Just reading the paper today and I see that Ace Hardware stores are going to start carrying Craftsman tools
Woo-hoo... Ace is a lot closer than sears!
Ace / Craftsman http://www.homechannelnews.com/story.aspx?id=131283&menuid=629
Where? 1st store is in Grand Rapids, Mi http://www.ryleesace.com/
I'm gonna have to stop in as it's 1 block off my commute
Grtechguy wrote:Woo-hoo... Ace is a lot closer than sears!
How about a K-Mart? They will have the basics.
As for Ace, I'm not even sure where one is near me, but both Sears and K are close by.
Woo! There's an Ace across the street from my apartment complex, hopefully this will make them (that particular store) suck less.
I hope this carries over to all of the Ace retailers. I have a dozen well used Craftsman tools that need replacing, but every Sears in the area is out of the way. The local Ace is 4 miles from the house :).
Cool, theres an Ace 12 mile from the house vs 35 to the nearest Sears.
Yeah, the SEARS Hardware store here in town closed a few months ago 
...hopefully our ACE store will carry the goods.
I just hope they stick to the same "oh it broke, here's another one" warranty replacements that I'm used to.
Craftsman recently sucks and trying to get them to replace tools is like pulling teeth.
There's an Ace at the end of the block 
96DXCivic wrote:Craftsman recently sucks and trying to get them to replace tools is like pulling teeth.
I've had the exact opposite situation happen last time I took tools in to exchange. I had a bunch broken screwdrivers, some with no blades at all, just the handles. The guy told me to match the numbers up to make sure they were the same (since the blade was gone). When I brought them up he hardly even looked at them. I think I could have brought ANY broken screw driver and he wouldn't have noticed if they were Craftsman or not.
In reply to 16vCorey:
That's the same sort of experience I've had at my local hardware and appliance store. "Oh it's broken, that sucks. Let me get you fixed up." Had a 1/2" ratchet replaced that I had sheared the head off of, and he asked how I managed to do that as he was handing me a new one. I told him I was trying to break a spindle nut free and the nut decided to break the socket free of my ratchet instead. He laughed and said that if I had any more break like that, just bring it in. He suspected abuse (I was using a cheater bar), but felt that the tool should have held up better.
I have started moving on from Craftsman ratchets. I find the Pro line from Harbor Freight seems pretty nice, especially for the money.
