Nice to see Craftsman still has a little backbone. Kind of makes me want to buy a socket set or something...

At least they are "taking it seriously"

I wonder though what is going to stop individual workers or store managers from sticking to their own rules when it comes to warranties like this. If you encounter a store with a 3 piece per day limit on exchanges, who do you call that could actually make a difference?

Considering this was distributed to all their stores, I wonder if said associates are feeling a bit guilty right now?

I know that if I did something, and then I read a reprimand, even an indirect one, I always feel really crappy and embarrassed. I hope they realize that the article was about them and change their ways!

This is great. Thank you consumerist. It seems as if this is happening a lot more recently. Companies are starting to value the Internet and blogs such as this as a tool for public awareness.

That's good to hear. I'm in the process of fixing up my new house and will definitely stop by Sears to look at their Craftsman tools.

Nice. I always buy Craftsman for my dad for Fathers' Day. Now I'll do it happily.

Craftsman Tools are the Picasso paintings on the sinking Titanic that is Sears. They need to be saved (partnered with Lowe's?) before Sears collapse takes them down.

Now THAT'S the way to address a CSAT problem. Kudos to Sears.

Craftsman is the only thing Sears has that is decent. Everything else they carry can be found at a lower cost elsewhere.

That is probably the most clear, non-BS warranty I have seen so far on this site.

I wonder what made it so hard to understand for the employees?

I would be interested to see if Craftsman warranty returns affect a store's monthly numbers. Many chains try to keep returns to a minimum, and may be compared to other units in their area or nationwide - which leads to exactly the sort of problems the original story talked about.

I guess they can do at least one thing right. I bought $300 worth of weights online with Sears Monday and got a notice they were ready to pick up. Got there, and they didn't have them in stock, and had no clue how to handle an internet order. It took 3 associates, 1 assistant manager and 1 manager about 50 minutes to figure out how to cancel the order. They said if I want the weights, I'd have to place the order again in-store, wait for them to be shipped to the store, then come back. I said "despite this hassle, if you match the $25 discount I got for an online order, I'll do it." They said no, they won't match the online discount I got through their website. Such paltry customer service. So after a total of 70 minutes of standing in the store, I left empty handed, no sale. And to think I was looking at dishwashers and refrigerators for a purchase later in the year with them...

Seriously, I need new tools, and a response like this makes me want to go to Sears instead of Home Depot. People should print out this article and keep it folded in their tool box so if there's a problem in the future, you can take it with you and show it to any employee giving you static.

Unless, of course, the hand tool is a torque wrench. Sears only offers a 1 year warranty on Craftsman Torque Wrenches.

[www.sears.com]

The reviews are not particularly complimentary for this torque wrench.

I guess a torque wrench doesn't qualify as a "hand tool"

chris

@doobes: Torque wrenches are "precision measurement devices" not hand tools, according to Sears. I will agree with this statement, as a torque wrench can become out of calibration with normal use over it's lifetime.

If you want a lifetime warranty torque wrench, go with a Snap-On or Mac

It's all well and good that this guy wrote this to Consumerist,but did he send a copy of this to the EMPLOYEES of this company ? Doesn't do any good if this is just damage control and some undertrained clerk and his equally clueless manager do the same damn thing a week from now because they had never heard of this uproar.

Not trying to throw brickbats here,but a little communication goes a long way when you have the constant coming and going of employees like Sears has.

@CRNewsom: Agreed. Torque wrenches are not forever.

WalMart has secretly been making offers for Craftsman for the last 3 years. Give it another 2 years and Walmart will have them. That is when K-Mart and Sears finally bite the dust.

@Snarkysnake: An excerpt from the internal communication to our store associates is below.

Yes, he stated that went out as an internal communication to (all?) store associates.

With a "No BS" policy clarification like that, I'll continue buying Craftsman.

@Snarkysnake:

*left out a word* -"did he send a copy of this to the EMPLOYEES of this company ? "

Should read - ...did he send a copy of this to NEW Employees of this company?

@Snarkysnake: Did you have trouble comprehending what this line meant?

"An excerpt from the internal communication to our store associates is below."

I'm not trying to be rude, but in my opinion comments like yours are why blogs often timed are ignored. Sears made a mistake, corrected the mistake, informed us about it, and still some people can't be bothered to read less than 2 paragraphs about the incident and still make negative comments.

@CaptZ: lower price.

I always feel bad for the one guy who's trying to do the right thing in these pathetic companies. This guy obviously takes pride in his job and the Craftsman brand. Sadly, he's swimming upstream in a river of sh!t!

@ZManGT: @ZManGT:
"Did you have trouble comprehending what this line meant?"

Nope.I just typed faster than I read what I typed.I sloppily did not proffread what I wrote and hit submit.

My point (which is now horribly mangled) is that this policy should be made a part of orientation if they have a handbook,it should occupy a prominent place there.

Honoring this warranty is in Sears best interest, anyway. Think about it: The resale value for your average cheapie hand tool is about zero. The resale value for a hand tool with a real lifetime warranty that the company stands behind? A *lot* closer to the original price.

And that means the original price can be worth more, and that people will want that brand.

This isn't rocket science. It amazes me Sears would have devalued this strategy in the first place!

@CaptZ: And then every craftsman tool will be made in China.

Sounds great!

Do they also have an online purchase fiasco contact?

It cant be said enough - Craftsman tools are something that makes Sears actually worthwhile. They try to push Kenmore appliances the same way but its simply not the truth.

I'm afraid the tools can't keep the entire chain up and running. I look for them to either:

(a) sell the Craftsman and Kenmore brands to Wal-Mart (yes, appliances at Wal-Mart - watch for it)
or
(b) Craftsman will become its own brand and live through the authorized dealer network.

@Blueskylaw: Not hard to understand, the manager most likely wanted to minimize it to sweeten his monthly numbers.

Interesting I haven't run into any issue with returning my Craftsman tools. But this is always good to see them spell it out.

@Saboth: I've been a fan of Sears for many years. Love the tools and the appliances, but there "buy online and pick up in store" sucks. I've done it several times, and more often than not the item was NOT available, even after getting an email confirming it was ready for pickup. I usually just plan on picking up the next day and wait for the inevitable phone call that it is in fact NOT in stock. I am surprised the manager didn't try to work with you on the price. When this happened to me with a floor jack, they manager asked how she could fix it. I said sell me this other model at the previous sale price. She agreed.

@plyhard13: The same could be said about some of the AIG executives who had their bonuses stolen from them. Now, I don't mean the guys on the very top, but the regular management Joes. Not their faults they're swimming upstream.

@spoco: "(a) sell the Craftsman and Kenmore brands to Wal-Mart (yes, appliances at Wal-Mart - watch for it)"

Sell the Craftsman name to Walmart, and as someone already noted, it will all be made in China, and will be crap.

If and when Sears fails as a dept. store, it will probably survive as a distributor of Craftsman and Kenmore brands, which will be available at other stores.

@Josh_G: If you encounter a store with a 3 piece per day limit on exchanges, who do you call that could actually make a difference?

***CONSUMERIST***!

I'm really glad to see them clarify this. When I get around to replacing my crappy made-in-Asia-someplace tools, I will most definitely consider Craftsman. I use hand tools so infrequently, though, that the crappy Asian ones seem to do the job. Everything else is a power tool or so low cost as to be disposable.

If only just one cell phone company would follow the Craftsman example of customer service, expressing their warranty in a few words of plain English, and standing behind your product....

@metaled:
Bump Ba-da Da-da Da-da. Da-da da-da da da da. Bump Ba-da Da-da Da-da.

Who you gonna call?

Good to know - I can stop buying tools at Home Depot now!

@Oranges w/ Cheese: And ill bet you're older than 19 also. You think a minimum wage sales associate would really CARE??

@spoco: c116I buy a lot of tools. Those include Craftsman hand tools, though their power tools I avoid. That said, I would not buy Craftsman tools from Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has a long history of getting suppliers of name brand merchandise to produce a special, i.e.: cheap, product line for them. If you ever want to read an interesting business story, look into Snapper lawnmowers and their refusal to undercut their independent dealers and make a lower-quality product for Wal-Mart.

My point being, I wouldn't trust Wal-Mart to maintain the integrity of the Craftsman brand as Sears has.

@sleze69:

Some are, actually well made and worth the money, but some are not worth a cent. tablesaws are a good example, Craftsman contractor tablesaws, that should be rugged and stand up to tough worksite and transport between worksites. I've bought a couple with so many plastic parts, they couldn't stand up to assembly. Plastic cam-clamps snap during assembly. I've owned 3, I should have owned one and it should have lasted years (craftsman tablesaws made in the 1940-1970's are sought after since they still function and are better built than their new ones, a lot of crappy Delta/Craftsman are even built better than current Craftsman)
Their high-priced Cabinet saws look to be much better built, but after my experience with the contractor saws, I just had to go with a different name to invest several thousand dollars.
I will give them another try for their Hand-tools, I always loved their warranty when it was real (my brother swore on Snap-on for the same reason). If they went back to competitive price, quality and warranty, Craftsman alone could save the company! They are what built the company!

@Saboth: My parents had a horrible experience when their refrigerator broke down. They were on vacation but, my little brother who lives at home was there to handle part of the situation.

The repair took almost a week to complete and 3 visits. First visit, the repair person didn't know how to install the part, said it was the wrong one. Second visit, completely wrong part. Third visit, first repair guy again, assured it was the right part but had no clue how to install it since it was the same part as from the first visit.

Since they didn't repair the refrigerator, all the food that was stored in it went bad. So when my parents returned from vacation, they had to spend $500+ to replace all the food. Sears only gave them about $250 for the food.

Sears claimed that they could only cover $250 worth of food. What they missed was that their incompetence cost over $500. There would have been less bad food if the repair person could have fixed the refrigerator on the first visit. Especialy since he had the right part.

I don't know of anyone in my immediate family that will be buying appliances from Sears in the future.

Funny how everyone was saying "OMG I'll NEVER buy Craftsman! That's what you get for buying from Sears! Boo! Hiss!", and now it's all fuzzy love. OMG! I'll buy a socket set, oh and can you bear my children Sears?!

How fickle we are...

I own a nice Craftsman socket set, that sees plenty of use. Glad to know I won't run into any trouble if a piece or two stops working like it should.

@Saboth: I used to get that all the time, E-mail confirming delivery for in store pickup, waiting around for 1 plus hours only to be told it was not yet there, probably still on the truck in back....check back in a couple days!
That system Sucks. Confirm E-mails by phone before actually going for a in-store pick-up! It would be a great system, if it worked.

@CaptZ: Lord, let's hope not. I'd much rather see them in the hands of Home Depot or Lowes.

Good, this gives me more respect for Craftsman. I wish they would have other partners than Sears but at least I'll know that guarantee is not just fluff.

@Josh_G: How about printing this article out, with David Figler's name on it, along with a printout of the website that shows his name and title in the company, so that when some store associate gives you shit, you can whip it out and say "Well, that's not what the company VP says, douche, now make with the ratchety-ratchety."

Nice ,

This does not change much for me. I have had to many problems returning Craftsman stuff already. I have been mad enough at a store rep I just left some tools and told them they could have them. When the Craftsman tools I have left break I will replace them with something else. Kinda sad still, I have craftsman tools from my grandfather and father. There goes that streak.