" wrote:
As a contractor, my tools are usually dropped, fall off roofs and
ladders, have heavy things fall on them, get left out in the rain, get
stolen, misplaced and about 10 other things occur before I have to worry
about warranty issues.

However, I bought a pair of ultra compact 12v Li drills about 4 or 5
years ago when they first came out. I bought them to use on my kitchen
work as they work great to drive tiny hinge screws, drill the holes for
pulls, and they are just dandy inside a cabinet when replacing or
adjusting drawer hardware. Both we $99 with on battery each, and a
charger. They are fine little drills.

But the batteries finally died. I took the to the local HD as instructed
and had a really bad time. The "tool guy" had to look at them, make his
determination, write a report on his findings and then make a suggestion
as to what repairs MIGHT be authorized. He told me that it could take
him a month in the store to get to them, and if they were found to be in
warranty, it could take another month to have it certified by the
national repair depot, and then if it was the batteries ONLY, then they
could possibly ship new ones to me in another 10 days to 2 weeks after
that. So the whole process could take as much as 2 1/2 months! I was
shocked. The tool guy did a cursory inspection and agreed that when new
batteries were put in the old drills they both worked fine. When the old
batteries were put in a new test charger, they showed as defective.
However, he determined the issue needed more research on his part.
(Clever man... I thought for a moment I was at the monkey cage at the zoo...)

I called the national number to tell them what was going on. They told
me that they were tired of being blamed for the long wait times for
warranty resolution and they were more tired of people calling to yell at
them for store related issues. With their help they told me how and what
to say (their corporate buzz words) to the store manager to get the
project off center. It worked!

From start to finish of this episode I had two new batteries in my hands
in 3 1/2 weeks. But I wasn't through.

The batteries came with a stern warning to register them within 90 days
or there would be no further battery warranty. I tried several times to
register, and then contacted them by email as instructed on their
website. They didn't realize that you couldn't access their registration
screens after the tool and its parts were registered. The reason was
that anyone could change their serial numbers to tools found in pawn
shops, etc. without having bought the tool new. So my CS email response
was for me to simply go the website and register.

After a while, I gave up and called national customer service again.
They lady on the other end of the phone sighed pretty heavily and told me
that I couldn't register them myself and a phone call was required. On a
previously registered tool only Ridgid CS could modify any information.
So today, she took my info over the phone and my account was updated within the half hour.

So the moral is, register the tools correctly, know that they will honor
their warranty in some cases, and know you will have to work for it as
well as be patient. That being said, HD/Ridgid are the only guys that
will warrant tools for more than a few months (most not at all) for contractor use.

Hey... at least it worked, and I have my two favorite mini drills back!

Robert

It is nice that the warranty is a life time one but a shame that they
discourage you to use it. This is not the first time that I have heard
this review of the process, I double checked your post date to make sure it
was not an old review that I have read that resurfaced.
I do believe that Festool would probably warrant their original batteries
for 3 years, even with contractor use. Unfortunately Festool does not
warrant against loss or theft. :-(