If Homier Distributing comes into your town. Avoid them like a deadly disease. They are mobile merchants. They will come into your town for a day, or weekend. They set up a large tent and are more than happy to take your money before they run out of your town.
They sell mostly tools, but also sell other household items. Once you buy something from them, YOU OWN IT. Whether it works or not, It's yours. Despite what their advertising says, they do not and will not repair or replace defective merchandise. In fact, if you call them, you will get a busy signal or a machine. If you email them, they will not reply, in fact their email bounces back more than not.
I made the mistake of purchasing some of their junk tools, about a year ago. All of the hand tools were made so cheaply that they broke after one or a few uses. I also bought a power tool, and when I got home, I found this tool was damaged (in the box) beyond being usable. After nearly one year of trying to get assistance from them, I finally contacted the Better Business Bureau. They actually DID contact me after that. However, that was all they did, because they did not remedy the problem, and refused further contact.
DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THEM !!! You will NOT be satisfied, and you will be throwing your money away.
You can see all their junk on their website
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*** AVOID THIS COMPANY ******* THEY ARE CROOKS *****
If they come to your town, you'll get a flashy flyer in the mail. Once you get it, be sure to warn all of your friends to STAY AWAY.
We went by their sale a few years ago when they came through our area. The things they were selling were cheaply made, so we didn't buy a thing. Those people that bought that crap should have been able to tell just by looking at the stuff that it wasn't well made.
They seem to have a mix of junk & good. The scaffolding I've bought from them is excellent &, according to one of the rental places here, the same quality as what they rent. On the other hand, there's some stuff there I don't think would survive being transported home or being powered up.
They were in our area a month or two back. We didn't see a flyer, but I happened to see their sign at the entrance to the place where they had set up their tent.
I walked around but was not impressed with what I saw and left without buying a thing.
MB
On 08/24/04 05:47 pm snipped-for-privacy@PRIVATE.com put fingers to keyboard and launched the following message into cyberspace:
I also saw a lot of junk, but I did buy some stuff. I got a heavy duty set of jumper cables for my son, a hitch hauler for an employee and a 12 volt booster pack with a air pump.
You really have to shop these places, not take everything for granted that it's going to be perfect.
One of the things I bought was a small sledge hammer. I think it was
5 lbs. The wooden handle broke the first time I used it. I also bought a "change a bit" screwdriver. Not only were the tips so weak the metal tip bent and twisted, (soft steel), but the plastic handle split in two when I applied a little torque. OK, both of these items were low cost items, and I probably would not have gotten too upset over these. What did really upset me is the power tool that I bought, one of those hole saws. I got it home, opened the box, and the whole front plastic housing was literally shattered into at least a dozen pieces of plastic. I spent hours sending emails and trying to call. Most of the emails I sent were returned as "undeliverable", a few did get thru, and were never answered. I did finally contact the BBB, and after that, someone from Homier did contact me. They had me answer a bunch of questions, and never did anything else. I now own a completely useless power tool.
One other thing, I borrowed a hole saw from a friend, and used the bit that came with the defective Homier tool. The bit cut for less than one minute, and broke. Even the cheapest bits I have bought elsewhere lasted a few hours of cutting.
In the end, I did not end up in the poor house because of this, but the fact that Homier can not, and will not stand behind the stuff they sell, is enough to make me never buy from them again, and to warn others. If they cant replace a piece of plastic, that probably costs them less than one dollar, then they don't give a damn about their customers at all, and I quickly learned how poorly made their stuff is. The power tool is a Homier brand, so parts are not available anywhere else.
One final thing, if you look on the Better Business Bureau website, Homier has numerous recalls on electrical devices, because the cords are undersized and not approved, and are considered fire hazzards.
Another poster said they purchased some scaffolding, and were satisfied. I tend to wonder if this is NOT a Homier brand name, and just something they are selling for someone else, because from my experience, anything that has their own name brand on it, is total trash.
I don't know if Homier does this because I've never been to one of their sales but I remember going to one of those fly-by-night deals several years ago and they had someone stationed at the exit looking for people who were leaving without buying anything and tried to talk them into buying something. (cue Jaws theme)
On Wed, 25 Aug 2004 11:23:40 -0400, Minnie Bannister wrote: I saw no sign of this either. If anything, they were short handed on help at the sale I went to, because I tried to ask a few questions and got little help, and had to talk over the people checking out.
i went to one of their sales.. and found out that there stuff was just junk from looking at it.... even comparing it to harbor freight you could tell that it was not as good as their junk tools.. but at least in my area harbor freight has a retail store and i have brought things back to them and no problem....
Wonder if they would run afoul of the Federal or California three-day cooling-off period for consumer sales not made at a merchant's permanent place of business?
Of course, they will be out of town by then, and they would be immune to attempts to sue them because the game would not be worth the candle.
(The rule is normally applied to door-to-door and in-home sales, but it sometimes flexes to cover merchants doing business away from their regular location. Auto dealers have their own special rules.)
All you say maybe true as can be but I do go to their sells for small cheap items that they sell cheap and very seldom have trouble with them. here is the items : Electric tap 4 rolls for a $1.00 , Hack saw blades 10 for a $1.00, 25 ft. measuring tapes $.99 , Cheap truck Dollie $14.99 , 4.5 inch grinder wheels $.99 each, 10 pound sledge hammer 3 ft. handle $3.95, and 4.5 inch hand angle electric grinder $5.95 . I don't use the gringers much but at $5.95 each who cares if you burn one up every 6 months or a year. I bought 5 of them 2 years ago and I still got 3 I have not opened to use and use them about 5 to 10 times a year. I don't expect much from junk and that is what they are but they fill a need that away.
The other stuff is junk but if you want good stuff buy a name brand locally.
Amen to what TURTLE said- use your eyes and your common sense. If a tool looks and feels like junk, it probably is junk. For some applications, that doesn't matter. For stuff that can kill you, it does matter. For example, I would never buy jack stands at a traveling tool sale, but I might buy the cheap floor jack there. I would need the floor jack maybe 3 times a year, so as long as the seals didn't go, it would last forever. And if it fails, no big deal- the car drops back down. Now if the jack stands fail while I am under there, that is (to me, at least) a very big deal.
I bought a Black & Decker / Dewalt (pro series) angle grinder about 15 years ago from a B&D service center. It was a reconditioned tool. I use the thing almost daily for cutting metal, grinding stuff, I sharpen mower blades, I cut cast iron sewer pipe, and when I am building with wood, I almost always grind off the nails from used wood rather than pull them. I have even ground off wood on occasions. and cut concrete. Next to my circular saw, this angle drinder is my most used power tool. I paid somewheres around $25 back then. This grinder has never failed yet.
So you bought 5 grinders two years ago, and still got three. Lets see, at 5.95 each, thats about $30. If you used two grinders in two years, you should be good for a total of about 5 to 6 years. Broken down, that means you are spending about $5 a year, and you said you dont use them real often.
My $25 grinder has lasted 15 years OF HARD USE, and is still going strong. That amounts to around $1.60 per year.
Everyone knows Black and Decker is not top of the line, but I surely have no complaints about this grinder.
You get what you pay for, and while I cant afford top of the line tools, I surely want something that is not going to burn up the first time I use it. I can guarantee that your Homier grinder would never hold up to the hard usage I give mine, and in the end, you will be paying more per year, not to mention the frustration when they burn up in the middle of a job.
And while you get grinder wheels from Homier for 99 cents, I pay $1.19 at the local farm supply store, and they are quality wheels. In fact they last twice as long as the Makita ones, which means they probably last 4 times as long as what you got at Homier.
I can get electrical tape 4 rolls for a buck at the same local store, and most likely better quality.
Good luck with that sledge hammer. That is one of the tools I bought from them, and it lasted less than an hour before the PINE handle busted in half. I was only trying to break the cement around a wooden post, which I had dug the dirt away from.
If you want to buy cheap tools, please do so. I too like bargains, although I have learned that much of the time it's not a real bargain. My big gripe, and the reason I posted this in the first place is the fact that Homier refuses to stand behind their products. The fact that they completely and blatently refused to assist me, even after I contacted the BBB, and they asked me a bunch of questions, yet still refused to do anything, tells me that they are crooks. I want to be sure that everyone knows this. If they want to sell cheap junk, so be it. If people want to buy that junk, fine, let them buy it. But a company that refuses to stand behind a less than $20 power tool, that was sold to me in the box, damaged beyond use, apparently does not give a damn about their customers. That is the kind of company that people need to avoid, and sooner or later, they will be gone.
Go to the BBB website. Look at all the recalls they got, along with mounting complaints.
PS. Use Caution with that sledge hammer, and be sure to wear steel toed boots, a hard hat, face protection, and safety glasses. Ya never know when the handle will break !!!! :)
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