I sympathize with your dad. I ran into a clueless clerk at Sear's on Saturday while trying to return a 3/8 drive, full polish ratchet. The clerk tried to give me a bad refurb of a lower grade item. He also said "No, we don't have a catalog you can check. Try a different store." Oops. Pay no attention to the catalog and the online computer right behind you...

On topic with the tap and die set: I bought a cheap metric set at Northern Tools after I bought my Coupe this summer. I tried to use it simply to clean out rusty threads and it had trouble even cutting and cleaning those. I bought the Craftsman Pro set at like a 50% on sale price and consider it a good deal. It cuts smooth and clean and has a good variety of thread pitch in the set.

From my perspective, paying a little extra for the quality, even with Sear's current level of service, is better than having tools that don't work. I think the 'middle of the road but still quality' tool manufacturers are extinct.