Disappointing Wright ratchet warranty experience

[richfinn]

Easiest thing in the world would be for Wright and all the other US manufacturers that do not want to actually warranty items for a lifetime to simply get rid of the warranty. Just be like the Euro and Japanese brands and have a good price without the warranty. Leave the guys that want to charge a ton of cash with the lifetime, no hassle warranties.

Ko-ken will warranty tools, send an email to the supplier and they will arrange a replacement (but you pay the postage on the return) at least in the UK.

For USA customers

warranty

Ko-ken Usa warranty Submit Form at bottom of page to start your warranty process. Warranty Ko-ken USA, LLC (“Koken”) prides itself on Ko-ken Tools’ life in the field and customer satisfaction. Koken warrants that each product sold shall be free from defects in material and workmanship under...

kokenusa.com

 

[IndyGarage]

I understand what you’re saying, and I don’t disagree with your methods. I believe, however, that if a manufacturer is going to use a warranty to sell a product, they should stand behind that warranty.

Wright seems to know that most of their customers are not going to “waste their time” warrantying broken or defective tools. With that fact in mind, offering a lifetime warranty carries little risk for them. Unfortunately, those of us who have time to waste get the short end of that marketing gimmick.

Wright makes a good tool, and they will be fine. I simply wish they’d would be more transparent with their warranty.

As I said, the warranty gets added after the manufacturing is done, so they have no idea what kind of warranty service they will require. They guess that if it's not too bad and they have the money to take care of it, they'll take care of it. If they guess wrong or their business is stretched, and people start trying to turn items in after 25 years, they will pull back - which is what happened.

Neither you nor I know what was intended on their "lifetime" warranty. Is that the lifetime of the buyer? The lifetime of the tool? The average lifespan of the tool? The lifetime of everyone that uses the tool? Or was it just a sales gimmick that the marketing department slapped on the box with no accounting for it whatsoever?

What conditions were made on the warranty? - does it exclude industrial use? Does it exclude normal wear and tear?

Personally, I could care less what warranty is supplied on any product I buy. I only buy stuff I think will last, and if it doesn't I buy something else the next time. But in this case, I want the company to survive.

 

[Wrench97]

Admittedly, I haven’t ordered from every product segment in the Grainger catalog, but most Grainger pricing seems to be “list retail price”, of slightly under, likely with large accounts getting “discounts” applied, either at purchase, based on a contract with Grainger, or with the purchasing company getting a rebate at certain points, based on overall sales amounts using the Grainger account.
Basically, Grainger is set up for commercial accounts, with businesses with their own accounting departments, were it’s easier to account for a rebate or discount on list price, than it is to account for individual discounts on hundreds or thousands of items purchased.
A lot of industrial suppliers work this way.

The main advantage to Grainger, is they have a much eider variety of items than smaller industrial and hardware retailers, and they usually can have the items by the following business day, or they usually have the items proper noted when they can’t guarantee that.

Amazon routinely can’y manage the “two day Prime delivery” for me, and that is despite me living in a major city, with a half dozen close by Amazon warehouses, and an international airport in the city.

Our corp account at Grainger varied anywhere from 25 to 40% off depending how much business we did with them quarterly, the glass house didn't like us peons shopping for and finding better deals on better products.......