<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">Not surprised. They are owned by Bain Capital and exist to make money for Wall Street.</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div>SO</div><div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, Nov 3, 2019 at 8:42 PM John Hall <<a href="mailto:jtchall@nc.rr.com">jtchall@nc.rr.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
Not at all impressed with Apex. They own Jacobs drill chucks now.
The quality is pathetic and their customer service is deplorable.
Apparently they have acquired a few good "names" to profit from. I
had 2 brand new chucks that were covered in burrs and grinding grit.
They had me return them direct to them. Then they lost them and
wanted me to do the UPS tracking. I did what I should have done in
the first place, let MSC deal with them. Sad part is these guys are
30 miles from me.<br>
<br>
John Hall<br>
<br>
<div>On 11/3/2019 5:57 PM, Stephen Offiler
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">No. Stanley Black & Decker currently owns
the Craftsman brand. Apex Tool Group, a venture formed by the
combination of Danaher and Cooper Tools in 2010(ish), does
some of the manufacturing. I know Apex pretty well; my
company actually manufactures a few thing for them.</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div>SO</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, Nov 3, 2019 at 5:42
PM James Peck <<a href="mailto:jamesgpeck@hotmail.com" target="_blank">jamesgpeck@hotmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="white" lang="EN-US">
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:windowtext">I
believe Apex Tool now owns the Craftsman brand and
can sell it through channels other than Sears.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:windowtext"> </span></p>
<div>
<div style="border-right:none;border-bottom:none;border-left:none;border-top:1pt solid rgb(225,225,225);padding:3pt 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:windowtext">From:</span></b><span style="color:windowtext"> AT <<a href="mailto:at-bounces@lists.antique-tractor.com" target="_blank">at-bounces@lists.antique-tractor.com</a>>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Cecil Bearden<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Sunday, November 3, 2019 4:03 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:at@lists.antique-tractor.com" target="_blank">at@lists.antique-tractor.com</a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [AT] Craftsman Tool Warranty</span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<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.
</p>
<p>Cecil </p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">On 11/3/2019 2:35 PM, Indiana
Robinson wrote:</p>
</div>
<blockquote style="margin-top:5pt;margin-bottom:5pt">
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">.</p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">On Sat, Nov 2, 2019 at 11:52
PM <<a href="mailto:deanvp@att.net" target="_blank">deanvp@att.net</a>>
wrote:</p>
</div>
<blockquote style="border-top:none;border-right:none;border-bottom:none;border-left:1pt solid rgb(204,204,204);padding:0in 0in 0in 6pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in">
<div>
<div>
<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-right:none currentcolor;border-bottom:none currentcolor;border-left:none currentcolor;border-top:1pt solid currentcolor;padding:3pt 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>From:</b> AT <<a href="mailto:at-bounces@lists.antique-tractor.com" target="_blank">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">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">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"> </span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">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"> </span></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Jim Becker</span></p>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"> </span></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br clear="all">
<br>
-- </p>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt">-- <br>
<br>
Francis Robinson<br>
aka "farmer"<br>
Central Indiana USA<br>
<a href="mailto:robinson46176@gmail.com" target="_blank">robinson46176@gmail.com</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
<br>
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