Posted on 01/07/2017 8:40:30 AM PST by brucedickinson
Since Sears bought the trademark in 1927, Craftsman tools have had a famous lifetime - and unlimited - warranty.
But after nearly 90 years, Sears announced Thursday that it's selling the Craftsman brand to Stanley Black & Decker Inc for $900 million that bosses hope will keep the company afloat.
The change of hands has caused some to question whether Craftsman's lifetime warranty will still apply to tools people own now or purchase in the future.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Our local Ace Hardware is great. They have a little of everything. My wife and I made a bet one time on whether Ace would have VHS-C tapes for our camera. Nobody but nobody was carrying them as they were “way old”. Yup. They had them.
Not telling what I won.
I returned a decades-old Craftsman shovel a couple a years ago because, darn it, the wooden handle didn’t work well as a pry bar.
The clerk replaced it with a fiberglass handled shovel, printed off a receipt and said “Hang on to the receipt. Sears won’t replace again without it. Oh, it’s only good for 5 years now, also.”
I noticed that my nearby True Value carried Craftsman tools so I asked the manager if they would honor the warranty. He said only if the tool was purchased there - receipt required.
Not any more. The last socket set I got 13 months ago was made in China. My older ones were made in America.
“Im saying I have broken 3 Craftsman tools and the third return was the last but I am hard on tools and have outrageous expectations.”
We once broke a large craftsman socket.
Used an eigth foot piece of pipe as an extender and I jumped up and down on the end of the pipe.
Sears said they would replace it ONLY if we told them how we managed to break it.
“You’re both right but I think it is more than a lack of mechanical aptitude or fear of hard work on the part of teenagers.”
There is only fear if there are consequences you wish to avoid.
Too many just don’t want to work unless they can sit around socializing and playing on their phones.
LOL, at least there being used by family.
I have one of those also. The ratchet mechanism wears out, & Sears had kits to replace parts as a fix, which was OK.
In the 90’s they changed to replacing them with non-push button release, non-chromed versions. I’d have to get into a screaming match to get the full replacement. That was one of the many reason I quit buying Craftsman.
Stanley Black and Decker said they will be building a new factory for Craftsman tools. I guess it will NOT be in the Hardware City though.
Legally, a lifetime warranty is for the life of the company.
I can’t argue with that, I don’t see too many teens who want to work now although I have a grandnephew who seems to be the exception, he is turning sixteen this month and is very strong physically at six feet and one fifty five and wants to work, he would actually come and help me do grounds work on our eight acres for nothing but I insist on paying him something. I think back to one of my first cousins, born six years before me, who at age twenty two worked a full time job in a textile plant, commuting thirty miles one way, farmed in the summer on rented land and with a used tractor and truck that he had bought from his pay at the plant, he also ran a snowcone stand on weekends, operated a scating rink for a while and anything else he could find to make a dollar. Unfortunately he overdid it, wound up losing his wife and daughter in a divorce, became a heavy drinker and smoker and died at sixty from emphysema. He was a small man who was the definition of “wiry”, you seldom see someone with the energy he had as a young man. I did some day labor on his farm a couple of times but never would I have tried to match his pace, I’m not slow but I knew I could not keep up that speed. On top of all that energy he had the kind of looks that had girls lining up to get a glimpse of him so I guess he never had a chance from the start.
They werent buying “the rusty bolt on the grand kids lil red wagon”, huh?
Any thoughts on a reasonably priced source for triple square sockets? My latest vehicle has a mixture of garden variety six point, torxs, and triple square bolts and plugs. Doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason to it either.
I had to look up “triple square sockets” but now that I see what the are, I think I actually have a set which I probably never have used.
I think they came with a set of Stanley tools which included a couple of hundred different types of driver bits etc.
I have a set of Williams screwdrivers that are very, very good. 100% identical to the last hard handled Snap-Ons. Stands to reason because they are made in the same factory by the same people. Of course, there’s a reason for that. http://www.snaponindustrialbrands.com/30/home.htm
Otherwise, my tools are a carefully purchased mishmash of brands. Klein, Proto, Malco, Kobalt (the old ones, made by Williams / Snap-On), Channellock, Snap-On, Ridgid, Lenox, Rothenberger, etc. My cordless tools are all Milwaukee. I’ve got a lonely Dewalt miter saw. I’m a tool-a-holic.
Stanley owned by Proto already have a lifetime warranty.
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I had an outstanding set of Stanley screwdrivers bought in the 1980’s ,, one of my #2 Phillips eventually wore out and I spent the money mailing it in for a replacement.. The replacement was a complete piece of crap and rounded off the tip on the first day.
I have a Craftsman Anvil Pruner that can’t be adjusted to bite good and square anymore ,, I’ll swap it before it becomes impossible with the sale.
The old Kobalt stuff was great. Made by Williams, a Snap-On company. It was the first made in USA stuff. Then they went to a different USA company, then to China.
Mixed bag on Amazon... http://amzn.to/2iQdRrJ
Another contributing factor is urbanization. If you live in a condo or apartment, where are you (or your kid) going to work on a car?? And what adults are going to maintain a stock of tools sufficient for the task.
“Another contributing factor is urbanization. If you live in a condo or apartment, where are you (or your kid) going to work on a car?? And what adults are going to maintain a stock of tools sufficient for the task.”
That’s true. Good point.
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