I'm done with Sears

I know it's been covered here before, so this is NOT a Craftsman sucks, Snap-On is better thread.
I have some Craftsman tools. They are what I kept around the house when I was wrenching professionally. They are from my early days. Today I need another 12mm, 12-point, 3/8 drive socket so I head to the local Sears Hardware store. I decide to bring my broken Craftsman ratchets since I'm going there.
So, I get there and they have about 14 sockets on the wall. Naturally none of them are 12mm 12-point, no matter the drive. Kinda ticked, but oh well, whacha gonna do? So, I grab two ratchets off the wall to replace the broken ones. The guy says "Oh no, we replace broken ratchets with re-built ones now." I say "is that why I'm here every 6 months replacing ratchets, because they are used?" He has a pretty condecending attitude about the broken ratchets, the used replacements and the lack of stock in the store. When I mention that I've NEVER broken a Snap-On ratchet, despite the abuse I give them he says "Yeah, but how much are they?" My response was "when I pick it up and it works, every time I pick it up, it no longer matters."

I'm done with Sears. I bought NEW tools. When they break I dont want used tools. When I have broken other Snap-On tools, I get a new tool, not a used one.

[Rant off]

Harbor Freight gives you NEW tools.

"Harbor Freight gives you NEW tools" I think that says a LOT about both Sears and HF.

In reply to 92CelicaHalfTrac:

Sears gave me a bunch of new screwdrivers last time I took my damaged ones in. Screwdrivers must be harder to rebuild.

Otto Maddox wrote: In reply to 92CelicaHalfTrac: Sears gave me a bunch of new screwdrivers last time I took my damaged ones in. Screwdrivers must be harder to rebuild.

You don't have a welder and/or a bench grinder, i take it?

DrBoost wrote: I'm done with Sears. I bought NEW tools. When they break I dont want used tools.

did it break while you were NEWing it?

Craftsman has certainly declined in quality over the last few years. I'm done with them as well.

I remember years ago (mid 90's) you could buy a socket rebuild kit for 1 penny from sears. I bought 100, and dammit if I cant find that box anywhere.

KJ

AngryCorvair wrote:

DrBoost wrote: I'm done with Sears. I bought NEW tools. When they break I dont want used tools.

did it break while you were NEWing it?

Well played, sir.
Credit where credit due.

They closed ours, so I'm done with it as well.

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

Otto Maddox wrote: In reply to 92CelicaHalfTrac: Sears gave me a bunch of new screwdrivers last time I took my damaged ones in. Screwdrivers must be harder to rebuild.

You don't have a welder and/or a bench grinder, i take it?

Yeah, my Craftsman bench grinder might just be unbreakable. Of course, it is probably around 40 years old.

Otto Maddox wrote:

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

Otto Maddox wrote: In reply to 92CelicaHalfTrac: Sears gave me a bunch of new screwdrivers last time I took my damaged ones in. Screwdrivers must be harder to rebuild.

You don't have a welder and/or a bench grinder, i take it?

Yeah, my Craftsman bench grinder might just be unbreakable. Of course, it is probably around 40 years old.

I just rebuilt a Craftsman grinder last week. The bushings were worn out. Its about 30 years old. I use a Craftsman drill from the late 70 almost every day. It has a trigger lock so it will stay on with out holding the trigger. Love that thing.

Old Craftsman tools are great. The new ones (say, 2000 and newer at least) are total crap (like worse than HF bargain ones sometimes crap). They're customer service is always crap.

I buy old (50's/60's at the newest) tools from a local used tool store.

Exactly who's "Lifetime" is the Sears warranty? Yours or Sears?

In reply to Dr. Hess:

Sears. Because some of the screwdrivers I had replaced last time were from my deceased grandfather.

In reply to Dr. Hess:

And stop peeing on Hondas. They are nice dependable cars.

I still have some Sears wrenches I got with a set in the early 1960s. One of the ratchet handles broke after many years and it was replaced. I think only once. The newer ratchets I've bought don't seem last very long. An uncle of mine sold me a bunch of old SK tools that are awesome.

When I first got out of college (1977) I bought a tool set for my job from Penny's back when they tried to copy Sears. I still have many of those wrenches and they are some tough SOBs. THis was the same time they offered the life time battery. They thought $109 was going to scare me off. I wore them out with that one.

Yea Sears sucks. I lot of people think the tool company will survive. Not with the quality they now have.

Otto Maddox wrote: In reply to Dr. Hess: And stop peeing on Hondas. They are nice dependable cars.

You're spelling "Honduh" wrong again.

Yeah, I was pretty miffed the last time I went in to my local Sears. I was after a shop-vac, saw they had some, said I wanted one. They asked if I wanted they $20 extra 3-year warranty, I looked at them, and said it depends, what's the normal warranty?

"Well sir, with the 3 year, you can bring it back here no questions asked"

And the normal one? "Uhr, um... it's a 1-year?"

Okay, that's fine, I can bring it back here, right? "No sir, you have to ship it to Craftsman."

I bought the vacuum at Home Depot.

I bought that racheting wrench set not too far back, it's come in handy quite a few times recently. My Craftsman rachet (from early 2000) is starting to feel loose and I'm hearing this? and that they're made in China now? :( Looks like Harbor Freight is the new Craftsman, pity.

They did just email me a $10 off $30 coupon too.

DuctTape&Bondo wrote: I bought that racheting wrench set not too far back, it's come in handy quite a few times recently. My Craftsman rachet (from early 2000) is starting to feel loose and I'm hearing this? and that they're made in China now? :( Looks like Harbor Freight is the new Craftsman, pity. They did just email me a $10 off $30 coupon too.

They didn't feel loose out of the box in 2000? I'm sad i missed out.

I am sorry.. but the tools Lowes and HD sell are better than the Sears stuff now.

My garage is full of Lowes wrenches and rachets.. never had a problem with them

AngryCorvair wrote: did it break while you were NEWing it?

And that right there is why 90% of the time I think AngryCorvair is a berkeleying genius.

Sears has never replaced a broken ratchet with a new one up here, and I'm OK with that. I just took my 35 year old 3/8" drive ratchet to be repaired and they told me they no longer have kits for those, and offered me a new one. When I declined, she looked at my old one and said, I understand, we sure don't sell them like that anymore. I went on ebay and bought 2 rebuild kits for $6.

Snap-On rebuilds too.

Instead of replacing a screwdriver, they just replace the handle or shaft, whatever end is broken. The other problem is it's a franchise, some owners warranty no questions asked, others will repair, and some will tell you to pound sand.

I usually just pay too much on the tool truck for the convienence. I know Matco/Snappy/Mac will come to me within the week. It could be a lot longer than that before I get off my arse to return tools to a brick and mortar.

I worked at Sears for about a year (not in tools, but in another department)

I maintain that the company is circling the drain. While I was there the CEO was selected as one of the worst in the country. Sears has been stagnant since the 1980's with the only things changing are them reducing the quality of their wares.

I do not believe in a store where they have everyone on a commission base to make you pester the customer into buying.

They change prices several times a week to "put things on sale" which means, once in a blue moon you get a decent price, but 80+% of the time they are just gouging you to tempt you in the door when it "goes on sale"

Their infastructure is outdated.. all of the POS sale systems are straight 1980's IBM (DOS era).

They instructed us to push the sears credit card.

Don't get me started on the "service agreements", which if we did not make a certain percentage of sales including them we could be canned. (do some googling, I think there have been some suits over how much of a scam they are)

I also think there was a suit over their mail in rebates.

I got the feeling that they didnt care anymore about improving, just cheapening to make a few more bucks while the company circles the drain.