Earlier this month, we noted how a reader was having trouble getting Sears to properly honor the lifetime warranty on his Craftsman tools. Now David Figler, a vice president of the company, has responded and said, “We stand behind the warranty—complete satisfaction—period.” Below is his email, and a portion of the memo he sent to Sears stores on the matter.
I work at Sears Holdings to develop and promote Craftsman tools. I am sorry to hear that we did not get it right the first time Brian visited his Sears store for a Warranty exchange on Craftsman tools. Unfortunately, we do not always get 100% execution from all our associates on our warranty exchanges, although we are always striving towards it.
In response to your column, I have worked internally to be explicit on the issues pointed out to make sure we do not disappoint again. Craftsman tools have a heritage of performance and trust. I want to assure you and your readers we stand behind the warranty – complete satisfaction – period. Though disappointed with Brian’s experience, I’m grateful that I could learn of it and take steps to prevent a similar mistake in our stores for the next customer. An excerpt from the internal communication to our store associates is below.
Subject: Craftsman Hand Tool Lifetime WarrantyThere have been several news articles and emails regarding customers being denied Craftsman Hand Tool exchanges for reasons that are not part of the warranty. We’ve had specific complaints of denied exchanges based on:
- Tools having rust on them
- A 3 Piece per day limit on exchanges
These are NOT valid reasons for denying our customers their right to exchange their Craftsman Tools under the Lifetime Warranty.
The warranty states: “If for any reason your Craftsman hand tool ever fails to provide 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.”
Our Craftsman Hand Tool Lifetime Warranty is one of the most important competitive advantages we have in the market. It is crucial that we ensure all of our sales associates are trained to understand all the hand tools that are covered under this warranty.
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And that’s why Craftsman is ALWAYS my first choice when it comes to buying tools.
I am a 59 year old man that has been owning Craftsman tool all my life. Most of my tools large and small have been bought from sears including my Tool Chests and power tools. I have had several items repaired and replaced over the years. I have a monster Craftsman circular saw that is about 3 years old. The bearing next to the blade has gone out and you can’t cut a straight line with it because it shakes so badly. I even bought a new blade and it was the same. Because it is Craftsman, I returned it to Sears and they said it could not be covered. If Sears won’t stand behind the Saw that I paid good money for, Why should I even think about buying Sears in the future? There are a lot of other people who sell tools that are just as good as Sears. The name Craftsman and lifetime is what sells the tools not Sears.
I purchased a craftsman multitool over a leatherman because I have always been satisfied with craftsman products and I would not have to mail it in and wait for a response if i should have a problem. I used the phillups screw driver bit allot and wore it out. sears gladely replaced it a couple of times. Then I broke the regular screw driver bit, and they stated that craftsman quit producing this item and would not be able to stand behind there warranty. Please let me know if this is correct or if I can still get this replaced. Thanks, Mike
As a Tool Dept Manager I have to say that I love the fact that we can offer this, but at the same time it does make me wonder, when a guy comes in with a rusty, soil covered ratchet he obviously dug up in his yard and say it doesn’t work. Duhhhh!!!
A smile, and “yes Sir, I wonder why, let me get you a replacement” as you wipe the bugs and beetles off your hand. The smart ones I enjoy helping are the students / teenagers that have plowed the yard sales and bought the old and rusty Craftsman tools for a few cents, believing we will honor our promise. I know what they are doing, and guess what! I change it willingly. I now have a customer for life. Long live the Craftsman Promise.
Sears/craftsman issue that was suppose to be addressed in the article in March 2009 is still going on No Change Sears/Craftsman is STILL refusing to honor their warranty. I’ve been trying to get a Craftsman OBD2 scan tool repaired/replaced under warranty since December. Tech support is a company called Innova that doesn’t answer emails or return calls. Calling Sears is like talking to a wall. Sears tells you Craftsman is a different company and even refers to them as the manufacturer. Craftsman refers you to Sears because it was purchased from Sears. Sears customer service people refuse to connect you to supervisors telling me that Supervisors DON’T deal directly with customers. Craftsman customer service people put me on hold fro almost 30 minutes before i hung up and called back when i asked for a supervisor. the Craftsman “supervisor” who finally answered the call out right lied to me about getting this tool serviced. This is not one or even two employees that I’ve dealt with it’s been about 10 different people between “Sears” and “Craftsman”, it would appear that it’s corporate policy to not honor warranties.
Sears won’t reply to my email and the manager is always “busy” and better yet they have my tools so they can see if the manufacture wants to warranty them and now its been a week since he was supposed to call me but now he’s a ghost that I can’t get ahold of. What a bunch of b.s. they didn’t clarify anything
A few years ago, I bought a top of the line Sears garden hose, “Unconditionally guaranteed for life.” I drove over the male end (accidentally, I have better things to do than intentionally ruin my stuff), making it impossible to attach a nozzle to the hose.
I took it back to the garden department annex and was told to take it to the customer service department in the basement of the main building. I dragged the f-g coiled hose through the store, down the stairs and presented it to the clerk who said, “You drove over it.”
“Well, yes, that’s true, but the hose is UNCONDITIONALLY guaranteed. If driving over the end were to be excluded, the label should have said ‘guaranteed except for damage caused by buyer’,” I replied.
The store’s final accommodation (and the reason I haven’t been to a Sears store since): a crappy, plastic repair kit I could use to replace the brass fitting I had damaged.
I have purchased many thousands of dollars of Sears tools all of my long life. The tools have always been a great value and have given great service. Speed up from 1960 to 2011 and something has changed.
I had a 1/2 ” drive torque wrench fail. An internal part broke. Easily fixed by a small cog or pin. I called Sears support and no parts available. I took the torque wrench in to the Palm Desert, Ca store and they wouldn’t exchange it. The torque wrenches they had were of much lesser quality, too. I called Sears customer service and they were no help at all.
This can’t be their corporate policy, right? I called Sears corporate office and couldn’t get past a person who said, basically, you are out of luck.
Maybe now that I have David Figler, VP to contact, Sears will honor the lifetime warranty and also stock the higher quality torque wrenches again.
I will keep you informed.
I had a craftsmen ratchet wrench the quit holding the sockets on. The ball was stuck. Would not release. I keep my tools in good shape. When I went to exchange the ratchet wrench they exchanged it with a used tool. That was ok, at first. Till l realized how much rust it had on it. This is a real downer from the service that I expect from Sears. It was a refurbished unit. It could have at least been cleaned first if it was going to be an exchange unit. I will seriously consider if I will buy tools from Sears anymore