On Jan 23, 4:02*am, charlieb wrote:

Still don't understand why Panasonic didn't put a little breaker
with an external reset button on their charger, or at least
use phillips or square drive screws to hold the case together.

Yes you do. They don't want you working on them for a multitude of
reasons, and more importantly, they would love to sell you a new
charger. Think about your snail paced repair center; if they hadn't
been honest, they could have told you some part inside had fried,
charged you the bench fee, AND sold you the new charger.

This is why I am drifting more and more towards tools like Ridgid. I
don't like them as well as some of my other tools (not really too sure
why) and they don't have the right feel in my hand.

BUT... they do have that lifetime warranty. Often times they are less
$$ than a competitive model from someone else, and with everything
covered, you are in good shape when you turn them in for repair. I
talked with the Ridgid/Milwaukee etc., rep a couple of months ago, and
he told me they are now down to about two weeks on warranty repairs.
You send them to a central repair center, and they repair and ship
back.

Truthfully, I only have one Ridgid tool now but since it works so well
and seems so solid, I think when the current crop of "professional
tools" I have dies, I may be headed to the orange side for some of my
purchases. I am lucky that since I do this for a living I have
multiples of every tool, but just on principles I couldn't wait two
months for f**cking fuse repair.

I took my last DeWalt cordless in to have a clutch installed....
crap! It was over half what I paid for the drill. The drill was 3
1/2 years old, and it had been used hard all the time I had it. It
was a really reliable piece of equipment. But at $289, I thought it
should have done better.

At the end of 3 1/2 years, it needed two new batteries, and a clutch.
Did I get my money's worth? I dunno.

I have a Sears "professional" 14.4v drill that I have been using since
the demise of the DeWalt for over 5 years now. (Ask any repair/
remodeling contractor how much they use a cordless drill!!). It is
beat up pretty badly and is one ugle mutt, but it still works great.
I paid $53 for that drill.

Somewhere in the middle between those two had to be a reasonable tool
with reasonable support.

I like my Panasonic cordless drills. *Not too impressed with
this Authorized Repair Center.

Since the tools we buy these days are so expensive and for the most
part are made so poorly, I consider the two aspects to be one in the
same. The tool is only as good as its support.

The boys at Woodcraft have some unholy stories of customer service
from Fein. Oddly, we have one of the vaunted authorized repair
centers, but
still, the cost to repair the tools is numbing. Thankfully for Fein
owners, tool failure doesn't seem to be an issue.

Check out this map:

http://www.feinus.com/p/new-warranty/warranty.htm

How would you like to live in one of the state states that doesn't
have ANY support for their tools? Talk about being at the mercy of
the tool brand.

I think now with the changes we are seeing in the economy, many middle
of the road users will start looking for more performance and value
from their tools.

That means support as well.

Robert