UPDATE: This has nothing to do with Katrina victims. Clarification: Craftsman Lifetime Warranty Doesn’t Apply To Rusty Tools
New Orleans Sears, in a misguided attempt to steal the reverence earned by insurance companies, is refusing to honor the lifetime warranty on Craftsman tools. The unlimited, unconditional, full lifetime warranty, lets you bring in a stick and call it a hammer so long it still bears that precious, preservative Craftsman logo. Unless you live in New Orleans, according to Rufus.
I took some of my Craftsman tools — sockets and socket drivers – back for exchange after Kartina under the FULL UNLIMITED WARRANTY and was told they are not accepting any rusty tools notwithstanding the FULL UNLIMITED WARRANTY. My hurt puppy response got one socket driver exchanged but the sales staff told me I’m out of luck on the rest of my Craftsman tools.
That’s not right. Our neighbor haunts garage sales in search of rusty Craftsman tools to exchange at Sears. He has never been denied on account of rust. Why would Sears possibly make such a heartless change of policy?
Rufus’ email, inside.
Greetings from the eye of Hurricane Katrina. Things are still pretty messed up down here. Insurance companies are denying coverage because the class 5 hurricane didnt have any wind so they dont have to pay. Seems Sears got inspired by this creative interpretation of the insurance contract.Sears Craftsman hand tools (sockets, wrenches etc.) are sold with a FULL UNJLIMITED WARRANTY. I took some of my Craftsman tools — sockets and socket drivers – back for exchange after Kartina under the FULL UNLIMITED WARRANTY and was told they are not accepting any rusty tools notwithstanding the FULL UNLIMITED WARRANTY. My hurt puppy response got one socket driver exchanged but the sales staff told me I’m out of luck on the rest of my Craftsman tools.
The salesman said its only after Katrina, in areas affected, they dont want to pay for rusted tools down here.
Please, someone, tell us in the comments that Sears hasn’t succumbed to such an offensive policy. — CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER
(Photo: e-magic)
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I know my brother’s taken old rusty tools that were bought at Sears and exchanged them w/o question, so this story is contrary to my experiences.
It’s gotta have something to do w/ what tool it is as well. A rusty ratchet or pair of pliers is waiting to fail, a rusty socket or screwdriver should be cleaned and all will be good.
I’m a little in the middle on this one, since this seems more of an insurance claim than having Sears foot the bill for an act of god. Sears does, however, need to own up to their warranty promises and have a consistent exchange policy enforced across the board. When you can go outside of NO and get your tools exchanged, no questions asked, then there’s a problem.
@archer117:
Bullshit.
Where’s the part about “breakage from normal use”? Where’s the exemption for rust? If there’s some other warranty, cite it. Post the exact wording that allows them to make exceptions.
All you people making all these confident claims about exemptions to the warranty should be able to quote the parts you’re referencing.
Ok, I lived in New Orleans when Katrina hit. I’m siding on Sears on this one. If your tools were damaged due to the flood, then you should have claimed it on your flood insurance. For those that did claim on their insurance, this is called “double dipping”. Rusted tools, this can happen to anyone. Natural disaster, Sears cannot control this (nor anyone else).
Please allow me to repeat myself:
“Either ‘unconditional’ means NO CONDITIONS WHATSOEVER or it has NO meaning at all.
“Please do not start interpreting ‘unconditional’ to mean ‘unless it’s rusty’ or anything else. It’s an ABSOLUTE promise to the customer. Period.
“They made a promise and now they’re reneging on it.”
You people who are making excuses for Sears are simply ignoring the very clear meaning of the word “unconditional.” Please explain this contradiction or admit that Sears is trying to break its promise to its customers.
Why are you defending a company attempting to violate its own promise?
Is this earth-shaking? No, but no one ever said it was.
Yes, I fear the sock puppets are trying to blunt Consumerist’s impact on business’ shady practices.
here’s a copy of the letter that I received from Sears..
Dear Mr. Vigliotti,
Thank you for contacting Sears.
Unfortunately, we do not have a document that lists the specific
warranties of all Craftsman tools. However, we do have databases that do
list the specific warranties of the tools on an individual basis.
A general list of Craftsman tools that are covered by the lifetime
warranty would include: ratchets, sockets, wrenches, screwdrivers and
hammers. Some tools that are not covered by the lifetime warranty (even
though they are Craftsman branded) are: taps, dies, saw blades, drill bits
and torque wrenches.
The Sears store can be contacted for all warranty issues. Since they can
actually inspect and exchange broken/defective tools, the store must be
contacted for warranty issues. The lifetime warranty is meant to protect
the customer in the event that a tool is defective or breaks under normal
use. It is not meant to cover tools that are damaged/destroyed/lost due
to fire, water, theft or other natural causes.
Thank you for choosing Sears to help you create the good life.
Sincerely,
Kevin R.
Sears Customer Care
HomeCentral@customerservice.sears.com
1-800-4-MY-HOME (1-800-469-4663)
@Mr. Gunn: With all the recent national publicity I agree there seems to be corporate flunkies misrepresenting themselves here. What’s the solution?
@Buran:
I’m probably paranoid… but there might be some company workers defending the companies in each post. There seems to be many people defending a company for totally unfair practices. And yes i think they should respect the “guaranteed forever” part.
Bingo! tadowguy’s got it! I’ve worked retail under different managers for different companies. It seems that each time we got a new store manager, or even loss prevention manager, new policies for accepting returns and honoring price matches were handed out for all of the salespersons to sign. Of course after many complaints (possibly to the head office in chi.. i mean the head office)things would just get back to the old policy. Most changes didn’t stick unless we got a new ceo.
@WV.Hillbilly:
1.) I had/have flood insurance. Got a handsome check too. Didn’t include all my belongings because it only covers UP TO $80,000. All the personal belongings I lost totaled $95,000. The insurance company/Federal Flood Insurance program pays actual value, not replacement value. Can’t buy replacement value for any type of flood insurance. So I get around $50,000 for almost double that in belongings.
2.) You do have a plan. And it also depends on where the storm is coming from. One of the more popular evactuation areas in the New Orleans area is Houston. Is that wise? Not if you watched Rita. Did you see the traffic jams? And that was with people leaving 3 days before the storm came. They had a plan too. How come the State of Texas didn’t? Thousands of cars ran out of gas on the interstae idling in traffic. Thanks God Rita fizzled out some and stayed more easterly. Or you REALLY would have seen some carnage on the highways of Texas.
You keep you tank filled, you keep you bags packed. You have all your important papers ready to go. And then you wait and try to see where the storm is going before you determine if you are heading north, east, west, or some combination thereof.
3.) I did, I bought many cans of WD 40 and some brass wire brushes. Hell Sears wasn’t open and I needed some tools to get some work done on the house. I cleaned all my sockets and wrenches and my ratchets, which I also soaked in a can full of WD40. They are discolored and stained, but otherwise work fine. I also had some carpenters tools, like hammers and squares. I cleaned those too. However they are rusting. They are made of chrome steel. They should not rust. They are defective. It took the caustic wash that was the flood to start this process. My chrome steel sockets and wrenches aren’t rusting. They went through the same wash.
I moved to NO in 2000 Prior to that I lived in CA for over 30 years. I went though more earthquakes than I can count. Even before Katrina hit I loathed hurricane season. Give me a damn earthquake any day of the week over a hurricane. An earthquake hits and you deal with it. Some houses get damaged some don’t. A hurricane starts brewing and then you start playing the “stay or go” dance. And if you’ve gone through it and evacuated a few times, been stuck in traffic, only to get to Jackson, MS or Nashville, only to find that you can’t get a room for ANY amount of money…..
Anyway, I’ve rambled on enough, I’ll get off the soapbox with one final comment. Until you have gone through it, NEVER say “you shoulda done x”
@Buran:
Yes, I understand that Sears should be following up with the warranty. Thats pretty obvious. Unconditional is unconditional.
As far as bringing in lawyers….over some tools from sears? I know that a large collection of tools can be pretty expensive, but it still seems like it’d cost you more in the end. They’d probably cave in quickly to receiving an actual legal notice though, and then continue to tell other people that they can’t get the replacement.
THe point is, it was an economic decision from sears. It has nothing to do with the intent or language of the warranty. If they accepted returns from people from Katrina, they’d take a huge economic hit. They know that there’s not going to be any largescale legal action taken against them, and it’d probably cost them less to bury the other side in the legal system than to replace all the tools lost in Katrina.
“And what’s with the ridiculous corporate-apologist behavior around here?”
If you’re refering to me, I never said that what they were doing was acceptable, legal, peachy keen, or anything else. I fail to see why a person having a different opinion should mean that they must be some corporate shill. Perhaps its……a difference of opinion.
Anyone have a link to Sears Craftsman warranty? I don’t see it mentioned on the site. I remember seeing the warranty info when I bought my tool set about 8 years ago. Last time I was in Kmart (boy I hate that place), they had a entire Craftsmen section. I know that Sears bought Kmart, but I think this puts down the Craftsman name.
Rusty tools don’t work? Have you tried cleaning them? How do we know he wasn’t collecting random tools (ten hammers, twenty wrenches) and trying to collect on what’s obviously been salvaged tools (meaning, benefiting from others loss?)
I’m just playing devil’s advocate. No doubt some mechanics are going to get hosed because Sears didn’t prepare for events like this – much like some of you psaying how the people should have been prepared.
As far as the corporate apologist comments above, if you are referring to me, I will admit my last posts’ paragraph could be interpreted incorrectly. My opinion on the story obviously differs from a very vocal majority. That’s fine. Having one’s own ideas is rarely the easy path.
I am coming from the angle of customers needing to understand good business as much as the business needs to understand and make good on it. That said, I am not arguing what their policy SAYS. Unlimited and unconditional means just that, and they should stand by it. If they don’t, action needs to be taken. However, customers need to understand what it is for also. This is where I think everyone gets rubbed the wrong way. Everyone is so hung up on policy and stabs a finger at what the warranty says without a second thought. I believe this policy, while unconditional, it is not intended for someone to replace their entire collection whenever they feel like it. Sure, you ARE able to under their policy. But should you? I read story after story about other companies not doing the right thing (I think of verizon), and having questionable moral standards. Shouldn’t its customers stop and think about how they would like to be treated? I’m not saying institute a personal policy to always worry about how good of a customer you are, and never taking advantage of a company policy or coupon-stacking or all the things we talk about, I’m saying use your head. Just because something is offered, doesn’t necessarily mean you should take them for all they are worth.
But, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe that thought already crossed Sears’ mind when they made up the policy so long ago. Maybe they assumed there would be people going to yard sales and returning someone elses tools. Maybe they assumed flood-damaged tools would come back to them, and they would have to replace them. Maybe its not a big deal to them. But my gut tells me its wrong to take advantage of a warranty intended to serve as a good-neighbor policy. (yes you can argue it is an incentive to buy their product over some elses, generate future business, etc.)
Also, I may have gotten a bit accusatory at the last sentence of my first post. I regret that and apologize. I should have explained what I meant more clearly. I Hope my above paragraph does that.
Hopefully you’ll see what I am saying, and argue it healthily, not attack it or contemplate how to remove users that don’t agree.
Regards,
Aaron
saaron34 said:
“I believe this policy, while unconditional, it is not intended for someone to replace their entire collection whenever they feel like it. Sure, you ARE able to under their policy. But should you?”
Is there any evidence that the original poster was trying to do anything like that?
Apparantly, to Sears (and a lot of you posters as well), “unconditional” doesn’t mean what the dictionary says it does.
Imagine that I buy something that says it has a 90-day warranty. After 65 days, it stops working, so I take it back to the store where I bought it.
The salesman says he won’t replace it. I ask why and he tells me that 65 days is close enough to 91 days and therefore my purchase is out of warranty.
Would you support that? If not, why not? My mythical salesman wouldn’t be doing anything that Sears isn’t doing–reinterpreting the clear meaning of a promise.
If “unconditional” doesn’t mean what the dictionary says it means, then it will mean whatever any individual at any Sears store SAYS it means. How is that acceptable?
“Well, officer, it was my INTENT not to get drunk tonight and then drive and hit that lamp post, so you can’t arrest me.”
“I didn’t INTEND to break my daughters arm when I grabbed her and twisted her arm!”
“When we wrote that bit about ‘any Craftsman hand tool ever fails to give complete satisfaction’ we never INTENDED the definition of satisfaction to include rust!”
Too bad the law doesn’t work on best intentions.
Sears: We think we got a decent product and will back it up with a generous warranty if we’re wrong.
Customer: Ok, let me find a way to screw you.
(Some people got big bawlz)
I personally agree with Sears on this one. And I think it is wrong to accuse people of things just because they have a different opinion on a subject.
While I am not thrilled with returning a tool just because of some surface rust here is the warranty published on one of their mechanics tool sets recently (http://www.sears.com/download/misc/Parts_33263.pdf).
“FULL UNLIMITED WARRANTY ON CRAFTSMAN MECHANICS TOOLS
If any CRAFTSMAN Hand Tool ever fails to give complete satisfaction, RETURN IT TO THE NEAREST SEARS
STORE IN THE UNITED STATES and Sears will replace it, free of charge. This warranty gives you specific
legal rights and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state.”
Fails to give satisfaction is fairly subjective, if I am unsatisfied by a drawer full of rusty but still functional tools under that wording I can take it in for replacement. Sorry Sears hate to see you screwed but you have to play by your own rules.
@puka_pai:
Actually, our basement got flooded with the toolbox in it, we opened it and tools were nice and dry.
‘Get in touch with reality woman. Let me paint you a picture. You live somewhere along the Gulf Coast or Atlantic Seaboard. This includes all you New Yorkers and New Englanders too. On Monday you’re watching the local news and the Weather Man comes on a says that there is a “system” forming that we need to keep our eye on. You have heard this a million times before. So you make note of it and go about your business. You tune into the news the next night. It’s crossing the Carribean and doing damage to some third world tropical island. The “Cone of Confussion” in the US mainland ranges from Texas to the Florida Peninsula. Or maybe from Florida all the way up the Carolinas. All the people that live within 100 miles of the coast there are now put on warning. Ok, you take note of it and pray one of you fellow americans is the “lucky” one now. etc etc”
Look if you live in an area BELOW water level you should do better then be ignorant to such warnings. When I lived in Europe, we knew better than to “hope for the best” we prepared.
Everyone was saying that they “knew” the levvy’s were not up to par. if I even had an inkling to this I would not “just make a note of it”
It must be nice to have the money to be able to plan better.
@rockergal:
Once again a link on the “waterproof” toolbox would be nice. Maybe even just a manufacturer? Was the tool box floating in you flooded basement?
And I just love how you make generalizations and state them as facts. Such as, “Everyone knew the levvys were not up to par”. Well if “everyone” knew why wasn’t the damn ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS doing something about it before this whole bloody mess started? Where were the teams of inspectors? Why weren’t the insurance companies, who had written millions of dollars in policies, clamoring for the Corp to do something about the “Levvys that everyone knew were not up to par” before the storm hit? Was Congress investigating since MILLIONS of taxpayer dollars had been wasted on “levvys that everyone knew were not up to par”? If you knew that they “were not up to par” and witheld the information from the rest of the country, then perhaps these misguided residents led by lawyers lookling for a quick buck should be suing you instead of the Corp?
Actually quite the reverse was true. In the few years that I lived in NOLA prior to Katrina EVERYONE touted that the levees around New Orleans could withstant anything up a Cat 3 and perhaps a Cat 4 depending on the direction it came from. That it would take over 15 feet of surge to top the levees. That the homes outside the levee system were doomed in the event of a major storm. But if you were inside, you were safe.
Well guess what princess? The winds that hit New Orleans were Cat 3. The surge never topped the levees except for a brief time along the lakefront. Those levees never failed, and never let in a significant amount of water. In all but one case, the soil subsided below the levee. And in that case a large barge broke loose from its moorings and damaged the side of the levee causing it to collapse. It wasn’t until after the storm that a major survey was done to determine exactly why they failed.
Yes there was the National Geographic article of a few years ago. And there was an “exercise” done by various state and local agencies that predicted some of the damages. But all of those scenarios were based on storm surge topping the levees. Not from poor construction, or barge accidents.
As for your other generalization that touched a nerve; “When I lived in Europe, we knew better than to “hope for the best” we prepared.” How well did Europe prepare for the heat wave in the summer of 2003? Hell it lasted 3 weeks and 14,000 people died in France alone. I guess those 14,000 people had prepared because they HAD to know it was coming. They didn’t “hope for the best”. Why didn’t they all just head for cooler climates when it started getting hot? Maybe take a 3 week vacation in the Alps? Or just evacuate to Norway or Sweeden?
Once again people, unless you went through it, don’t second guess the judgement of those who did. Many made wrong decisions and have lived to regret them. Many made wrong decisions and didn’t live at all. Most of us are just glad for the oppportunity to be putting our lives back together.
Those of you who say people shouldn’t return tools that only have cosmetic damage have a very valid point. But did any of you ever put a “cheater” bar on a Craftsman wrench to get more leverage and snap it? Did you return it and get a new one? I cleaned my sockets and wrenches and still use them to this day. I also have other tools, including electric power tools that flooded and still work. Even if they hadn’t worked I would not have an issue with those manufacturers. They never said they had an unconditional guarantee.
@cwm9: Intent is a factor in many laws, including criminal law (manslaughter vs. pre-meditated murder).
Also, reasonability is a factor in most contract disputes. No reasonable company could possibly give out/honor an unconditional, unlimited warranty. Reasonability also plays a big role in defining “satisfaction.” It doesn’t matter what you think satisfaction means, it matters what a reasonable person/the public thinks it means.
I had an interesting encounter trying to get some craftsman tools warrantied today. I am a mechanic by trade so I really do not use a lot of craftsman tools, mostly snap-on and matco. I bought a new toolbox and in the process of moving tools from the old to the new I found about 7 pieces of broken craftsman tools. I went to a sears hardware today and was told that I could only exchange one piece per day? It is no surprise that I have not been in a sears in years and the store was almost empty. I just left them on the counter and told them that they could keep their junk.
^ I work for Sears, and get the snap-on junkies in all the time.. they are always so committed to their snap-on tools… Don’t see why, if I was getting ripped off, I would be angry… over-priced junk..
^ Overpriced I can agree with……….junk not so much. The issue I have is one piece per day? If you work for Sears is that a company policy? I worked for sears about 20 years ago and know that it was not back then.
Greetings from Key West. Sears is doing the same thing to us here. They are flatly refusing to honor the guarantee on any tools with rust on them. Meanwhile, the Snap-On supplier is more than happy to not only replace rusty Snap-On tools, but also, I have heard, craftsman tools for new Snap-On customers. I guess I’ll have to switch to Snap-On if this is true.
crankymediaguy keep harping on a “unconditional”, a word he has added to the warranty.
The warranty does not state unconditional, and in fact, it contains two conditions. 1. they will only repair it, or 2. replace it. They are not required to replace it with a new tool and no time frame is specified. The people here wanting to return a tool due to rust are simply pitiful.
For Sears to completely fulfill the warranty for the rust whiners, all they would have to do is clean the tool of rust and return the exact same tool back to you…something you could do yourself. If Sears did that, I’m sure we would have a whole new thread whining about that too.
I make this pro sears post here, just the same as I leaving out the door to go to Sears to complain to them about the broken battery charger for my recently purchased new cordless drill.
I will tactfully demand a working replacement for my charger, but I would be embarrassed to try to get a new tool simply due to rust.
“I believe this policy, while unconditional, it is not intended for someone to replace their entire collection whenever they feel like it. Sure, you ARE able to under their policy. But should you?”
No Reverend Lovejoy, I shouldn’t. But if Sears doesn’t want me to, they should have written it into the warranty. Who cares what Sears intended. And who cares if somebody takes their whole collection in whenever they feel like it. Sears could (and should) just give them back the set they returned the time before (assuming not actually defective).
——
“Rusty tools don’t work?”
How about you find some rusty jack stands and start using those to hold your Eldorado up while you change the oil. Please report back with the results.
——
“The lifetime warranty is meant to protect the customer in the event that a tool is defective or breaks under normal use. It is not meant to cover tools that are damaged/destroyed/lost due to fire, water, theft or other natural causes.”
Who cares what it’s meant to do. Please point this information out in the warranty pasted at the end of this post. If Sears doesn’t want to cover rust, then put it in there. It’s called small print.
——
“If your tools were damaged due to the flood, then you should have claimed it on your flood insurance.”
How does having tools insured have anything to do with the Sears warranty? That was a rhetorical question if you are curious.
——
“The warranty clearly is meant to cover tool defects and failure during normal use.”
No, it isn’t clear. Clear would be if it said something like “this warranty covers defects and failure during normal use”.
——
“This is especially true with the guy collecting rusted tools from garage sales in an attempt to scam Sears. That should be treated as criminal activity.”
That’s really funny. If somebody has the time and the patience to rummage around garage sales all day and find a couple sockets, then go to Sears and exchange them, they are a loser. That’s the extent of it. No jail time.
——
“The policy is set in mind for a small volume of returns.”
What the hell does that mean? What is a small volume? Three? How you set something in someones mind is to spell it out in the warranty.
——
“have a waterproof toolbox (thats what my husband has and we are not even in a flood zone)”
I’m assuming this toolbox looks like some sort of small submarine?
——
“Rust isn’t a defect….it’s physics.”
Uh, ok. Throwing the ratchet off the bridge didn’t break it, gravity broke it. Do I understand correctly that if the issue has to do with physics, it shouldn’t be covered by the warranty?
——
“I think we should use company policies for what they are for, using our sense to guide us.”
Me, too. I think everybody should consider written contracts and agreements more like very loose and general guidelines, only to be followed if you feel like it. Now please put down the bong and get yourself together.
——
“I have used several tools in my life and rust typically dosent affect they workings of the tool.”
Several tools over the course of a lifetime isn’t exactly a good frame of reference. It’s dangerous and stupid to use rusty tools. I guess we will know more when the guy with the rusty jack stands reports back.
——
“I’d actually side with Sears on this one…my interpretation of the warranty is satisfaction with the manner in which the tools perform their function…not warrantied against all events”
Super. Go ahead and use that as your own personal addendum to the Sears written warranty. In the meantime, the rest of us will expect them to honor the warranty as written.
——
It’s already been posted above, but I’m trying to see how long of a post this thing will let me make. So here again, pasted below, is the warranty from a set of sockets bought recently from Sears.
As an aside, is this really a warranty just because it says so? It sounds like more of a guarantee. I think there is an unemployed judge with no pants somewhere out there that can answer this question.
–
CRAFTSMAN HAND TOOL FULL WARRANTY
If any Craftsman Hand Tool ever fails to give complete satisfaction, return it to any Sears store or other Craftsman Outlet in the United States for free repair or replacement. This warranty gives you specific legal rights, and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state.
SEARS, ROEBUCK AND COMPANY, HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL 60179
–
This fails to mention or even allude to issues such as: defects, workmanship, time limits, receipts, God, cosmetics/shininess, insurance policies, having a conscience, or anything being discretionary at the store level. And as odd as it may seem, it doesn’t call out anything about garage sales.
If these sockets rust, I’m not going to be satisfied with them. When I take them back to Sears I’ll expect a repair job or replacement tool. If they say no, they are wrong and I am right. Too bad there’s nothing I can do about it but bitch.
I read that Sears policy after being refused a return. It is short and sweet and promises full satisfaction for any reasdon. That is why I have been buying Craftsman tools.
Now the local Sears in Massachusetts has a hard-nose little clerk there (“Donald”) who says he will take back some of those I brought in but not the others because they don’t meet his personal standards for full satisfaction. I have a home workshop with literally thousands of Craftsman items (and also buy large appliances etc there). Sears considers me worthy of their new Sears Rewards card but the local clerk won’t let me bring in a wornout tool? I don’t think that is what corporate Sears had in mind with promoting their Craftsman Unlimited Warranty.
It is definitely not what I had in mind when I shopped at Sears.