about it.

 

[Flivver250]

Every Wright tool I have purchased (a whole lot) has been flawless and normally I am the guy who gets all the defects on anything I buy. They will make it right. Anything can sneak through. No such thing as zero defect manufacturing.

 

[four.cycle]

No such thing as zero defect manufacturing.

^ this.

I remember pulling brand-new sockets out of the boxes that hadn't been broached on the business end; nice round hole all polished up nice.
Brand-new box-end wrenches with round holes in both ends that didn't get to the broaching machine.
Dorman wheel studs with no threads.
New Niehoff DR-68 distributor caps with no metal contacts in the holes.

Production lines crank out hundreds/thousands of units per hour/minute.
Stuff happens.

 

[iScream]

secondly, I did not complain about wright one bit, and my issue with Proto was completely resolved. if you want to talk ****, be upfront about it.

I'm sure my troll detector is just over sensitive and giving false positives. But, without doubt, there are one hell of a lot of trolls on GJ trying to bash USA made, or even just non-China made, tools while promoting Chinese garbage.

A good example might be starting threads to bash Proto and or Williams while promoting Harbor Freight in their sig.

I'm pretty sure there is at least one with a very strange sense of humor who has been trolling GJ for a long time and still has a bunch of accounts created over multiple years.

 

[wagon]

sig is a joke, bud.

 

[apdxyk]

as an aside note: IP address means nothing nowadays, can be spoofed thousand ways, and even something lame like using a proxy/vpn would do..

 

[CobraChevelle]

I purchased all my wright wrenches through amazon last month. some of mine did have "water spots" I used flitz with the micro fiber towel and they look so beautiful now. Without the polish you wont remove the spots, Just like on a car.

 

[sleepy127]

Wrights warranty service is great, you should have no problems. I had 1/4 drive I purchased years ago (1994 or so lol) but never used because the detent was stuck in and the sockets wouldn't stay on. I had other 1/4 ratchets so no big deal, it just sat in the toolbox all shiny and pretty. About a month ago I decided to email them and they responded within 24 hours and I had my new ratchet within a week. They told me to just destroy the old one.

 

[davethorik]

A year ago maybe I bought a Wright 1/4 spinner handle and didn't notice where the detent ball was crimped in, was crooked so the detent ball didn't even protrude from the drive. Went to where I purchased it, was exchanged for a good one no questions asked. Stuff happens.

 

[Ponchoguy]

I'm not anti social, my work schedule just doesn't easily allow phone calls during normal business hours, being able to post questions at odd hours (just like I just did) is a great help. But as I said, I plan on trying to find some time on Monday to call them.

And yes quality issues happen to everyone, which is why you have inspectors. I don't have any issues with the the minor blemishes making it past the inspectors, I'm sure they don't have much time, but a completely cracked wrench? It was obvious even in the tool roll.

I recently had to call Hopkins for something as they didn't answer my e-mail or fax. As it turns out, a five minute phone call got it resolved.

 

[tdkkart]

"Our 1 of 100 sample inspection has revealed no defects......"


Damn few manufacturers do 100% inspections any more.

 

[sportwagon]

So here is the answer. I called them on the number listed on the tag on the tool roll 800.321.2902, which is also what is listed on their web site. What is nice is this goes directly to customer service, no "Press 1 for ***, Press 2 for yyy...." type purgatory. This was one of the things I was asking about in my original post when I asked if people could suggest the best way to contact them, since sometimes it can be tough to get to the right department in a company, in this case it is very easy.

I explained to the nice woman that answered why I had decided to buy Wright tools to replace my current ones (e.g. quality and US made) but then told her about my disappointment with some of the wrenches. I described the chroming problem first, which she immediately recognized, she wasn't sure of the exact term for it, but knew it sometimes happened in the the process. +1 for knowledgeable customer service reps. Then I told her about the cracked 19mm wrench. She couldn't believe it, and made a joke that it must be Monday She asked if I could send her a picture (which I had assumed they would want, hence why I originally tried the contact form). I told her about the issue with the contact form and she said they would have to look in to that. I then told her how to find the pictures on the internet, and she was amazed, and was very apologetic. She asked me to confirm the inspector number on the roll (it was hard to read in the picture without enlarging it), and then said they would send out replacements for the three wrenches, and in her words "I'm putting a note in say to make sure they are fully inspected". As someone else posted, they didn't ask me to send the wrenches back, just to destroy them, so that was nice as I didn't have to pick up the return postage as I might have if I sent them back to Amazon (Amazon has become less than clear on paying return shipping for anything other than "their" error). She did ask me to hold on to the broken 19mm wrench for a few days in case their engineer wanted me to send it back.

So good customer service, and glad I talked to them rather than trying a return through Amazon. Now at least I can actually try out the set now since I know I don't have to return it.

 

[wagon]

So here is the answer. I called them on the number listed on the tag on the tool roll 800.321.2902, which is also what is listed on their web site. What is nice is this goes directly to customer service, no "Press 1 for ***, Press 2 for yyy...." type purgatory. This was one of the things I was asking about in my original post when I asked if people could suggest the best way to contact them, since sometimes it can be tough to get to the right department in a company, in this case it is very easy.

I explained to the nice woman that answered why I had decided to buy Wright tools to replace my current ones (e.g. quality and US made) but then told her about my disappointment with some of the wrenches. I described the chroming problem first, which she immediately recognized, she wasn't sure of the exact term for it, but knew it sometimes happened in the the process. +1 for knowledgeable customer service reps. Then I told her about the cracked 19mm wrench. She couldn't believe it, and made a joke that it must be Monday She asked if I could send her a picture (which I had assumed they would want, hence why I originally tried the contact form). I told her about the issue with the contact form and she said they would have to look in to that. I then told her how to find the pictures on the internet, and she was amazed, and was very apologetic. She asked me to confirm the inspector number on the roll (it was hard to read in the picture without enlarging it), and then said they would send out replacements for the three wrenches, and in her words "I'm putting a note in say to make sure they are fully inspected". As someone else posted, they didn't ask me to send the wrenches back, just to destroy them, so that was nice as I didn't have to pick up the return postage as I might have if I sent them back to Amazon (Amazon has become less than clear on paying return shipping for anything other than "their" error). She did ask me to hold on to the broken 19mm wrench for a few days in case their engineer wanted me to send it back.

So good customer service, and glad I talked to them rather than trying a return through Amazon. Now at least I can actually try out the set now since I know I don't have to return it.

glad to hear it. now we don't have to post with 2 accounts

 

[1foxracing]

Thank you for reporting back and glad they took care of you.

 

[Sanny81]

Glad this got resolved for you.

 

[normie]

Wright Tool CS, fantastic.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Many years ago, my employer was a Wright retailer. Your story reflects my experience with their customer service.

They are a good company, staffed by good people, making good products