Craftsman tools suck....

[sled_dog]

Broke a 1/2 drive ratchet today. Granted its older and had a hard life. 5 minutes before it broke I had a 12" cheater on the end of it. So Dad says save a trip to Sears for when there is more of a pile of stuff, so I grab the 1/2" out of his brand new 137pc truck box. I pull it out, and something is odd. Well first everything is made of plastic. The switch flips way too easily(not broken just seems I could bump it to the other setting too easily). Well I go to put a socket on and it won't go on. Look and sure enough the button release is broken RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX. I'm going to Sears right now and demanding 2 brand new ones right now.

 

[T r a i l r i g]

Agreed

 

[dyeager535]

I dropped my 1/2" drive ratchet (maybe a foot) and the lever broke off.

That was about the 3rd craftsman ratchet I had gone through, all problems with the ratcheting mechanism of one type or another, so the next time I went in I asked if I could "upgrade" to the style that you turn the entire back of the ratchet head to select drive direction. Haven't had a problem with that style yet.

 

[mciahpv]

Good luck -- I used to be a hardcore Craftsman man. Break one, get a new one... for life! Who could argue with that? Take your old one down and the friendly clerk would tell you to help yourself to a new one off the shelf. Well, now the cheap bastards give you not new, but remanned junk. They take your old one and REBUILD it, then hand it out to some other wretched soul. Let me tell you how much it pisses me off to take your broken, but decent (I'm really anal about keeping my tools cleaned and in good shape) wrench, ratchet, whatever down there and getting some beaten hunk of crap that looks like it's been drug behind a car from coast to coast. I'm sure some MBA decided that this made good economic sense, but he probably didn't factor in that I and those of my ilk would no longer be buying anything Craftsman from these chintzy SOBs.

Sorry about the rant. Let me know how it turns out.

 

[divorced]

Ya, Craftsman tools suck. It would be better if it was a snap-on or matco or mac... so you could wait until next week to get it replaced...

I agree though, the quality of craftsman has turned to crap. I bought the 145 piece "all 6 point" set and the 3/8" wrench was made the wrong size and wouldn't fit any nuts or bolts, and wouldn't fit my 3/8" hex-shaft-socket-thing used to remove caliper bolts. The chrome finish on about 1/4 of the sockets was white instead of chrome. I brought it back and told them to exchange the entire set. They said "no, you need to bring the tools back as you find ones that are wrong". I said "No, exchange the entire set. This is my "travel" set, and when I'm broke down on the side of the highway 900 miles from home, finding a Sears store to swap out my junk tools is the last thing I want to do." Eventually they swapped it out, and the new set is fine except for the letting for one socket is stamped on the wrong end. You have to wonder though, what kind of quality control do they have if sockets stamped on the wrong end make it to the shelves...?

 

[George_Pimpdaddy]

quit your bitching craftsman tools are good cause they dont give a **** how your broke it or why they will just point you to the new ones on the shelf and your get to walk out with your new tool. NO ARGUMENT believe me ive taken back my fair share of there tools due to abuse.

 

[resurrected_jimmy]

Craftsman's quality has gone down the tubes in the past 4-5 years so now if I'm doing something that might break a tool or if the tool gets modified in the process I always reach for the Craftsman stuff now

 

[divorced]

quit your bitching craftsman tools are good cause they dont give a **** how your broke it or why they will just point you to the new ones on the shelf and your get to walk out with your new tool. NO ARGUMENT believe me ive taken back my fair share of there tools due to abuse.

I don't get new stuff from the shelf. They give me a POS refurbished tool.

 

[Can Can]

FWIW, I have a 180 piece Craftsman ratchet/wrench set. I bought it about 17 years ago. Nothing has EVER broken or gieven me one ounce of trouble.

 

[guido666]

I have a couple 150ish piece Craftsman sets, and I'm hard pressed to break any of it. I have a 3' cheater pipe I use on both the 3/8" and 1/2" ratchets, then I beat it with a mini-sledge. The only thing I've broken was 3 1/2" sockets that were 3/8" drive, but I used an adapter to put them on the 1/2" drive ratchet, then cheater piped them. That nut was still stuck, so I bought a set of cutting torches! I'm sorry to hear that their quality has degraded and you can't turn things in for new ones anymore. I bought my girlfriend a set for her truck for Christmas, I'm going to go take a look at it and see if I approve (I never even opened it to look at it). I have to take back a couple screwdrivers and allen keys, so I'll see what happens when I get there and ask about their new policy. But if you're going to bitch about the new policy, why don't you send a letter to that MBA'd CEO you hate so much? It will probably do a lot more to help the situation then complaining to people that already have Craftsman tools.

 

[79k20350]

FWIW, I have a 180 piece Craftsman ratchet/wrench set. I bought it about 17 years ago. Nothing has EVER broken or gieven me one ounce of trouble.

Thats cause you bought it 17 yrs ago. i have alot of older craftsman stuff that works great, i dont trust the new stuff though

 

[ARAMP1]

Any more, since KMart and Sears merged, Craftsman stuff has gone downhill. It's okay for the homeowner who is going to assemble his new gas grill in the back yard, but for someone that really wrenches everyday, it sucks. I guess you get what you pay for.
I've never been given a remaned ratchet though. Always a new one off the shelf.

 

[1985_K5_Silverado]

But if you're going to bitch about the new policy, why don't you send a letter to that MBA'd CEO you hate so much? It will probably do a lot more to help the situation then complaining to people that already have Craftsman tools.

I'll have to agree with that. It's most effective to be someone like Warren Buffett and walk into the not-as-bigwig-as-you-are's office. Oh, no, there's no appointment needed, sir! Would you care for some coffee, or perhaps something a little stronger?

However, back to the real world, a well-written paper letter is still one of the most effective ways for the average person to bring something to the attention of a bigwig and give them positive motivation to do consider doing something to improve the situation. When you don't have political pull or stacks of money, then diplomacy and tact are surprisingly powerful tools. If you have an army, by all means use it, but when you don't have an army, try some skillful diplomacy applied in Alan Lacy's direction (that's their CEO).

Start off by lauding the traditional rep that Craftsman has always had over the decades, the value of that rep to the brand, and then tell them what you have to tell them. Without ranting, without misspelled words, without grammatical errors, and keep it short. Edit it a few times to polish it up, then put a stamp on it and fedex it to Lacy.

 

[driney]

I made the mistake of letting them replace my ratchet when all it needed was new parts. The new one is not nearly as good as the 25 year old one it replaced.

 

[gone huntin]

I took in a 1/4", 3/8", and a 1/2" ratchets and got new ones. The new 1/4" NEVER worked, the 3/8" broke during the first use, and the 1/2" worked for a few uses.

 

[mr_clean]

I had a couple of Craftsman 1/2" drive ratchets that started slipping on me. I took them in and they tried to give me refurbished ones... I showed the clerk that the referbs were doing the exact same thing the ones I was returning were doing. He then let me walk over to the shelf and grab a pair of new ratchets.

The only ones I've had problems with is the 1/2" drive ratchets... no probs with anything else...

 

[George_Pimpdaddy]

i guess im lucky to always get the new product off of the shelf to me its a habit now to jsut go find the new piece and take it to the counter and show them the broken carnage. they take the old and thats that no paper work or **** all

 

[89GMCSuburban]

Never broken any ratchets...including the new ones. This includes the 1/2" flex head that gets hammered on by a 4 lb. mini sledge almost every day.

 

[zeroz400]

Ive broken a few craftsmen ratchets. I just return them and i got ones off the shelf. I got snap-on ratchets now but i still use the craftsmen, the snap-on is nicer but the others still work.

 

[nerraw117]

i like craftsman tools. i have only broke 1 ratchet because i used a 3/8's drive on like a 1inch socket lol. all i did was lay the ratchet on their desk and got a brand spankin new one. no questions asked.