In December 2004 Home Depot has both the 18 volt Dewalt and Milwaukee cordless 4 pce tool kits for a weekend only sale (2 days, Sat & Sun). It contains a reciprocating saw, circular saw, hammer drill, flashlight, charger, 2 batteries and a red contractor carrying bag or hard shell moulded case for 549.00 + taxes (reg. price is 749.00). As a added bonus, Dewalt has a mail in coupon for a choice of 18 volt tool to add to your collection (grinder, drill, impact driver, 18 volt battery, etc.) The Milwaukee tool set offered a free 18 volt/120 volt Milwaukee work site radio at time of purchase from Home Depot (valued at 189.00 + taxes). These were the most powerful tool to enter the market at the time before the current 24 or 36 volt of today. But only one set per customer so I asked my brother to buy the Milwaukee set for me and I've purchased the Dewalt set for my place of employment to use. After almost two years of using both type of tools and others at home and work, I have to honestly say the Milwaukee cordless tools are the best of all compared to Porter Cable, Bosch, Makita, Dewalt, Ryobi, Ridgid, etc. Not to knock Dewalt, and I'm sure they're fine tools, but look at the written warranty of Dewalt of 3 years vs the 5 years Milwaukee offers. The best part of the deal was when I visited another Home Depot that same weekend, I've found some coupons laying around the tool section that offered to send you a 18/120 volt radio Milwaukee radio by mail if you send them the UPC symbol from the Milwaukee box that hold the kit with proof of purchase. After sending in the coupon with the cut out UPC symbol and photocopy of the receipt, I've received by courier another 18/120 volt Milwaukee job site radio. After returning the original unused, still factory wrapped radio to one Home Depot without a receipt for a store credit of 189.00+taxes earlier and then after receiving another one by mail and also returning it to another Home Depot for credit claiming it didn't come with a charger for 18 volt batteries, they happily give me another store credit for 189.00 + taxes. I've used it for purchasing other items I've needed around the house several months later. So the motto of the story is after paying 549.00 + taxes for my orginal purchase of my Milwaukee 18 volt tool set, and getting over 430.00 in store credit back (189.00 x 2 = 378.00 + 14% Canadian taxes = 430.92) you can see I've only paid less than 195.00 for my Milwaukee 18 volt tool set honestly. No laws were broken. Just happen to buy it at the right time, at the right place and taking advantage of rebate mail in offers as well as returning bonus radios that I didn't or couldn't use. Since the Dewalt tool kit is a workplace purchase, I have nothing to gain from the Dewalt offer so my place of employment send in for the bonus tool. Still a good deal no matter which way you look at it.
