Wow- I agree with MIL, but the rest is chip in the shoulder whining. Geez what else does the world owe you?

Please come to Lowe's and buy your tools :D, alot of the stuff we sell is the same of better than Sears at a lower price. Some of the newer Kobalt stuff I am a little scared of, but it should be fine. I had a gift card to Sears, so I bought some tools from there, and were a lot less, but I needed the tools and needed to use the gift card on something. A lot of tools can also be special ordered, so if it is not on the shelf, we can might be able to get it for you. Home Depots tools are even better than Sears junk, I actually wish that Lowe's would carry some of the stuff that Home Depot has...

Chipped plating is a safety issue; plating that is chipped can give a nasty cut. If chipped plating will not be a reason for a refund it should state so in the warranty.

Don't return a tool while you are in your work uniform (If you are a mechanic). They can refuse warranty because they are "professional quality tools" but not for "professional use". They consider it abuse.

Craftsman tools have been about as good as the crap from Harbor Freight in my experience.

Good point- and if you got a cut tell the sales person nicely- I'd bet you have much better chance at getting a new one. Me? I'd chip the offending part away so it does not give me a cut. Oughta take about a second. Life has better things for me to do than find problems.

Interesting thread. A few weeks ago, I read an article in the WSJ basically saying that the powers that be at Sears/Kmart are planning to break Sears into 4 separate entities. Sounded like Sears will soon sing its' Swan Song.

I think it would take considerably longer than a second to remove all the chrome plating, since unless you do so there will be an edge to possibly cut you.

My $10 HF torque wrench replaced my $80 Craftsman torque wrench, which crapped out of me. The HF one has taken more abuse...

Uhhh, you might wanna reword that.... :D

I spend some time on the garagejournal forum...lots of discussion over there on different tool brands. I'm not a fan of Sears/K-Mart and their corporate crapola, but their professional line of hand tools are very nice, mostly made by Danaher, maker of Matco, K-D, Allen, NAPA's good line, Armstrong, etc.

My gut feeling is that Sears is a dinosaur and is not viable as it sits. How on earth they got wrapped up with K-Mart is a mystery to me, kind of like Studebaker and Packard dragging each other down after they merged in the mid 50's. Merge 2 pieces of crap, all you get is a bigger, smellier turd.

I also don't worry too much about tool warranties...my tools don't rust, the finish doesn't peel and I figure if I kill a particular tool, unless it's a glaring manufacturing defect, it's my own damn fault and I'll just act like a big boy and buy a replacement.

lol! ouch!

tools
 

I think the problem you ran into was the volume of tools.
In 1990 I used to take lots of tools from garage sales etc in to sears no questions asked.
Recently I had a talk with a manager and he said it was ok if there was no more than 2.
The "Ratchet" has been tightening for years now and I forsee it getting worse before better.

So what can you do?
Take like 2 to each sears on the map while you go on your mercedes road trip!

Shark

Probably a good point.

I've never had a problem getting a truly broken tool replaced, which has been maybe 4 times in 20 something years. (Maybe I'm not trying hard enough?:D) Most of my tools have cosmetic issues because I don't take care of them as well as I should. I hadn't thought of trying to get them replaced.

I've never had to replace anything except hex bits.

I did have a Craftsman rotary tool repaired under warranty (no charge) within the first year and it still works 6 years later.