96-1500
Bluenoser
Ok, I need to vent. I'm a little bit upset with Stanley at the moment.
A year or more ago, I bought a set of Stanley sockets/ratchets/wrenches at Canadian Tire. It was a full set of 1/4" and 3/8" drive sockets and a kind of half complete set of 1/2" drive sockets (I only realized once I bought it that it skipped a couple sockets and had no deep 1/2" drive sockets, which admittedly was my own fault for not paying close enough attention but still...). Also had a few common size standard wrenches I rarely use.
Ok, first thing that annoys me is the staff at Canadian Tire. This has nothing to do with Stanley, but the staff at the time of purchase assured me that the "lifetime warranty" advertised in great big bold capital letters on the set would be honoured by Canadian Tire. Ok. Cool.
So, get home, open up the box, which I immediately ditch because you need a prybar to get a socket out of it's holder...not that I care anyways, I have tool storage. Anyhow, 3/8" drive ratchet does not work right from the get go. Ok, no problem, go back to Canadian Tire. "Nope, you have to send that back to the company". Huh? You said you'd replace it. Speak to the store manager. "Nope, you have to send that back to the company". Arrrrg. Ok, call up Stanley and they're great about it. Talked to a service rep or whatever right away, no questions asked they send me a new ratchet in the mail. Ok, so it takes about 2 weeks to get here...not the end of the world, but now for the most part I rely on my Mastercraft tools as I actually CAN take them back to the store to get new ones if they brake and not be without tools for a long period of time.
Now that time has gone on, some of my Mastercraft tools have disappeared, been borrowed and "forgotten", what have you. So, the Stanley stuff is socket by socket and ratchet by ratchet making it to the front of my toolbox as replacement stuff. Ok, now after a little use my 1/2" drive ratchet won't work and my 3/8" drive (which is essentially new), has an annoying tendency of switching direction by itself. A couple sockets busted, a wrench bent, pretty well due in my mind to poor quality. So I call up Stanley again. Under some kind of "new management". Took me forever to get through to an actual person, and now I have to ship my broken stuff to them, and they will fix it/send me a replacement at their discretion. All at my expense. Which would cost more than the tools are worth. Spoke to manager, nothing he can do to help me. I told him they'd never see another dime out of me and hung the phone up, no way I'm spending money on shipping out junk tools to receive more junk tools.
I'm really frustrated with this. You can't say you have a "lifetime warranty" if you're going to make it so difficult and expensive to get something replaced that it isn't worth doing. No, I'm not a mechanic by trade and no, these tools are not the only ones I own, but I'm still pissed.
End of rant.
A year or more ago, I bought a set of Stanley sockets/ratchets/wrenches at Canadian Tire. It was a full set of 1/4" and 3/8" drive sockets and a kind of half complete set of 1/2" drive sockets (I only realized once I bought it that it skipped a couple sockets and had no deep 1/2" drive sockets, which admittedly was my own fault for not paying close enough attention but still...). Also had a few common size standard wrenches I rarely use.
Ok, first thing that annoys me is the staff at Canadian Tire. This has nothing to do with Stanley, but the staff at the time of purchase assured me that the "lifetime warranty" advertised in great big bold capital letters on the set would be honoured by Canadian Tire. Ok. Cool.
So, get home, open up the box, which I immediately ditch because you need a prybar to get a socket out of it's holder...not that I care anyways, I have tool storage. Anyhow, 3/8" drive ratchet does not work right from the get go. Ok, no problem, go back to Canadian Tire. "Nope, you have to send that back to the company". Huh? You said you'd replace it. Speak to the store manager. "Nope, you have to send that back to the company". Arrrrg. Ok, call up Stanley and they're great about it. Talked to a service rep or whatever right away, no questions asked they send me a new ratchet in the mail. Ok, so it takes about 2 weeks to get here...not the end of the world, but now for the most part I rely on my Mastercraft tools as I actually CAN take them back to the store to get new ones if they brake and not be without tools for a long period of time.
Now that time has gone on, some of my Mastercraft tools have disappeared, been borrowed and "forgotten", what have you. So, the Stanley stuff is socket by socket and ratchet by ratchet making it to the front of my toolbox as replacement stuff. Ok, now after a little use my 1/2" drive ratchet won't work and my 3/8" drive (which is essentially new), has an annoying tendency of switching direction by itself. A couple sockets busted, a wrench bent, pretty well due in my mind to poor quality. So I call up Stanley again. Under some kind of "new management". Took me forever to get through to an actual person, and now I have to ship my broken stuff to them, and they will fix it/send me a replacement at their discretion. All at my expense. Which would cost more than the tools are worth. Spoke to manager, nothing he can do to help me. I told him they'd never see another dime out of me and hung the phone up, no way I'm spending money on shipping out junk tools to receive more junk tools.
I'm really frustrated with this. You can't say you have a "lifetime warranty" if you're going to make it so difficult and expensive to get something replaced that it isn't worth doing. No, I'm not a mechanic by trade and no, these tools are not the only ones I own, but I'm still pissed.
End of rant.
