Like many around here I prefer a mains drill for a lot of jobs & carry one
on the van. Last one was a B&D 550w impact drill with a 13mm chuck,
purchased last September & little used really.

It died in a plume of smoke last week so I returned it to B&Q along with
receipt. (I'm sufficiently organised to write the date of purchase on the
box of a power tool so I know where the receipt is filed).

Droidette looked at receipt & said that since it was over 90 days old I
would have to contact B&D.

I politely told her about my contract being with B&Q and not B&D & the sale
of goods act, which clearly went straight over her head. Manager droid
arrives. I explained again & he reluctantly agreed to a refund - I suspect
mainly because it was 3:45pm & he wanted to close the store.

Do they train these people? Or is it deliberate policy to palm off the
gullible?

Anywho, decided to buy something decent & put another £20 into buying a
Hitachi FDV16VB2 which is also a 550w jobby with a 13mm chuck. What a nice
tool, very light, plenty of welly, very positive chuck.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

The Medway Handyman wrote:
Last one was a B&D 550w impact drill with a 13mm chuck,
purchased last September & little used really.

It died in a plume of smoke last week


Black and Decker (shudder). I've stopped buying anything with the "B&D"
warning label on it. Many years ago it used to be a reasonable quality
brand, but over the years their quality has become awful. My last B&D
drill decided to turn the hammer on whether I wanted it or not - it just
sort of vibrated itself on. The B&D drill before that refuses to hammer
unless it is doing so vertically downwards. Nowadays I tend to buy
Bosch. The quality / price range matches my needs. Though I do have an
18v Ryobi drill and impact driver which are excellent (special offer
from screwfix for the two with two batteries and a carry bag for under
£100).

What happened to the B&D brand? Did it get sold to some third rate
Chinese manufacturer or what?

--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

The Medway Handyman wrote:

B&D 550w impact drill
died in a plume of smoke last week so I returned it to B&Q
he reluctantly agreed to a refund

is it deliberate policy to palm off the gullible?

Maybe you should be thankful ...

http://service.blackanddecker.co.uk/...WarrantyPolicy

"If your Black & Decker product becomes defective due to faulty
materials or lack of conformity within 24 months from the date of
purchase, Black & Decker guarantees to replace all defective parts,
repair products, subjected to fair wear and tear, to make sure of the
minimum inconvenience to the customer, unless:

· The product has not been used for trade, professional or hire purposes"
^^^
Actually reading the wording on B&D website it's such that only
trade/pro/hire qualifies for the warranty!

Andy Burns wrote:
· The product has not been used for trade, professional or hire purposes"
^^^
Actually reading the wording on B&D website it's such that only
trade/pro/hire qualifies for the warranty!

You have to laugh. I suppose that is how they can seemingly offer such a
good warranty - catch22. Only trade customers qualify provided the goods
haven't been used for trade use. :-)
--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

*Last one was a B&D 550w impact drill...

Why? As a pro user, if you're buying a cheapie tool because you don't
use it much - at least buy something with a hope - like a new brand
that's trying to establish itself in the pro-tool foodchain. Or buy a
discounted/discontinued/ebay decent-brand model.

B&D spend all their money advertising their useless devices to the
gullible - not on manufacturing.

I politely told her about my contract being with B&Q and not B&D & the sale of goods act...

Good ploy - though sometimes the manufacturer support can be better
than the retailer support (though I find that unimaginable in B&D's
case - I would expect it to be as bad as their tools)

What happened to the B&D brand? Did it get sold to some third rate
Chinese manufacturer or what?

I suspect anyone that knew anything about engineering was moved over
to DeWalt/Elu

Anywho, decided to buy something decent & put another £20 into buying a
Hitachi FDV16VB2 which is also a *550w jobby with a 13mm chuck. *What a nice
tool, very light, plenty of welly, very positive chuck.

I'm curious what role this has for you. I have a chunky combi cordless
(or use the impact driver with wood augers) - or an sds with an
interchangeable 3-jaw chuck (which rarely gets used, only for really
heavy timber drilling like holesaws) - I don't have a role for a mid-
size corded drill.

David in Normandy wrote:
Andy Burns wrote:
· The product has not been used for trade, professional or hire purposes"
^^^
Actually reading the wording on B&D website it's such that only
trade/pro/hire qualifies for the warranty!

You have to laugh. I suppose that is how they can seemingly offer such a
good warranty - catch22. Only trade customers qualify provided the goods
haven't been used for trade use. :-)

Nope - t'other way round. The words Andy quoted said they would repair
or replace *unless* the goods had not been used for trade.

Pete

On Sun, 07 Jun 2009 10:41:17 -0700, RubberBiker wrote:

I'm curious what role this has for you. I have a chunky combi cordless
(or use the impact driver with wood augers) - or an sds with an
interchangeable 3-jaw chuck (which rarely gets used, only for really
heavy timber drilling like holesaws) - I don't have a role for a mid-
size corded drill.

I have a 'Sparky' core drill with a key-operated Jacobs chuck. I also use
it for serious metalk drilling since I can get the chuck tighter on a HSS
drill bit than the hand-tightened one on my cordless.



--
John Stumbles -- http://yaph.co.uk

militant pacifist

Andy Burns wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:

B&D 550w impact drill
died in a plume of smoke last week so I returned it to B&Q
he reluctantly agreed to a refund

is it deliberate policy to palm off the gullible?

Maybe you should be thankful ...

http://service.blackanddecker.co.uk/...WarrantyPolicy

"If your Black & Decker product becomes defective due to faulty
materials or lack of conformity within 24 months from the date of
purchase, Black & Decker guarantees to replace all defective parts,
repair products, subjected to fair wear and tear, to make sure of the
minimum inconvenience to the customer, unless:

· The product has not been used for trade, professional or hire
purposes" ^^^
Actually reading the wording on B&D website it's such that only
trade/pro/hire qualifies for the warranty!

Out of curiosity in went on to the B & D authorised service locator site and
suddenly found that Britain had grown until I realised that the distances
were in kms.!

On Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:02:05 GMT, The Medway Handyman wrote:

Snipped

Anywho, decided to buy something decent & put another £20 into buying a
Hitachi FDV16VB2 which is also a 550w jobby with a 13mm chuck. What a nice
tool, very light, plenty of welly, very positive chuck.

I don't know what they're like now, but my father bought a Hitachi hammer
drill years ago (can't remember the model number) to replace an AEG that
was stolen and it has been very good and reliable for many years.

SteveW

RubberBiker wrote:
Anywho, decided to buy something decent & put another £20 into
buying a Hitachi FDV16VB2 which is also a 550w jobby with a 13mm
chuck. What a nice tool, very light, plenty of welly, very positive
chuck.

I'm curious what role this has for you. I have a chunky combi cordless
(or use the impact driver with wood augers) - or an sds with an
interchangeable 3-jaw chuck (which rarely gets used, only for really
heavy timber drilling like holesaws) - I don't have a role for a mid-
size corded drill.

I do. I have a 12v Mak driver & a 14.4v Mak combi which take care of most
options, two Mak impact drivers one mains, one cordless mainly used for
decking - I don't consider an impact driver suitable for drilling and two
SDS drills - one 'clean' green Bosch for posh interior use & one 'badgers
arse' Wickes/Kress for rough outside work.

The mains drill is for use with larger holesaws, big auger bits, large flat
bits or anything else which would knock seven bells out of a cordless, but
is much smaller than an SDS with a chuck adaptor.

Doesn't get over used, but comes into its own when needed. Battery drills
simply don't have the sustainable welly of a mains.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

In article
,
RubberBiker wrote:
Anywho, decided to buy something decent & put another £20 into buying
a Hitachi FDV16VB2 which is also a 550w jobby with a 13mm chuck.
What a nice tool, very light, plenty of welly, very positive chuck.

I'm curious what role this has for you. I have a chunky combi cordless
(or use the impact driver with wood augers) - or an sds with an
interchangeable 3-jaw chuck (which rarely gets used, only for really
heavy timber drilling like holesaws) - I don't have a role for a mid-
size corded drill.

Things like drilling out a door for a mortice lock. That will kill a
cordless in short order.

--
*Time is what keeps everything from happening at once.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

The Medway Handyman wrote:
RubberBiker wrote:
Anywho, decided to buy something decent & put another �20 into
buying a Hitachi FDV16VB2 which is also a 550w jobby with a 13mm
chuck. What a nice tool, very light, plenty of welly, very positive
chuck.

I'm curious what role this has for you. I have a chunky combi cordless
(or use the impact driver with wood augers) - or an sds with an
interchangeable 3-jaw chuck (which rarely gets used, only for really
heavy timber drilling like holesaws) - I don't have a role for a mid-
size corded drill.

I do. I have a 12v Mak driver & a 14.4v Mak combi which take care of most
options, two Mak impact drivers one mains, one cordless mainly used for
decking - I don't consider an impact driver suitable for drilling and two
SDS drills - one 'clean' green Bosch for posh interior use & one 'badgers
arse' Wickes/Kress for rough outside work.

The mains drill is for use with larger holesaws, big auger bits, large flat
bits or anything else which would knock seven bells out of a cordless, but
is much smaller than an SDS with a chuck adaptor.

Doesn't get over used, but comes into its own when needed. Battery drills
simply don't have the sustainable welly of a mains.


If you want a basic mains drill for occasional use, ancient B&Ds are
dirt cheap and pretty good reliability wise. Such things are good when
drilling & screwing a lot of holes, multiple mains drills saves
changing bits all the time. Also useful for teamwork jobs. OTOH having
far more decent drills plus the time it takes to dig the old ones out
means they dont see a lot of use.


NT

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article
,
RubberBiker wrote:
Anywho, decided to buy something decent & put another £20 into buying
a Hitachi FDV16VB2 which is also a 550w jobby with a 13mm chuck.
What a nice tool, very light, plenty of welly, very positive chuck.

I'm curious what role this has for you. I have a chunky combi cordless
(or use the impact driver with wood augers) - or an sds with an
interchangeable 3-jaw chuck (which rarely gets used, only for really
heavy timber drilling like holesaws) - I don't have a role for a mid-
size corded drill.

Things like drilling out a door for a mortice lock. That will kill a
cordless in short order.

I wish you had said that earlier.. I used my cordless to do a mortice lock a
couple of months ago.

I used it to put a 110 mm core drill through the wall of a Smiths house in
November and it only took three batteries. (I would have used my SDS drill
if I had known for certain that it had a clutch but I didn't fancy a broken
wrist)

In article ,
dennis@home wrote:
I'm curious what role this has for you. I have a chunky combi cordless
(or use the impact driver with wood augers) - or an sds with an
interchangeable 3-jaw chuck (which rarely gets used, only for really
heavy timber drilling like holesaws) - I don't have a role for a mid-
size corded drill.

Things like drilling out a door for a mortice lock. That will kill a
cordless in short order.

I wish you had said that earlier.. I used my cordless to do a mortice
lock a couple of months ago.

I meant kill the battery if that wasn't clear.

I used it to put a 110 mm core drill through the wall of a Smiths house
in November and it only took three batteries. (I would have used my SDS
drill if I had known for certain that it had a clutch but I didn't
fancy a broken wrist)

Doubt many could be bothered waiting for the battery to re-charge. Or have
three.

--
*Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "The Medway Handyman"
saying something like:

Or is it deliberate policy to palm off the
gullible?

Of course. You'd be surprised how many people fall for it.

The Medway Handyman wrote:
SNIP

Anywho, decided to buy something decent & put another £20 into buying
a Hitachi FDV16VB2 which is also a 550w jobby with a 13mm chuck. What a
nice tool, very light, plenty of welly, very positive chuck.

Dunnit makeya spit! Went into my not so local but very large B&Q today
where they had a pole of Makita mains drillf on clearance for £34!

Nuffin wrong with the Hitachi (apart from looking like a Star Wars prop),
but I could have had the Mak & saved £15 :-(


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk