I'm done with Craftsman

[Scratch]

I've had craftsman all my life. I bought an entire set back in the early 90's and was very happy with them. I used to be in the auto body business but now I just restore old jeeps. Over the years I've probably replaced 10 items or so. I think all of them have been sockets and at least one ratchet. I am now in the beginning stages of adding another tool chest and tools to my life so I can one set in my garage and one set in my shop. I also have 2 broken sockets to get replaced. Care to guess which ones?
10mm and 13mm, big surprise huh.

There are no Sears stores within 100 miles of me so I had to go online. After a bit of chatting and sending pics, They gave me 40,000 points which equals $40.00 of credit at Sears.com. Sounds pretty good doesn't it? The parts should be pretty cheap and then they gave me enough to cover shipping... nope.

I found the sockets. They sell for 6 bucks and change each. With 12 bucks or so shipping the total was around 28 bucks I think. That's ok, I have $40 to spend so let's go to checkout...

When I add my points to my order, they only let me use 5.87 worth of points for some reason. I opened the chat box and they say they only let me use the points that total how much the sockets cost. I have to pay all the shipping charges!

They won't even give me the 6 bucks for each one of the sockets, they only give me like 2 and 3 dollars for each so I don't get that at all! In the end. I would have needed to pay 20.01 to have two six dollar sockets shipped. And that's with 40.00 worth of credit.

I'll never buy another Craftsman tool again. I might try Icon. I've heard good things about them.

[toprecycler]

My local sears store closed probably 15 years ago.

But, my local Ace hardware stores, and Lowes stores both carry craftsman. I have gotten several screwdriver replaced at Lowes.

I do have several other items that lowes does not have in stock. They told me to go to craftsman online, but I haven’t checked that out yet.


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[Shade Tree Welder]

Originally Posted by Scratch

I'll never buy another Craftsman tool again. I might try Icon. I've heard good things about them.

Yeah, I dropped crapsman when they started sourcing from China.

Ikon and Pittsburgh Pro are good tools.

[TEK]

I had Craftsman stuff that I bought back in the early 70's that was ok but I was never a super fan, definitely like my Mac stuff way better.

I always figured Craftsman tools were lawnmower/garage type work tools.

I did keep a bunch on my service trucks but they were always pretty low in the rotation, like if I needed to bend or cut one for something special.
I sure wasnt gonna cut a Mac or a Snippy or Proto endwrench..

Do kinda like their close ratio ratchets though, still have a couple in 3/8" drive in the big box, broke the 1/2" one I had and it is currently under 40' of fill somewhere in Thousand Oaks CA....

[Lew Hartswick]

All my Craftsman stuff dates from the 1950s to maybe the 70s. I still have two hand drills one in a nice cary-case that has a chuck like an Albrecht but the small push button that locks the geartrain so you can tighten or loosen the chuck broke and could not be repaired. The other is a 1/2" big one I still use when I have to drill railroad ties or such. The other hand tools, wrenches and the like have never given me any problems. When Sears closed down back a long time ago I quit even looking at the "Craftsman" junk in Lowes that seems to take up half the isle space these days. :-) I think my bench vise may be a Craftsman, haven't looked at the side in so so long couldn't be sure. Of course my radial arm saw and joiner are both from there but again from ancient times.
Even my planer says "Craftsman" but it was made by Parks.
...lew...

[mccutter]

What Brian said, Lowe's and Ace Hdwr. I swapped out a half-dozen screwdrivers at Lowe's about 6 months ago. They were so old (70s, 80s) the clear handles had turned brown and fuzzy and started smelling like ASS! I'd open the drawer to the toolbox and "ooo-ooo that smell!" I think they might be available at the Lowe's website if not in the store...

[Matt Shade]

The last time I took a craftsman tool in for replacement there was still a sears in town. It was a hacksaw and the tensioner had broke. It was the nicest hacksaw I have ever seen and I wish I had just fixed it myself because the frame was still fine.
The manager took me over and told me to pick any saw, so I grabbed the most expensive one that was still not nearly as nice as the one I had had. It wasn't a craftsman and he stopped me and said no, pick any craftsman. There were 2, a shitty one and a really shitty one. I opted for the least shitty one and took it home. When I cut the package open, the "directions" popped out and I found that it was not covered by the craftsmen warranty as it was a mid level tool and not their top tier. So my lifetime warranty was a one time replacement with a lower quality POS.

[Norcal]

Originally Posted by Shade Tree Welder

Yeah, I dropped crapsman when they started sourcing from China.

Ikon and Pittsburgh Pro are good tools.

I did also, they are a tarnished brand & Satanly Bleak & Dorker has not improved things.

[dubby]

I got into buying the GearWrench stuff after tripping over a sale at Sears one year. It was all heavily discounted and I made out like a bandit. I kept a mix of Craftsman sockets and ratchets in the truck, and then out in the kid's shop until it all got snatched.

Before that, Cutter had us buying the plastic-Pittsburgh ratchets and they performed really well. When it came time to replace the stolen stuff, I focused on more of the Pittsburgh stuff for the price. My level of wrenching has decreased to an almost non-existent level so the lesser 'name' suits me just fine. The boy snatched up a full GearWrench set that replaced my wrenches off one of his tool truck dealers--and that ended up hanging on the shop wall new in the box for over a year before I found a reason to use it.

Our Sears went belly up too. It was one of the corner stone stores of our local mall. It sat empty for a couple years and a large chunk of it was recently demolished to make way for Dillard's to move into. They've got two other 'corners' of the existing space and are combining the women's and men's stores into one spot where the Sears was. Not sure how much longer that company will stay in business once they get it done either. There's nobody else around that will take over their spots. Basically they're just changing which corner of our mall will look the most like a ghost town.

[Shade Tree Welder]

Our Lowe's has a craftsman section... They have to dust it. It is shrinking.
Honestly I would by a Kobalt tool before the current Craftsman crap. Ours
has a retired guy who is cool to talk with and bounce ideas off. He used to
work the trades. I asked if anybody bought that shit, he said rarely.

Ace Hardware? are they still in business? I stopped going there when they
starting pricing shit like a convenience store.