Warranty/guarantees

[cowman]

My aggravating experience trying to get my voltage regulator replaced all week got me thinking about this.

I'd spent $14 on a no-name USB floppy drive for a project I'm working on. Inside the box was a little warranty card..."limited one year warranty". I wonder would they actually stand behind that? Does anyone actually send those in? By the time you figure the shipping cost and hassle of taking it somewhere to ship out you'd be ahead to just buy a new one and have it right away. Darn near everything you buy now has some guarantee/warranty card in the box even very low-dollar products. Is that just something they do so they can put another bullet point on the box/website for their product? Do any of them actually honor these things? Have any of you tried to hold a company like that to their word for some < $50 thing that broke? I don't mean returning to the store within a week/30 days I mean actually going to the manufacturer.

 

[wrbix]

Send the card back with my info?...........yeah, right.........like I need more SPAM and junk mail.

 

[denverpilot]

I’ve used a number of warranties over the years. Some are worth it, some aren’t.

There’s a Reddit group that’s cool called “buy it for life” that documents companies that actually stand behind unlimited lifetime warranties. They’re few and far between but often the products are well worth the higher price tags.

An example might be Le Creuset cookware. I should probably send in one of mine, the finish is getting a little chipped and worn. They’d likely replace the entire pot. Besides the warranty, some of the best cookware you’ll ever use. And you’ll pay for it. But they stand behind their warranty.

The old Craftsman tools and Sears, too... but that’s come to an end for the most part. Can’t count how many times I took broken abused tools back to the local Sears and they just handed me a new one.

Best one was the little old lady who’d driven the same car for something like fifty years and kept the paperwork on various lifetime warranties on replacement parts offered by places over the years. She was obviously forcing the companies that bought out some of those companies to maintain their deals, too, and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Welcome to buying all the liabilities of a company when you buy it and change its name.

She hadn’t purchased batteries, shocks, mufflers, or brakes for it in decades when the TV news crews caught up with her and her story a number of years ago.

A USB stick? Nah. I get the cheap ones from Microcenter for less money than it probably cost to produce them. Loss leaders.

 

[RyanB]

For as much trouble as it is to claim the warranty, it’s just as easy to buy a new one, being as cheap as those things are nowadays. I remember several years back those memory sticks were typically sold with like 256mb being the largest available and they were quite pricey. Now you can buy like a terabyte worth of storage for $40.

 

[asicer]

I can't remember something breaking between the ~30day store return period and the 1-2 year warranty. However, I have had something break after the manufacturer warranty but before the credit card warranty extension expired. I think they credited me the cash before I sent them the broken item but I don't remember exactly. Actually now that I think about it, I'm not sure whether I even sent them the broken item.

 

[asicer]

The old Craftsman tools and Sears, too... but that’s come to an end for the most part. Can’t count how many times I took broken abused tools back to the local Sears and they just handed me a new one.

Confess: How many times did you need a hammer and chisel out of the toolbox but the Craftsman screwdriver and ratchet were within arms reach and it was too much trouble to crawl out of that tight working space?

 

[Skip Miller]

Cuisenart 10" non-stick frying pan. I'm on my third pan after the first two had the nonstick coating start to peel off.

Just sent them a close up photo of the damage with a question: Is this safe to use? Bam, a new pan is drop shipped.

-Skip

 

[eman1200]

I’m surprised the gripe isn’t about a company who doesn’t even have faith it’s own product will last one stinkin year.

 

[Zeldman]

The old Craftsman tools and Sears, too... but that’s come to an end for the most part. Can’t count how many times I took broken abused tools back to the local Sears and they just handed me a new one.

Back when I was a mechanic I bought Craftsman Tools. I liked the return policy, until one day I took a broken socket in and I was told we will have one for you next week. We are not going to break open a set just to replace one broken socket.

Called Snap On that day. I only returned to Sears for the going out of business sale.

32 years later one of my Snap On phillips screw drivers was just too worn out to use. I saw a Snap On truck so I pulled over. I asked the guy if he could replace the worn out blade part. He looked at it, threw it in the used tools bin and handed me a brand spanking new screw driver.

 

[cowman]

Ok now I've got to hijack my own thread...

Speaking of craftsman tools... since they're mostly made in china now and Sears is going away what are you guys buying for hand tools now when you don't want to spend snap-on bucks but still want something decent?

 

[Clip4]

My aggravating experience trying to get my voltage regulator replaced all week got me thinking about this.

I'd spent $14 on a no-name USB floppy drive for a project I'm working on. Inside the box was a little warranty card..."limited one year warranty". I wonder would they actually stand behind that? Does anyone actually send those in? By the time you figure the shipping cost and hassle of taking it somewhere to ship out you'd be ahead to just buy a new one and have it right away. Darn near everything you buy now has some guarantee/warranty card in the box even very low-dollar products. Is that just something they do so they can put another bullet point on the box/website for their product? Do any of them actually honor these things? Have any of you tried to hold a company like that to their word for some < $50 thing that broke? I don't mean returning to the store within a week/30 days I mean actually going to the manufacturer.

Under Federal law you do not have to return the card and my credit cards double these silly warranties.

 

[denverpilot]

Confess: How many times did you need a hammer and chisel out of the toolbox but the Craftsman screwdriver and ratchet were within arms reach and it was too much trouble to crawl out of that tight working space?

LOL. Many times I just busted the Craftsman in hopes it would not break while I had a cheater pipe on it. Lately real breaker bars and electric impact guns have gotten so cheap, I haven’t reached for a cheater pipe for leverage for a long time. If it’s stuck on that bad, I’m probably going to have to reach for the (also cheap nowadays) grinder anyway.

Ok now I've got to hijack my own thread...

Speaking of craftsman tools... since they're mostly made in china now and Sears is going away what are you guys buying for hand tools now when you don't want to spend snap-on bucks but still want something decent?

After watching a lot of reviews, the “Pro” line of whatever Harbor Freight’s brand is, are as good as anything until you’re a pro mechanic and need complete top of the line.

That’s got a caveat that I still have all my Craftsman tools from before they sucked, so I’m adding specialty tools or extra sets for vehicles or whatever with any new purchases these days.

But frankly, for the home gamer, HF junk works fine and their “pro” line is a little better than their non-pro.

I’ll buy even their non-pro for tools that aren’t going to get used too often or ever again. The impact driver set I bought recently was non-pro and will easily last the rest of my life or until I do something I shouldn’t have with them.

One thing to watch out for with HF. They sell tools that nobody should buy. Like twelve sided impact sets in both non-pro and pro. The whole point of an impact set is to buy the ones that WON’T round off the damned nut when you put over 400 ft/lbs of torque on it.

They do prey a bit on people who don’t know tools. There’s very little real world use for a 12-sided impact socket. Deep or not. I reached for a metric and domestic set quickly from a display and luckily looked down closely at them before I got to the register.

I’m pretty sure anyone within earshot heard me exclaim “Who the **** would buy 12 sided deep impact sockets?!”, as I walked back to the display and grabbed the correct set.

Those will be on sale in the flyer soon. LOL. Real cheap.

 

[3393RP]

I’m surprised the gripe isn’t about a company who doesn’t even have faith it’s own product will last one stinkin year.

You're looking at it wrong. If a company guarantees an item for one year, they are betting it will outlast the warranty period, not fail during it.

 

[Omalley1537]

 

[455 Bravo Uniform]

@Omalley1537 you beat me to it!!

 

[EdFred]

And beat me to it too.

 

[Sac Arrow]

You're looking at it wrong. If a company guarantees an item for one year, they are betting it will outlast the warranty period, not fail during it.

There is a whole branch of engineering dedicated to statistical failure analysis which strives to achieve exactly that.

 

[3393RP]

There is a whole branch of engineering dedicated to statistical failure analysis which strives to achieve exactly that.

That's why two different batteries in my Excursion with a 36 month replacement warranty have expired 38 months after purchase.

I tip my hat to their engineering department.

 

[Sac Arrow]

That's why two different batteries in my Excursion with a 36 month replacement warranty have expired 38 months after purchase.

I tip my hat to their engineering department.

I know you think I'm joking but I'm actually serious. The best of the best are determine maintenance schedules. The best of the worst are calculating day+1 failure times for warrantee purposes.

 

[3393RP]

Joking? Not at all. Manufacturers would be remiss if they didn't know that information.

I'm sure another reason for determining the lifespan of a product is to anticipate ongoing replacement demand.

 

[RJM62]

Ok now I've got to hijack my own thread...

Speaking of craftsman tools... since they're mostly made in china now and Sears is going away what are you guys buying for hand tools now when you don't want to spend snap-on bucks but still want something decent?

Some of the higher-end Stanley stuff isn't horrible. I have a Stanley "Black Chrome" socket set that I heavily abuse and it's holding up just fine. Proto is also excellent (now owned by Stanley, by the way), as is S-K. But either of those names will likely cost you more than the highest-end Stanley-badged tools.

I've also found Kobalt tools (Lowes' store brand) to be surprisingly good, especially considering the low cost. They also have a lifetime warranty which I'm told they cheerfully honor. I've never actually used it, so I don't know for sure. But I've had a few return experiences with other stuff I bought from Lowes, and it's always been painless.

Rich

 

[RJM62]

As for extended warranties, about the only ones I bother with are from Square Trade through Amazon or Sam's Club, and only if I think the thing is likely to break during the warranty period. They're usually dirt cheap, and although I haven't used any of the warranties I've bought from them, I'm told by those who have that they don't try to shirk when you have a claim.

Rich

 

[Ghery]

You're looking at it wrong. If a company guarantees an item for one year, they are betting it will outlast the warranty period, not fail during it.

There is a whole branch of engineering dedicated to statistical failure analysis which strives to achieve exactly that.

Fuji Heavy Industries (the manufacturer of Subaru) had an engineer who knew that job extremely well back in the early 1970s. We had a 1974 Subaru that had a 12 month, 12,000 mile warranty. They changed it later in the model year to unlimited miles, but that didn't help us. With 12,354 (or so) miles on the odometer the rectifier in the alternator went out. And, yes, I had to pay the entire price (parts and labor) to get it fixed. Less than 12 months, but 354 miles out of warranty. That guy was good. That rectifier failed again a number of years later. I replaced it myself that time.

Don't get me started on Sears. I've only had a Craftsman tool fail once, and it was replaced without any problem, but that was in the late 1970s. Today? We have a Kenmore Elite refrigerator (made by LG, they ought to keep their old name of Lucky Goldstar, it reflects their quality better) that we've had for just over 5 years. Dead. Needs a new compressor, drier and valve. The new compressor and drier are sitting in the front hall, the valve is on back order with no estimate on when it will be available. In the meantime, we're loosing stuff in the refrigerator that won't cool anymore. We've moved what we can to the Whirlpool that is sitting next to it, a Whirlpool that we bought as a floor model in 1992 and hasn't required a lick of maintenance since. Later this week it will be 21 days since the parts were ordered. I wonder what the service contract will do? If they admit they can't fix the unit I'll replace it, with anything other than Kenmore or LG branded product.