I sent another angry e-mail to Sears.

When my jack broke, I sent and e-mail and a typed letter to their corporate headquarters. I never got any response from either.

get one of those applications for a sears credit card, you know the ones that are postage paid for return, put the compressor in a box, stick the card on there and mail it to them with a nasty note. Put the jack in there too if you have not disposed of it.

I had a friend of mine who sent a bunch of rocks to some record company that way when they would not leave him alone, Columbia House maybe. They might not go for it anymore though, 9/11 and all.

Do not try this at your post office where you live.

The days of holding the company/store accountable for bad product are over. Forget 18 months -- I just bought a Canon camera and was told by the big box store "we cover it for 14 days, after that you have to send it back to Canon." With the internet its too easy to find a better deal and too difficult to return and get adequate repair should the need come about.

I stopped buying anything from Sears about 10 years ago after several very bad experiences. One of the the last things I bought was a 20 gallon Craftsman shop vac and that has served me well. Lowe's and Home Depot aren't much better, I'm afraid...

I think there's a screw inside the pressure switch where the power cord goes into. There is on all mine. It says don't mess with it. Yeah, right.

Craftsman 30 gal Motor/compressor bought in 86. Always plugged in, oil changes / tank drains once a year. No problem. Craftsman impact 8 years old, abused heavilly, but oiled regularly with that wintergreen-smelling oil.
Craftsman weed-eater. Two years old, both fuel lines broke off at the same time. Plastic hose got brittle. This was on a Sunday. I'm pissed and call the 800 number. Gal says, too bad, it's out of warranty. I say it's a safety issue, and they should fix it. She says, "nothing I can do. "
I hope my older Craftsman stuff keeps going, but now I'm afraid to treat it nice!

Did you send it to the Sears Corporate or to the main parent company, Sear Holdings?
http://www.searsholdings.com/
Sears Holdings Corporation
3333 Beverly Road
Hoffman Estates, IL 60179
(847) 286-2500

The Sears/K-Mart merger is known as the marriage made in hell for a reason.

Yep, that's the address I sent my last angry letter to. Never got a response.

They do still replace hand tools, which is nice. My screwdrivers (chisel/prybar) have a knack for bending and breaking, so far they seem happy to replace them. I'm sure it's only a matter of time until that ends.

Otherwise, what ISN'T made in China? Not defending Sears, but I think that's the case everywhere.

They certainly charge more than Harbor Freight. If they are going to sell the same crap, they should charge the crap price.

As for hand tools (wrenches and such) the Craftsman tools are not made in China. They are made by Danaher.

However, "Since Sears was purchased by Kmart Holding Corp, the Craftsman business is not what it once was. "A bit of a wild card," Danaher President Lawrence Culp called it. At one point, Danaher was expected to benefit from the Sears-Kmart marriage because Craftsman tools would be sold in Kmart stores. But struggling Sears has cut back its inventory of tools, and analysts at Wachovia Corp. now call Craftsman the laggard."*

Power tools... there's your wild card. At one time, the Craftsman drills were made by Ryobi. On the same assembly line as their own brand, in fact. (My ex worked for Ryobi) Now, who knows. For one thing, Ryobi has undergone some corporate changes which include more offshore manufacturing. For another thing, Sears has changed many of their long standing private brand contracts.

Just always remember this: Business is about profit.


*Source: Washington Post

Yes, and like many companies, Sears has appeared to put short-term gain (selling cheap junk at the same prices as the good stuff they used to sell) ahead of long-term viability. I've made it very clear what it will take for me to ever buy anything at a Sears again. I will be extremely surprised if my demands are met.

Heck, I'll be surprised if someone at Sears takes any initiative.

For what it's worth, I checked for current company info and this is what I found:
Milwaukee, AEG, Ryobi, Homelite, Hoover, Dirt Devil, and some other electrical appliance and tool companies are now all owned by TTI - which is a Hong Kong company. So Sears power tools are very likely "chinese quality".


Dewalt is owned by B&D.

I agree with Joe and NFN. If you buy cheap stuff (and I do buy cheap tools) expect them to be disposable. I'm not sure this should apply to Sears, but certainly Habor Freight is cheap crap. When they fail I throw them away. If I really want a good tool I will pay a premium and get something good (Snap-On for instance). You can't have it both ways.

If you want a good compressor get a used one like this:

http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/mss/tls/696076607.html

which can be rebuilt and repaired as required.

I was shocked when I purchased a set of four Craftsman Professional pliers. I was under the impression that these one a step above their regular pliers - this may or may not be true yet they are clearly marked as 'China'.

Sad... really sad...

Growing up in the 60's and 70's going to Sears was like going to Disneyland, my first memories of going to a "mall" was going to a humongous Sears that had a bunch of small shops built around it. All the departments of the Sears were like little worlds unto themselves, tools, TV, clothing, and the garden department with a nursery!

Sad to see another American icon go by the wayside.

I am glad I had a chance to work a J. J. Newberry as a stock-boy (although at the time I might not have told you that)

Joe is right, I have been beating the drum about avoiding Chinese product for a few years now. Heck even if you buy Henco in Mexico at least you are creating jobs over there.

BTW Pelican has a lovely selection of high quality floor jacks for sale ;)

always bummed to read these posts.

if my 33gal sears compressor takes a dump one day (maybe i should say when?) i'm going w/ a boutique brand like Eaton and stepping up to a full on 60 or 80gal. deal. Hopefully this won't be until one day in the future when i have funds to restore a 911.

Yes, Sears sucks now.

They're rapidly turning into the Wal-Mart of department stores. A niche that used to be reserved for K-Mart.

I'm looking at air compressors myself (I need one for my sandblaster eventually to prep a bunch of stuff on the 911) but I think I'm going to hold out for a Dewalt or Ingersol-Rand. Definitely not cheap, but in a day/age with cheap, poorly-made slave-labor schit from China becoming the standard, well worth the money.

Well, I got a phone call from Sears Customer Care department today.

The lady I talked to only had knowledge of the floor jack. She started by offering me a $100 gift card for the floor jack--if I could give her a receipt number. (I never could find the receipt for that...)

I said, "Well, I have the receipt for the air compressor, not the floor jack."

"Wait, you're having problems with an air compressor too?"

"Yes, this is the second $200 item from Sears that has failed after 18 months of use."

"What's the problem with the air compressor?"

"It no longer holds any pressure."

"And the floor jack?"

"The aluminum universal joint chewed itself apart and the hydraulic cylinder burst."

Her: "I can give you $100 for the floor jack with a receipt number, but..."

"Can you help me or can you not? I'm not going to waste my time on the phone on another run around. The jack says Craftsman on it, it's not like I could have gotten it anywhere else."

Her: "Can I put you on hold for a second, let me speak with my supervisor."

Her: "Sir, I can give you a $100 gift certificate for the air compressor, and a second $100 gift certificate for the jack."

"That is acceptable."

Verifies my address...

Me: "Thank you for taking the initiative to solve this problem, Sears needs more people like you."

In the end, I got what I asked for. I estimate that the air compressor needs $50 worth of parts, and the replacement model for my jack is about $150. Now, I don't know if I am going to get a replacement for my jack at Sears. I'm going to look carefully at the models available and see that they have a model that is under 4" tall and does not have an aluminum hydraulic cylinder. It's really a shame because I have a perfectly good jack body in my garage. I might see if I can fit a different hydraulic cylinder to it.

I still plan on talking with the store manager and expressing my displeasure with the store's staff's inability or unwillingness to offer any solutions or take ownership of finding a solution.

As a contrast, I had my truck in at the local Chevy dealership (Sam Leman) to have the tires rotated (I can't do it myself without a jack or air compressor ;)) and have a bug deflector installed.

I dropped my car off at 7:00 a.m.

At 11:30 I got a phone call that my truck was done.

"Chris, your truck is done. We replaced the front brake pads--free of charge--to fix the squealing problem. We noticed there was a service bulleting out on them. Also, we apologize but the bug deflector did not come in today. There was a miscommunication with the parts department."

When I went to pick up my truck, it had been vacuumed, washed, and waxed, also at no charge to me, as compensation for not having my bug deflector installed.