Sears has redeemed themselves

[Deanna]

So, most of you know that I sent my saw for warranty work, and the technician said that there was nothing wrong with it.

Well, I called sears again today to find out when I was going to get my saw back. They told me that it was going to take another 10 days to ship. :mad: :mad: :mad: It's a 2.5 hour drive from my town to where the saw was shipped from!!!

I called Sears this evening and ranted and raved at them. The customer service lady was just excellent. She said that the best thing that she could think of to do was to send me a brand new saw!! So, after three weeks of trying to get my saw back that they wouldn't or couldn't fix... I have a resolution :)
The only bad part is that I won't get it until the end of the month... how does one deal with the shakes associated with the withdrawls??

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

I am not sure I could handle that. I guess this is good news because at least you will have a new saw and the week will go by fast. Good luck with the new one.

[pops-shop]

Deanna

My first scrollsaw was one from Harbor Freight. Cheap. Still have it. When my Sears went south, I used my old standby. Only partial withdrawl. Since I've had the 788, haven't had to use backup. :D

[Servcman]

I've got the 16" Dremel and the 20" Craftsman now but the Ryobi/Tradesman/Shopfox still sits in standby undr the bench.
Dennis

[ceblunt2]

I have a Sears jig saw and a Sears wood lathe both made in the late 40s or the early 50s . They need a little tender loveing care but they both still work great and I use them every day. I wish their new products were as good.
Charlie

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

Charlie

You typed a mouthful there for sure. At one time Craftsman was the standard of the industry. The tools they used to produce were top rated. My father had a 10" tablesaw from back then and he passed it on to me and I have since given to my brother. It still cuts straight and true. The motor you can kill. Today I am leary of their products except hand tools.

[Servcman]

even the quality of their handtools has suffered. They changed the recipe for the metal in their screwdrivers and the don't hold up to working on 60's and 70's vintage industrial machinery. I've been taking back 5 to 6 per year now for the past 3 years. Unfortunatley cannot afford to buy Snap-on at this point.
Dennis

[crolf]

My personal opinion about sears power tools are that they are junk even though I own some of them. I have a craftsman bench top tablesaw that has ben a pretty good saw until about 3 years ago the blade stopped spinning while the motor was running. I took the gear box apart to see what was wrong and found that the gear is pressed on the shaft. I check to see if I could buy a new gear box but I have to buy the moto and gearbox together. For 50.00 more I could buy a new saw. I drilled and tapped a hole thru the gear and shaft and installed a set screw with locktite. Still working 3 years later. Maybe someday I will get a rel tablesaw(not a sears).

[Gunny]

In the past year alone I've had enough problems with Sears to keep the Better Business Bureau busy for long time.
I purchased their 15 inch Swivel head lathe online and picked it up in the store. I also bought their 2 year extended warranty with the In Home service guarantee.
A week after I set it up it started throwing the circuit breaker, bogging down etc even though I was able to run several other tools with greater draws on that same line ... It got progressively worse over the course of three days and finally just shut down.
I tried for two days to get through on the tech line with no luck. Then when I went away on business for a week, my wife called in for me trying to get it repaired before I came home. After three days of being put on hold by the computer, she got a wise guy who made fun of her for not understanding all about lathes and then told her that they didn't have any such thing as in home repair service.
To make a long story short, I finally (after 5 weeks) managed to get hold of someone in Texas (I live in New Jersey) who arranged for a repairman to show up and service it. He played around with it for about half an hour and determined that it needed several parts, all of which were listed as NLA (no longer available).
He was a decent guy who suggested I just bring it back for a refund. He said he knew where he could get the parts but it would be at least a month.
I loaded it in the back of my truck and took his advice. Then the moron at the cash register said I could get a refund for the lathe but not for the extended warranty.
And that's the best experience I've had at sears in the past year. I've read some great reviews on their new 12" band saw after a friend bought his and I'd really like to get one because it seems it would really suit my requirements but I'm hesitant because of the experiences I've had lately. My 14" Jet is 25 years old and replacing both the tires will cost almost half what the saw is worth so I'll definitely be getting something different soon...
I've bought several Ryobi and Grizzly tools lately (Thickness planer, 14" Lathe, a few others) and I've found them as good or better than Craftsman... and more important, their tech lines and customer service people are a lot more pleasant to deal with...

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

Gunny

I am sorry to hear about you problems with Sears. The thing is whenever I get asked about tools I try to tell people to save a little extr a money and buy quality. Years ago Sears tools were the standard in the industry. Now from experience too I hate to say, tell people to look elsewhere for any tool with a motor. Their hand tools also have taken a big hit and the quality is not there. They have shrunk the lifetime warrenty rules to practically nothing. Now that they merged with KMART you are seeing the results in quality and service. Today so many of the tools from so many companies are made in China or Taiwain. There are those that have success with Ryobi tools but they are another company that I tell people to stay away from. They are the Black and Decker home use version of todays society. That is why the prices are so low. Grizzly is a little better company. Delta has even gone down hill but still put more trust in them than Sears. Jet is a good company as so many others but you get what you pay for.

As far as getting your money back for the extended warrenty I would fight that one tooth and nail for sure.