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Re: Craftsman Wrenches

To: jvanho01@tir.com, shop-talk@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Craftsman Wrenches
From: "Michael D. Porter" <mdporter@rt66.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 06:17:37 -0600


jvanho01@tir.com wrote:
> 
> were obviously used as prybars and not question the abuse.  Perhaps, it has
> a lot to do with the attitude that ones goes in with that affects the way
> the sales persons react.  Just my experience and $.02 worth.

That, to me, is just "blame the victim" bullshit. A warranty is a
warranty, and it is honored or it is not. Great that you got good
service. I did not, and it did not have to do with my attitude--and,
even if it did, that's not a satisfactory excuse for not honoring a
warranty. Period.

Here's some ABC-type information--I worked for Sears in 1966 and 1967.
One of the worst experiences I've had dealing with people was at
Christmas of 1966. Sears had marketed a combination 8mm/super 8mm film
projector, just in time for Christmas--they hadn't tested it, and it was
a horrible piece of shit--it ate film faster than any shredder could. I
was just a flunky in the camera department--I wasn't selling these
things. The Sears store I worked in had sold a ton of these beasts the
two weeks before Christmas, and about four or five days before
Christmas, these things were coming back in droves.

Did the company say, this item is defective, and we will refund your
money, or offer you a rain check on a better item? No. On orders from
the company, I spent most of those four days taking the returned
projectors and repackaging them to look as if they were in new packaging
and either bringing them out for sale or exchange. There were hundreds
of unhappy people that Christmas, and I knew why. I didn't like doing
it, and I argued about it, but it did no good. This was not a cheap item
at the time, either--about $130 retail (in 1966, that was quite a bit of
money).

Nevertheless, I would still, on occasion, take a chance on Craftsman
tools... I still have a torque wrench, bought in 1982, on which the
adjustment ferrule split after a couple of days--Sears refused to
replace it--I put a radiator clamp around the ferrule to keep it tight
on the shaft, and it locks, reasonably reliably, still. Was that the
proper solution to the problem? No. Not for a then $80 Craftsman torque
wrench, warranted for life.

Attitude, my ass.

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