Doesn't sound unreasonable to me.
Get the mailing address of the president of the company, and send him a
personal letter. I bet you get a new saw back.

- -
Rex Burkheimer
Fort Worth TX

Al A. wrote:
OK, here's the saga so far. I burn lots of wood for heat. During the
winter every week or so, I grab 4 or 5 clean pallets before they end
up in the dumpster and cut them up for supplemntary firewood. Great
stuff for getting the stove going. Anyhow, needing a reasonable way to
cut pallets into stove sized pieces, about 18 months ago I bought a
Milwaukee worm drive saw (model 6377). A bit heavy, but great for my
purposes. I am the only one who has ever used it, and only for cutting
pallets about once a week during the cold months. I figure that this
saw has maybe 20 or 25 hours on it, tops. Using it a couple of weeks
back, I end a cut, pick the saw up off of the wood, the blade guard
snaps shut and the the little rubber stop for the guard snaps off and
gets shot out of the front of the saw by the coasting blade. I figured
that it just came loose and fell out, but on closer inspection see
that the aluminium post on which it mounts (which is part of the saw
body casting) has snapped off. Lacking this stop, the saw is very
awakward to use and perhaps a bit less than safe as it now always
requires you to manually pull the guard up with your left hand to
start a cut.

This tool has a 5 year warranty. So I bring it to the local Milwaukee
authorized service place. They call me a few days later and tell me
that the Milwaukee rep is refusing the warranty repair because there
are "scratches" on the bottom of the blade guard that suggest that it
was dropped. I counter that:

a) It was not dropped, I was using it.

b) The overall appearance of the tool is near new. It has clearly not
spent its life on construction sites. He agrees that it is very
obvious that it was never dropped from a roof or a ladder or otherwise
abused.

c)Whenever one sets the saw down, the design is such that it rests, at
least partially, on the blade guard. As the saw weighs in at 16.8 lbs,
I don't think it is surprising that it is scratched and dinged up a
bit.

d) it is enough that a $235.00 "pro-grade" tool with the reputation of
Milwaulkee Electric behind it would have parts flying off of it, but
seems silly to then have the company refuse to repair it. I know
nothing is perfect and that stuff breaks, it's the second part that I
find most bothersome.

e) I know nobody will believe this, but if I broke it, I would just
fess up and buy the casting (which costs 37 bucks, not outrageous,
IMHO) and change it myself. That's just how I am. But I DID NOT break
it!

As I am only talking to the bench guy at the repair place, and it is
not his decision to make, I politely ask if he could please refer me
to the Milwaulkee rep to ask him to reconsider. He said that he would
pass my complaint along to the rep, along with my phone number. I have
not yet heard back from the rep. I have a call in to the regional
manager as well, am awaiting a call back. To be fair, I just called
the reigonal guy this morning, so it is still early on that front.

Have any of you guys had this sort of experience with Milwalkee? I
own lots of their stuff, and love it all. I have never had occasion to
seek a warranty repair, so I found it rather annoying that I get this
sort of thing for the one time in 25 years that I do.

Am I being unreasonable here?