Biscuit Joiner with Chipped Carbide

I bought a biscuit joiner (Dewalt DW682K) and when I got it home I inspected the teeth on the cutter. One of the carbide teeth had a chip in the cutting edge (small, but noticeable). I just bought the tool and I new that it would bug me if I didn't exchange it. The goofy kid at Lowes told me that it is common for the teeth to have some chips in them. I looked at him like he had 5 heads and exchanged it. He said he was going to just put it back on the shelf.

Am I being to picky? Should I have accepted a NEW biscuit joiner with a slightly chipped cutter tooth? Is it common for them to have chips on them or was I just unlucky?

Reply to
stoutman
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You did right I would have returned it also and a remark like that would have made me call the manager and tell him to educate his help.

Reply to
George M. Kazaka

I agree.

You were right to return it and I would have called the manager.

Rob

Reply to
Rob

I asked him if he would buy a new tool that had a chipped carbide tooth and he looked at me with a straight face and said 'yes'.

He is going to put it back on the shelf and someone else is going to buy it and maybe not notice it.

I would think since the cutter has 5 other pieces of carbide on it that it wouldn't make a difference, but its a new tool! A chipped cutter might make the tool have to work harder and the chip might get worse. right?

I usually shop at Home Depot, but it was cheaper at Lowes by $20.00.

Reply to
stoutman

Haaaa...that's kinda funny in a way, kinda sad, too. I would have asked him "So, would your dept manager tell customers that Lowes regularly sells these joiners with chips in the cutting teeth?" But I guess it would depend on the day. Some days you feel like fighting back against continuing poor service at retail stores, some days it just seems inevitable. "Oh well..."

Reply to
Keith Carlson

Speaking as a now soon-to-be ex-Assistant Manager of a WWW store, absolutely you should have taken it back. And NO it is NOT normal for the blade to have any chips at all in it!

It just floors me of the lack of knowledge of the people whom the boxes hire to work in the tool section!

Terry Sumner

Reply to
Terry Sumner

You did right. Suppose that chip also had a small crack propogating from it. Suppose that crack cause the tooth to fly apart. I wouldn't like that. Nor would anyone else.

Reply to
Lazarus Long

So, if HD has the same model and their price is higher than Lowes, they'll beat the Lowes price by 10%. Express your displeasure at Lowes by using your receipt from Lowes to get HD to give you the Lowes price less 10%, then take the item back to Lowes - and while you are at it, tell the Lowes manager what you think of his people putting damaged stock back on the shelf.

The sad part is of course that HD would probably have just put the tool back on the shelf too. I guess you really need to just rely on the fact that most of us that would care about something like a chipped blade would not accept a previously opened box anyway, at least not without a very close examination of the tool, and/or some price consideration.

Tim Carver snipped-for-privacy@twocarvers.com

Reply to
Tim Carver

Problem is that the Borg's seem to be able to re-seal packages such that it is difficult at times to tell that they have been previously opened or sold.

Reply to
Mark & Juanita

He could also have purchased it from Tools-Plus, Coastal Tool, or Tool Crib. All routinely beat HD and Lowes power tool prices.

Barry

Reply to
B a r r y B u r k e J r .

Dewalt DW682K

Lowes Price: $149 Tool-Crib: $152 + Shipping Coastal Tool: $149 + Shipping Tool Crib: $149.99 + Shipping

Are you sure about that Barry?

Reply to
stoutman

What's your local sales tax? Don't forget, Tool Crib ships free via Amazon.

So, if you've got a typical sales tax, they're about the same. I said "routinely", not ALWAYS!

Barry

Reply to
B a r r y B u r k e J r .

Yes, if it happens that the customer didn't damage and/or mark the packaging (e.g., "chipped blade"). I think it would be kind of obnoxious to do this, but OTOH it's obnoxious to put stuff back out for sale that is not in pristine condition.

You know, the thing that is really wrong in the OP's case is that the tool really should get sent back to the vendor or distributor (DeWalt, in this case) by the retailer, because this is really the vendor's fault

While I hate it that HD, Lowes, and other places will just put stuff back on the shelves, I'm also appreciative of the fact that they'll take just about anything they sell back, bending over backwards to give the customer the benefit of the doubt. In those cases where the goods are faulty, they really should push the stuff back to the vendor, not onto a less observant customer. And even in those cases where there's nothing wrong with the tool, if the vendor has a satisfaction guarantee (I don't know if DeWalt has this these days, I know some others do) then they ought to send the tool back just because the box was opened and the customer wasn't happy. Let the vendor deal with it, they made the guarantee. In the cases where they have to handle it in the store, the store should certify that the item is complete and functioning correctly, and they should clearly mark the item as "open box, guaranteed unused and complete" with a sticker seal, so that the customer doesn't fear being hassled if there is actually a problem with the item after he gets it home. And if they can't make that guarantee, they should mark the item appropriately and offer a discount.

What happens now is that everybody just takes the easy way out and puts the stuff back out on the floor. And so, of course, the stock will occasionally get reduced to opened items that never sell, even though the computer thinks there are plenty on hand, because we all prefer to buy unopened stuff. And then somebody eventually gets a gloat at a clearance sale :-)

Tim Carver snipped-for-privacy@twocarvers.com

Reply to
Tim Carver

This reminds me of when I used to work for a retail store. Customers would have you open a package to look at the product and then take a different one because this one was open. It would get my blood pressure up until I took the attitude that there is always the chance that there is something wrong with the one they took, and since they didn't look, it could be defective!

Reply to
ToolMiser

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