DerbyDad03 wrote:
It's been a while since I traded in a Craftsman tool under the
lifetime warranty, so maybe I just don't remember this happening last
time.

I turned in a ratchet handle and 3 Phillips screwdrivers. The
replacement screwdrivers were new off the shelf but the ratchet handle
was a different story.

Hanging on the wall inside the cashier's area was quite a large number
of ratchet handles, open-end and box-end wrenches and a few other hand
tools, all with yellow stickers on the handle.

The cashier handed me a ratchet handle from behind the counter and
said "This is still covered by the lifetime warranty."

The ratchet handle looked "new" (clean?) but had a few dings in the
handle section. The yellow sticker said "Replacement Tool" oe
something like that.

I assume that the tools behind the counter are probably a combination
of scratch and dent items from their inventory along with some
customer returns that can't be sold as new.

Is this something new or has it always been this way? Just curious...

Never had the experience -- always had new stock replacement unless the
failure was something for which there was a repair kit available; like
the ratchet I took in a couple of months ago they did have the
replacement gear set for so did the swap-out while there. Don't know
what they would have said/done if the particular kit hadn't been in
stock. (Really knocked my socks off it was as this is just a quite
small catalog store w/ only a few appliances, lawnmowers, tools and such
in stock. That had any parts in stock was an eye-opener).

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