Oh yes, Sears and their allen wrenches...a recent story for you.

I had a set of Craftsman allen wrenches (2-3 years old) which I had
broken a number of them. Finally one day I break a larger one and
decide to go get a replacement set. When I go to exchange them, the
clerk begins to remove the ones in the new set. I point out to her
that since Sears only sells these in a set, the replacement warranty
is for the set, not just for one or two of them. As she continues to
balk, I point out that if she wants me to I can break the other
wrenches in front of her so she will give me the whole set. She states
that you can't do that. I then calmly proceed to break all the other
wrenches in the old set and place the pieces on the counter. At this
time, she decides maybe I am a customer who is not to be messed with
and gives me the new set so I will leave. I thank her very politely
and now request her to call the manager so we can have a short
conversation. When he arrives, I discuss what the situation is and
point out that this is not how to keep a customer who has purchased
from Sears for decades happy. I then ask him to call his manager, who
then hears the same story.

All in all, a simple replacement of a set of allen wrenches took me 45
minutes and three conversations to achieve but I feel that I made my
point that a happy customer is a repeat customer.

The interesting part of the story is that I have a good friend who
works at Sears in the tool department. He tells me that my effort that
day has now become one of the stories used in the customer training
that the managers get now as to how not to treat a customer.

Sometimes companies like people need to be taught what they should
already known.

TMT


"william_b_noble" wrote in message news:1100929871.44RsxitPb46U8XUJYfOliA@teranews. ..
presuming you have a crafstman hand tool, that was originally guaranteed for
life, the sales person is just plain lying.

Here's a story:
I went into a local sears store to return a small allen wrench that I had
broken. the sales person said "those aren't guaranteed". I asked a second
person, same answer. So, I took my sears catalog and cut out the lifetime
warranty statement, taped the statement and the broken wrench to a piece of
paper, and wrote a note explaining how it was fraudulent to offer a warranty
and then not honor it. I packaged it up, addressed it to the president of
sears in Chicago, and sent it off. Within 3 days I had a letter from the
senior manager saying: "I really wish you hadn't written that letter ....."
with a replacement allen wrench attached. The replacement wrench was
defective (large piece of flashing), so I went back holding the wrench in my
hand. When I entered the tool area, a salesman saw me holding the wrench
and literally RAN over to me and said "I'll replace that right away for you,
SIR", and RAN into the back and got me a new one.

You can imagine the local manager getting a call from the president's office
asking if he wanted to keep his job.....

You may wish to follow this approach.



"Jim L." wrote in message
. com...
Today I tried to return my Craftsman clicker /ratchet torque wrench for a
replacement because the lock-unlock
switch is defective. Sales associate told me they only guarantee hand
tools
having moving parts for one year. Hammers and screwdrivers are examples of
those with the "forever" warranty. Since ratchets have moving parts they
are
only warranted for one year. I don't know what to say about adjustable
wrenches, pliers, gas torches,universal joint sockets, hand braces,tape
measures, micrometers, and so on into the night. Any others run into this
policy? Jim