What is a warranty worth?

[PILOON]

On warranty---

Bought a pair of eyeglasses from COSCO.
While using my grinder the disk blew up and a segment hit me in my right side of my face.
Made a cut on right cheek and a nice deep scratch in that right lens.

At my last Cosco visit I stopped by the optical counter and asked if they could polish out that annoying scratch.
Moments later the clerk came back and said to leave them and they'd replace the lens, for FREE!

Now that's customer service! (specs were only 3 months old)
As luck had it my old specs were on the dash of my car so I was not 'in the dark'.
Less than a week later they phoned to say my specs were ready, no charge!

Don't know if that was customer service or simple good will but for sure I'll only buy my specs at Cosco.

 

[RickB]

LensCrafters will replace lenses for 12 months free no questions asked.

 

[user.69169]

Pretty sure warranty is an old Latin word dat means we cut every corner we figured we could puttin it together without it blowin up on de way to your door.

Iffin it works a while and blows up we, not you, decide if we fix it or not, screw around for months after you pay to send it back eatin rest of Warranty time. IIF we do decide to fix it, you gotta pay to get it shipped back too.


Kind of same road, UPS damage claims. All shippers got engineers who sit wid manufacturers to agree on whats necessary packing to survive de trip ONE way. You ship someting back, even in original box, better pay extra and use UPS store or dey won't pay damage.

You best off buyin from a local dealer, even if you pay more. How much you gonna save if you gotta pay for a Warranty ride?

 

[Ritothebull]

Everyone wants customer service like we had 50 years ago when products were well made right here in the USA the problem is few are willing to pay for it.

 

[Frankenkubota]

LensCrafters will replace lenses for 12 months free no questions asked.

Rigid Tools. I don’t even look at anything but rigid because of the warranty and the way they treat their customers.

 

[crazyal]

Craftsman use to have a great warranty. Walk into any Sears and they would give you a new tool to replace the broken one. Now I don't think I would buy a new Craftsman tool. The quality has dropped to the point where there's other brands that exceed or match it for a better price. The fact is that all you can expect is a company to follow what they say they will do. If their warranty requires you to pay to return something and pay to have it shipped back (which BTW is very common and makes most items below $100 not worth having a warranty) then that's what you paid for, nothing more, nothing less. In the case of Costco's glasses. I'm sure if you couldn't get to the Costco store you would have to pay to ship the glasses to them, if it's even possible, and they may require you to pay to have them returned to you. Costco just has stores all across the country making it easier for most, but not all, to go to the store.

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

Craftsman use to have a great warranty. Walk into any Sears and they would give you a new tool to replace the broken one. Now I don't think I would buy a new Craftsman tool. The quality has dropped to the point where there's other brands that exceed or match it for a better price. The fact is that all you can expect is a company to follow what they say they will do. If their warranty requires you to pay to return something and pay to have it shipped back (which BTW is very common and makes most items below $100 not worth having a warranty) then that's what you paid for, nothing more, nothing less. In the case of Costco's glasses. I'm sure if you couldn't get to the Costco store you would have to pay to ship the glasses to them, if it's even possible, and they may require you to pay to have them returned to you. Costco just has stores all across the country making it easier for most, but not all, to go to the store.

To me it is about 100 miles to the nearest one. Oops, scratch that. I thought they had one in Macon. Next closest one is in Tallahasse about 120 miles.

 

[RickB]

I quit buying Sears anything (including Crapsman) about 10 years ago. I am shocked that they are still in business.

 

[dragoneggs]

First time I returned a broken Craftsman ratchet to Sears, they told me to grab another one. Second time, they handed me a bag of internal replacement parts and said I needed to repair it myself. Third time, I just bought a new ratchet because I couldn't wait for it to be mailed to me.

I should add... that in both cases, I was abusing the ratchet by adding a cheater pipe. Figured the third one should be on my nickel anyways.

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

Craftsman has been spun out. It is owned by Stanley. They are retooling a plant in Texas to bring the hand tools back to US production.

 

[RickB]

Craftsman has been spun out. It is owned by Stanley. They are retooling a plant in Texas to bring the hand tools back to US production.

Stanley has a long road ahead if they are going to resurrect the brand.

 

[dragoneggs]

Stanley has a long road ahead if they are going to resurrect the brand.

Stanley now a very long list of brands under their umbrella...

Who We Are - Stanley Black & Decker in the U.S.

 

[RickB]

Stanley now a very long list of brands under their umbrella...

Who We Are - Stanley Black & Decker in the U.S.

View attachment 672228

Just another corporate conglomerate. Craftsman is still at the lower end.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I did get lucky on one warranty issue. Last October I bought a Pulsar watch on sale for 50% off. At that time Pulsar was made by Seiko. So I got a $170 watch for $84 after taxes. It lasted about a month and the analog hands quit working but the digital part still worked. I sent it in for repair under warranty. 5 months later I get a call from the jeweler that my watch was sent back to her (I mailed it with warranty card with my return address). I went to pick it up and it was still broken. She sent it back. 4 more months pass and the jeweler calls and says Seiko repair cant fix it and it is no longer made and for me to go to the Seiko website and pick out a watch in the $200 range and they would send it to me. Nothing available that was similar to my watch so I picked out a $295 one figuring I would just pay the difference. Well Sept comes and my chosen watch arrives and I got it for no additional charge.
Not a bad exchange for my $84. I get a $295 Seiko for my $84 (including tax) investment, but it did take 11 months and 3 weeks to finish the deal.
By the way, I do love my new Seiko.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Remember, I recommended just a plasma cutter the PowrerPlasma 52i. The duty cycle is better, it has blow back start (less issues) and it has better unit protection and overall design.
The unit you have only has 35% duty cycle on the plasma where as the PowerPlasma 52i has 60% at maximum output.

You ended up with the very cheapest product we sell with the capabilities. With a three year warranty instead of our five year warranty.

Another thing, those 3 year warranty extensions at harbor freight are quite expensive, and increase the cost way past what you spent too.

I'm not saying it should have failed, but when we put a lower warranty on something and recommend a better product that I have confidence, that should leave little room for complaint if and when it does.

We have held up our end of the warranty as promised.

Well actually Mark, all your recommendations was after the fact. I tried to contact you via your TBN email and Everlast website but got no response(likely because you changed your email address (which I found out via some TBN forum ), so I just looked at the website to get a plasma cutter that was somewhat in my price range. Had I gotten your bad review words about the discontinued part, I would have bought something else, maybe not even an Everlast brand. For what it is worth, 3 years vs 5 years on the warranty doesnt concern me. I rarely take the extended warranty on an item. IF it works for 30 days it usually will continue to work for many years to come.
As far as shipping, I understand the shipping to the repair facility is usually on the customer for most any product (including the watch that I posted about) but return shipping is usually on the manufacturer. What pissed me off the most (which is why I started this thread) was the boxing fee of $45 and the $50 shipping. I would have been fine with the return shipping fee but that boxing fee really go me heated up.
At least Everlast finally stepped up and covered both fees thanks to a good customer service rep who got it taken off.

 

[Ford850]

There's no problem exchanging broken Craftsman tools for new ones at our local Ace hardware, except that the new tools made by Stanley are garbage. I've replaced an older ratchet and a couple screw drivers after years/decades of use. The new tools are lower quality than Harbor Freight. Screw drivers, for example, immediately break the tips and need to be replaced again. The ratchet is rough and sticks when trying to reverse, requiring a hard 'tap' on the floor to get it moving. It's beginning to feel like a planned process to get people back in the stores.

 

[crazyal]

Back when I built my house I bought Maytag appliances (that was a mistake). Within the first month the lower heating element burnt up on the oven. When I called Maytag they insisted that a service tech needed to verify what I could see so that took an extra couple of days. Then they said the element was out of stock and it looked like it could be 6 months before they would produce new ones. The service guy said call the store you bought it at and tell them you are going to return it unless they can get the repair part. Being a big box store they got Whirlpool to step up and magically we had a new element. Over the last 12 years it's burnt out 3 more time, once more under warranty yet it was easier to just buy it myself and not wait for them. Over that period the dishwasher has broke twice and the fridge once. Like I tell the wife, someone was getting jealous that the Maytag repair man was just sitting around. I wonder if the younger generation just accepts this as normal?

 

[yomax4]

Back when I built my house I bought Maytag appliances (that was a mistake). Within the first month the lower heating element burnt up on the oven. When I called Maytag they insisted that a service tech needed to verify what I could see so that took an extra couple of days. Then they said the element was out of stock and it looked like it could be 6 months before they would produce new ones. The service guy said call the store you bought it at and tell them you are going to return it unless they can get the repair part. Being a big box store they got Whirlpool to step up and magically we had a new element. Over the last 12 years it's burnt out 3 more time, once more under warranty yet it was easier to just buy it myself and not wait for them. Over that period the dishwasher has broke twice and the fridge once. Like I tell the wife, someone was getting jealous that the Maytag repair man was just sitting around. I wonder if the younger generation just accepts this as normal?

After I built my home, every major appliance failed and continue to do so. Appliances made these days are Junk. Back to OP post. The plasma cutter in question should not have been in the product lineup if the manufacturer and sales force knew it was sub-par. No-one wins selling sub-par products.

 

[PILOON]

Guess I have a horse shoe in the right place.

Chest freezer is over 20 yrs old and still doing its job.
Washer and drier close to 12 yrs and well exercised.
Not so lucky with main fridge as that quit after some 15 yrs.
Second fridge tends to freeze everything but still working and that's over 20 yrs old.

My secret is to only buy very basic units, no fancy timers and digital controls, like ON/OFF is just fine with us.
LOL, if I want ice cubes I'll fill a tray and freeze them, never mind a hole in the fridge door.

Note to self, must push drier back as it walked/danced its way from the wall!

 

[PILOON]

Craftsman has been spun out. It is owned by Stanley. They are retooling a plant in Texas to bring the hand tools back to US production.

That Texas facility in all probabilities will be a relabeling facility for raw tool parts made offshore.
The regulations for forging/casting in USA with unionized staff would price USA tools in the space shuttle price category.
The 'Made in' laws are so full of loopholes it is pathetic.
Made in (example) includes items like shipping so freight is always 'collect' making payment to the offshore shipper a US part of the cost while actually the $$'s went offshore.

If you followed bankruptcy sales you would notice that brand names always fetch high prices and usually end up offshore.
Just another ruse.