My Craftsman Adventure!

[Ike4160]

So like many on this site, I have been hoarding Craftsman stuff for a long time. This is a crazy story that happened to me!

I found three of the USA made craftsman "540 piece" sets in clearance in a Sears store about 3 hours from my house last winter. I don't think I should give the store because I don't want to get anyone in trouble.

I called them and they would not ship them since they were in clearance. I decided to drive to the store and I arrived at night at a store in a pretty rough neighborhood.

I told the cashier he had three 540 sets in stock and I greedily wanted to buy 2 of them. They made me buy them before I could open and inspect to verify they were USA made. They wheeled them to the back of the store and the manager helped me open the first case.

As I opened the first case, I found patio blocks neatly packed in newspaper!!! I looked at the manager and said no thanks. He said this one will have to be reported to loss prevention. I just laughed and said he would have never believed me if I took it home and said the box was full of patio blocks. I opened the second one and it was perfect. It had been sitting for years in the back. I also bought the third set and eventually sold it to a friend of mine.

Thanks Sears for not letting me ship this to my house!!!

 

[Fugio]

Soooo? Were the patio blocks made i the USA or not?!!!

 

[PassnThru]

Yeah - sometimes in life it's good when you don't get what you want. Sometimes it works in your favor

 

[shanny19]

I think the professional patio blocks marked "K" from when SK was making them are very very nice.

 

[zakmartin]

=V= patio blocks or "No, thank you."

 

[Mark in Indiana]

Did the patio blocks have a lifetime guarantee?

Seriously I had a similar adventure with Walmart twice.

1. I bought a Purolator oil filter. When I got home and took the filter out of the box, I discovered that it was used.
2. I bought some sneakers, but didn't look in the box. When I got home and opened the box, there were 2 left sneakers.

 

[t4runner]

Similar story but different I was buying oil at WallMart ( the gallon size ) Im at the register and I don't know why but I decided to open one of the jugs and its filled with used motor oil same with the other one I had. That would have been interesting if I found that out at home and went back to return it.

 

[Ike4160]

I put both sets on my basement floor then proceeded to sort out the better of each set. I combined the good and bad and sold the bad. The deal also included me keeping both sets of the USA Craftsman Ratcheting wrenches.

The comments on this forum about the later USA made stuff having issues with quality control are true. I could not believe how bad some of the stuff was. The set was probably made after they were told they were losing there jobs.

I have two of the 300 piece (part 33300) USA sets that were both dated just a few years older and they were flawless.