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<p>In the late 70's Sears had a commercial tire & battery shop
here in OKC. We had bought batteries from Sears for over 25
years. We got a good price on them from the commercial shop,
better than the store. If we bought a tractor battery from the
store and they found out it goes in a tractor, they cut the
warranty in half. The commercial shop let us keep the full
warranty. A few years later they went out of business and we
jumped around all over trying to get a good price on batteries. I
now buy them from a local shop and they appear to be a good
battery for the money. I probably go thru 30 batteries a year. I
get a lot of tires from Your next tire in Nebraska, but they were
bought out by another tire shop and immediately raised prices. My
local Coop has become a reliable source for common sized tires.
The same thing has happened to my local fuel supplier. In
business since the early 50's, it was bought out by a large firm
in Amarillo. They came in, cut 2 warehouse/delivery guys, added a
receptionist, replaced all the trucks, put in a security system
and got rid of the dogs that ran the yard at night, and raised gas
prices by 10cents and fuel by 20. A barrel of oil went up nearly
$100. The Coop looks to be my new fuel supplier. <br>
</p>
<p>Cecil <br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 11/3/2019 2:35 PM, Indiana Robinson
wrote:<br>
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<div>My father had worked at several things and started building
a house for his parents about 1940 on their farm. He had been
doing work with his carpenter uncle for some time and was
planning on starting into home building. He was quite good at
it and the great depression was easing up to where things
looked hopeful. He was adding tools both new and used. Most of
the new stuff he bought from the local Sears & Roebuck
store. Along came WW-II and he started working testing
aircraft engines 12 hours a day 7 days a week and as my
grandfather's heart began to fail my father took over the
farm. He was converting the farm from draft horses to tractor
power and like most farmers of those times a lot of horse
stuff got modified to work behind a tractor and slowly
replaced (largely after the war ended in 1945) as stuff became
more available. He was buying his tires and batteries from
Sears along with additional tools. One of the early words in
my vocabulary was "Allstate"... :-) Another name was "David
Bradley". In the years after the war he bought a new DB flare
wagon bed, an ear corn / grain elevator and in 1947 a new
David Bradley garden tractor with a sickle mower, a cultivator
and a DB axle to make a trailer for it. In 1952 he bought a
new DB lime / fertilizer spreader. During all of those years
he kept buying tires, batteries and even oil from the Sears
store Most of what he could buy there he did buy there. Then
came the fateful day about 1953 when he had a Craftsman
screwdriver snap in the middle of the shaft... They had a new
guy as manager at the time and he seemed to think everything
came directly out of his pocket. He absolutely refused to
replace it... My father never entered that store again... That
managers stubbornness cost them many years of steady income
but he probably never had any idea how much. He probably
bragged about how he saved the company the price of a
screwdriver. Our money just went another direction, we still
spent it, just not there.<br>
</div>
<div><br>
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<div><br>
</div>
<div>.<br>
</div>
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<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Nov 2, 2019 at 11:52
PM <<a href="mailto:deanvp@att.net" moz-do-not-send="true">deanvp@att.net</a>>
wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Here is my experience with Craftsman
tool warranty before they sold out to Stanley. 20 years
or so ago when I was first starting antique tractor work
I wanted a good torque wrench so I bought a Craftsman ½”
drive for in the neighborhood of $99.00 which had the
Craftsman Lifetime warranty. I used is sparing for
several years not often but worked just fine. Then one
day it just flat broke. So I brought it to the local
Sears store for replacement. Their response stunned me.
Torque wrenched do not have a lifetime warranty. See it
shows right there on the shelf. I replied it had a
Lifetime warranty when I bought it. They would not honor
it. So I went home and damned if I didn’t find a 1999
Sears Tool Catalog that showed the Lifetime warranty on
the Torque Wrench I had purchased. Went back the week
before Christmas with wrench and Catalog in hand. There
was a long line at the register and when I finally got
up to the register I presented the wrench and the Tool
catalog. The clerk still wouldn’t honor the Lifetime
warranty. I told the clerk that he better call a
manager because I was going to stand there until they
honored their warranty. Eventually a manager arrived
and he too tried to renege on the warranty, I held my
ground. Eventually the manger caved and I also got him
to hand write and sign on the receipt that the
replacement wrench had a lifetime warranty including his
name, title and employee number. . Fortunately the
replacement has never failed so I have never had to test
the lifetime warranty on the replacement. But… be very
careful when shopping Craftsman tools. Many of the
Craftsman tools no longer carry the Lifetime warranty
with some as low as 90 days. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I haven’t purchased very many
Craftsman tools of late so I don’t know what they are
doing today relative to warranties. I suspect they
haven’t gotten any better. I know the Craftsman hand
tools of the last 20 years are nowhere close to as good
as those I purchased in the 50’s. I now tend to just
buy specialty tools that I’m not going to be using much
and they usually are purchased at Harbor freight. They
are usually good enough for a shade tree mechanic and
the closet store is 7.5 miles way. The closest Sears
store in now over 25 miles away. The last few years I
would only end up in a Sears store to pick up something
I had purchased on-line at less than half price they
had on the shelf. Between that pricing idiocy and being
able to throw a grenade in the store without hitting
anyone it was obvious Sears was in big trouble. Sears
snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. They could
have owned the on-line marketplace just using their
catalog name list. A management lesson in incompetency.
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Dean VP</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Snohomish, WA 98290</p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<div>
<div style="border-color:rgb(225,225,225) currentcolor
currentcolor;border-style:solid none
none;border-width:1pt medium medium;padding:3pt 0in
0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>From:</b> AT <<a
href="mailto:at-bounces@lists.antique-tractor.com"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">at-bounces@lists.antique-tractor.com</a>>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Jim Becker<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, October 28, 2019 11:27 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group
<<a href="mailto:at@lists.antique-tractor.com"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">at@lists.antique-tractor.com</a>><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [AT] Craftsman Tool Warranty</p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12pt;color:black">I had thought
about that, but decided the tool was probably
made out of material I wouldn’t be able to drill
through.</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12pt;color:black">I recently
acquired another one of these handles. It was
in a tool box I bought at an auction. It has
the hole, so my round bar became usable again.
Interesting thing about the newly acquired one,
it is evidently even older than the one I turned
in. The catalog number is not permanently
marked on the tool, as has been Craftsman
practice for a long time. The hole in the
handle goes the opposite way from what it did in
the handle I turned in. I have two other 1/2
inch breaker bars, other brands. They both are
cross drilled. One of them has a hole in the
end so it can be used as an extension.</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12pt;color:black"> </span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Jim Becker</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black"> </span></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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<br>
-- <br>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>-- <br>
<br>
Francis Robinson<br>
aka "farmer"<br>
Central Indiana USA<br>
<a href="mailto:robinson46176@gmail.com" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">robinson46176@gmail.com</a><br>
<br>
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