stupid Craftsman parts question

Aug 15, 2006 11 Replies

Hi...



We've got a Craftsman sander that has spring clamps that are shot. I found the replacement parts on the Sears website ($2 with $6 "handling"). The website says that none of their stores within 50 miles have them in stock.



Seems silly to pay 3x more for "postage" than the parts cost. Any suggestions on where to find the stupid little chunks of metal other than a Sears part store?



thanks _mark



$6 will buy you two gallons of gas, or maybe 40 miles driving. Seems sill,but Sears ins not going to make any money at that price and it will cost you more no matter where you go outside of a walk to a local store.

Would you buy them if it said they were $8 with free shipping?

You don't really believe that Sears doesn't have to pay somebody to pick the order and package it and ship it do you?

Oh, are UPS and USPS now offering free shipping from the warehouse to your house?

OK, it is time to wake up and face reality.

Charlie

...

Probably there is no replacement other than the Sears unless you can fabricate something yourself--and you would soon undoubtedly have the equivalent of $8 invested.

I thought you could order stuff for pickup at the local Sears and save the postage or at least a sizable fraction since it could be shipped as part of general stock--perhaps they've stopped that w/ higher fuel prices?

Seems silly to do anything other than buy the part and pay the postage charge. It's cheaper than driving.

More specifically, I figured that most Craftsman stuff is some other maker rebranded and someone might suggest another store that might carry parts for the equivalent and have them on hand. But as another responder suggested, that was probably almost as unrealistic :)

-Mark

Stubby wrote:

If $8 is too much to pay for the clamps- then try to spread the shipping out over several parts. Got a Craftsman mower that needs a filter or plug? Need special sized paper for that sander? Chances are you can get a few things before that $6 handling goes up.

Jim

Installer dropped a Kitchenaid double oven he was putting in. Bent a small piece of trim and broke/bent 3-4 screws. Kitchenaid had the screws and trim in stock, but wanted 2 dollars a screw because it was the minimum charge.

Installer ran all over town looking for the screw (no, they weren't 'normal,' they had a large head and were virtually unnoticeable when installed as opposed to the ones he found and painted). We finally had to order the screws from KA. The installer probably blew $25 worth of gas driving all over....

You may be able to get a new Chinese junk sander for around $8 in places like Harbor Freight. In recent years I've found some of those Chinese power junk tools are equal or better than some of the Craftsman crap.

"Me" wrote in news:1155667803.252095.276860 @i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Yea it sucks, thus the phrase Suck It Up.

It's either feed a Middle East oil empire burning up gas or feed that Sears w**re Bob Vila.

I don't think that was ever the case with parts, only retail merchandise items. Although when they had parts stores, the shipping was not charged because like you said it came into the parts store on the regular truck.

Tom G.

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