When Buying Milwaukee Batteries SAVE YOUR RECEIPTS

[dnschmidt]

Milwaukee has great customer service but some of their batteries ****. First there was the 9.0 M18 battery which sucked and now there is the M12 6.0 battery which ***** worse. Now the problem is that these batteries are warranted for three years. The 6.0 is in fact the only M12 battery warranted for three years with all others warranted for two years of less. NOW HERE IS THE PROBLEM. These batteries can sit on the shelf in a Home Depot warehouse for over a year. I have some M12 3.0 batteries that I bought in March of this year 2022 that were date coded a year earlier. I just sent in a 6.0 M12 battery that I bought less than two years ago that was already out of warranty since the date code on the battery was 2019. Milwaukee refused the warranty claim which pissed me off since I had sent in the .pdf of the Home Depot receipt on e-service with my service request. Apparently they didn't see this so thus the rejection. Once I resent in the Home Depot receipt they sent me a new M12 6.0 battery. So keep your receipts. If you buy your batteries from the Home Depot's website this is automatic as they keep copies of your purchases in your account information and you can get the receipt from there. Without the receipt Milwaukee goes by the date code stamped on the battery. With the receipt they go by your date of purchase. This makes a big difference in my experience over a year in most cases.

 

[oldwino]

Good to know. Thanks

 

[Professional Tool User]

Saving receipts for items where there is a time limit on the warranty should be common sense.

 

[Mr_B]

In a paperless trend society it gets overlooked.
Same applies for anything you buying with long running warranty that you want full chances of using successfully.
Keep the receipts, paper electronic & any other relevant docs/info, downloads of warranty terms can be handy too as they can change or vanish in time too lol .

 

[luvtheheat]

Suggest you scan the receipt into a PDF. Where I live the original thermal printed receipt bleeds over time out to be unrecognizable.

 

[finn]

Car batteries have been like that as far back as I remember. You’re golden with a receipt. Without a receipt, they go by the date code.

Seems fair to me.

 

[mepstein]

I don’t think I’ve ever saved a receipt for anything. If the warranty isn’t somehow built in to the product, I just move on.

 

[Earp69]

Can you guys not walk into home depot and exchange batteries of they have a replacement there?

 

[dnschmidt]

Can you guys not walk into home depot and exchange batteries of they have a replacement there?

They typically don't have the good Milwaukee batteries just the junk 3.0 XC for both M12 and M18. To get the good stuff you've got to go through the webpage.

 

[dnschmidt]

I don’t think I’ve ever saved a receipt for anything. If the warranty isn’t somehow built in to the product, I just move on.

The warranty IS build into the product but you're losing a year of your warranty length if you go by the date of manufacture instead of the date of purchase as these typically differ by a year or more. Do you want your 2 year warranty to become a six month warranty?

 

[mepstein]

The warranty IS build into the product but you're losing a year of your warranty length if you go by the date of manufacture instead of the date of purchase as these typically differ by a year or more. Do you want your 2 year warranty to become a six month warranty?

I don’t want it to but I’m 56 and know realistically, I’m not going to save the receipt, even though it makes total sense. If I had my wife make all my purchases, I would have an organized file of receipts, that’s who she is. But she does her thing and I do mine. Like a previous poster said, some of the companies like Home Depot, Lowes, etc, save my purchase history. That’s great. Maybe I’m lucky but I haven’t had many items over the years that would have required a warranty service. If something’s breaks, warranty or not, I usually just replace it and move on.

 

[mike93lx]

Every HD receipt I get goes in the trash right at the registers. When you associate a credit card with your account, it automatically saved all the receipts, plus gets you the pro extra points if you have an account.

Anything bought online would have tracking as well, plus you get an email confirmation.

Unless you are paying cash, keeping receipts is not often needed

 

[toyotadriver]

I mainly use the aftermarket Milwaukee batteries. They do have a higher failure rate than actual Milwaukee batteries but the savings is so much that they are still much cheaper. I have some M12 and M18 actual Milwaukee batteries and then lots of extra aftermarket ones and the aftermarket ones work just fine so they get used the most.

Good to know about the Milwaukee battery warranty though.

 

[Mr_B]

The warranty IS build into the product but you're losing a year of your warranty length if you go by the date of manufacture instead of the date of purchase as these typically differ by a year or more. Do you want your 2 year warranty to become a six month warranty?

This very good point and something you have truly remember when buying those extra bargain priced battery pack clearance deal that may not come with a viable proof of purchase or accepted retail channel as you could be buying a battery that as old as the warranty period and have some ballache/loss come a warranty need .

 

[mrvm]

All my HD receipts for M12/M18 are either online or in an envelope so after a period of time it's going to be tough to determine which receipt goes with which battery. Much simpler for power tools but the batteries all look the same.

 

[dnschmidt]

All my HD receipts for M12/M18 are either online or in an envelope so after a period of time it's going to be tough to determine which receipt goes with which battery. Much simpler for power tools but the batteries all look the same.

That's true but in reality it doesn't matter. If you've got a bad battery (which admittedly is untraceable since the battery's serial number is never on the receipt) and you have a receipt for the same type of battery Milwaukee will accept the receipt as being for that battery since nobody knows whether it is or not. That's handy as it's the difference between getting a replacement battery and getting nothing. I've had three M12 6.0 batteries that were very seldom used (Looked perfectly new and I'd estimate maybe a max of three charge cycles each) that went bad and wouldn't charge. I have HD receipts for three M12 6.0 batteries, which was for which obviously is a mystery, That got me three new batteries rather than me buying $300 worth of batteries.