Complaint Review: Sears - Hoffman Estates Illinois

The warranty has only been one year with receipt since K-mart bought Sears. I am old enough to remember the slogan "Satisfaction Guaranteed" in big letters over the door to Sears. And I have had tools replaced under warranty many times at Sears, (the old Sears), and all they wanted was for it to be broken, and say Craftsman on it somewhere, no freeking receipt required! Sears was in the day the very best place to buy tools, but that all changed when K-mart came on the scene.

It is clearly stated in the original warranty (I quote that section) "Craftsman Tools not covered by the lifetime warranty include:
Micro-adjustable torque wrench calibration, Hand tools cutting edges, Portable electric tools, Bench and Stationary tools, Battery operated tools, Precision measuring tools."

Torque wrench calibration is what is not covered, This tool was improperly made.

Possibly it is you that has a problem reading?

I Worked for sears in the tool department for three years as a full time employee. The ONLY hand tool that has never had a Liftetime warranty were always the micro click and digitorque torque wrenches. The warranty is 1 YEAR with THE RECEIPT ONLY !! Quit trying to make companies look bad with this false information !! The beam torque wrench DOES have a lifetime warranty. Call craftsman and ask it has ALWAYS been like this my friend. I have had this complaint MANY times and every time would would have to bring out a 50 year old catalog and show the customer the proof of a 1 year warranty. You have not been ripped off maybe you should read the packaging before purchasing items because it clearly states one year warranty.

Having worked for Sears from 1962 to 2006 moostly in hardware or related areas, I do not recall Digital Torque Wrenches to have a lifetime warranty. Prior to leaving the end 2006, they could be sent off for repair.

It says in his original post that Torque Wrenches are not covered by warranty. Can this guy not read. Please Admin Remove this post.

My husband has always purchased Craftsman hand tools BECAUSE of this warranty. He's been buying them since before we got married (34 years) and he has, in fact, had a number of hand tools replaced by sears without any incident. Last year, while we were on holiday in the US he broke an old Craftsman screwdriver while he was trying to get the hubcap off our van to change the tire. Once we got to our destination (Rome, GA) he went into the Sears store with the two pieces of the screwdriver and it was replaced. So, to the person who says Sears doesn't warranty their tools for "lifetime", they did offer lifetime warranties on hand tools, and apparently some Sears stores still honour that warranty. Our own local store has replaced a level that belonged to my father-in-law (the tool was about 35 years old) because the fluid had dried out in the bubble level. Maybe they no longer offer "lifetime" warranties on hand tools, but at one time, it was the reason many men purchased their tools from Sears. As a matter of fact, Sears Canada still DOES offer a lifetime warranty, and on mechanics tools as well. see here: http://www.sears.ca/gp/product/B001O0CTBS/sr=1-3/qid=1246309670/ref=sr_1_3/179-7953303-1257122?ie=UTF8&searsBrand=core&mqnodeid=396544011

If you have issues with the Craftsman warranty and their failure to comply with their own warranty, file a claim with the small claims court in your local area or in the area of the nearest store. Be sure to list the store manager of the local store as the defendant and use that store's address. If you don't use the store managers name the suit my not get any attention. If the store manager sees his/her name on the suit you can be sure it will get their attention. Also, when you go to court, bring the defective product and a copy of the sears hand tool warranty for the judge to see. When the claim is judged in your favor the defendant will even have to pay all the fees associated with filing the claim. BTW: You can use small claims for any similar issues you may have with other retail purchases for which you are not satisfied.

Sears does not warrant their Craftsman tools with life time warranties. It's a myth. I do not even think I've heard a commercial stating this for a very long time. The reason, I believe they have lowered their standards to provide competitive prices. In the last decade or so, I've noticed lower quality tools being sold under the Craftsman name. I feel for the people that feel ripped off. I'm one of them as I had a few hand tools rejected for replacement by Sears. When asking Customer Service at Sears (transferred from person to person to person, about 1 hour of either transferred calls or the dredded "call this number instead") I usually get the answer, we don't cover that, we only cover hand tools. When I explain the items are in fact hand tools, I get the "it's not on my list of approved lifetime warranties." The most painful tool to loose out on was the torque wrench that was assembled with plastic parts that cracked and eventually broke off (I got 4 uses out of it). I grew up like most people believing in the hype of Craftsman, no more, in the last 5 years, I've been replacing all my tools with superior tools such as Snap On, Klein, Husky (carefully choose, although I haven't had a single problem with any of the ones I've purchased yet), etc. Tools I know won't fail me and therefore won't need to be returned. I advise everyone, especially the amateur do it yourselfers that grew up believing in Craftsman like I did and buy quality tools that will last a lifetime that won't need to be returned. After all, it's us weekend repairmen that keep Craftsman tools in business.