A gloat at Sears?!?!

If it's a "Craftsman Professional" and looks just like a Bosch except for the colors and the nameplate then it's almost certainly a Bosch. For a while they were selling a rebadged Bosch jigsaw too.

Nice thing about Sears is that they buy a ton of parts for whatever they sell and hold onto them until the use up the stock. I can still get parts for my old radial arm saw, while Bosch USA doesn't even know that the jigsaw I got at the same time ever existed.

Reply to
J. Clarke
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>>> and this:

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>>>>> The miter saw is a bit more, but it's 10" and probably a lot better

Maybe. You bought for today. And when you get a hankerin' to build something too big for it tomorrow it won't look like as good a deal.

If you need a leaf blower, that doesn't sound too bad.

You bought a parachute at a garage sale? Care to trust it with your life? Who are your survivors going to look to if it's determined to be defective? IMO, that's an item better bought from a reputable supplier.

Good deal on the oak. That's nice.

Exercise machines are like that. I run a silent auction at my church every summer. Most years people are so eager to donate them I have to decline most of the ones offered. These are things people buy with the best intentions and then find excercise *really is* hard work.

But the original point is that Sears isn't/hasn't been the best place to buy power tools. In addition to shoddy quality on most of them, their customer service is poor.

I especially hate the extended warranty hard sell. My last shop vac came from Sears. A $50 unit that they tried pushing a $20 warranty on. I think they're using the warranty to pump up the profit. Instead of irritating me, why not sell a better built unit that's not likely to need repair and sell it for a little more? Quality will win over the long haul. The good word will spread. Then they won't be a laughingstock.

Reply to
George Max

They get assembled and then badged to sell at Sears.

Reply to
George Max

Sears as a major retailer and therefore major buyer of a manufacturers output can and certainly does demand to meet a price point. You can be certain that the manufacturer will use shortcuts to get there. If that's fewer accessories in the box, fine. But when the shortcuts involve something that compromises quality, like bushings instead of ball bearings, pot metal instead of cast aluminum, etc., that's bad.

Reply to
George Max

I didn't write what you've quoted, Tim did.

Reply to
George Max

My Makita router, 3601B, wonderful. It's got a real knuckebuster for a collet, but it always does what it's supposed to do and has a lot of power. No fancy stuff like soft start or variable speed, just good honest quality.

Reply to
George Max

Since you're clueless, they're the ones sold at Sears.

Maybe. Maybe not. If it were a DJ-20, definitely If it were their

14" bandsaw, definitely.

Shake your head until you're dizzy. 30 years of my experience says avoid Sears for power tools. Or nowadays for almost anything.

Time was when Sears was my first choice for everything. Now they're not my choice for anything.

Poor quality and bad customer service will do that.

Reply to
George Max

This is true. Later, I said that I would consider the router that's a bosch rebadge, but only for a steep discount. Whenever this topic comes up, I'm reminded of the "alpine" car stereos that were available in honda civics and accords back in the late 80s/early 90s. They were alpine in name only. Honda paid for the name, then alpine built them to honda's standards which were more about economy and warrantees than sound quality. So when sears rebadges any tool, I have to wonder if it's really the *exact* same tool just with a red plastic case instead of a blue one or whatever. The temptation has to be there to put in cheaper bearings or weaker motors. It's not a bosch after all, right? It's a craftsman now. But maybe people will assume that it's the same as the bosch, thereby leaching some brand trust from bosch when it isn't deserved. So bosch isn't risking anything by making a cheaper tool for sears. They have plausible deniability. And sears only stands to gain.

To make matters worse, quality is just a dial that the chinese factories turn. The saws may all be coming from the same factory, but they're definitly not built to the same quality. Bearings, paint thickness, paint job quality, tolerances, whether things are balanced or not before being put on, de-flashing on the castings. There's a huge number of steps that can be skipped, corners cut. So not all brands are created equal, even when coming from the same assembly line.

So it all comes down to trust. Do you trust the store/brand to live up to an expected level of quality? then do you trust the store to stand behind the tools when there's a problem?

I would buy a ryobi before a craftsman. Mainly because I wouldn't have to deal with sears with the ryobi.

...or maybe experience. And they're changing for the better these days which makes the situation even cloudier. Since some of the tools are turing out to be great, while others are still junk. How can you know which this new tool is?

They're charging less than bosch for what looks like the exact same router. Is bosch charging even more than too much? Is sears charging the right amount while bosch is too high? Is it even the exact same router? It's priced where it will sell. It doesn't matter what we think. So if the price is too high, that means that the craftsman name still (unjustifiably) carries a premium, possibly from people remembering them from 30 years ago.

brian

Reply to
brianlanning

This week's Powerball jackpot os $83,000,000. DAMHIKT.

Lee

Reply to
Lee Gordon

The trouble with that notion is that changing the design of mass-produced products is a huge undertaking--the Sears contract would have to be a major portion of Bosch's total sales for it to be worthwhile to retool to meet their price. The Chinese, who seem to be doing just about anything to get presence in the US market, are another story, but it's hard to imagine the Chinese finding new corners to cut on their tool manufacture.

Reply to
J. Clarke

I bought a "Mobile Notetaker" today; you jot your notes on it, and then feed it to a computer latter on. Normal price is $95; I got it marked down to $40, with a $50 rebate. They paid me $10 to take it.

Okay, tear that one apart.

Reply to
Tim

Uh, the regular price from Sears is 219.00, the Coastal Tools price on the Bosch is 209, and Bosch is including a router guide that's worth about 40 bucks. So Sears is not charging less than Bosch unless you're talking suggested retail on the Bosch or the sale price on the Sears that is only good through tomorrow.

Reply to
J. Clarke

...or K-Mart....

Reply to
Dave Hall

Get back to us when you actually receive the rebate...:)

Reply to
jimmy

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>>> and this:

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>>>>> The miter saw is a bit more, but it's 10" and probably a lot better

BURRRRRRRRPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

Reply to
WhoKnew

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>>>>> and this:

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>>>>>>>> The miter saw is a bit more, but it's 10" and probably a lot better

Asking if you want an extended warranty isn't "hard sell". If you think it is you haven't ever _seen_ "hard sell". The last time I encountered "hard sell" the salesmen didn't back off until Sam Colt became a party to the negotiation.

Reply to
J. Clarke

The best I ever did was back when burnable Cds were just a couple years old and Fuji offered a rebate on stacks of 50. I managed to 'buy' 10 stacks and I made $20 profit on each stack. I got 500 cds AND $200.

Sandisk about 2 years ago were offering a $25 rebate on 256 mb cards. I sent in one rebate form and got 4 checks.

These two wins ALMOST make up for the rebates I have applied for over the years on computer crap and never received..

Reply to
jimmy

My wife is in charge of that. The problem is that she only remembers when the news is covering someone else's winning ticket.

Reply to
B A R R Y

Not to mention that Coastal is way more fun to visit than any Sears I've ever seen.

Reply to
B A R R Y

The last time I checked (maybe a year ago), sears was about $30 or $40 less than other places.

brian

Reply to
brianlanning

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