gunbunny119, I think your SO driver is the exception to the rule. I've never heard of Snap On refusing warranty because the end cap on a comfort handled ratchet snapped off. My driver warrantied one a few weeks ago for me. I brought it to him with a head that skipped and a mangled handle (end cap was hanging off though not from using a cheater on it) and he put a repair kit in it, slipped on a new handle and sent me on my way - and didn't even question if I bought it from him or not - which I didn't.
Many people here on the forum have brought mangled and rusted tools to their drivers or sent them in to Snap On corporate and haven't, for the most part, had issues. I doubt a snapped off plastic cap would cause a warranty refusal. If that were the case, they'd never warranty a shattered socket because they could blame it on many different factors to justify refusing the warranty for abuse. That and I can't see a $7 handle being worth ******* off a customer.
that being said, I'm sure if the end of the handle was snapped, it would give him a clue to look more closely at the rest of the ratchet to determine if the ratchet was abused (ie. deep cheater bar grooves in the chrome). I have heard of warranties being denied because of obvious abuse like that though in my experience(somewhat limited), the drivers just put a kit in or replace a handle and tell yo uto have a nice day.
why do they do that? nothin stays around for a while, peoples tastes change. It seems to me that latley SO is discontinuing more stuff. Like the double box socket wrenches. Or the deep off set short metric box. But when you look at Williams catalog you can still buy the double box socket wrenches. Why not still offer them? They're still making them just with another name. Its like more of the unique stuff for special application is phasing out. I know they need to watch costs and inventory, but the catalog selections today VS even 5 yrs ago are much different for options. IMO
