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Lagersolut

Totally disgusted

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Lagersolut

Last Sunday I had some things to get at Lowe's, wife said it would give her time to sweep the floors so I went to  Sears first to waste time to give her some.... looking at hand tools, was considering a nice rail of 1/4 inch drive deep well standard sockets, but first I heard a rumor little while back sears is now making all their hand tools in China - so I start picking things up, open ends , ratchets , sockets , kits ....all made in China ....price is still the same .....now what - I've spent over 25 years devoted to Sears made in America line and they do this ....yep,  " totally disgusted "  and I left  the store with nothing ...went to Home Depot bought my made in America Channel lock pliers and a rail of 1/4 inch drive sockets made in China half the price of Craftsman .....wondering  on the way home how many more American jobs went down the toilet to China .....

 

 

 Made in China

 

IT MAKES ME SICK

 

 

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Save Old Iron

I grabbed a set of Craftsman standard and metric ignition "midget" wrench sets before the holidays. They were on sale at a great price and can't hurt having a dedicated set in the tool chest on my electronics bench.

 

TOOL MADE IN USA      BAG MADE IN CHINA   is imprinted on the bag.

 

Even with the first touch pulling them out of the bag, you could tell they were rough. Looks like they were cast in sets, snapped off the runners of the cast and the flash from the runners not even removed from the tool before they were chrome plated.  Closed end of the wrench is not centered in the tool, the sides of the wrench are not ground smooth - a real disappointment, 

 

I looked at a set I bought in the 1970's as a comparison. Very disappointing - even tho they are MADE IN THE USA.

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Ken B

That there is a sad story... Its funny because I haven't been to a Sears tool Dept. in about 10 yrs, I was at Stevebo's a week ago and saw his tool box he bought, decent for a home shop. It got me to thinkin, maybe I'll hop on over to Sear's and have a look around and see what's new. You guy's just saved me a trip! The real sad part is that they are still making the tools in U.S.A. but they have stooped down to China's standard's? That ain't the U.S.A. that I know...

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stevebo

I think I may have said this before but my company manufactures commercial roofing material and while we are not the cheapest out there by far, EVERYTHING we sell in our entire product line is made here in AMERICA ! Our quality is head and shoulders above our competition. :happy-partydance:

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rmaynard

Sadly, several years ago I bought a table saw from Home Depot. It was manufactured by Emerson Electric (U.S.), who at the time had been the manufacturer of Craftsman power tools. Craftsman had dropped the decades long contract with Emerson and gone with Ryobi. Home Depot only kept the Emerson line for two years, then went with someone else (off-shore).

 

I saw the writing on the wall at that time, that Craftsman was phasing out American-made, and phasing in Chinese-made products across the whole spectrum of their tool line. As far as hand tools, I had a 1/2" socket drive handle that was 30 years old. The internal ratchet broke, so I exercised my "lifetime" warranty. They exchanged it for a remanufactured ratchet with a plastic direction knob. That told me something that the one they gave me had already been rebuilt. 

 

So sad.  :( ...and disgusting!

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JimD

We all really should have seen this coming when K-mart started selling Craftsman tools. K-mart doesn't even honor the Craftsman warranty. It's only a matter of time before Sears disappears completely.

 

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baerpath

Sears will be gone sooner than you think.

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truckin88

you are better off buying tools hand tools especially at garage sales and flea markets. I luckily inherited from my grand father a boat load of good craftsman and snap ons.

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SousaKerry

After my wife got the shaft from Sears 2 months before Christmas, I will not step foot in there.  I will break 5 cheepo Harbor Freight ratchets before I ever buy another crapsman.  :soapbox:

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Lagersolut

you are better off buying tools hand tools especially at garage sales and flea markets. I luckily inherited from my grand father a boat load of good craftsman and snap ons.

 

 

There ya go, my disgust with the garbage coming across the  pond has been building for years, a nice way of putting it .,  most of the crap we buy today is  " functional " but not  made to work, it's made to break so you run and buy another. Years ago I took the potatoes out with a potato plow , things changed and I don't grow enough to warrant a plow so I figured on forking them out ,  went through two Chinese forks Lowe's offers then I got an idea , there's  a retired guy at the farmers market buys hand tools, cleans them up sells them at his stand - BINGO - found one cleaned up nice ( potato fork ) probably older than me-  I've been digging tater's with that fork for 15 years and it doesn't even creek when I put the leverage to it.

 

Best 10 bucks I ever spent

 

 

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GlenPettit

ACE and ACO Hardware stores are selling "Craftsman" tools now, same high prices but you know where they are made.

The CEO's can make a lot more profit & get personal benefits by saving and making their companies all that more money.

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rexman72

we are a service industry now and get everything  overseas but still pay top dollar for the cheap products

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Don1977

I was told that Sears was closing every store where they don't own the building not sure if that includes K-Marts stores. K-Marts bought Sears and they use the name Sears Holdings. They don't look to be doing any better after the merger.

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Shuboxlover

A local Ace hardware store near where I work started selling Craftsman stuff.  I'm like "sweet, I'll take a couple of my bad screw drivers in there and exchange them"  I took them in, and they said "These were not bought here....They are not the same screw driver"  I said "HUH??????  But they're Craftsman"  I held them side by side and they were the EXACT same screw drive.  The only difference...??? They said there are a couple letter/numbers embossed into the handle and they need to match.  If they don't match, they won't warranty them.  TOTALLY PI$$ED me off so I will never buy another Craftsman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   And some companies wonder why the go out of business????

 

RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Buzz

About 20 years ago I noticed that if you bought a set of Craftsman wrenches in the plastic bag carrying case they were marked "made in Taiwan" but if you bought an individual wrench, it was marked "forged in USA".

Edited by Buzz

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Ken B

No matter what happens it will be sad to Sears go. Wayyyy back in the day you could buy just about anything from them thru their catalog including small homes in kit form, boats, outboards , popup campers you name it. I was baffled a few yrs. ago when I found out K-Mart bought Sears. One struggling company buying another struggling company is a bad recipe.. 30 yrs. ago I can remember bringing in a Buster Brown shoe box full of busted ratchets and screw drivers that had either bent handle's or broken tips. Service with a smile and all new tools to match the quality of the ones I returned, not cheaper variations.. Those were the good old days.. One of the things IMHO that didn't help Sears out in my area was getting involved with being an anchor store at the local mall. I think they should have looked into being a stand alone store somewhere easy to get to without having to deal with the mall nonsense. My father in law has a ton of tools from Sears dating back to the 50's and 60's. Real tough to beat the quality.. Made to last a few lifetime's...

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Save Old Iron

that's why I view any "lifetime warranty" these days as total marketing BS

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Shuboxlover

My wife's great grandma/grandpa bought a house kit from sears.  The house is no longer standing (it was YEARS) ago. I wish I had a picture of it, I'm sure there's one somewhere...it was HUGE and a VERY cool looking house!!!

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Hodge71

Not sure what to tell you. I buy a lot of Snap-on stuff from the tool truck here at work and theres a lot made in China as well. You cant really find any company thats all made in USA. Sucks to say but that where the future is. And theres nobody to blame but us for letting the government do what its done  to our once great country. We are no longer the industrial giant we used to be

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JC 1965

Thanks guys for the heads up. I haven't bought craftsman tools for years and had no idea they were making them in china. I have a lot of craftsman tools but they were purchased many years ago.when the quality was good. If I want a cheap tool from now on I'll just go to harbor Freight, at least you don't have to pay an arm and a leg.  No more shopping at Sears for me.    :text-+1:

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bmsgaffer

that's why I view any "lifetime warranty" these days as total marketing BS

 

except for harbor freight... you know you are buying cheap junk, you break cheap junk, you take it back and get free junk... It will take a long time for that to change... :eusa-whistle:

Edited by bmsgaffer
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Lagersolut

For the last going on 14 years I've been hauling/delivering - propane , diesel , kero , heating oil etc , before this gig I was hauling live loads right off farms tractor trailer - I've been outside in the slop and the worst winter has to offer for 30 years, if there's one thing I've learned after all these years - dry warm feet are a good thing - lost count how many days/nights over those years I had a water puddle in both boots 10 degrees outside chaining up a truck.

 

This year I decided, after looking at Red Wings website which states American leather tanned right here in the good ole USA I was trying a pair of these 200 dollar + boots .  Found a pair I liked so I ask the girl , are these made in the US ?

 

No she says , the leather is produced and tanned here then sent to China where they make the boots .

 

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:   grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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Save Old Iron

except for harbor freight... you know you are buying cheap junk, you break cheap junk, you take it back and get free junk... It will take a long time for that to change... :eusa-whistle:

 

that's what cemented my bad attitude toward "lifetime warranties" - how simple it is for the seller to give you a new one. Not a bad deal if you are returning a screwdriver, but what about an auto starter or alternator?

 

3 years ago, I replaced a funky OEM starter in my wife's car. Within 6 months I had to return the "lifetime warrantied" reman'd replacement due to poor cranking. Pain in the rear to get out and back in but of course it was "free". Within another few months the first replacement starter began to squeal and I ended up replacing another reman'd replacement for "free". Thankfully, this one is still working 2 years later.

 

The point is even tho the starter replacements were "free", my time isn't and I lost a few nice fishing days to putting "free" parts in my car 3 times over.

 

Same with wrenches, etc. That trip to HF isn't "free" when you swapout your "free" replacement wrenches. In fact, when gas was more expensive and an F350 was the only vehicle around to use - well - I don't want to be reminded how much it cost me to get "free" replacements.

Edited by Save Old Iron
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Ken B

I know that it has been awhile since I have returned any tools to Sears for replacement (most of my tools are either Mac or Snap-on) but the times that I did I didn't even have to show any proof of purchase. That type of guarantee has got to hurt a company. One can search for broken Craftsman tools at garage sales and flea markets get them for next to nothing and return them for a nice new one or some people feel free to totally abuse them their tools using them for things they aren't designed to do. I know one time when I was getting a ratchet replaced there was some guy returning a bunch of tools that you could tell were clearly abused. Screw drivers bent like pretzels and others ground down to nothing. He also had wrenches that were bent in half obviously done to get into a tight place. I can remember the salesman questioning him on all of these issues and this guy got real loud. He got all new tools and he didn't deserve them. 

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RMCIII

Napa line - Carlyle.....

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