Since SEARS has tanked out it goes to show actually how GREAT their warranty on tools actually was.
It bought them a lot of market share, with a pool of buyers that typically had such low usage so as to never need to invoke the warranty. Great in concept, and excellent in execution. Too bad they couldn't enter the 21st century with modern marketing and distribution to continue on. Stanley B&D might pull that off.
It still baffles me why warranty of one broken item is such a big deal to so many people, particularly if the item is a lower cost item. I broke a Lisle T55 3/8" socket. Warranted it at the local auto parts where I had bought it that morning. It broke again. Warranted it again, but called my SO man, and had him deliver me a $30 replacement that didn't break. The Lisle sits in my box, or probably in my discards now, and I don't plan to use it again. No big loss, I tried to get by with a $7 socket, had to use a $30 one to get the job done. Even with the warranted replacement of the broken one, I still had to buy the better one to actually do the job.
Point being, if you can save a few dollars by buying lesser tools, do so. But, step up and pay what you have to if they don't work. Or, if you legitimately need the better tools, pay for them up front. The difficulty, of course, is determining if the lesser tools meet your needs. Sometimes you just have to take a chance; sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
Now, if you consider GP to be one of the more expensive options instead of a bargain brand, you would expect that higher expense either means the items won't break, or that extensive warranty is factored in. Then, if they break easily, and they have a limited number of warranty claims per customer, that heavily factors into your choice in buying them, and says that you're paying more for neither better suitability nor better warranty service. So, I can see that.
A lot of this low cost item warranty stuff started with Kmart in the 70's. Kmart brought in cheap taiwanese merchandise, that cost 1/4 of what US made stuff did. They had a hard time selling it. Then, they started guaranteeing satisfaction; if it didn't work bring it back for full refund. No matter what the cost, the US goods the Mom and Pop stores sold didn't offer that assurance; when it went out the door, it was yours. That brought in the mass of buyers now that they had confidence they weren't wasting their money. Same cheap merchandise, same poor quality, but different level of confidence. Some stuff came back, but most people just found that they threw away the stuff that didn't work, and were still ahead because of the cheap price they paid overall. Worked with them for years, and paved the way for Wal-Mart to bring in cheap Chinese goods. And, for HF to bring in cheap tools.
