OT Question

[Michael]

Has anyone seen my Dremel?

(How is it possible to lose a tool?)

[DerbyDad03]

It's right next to the 1/2" socket adaptor for my impact wrench.

Let me know when you find it.

[Bill]

Try to recall the last think you did with it--it may still be there! (That seems like something Yogi Berra could have said--I didn't know he was a woodworker)

[Puckdropper]

Michael [e-mail] wrote in news:8922c356-552a-45d9-8039- [e-mail]:

I'm sorry, but the only way to find it is to go buy another one. It will turn up as soon as it gets wind of being replaced.

I found a lost hammer once. For some reason it was in a utility room that didn't have anything in it I'd need a hammer for. I had eliminated that room as a possible location for it and it wasn't until some time after I bought its replacement that I found the first one.

Puckdropper

[Leon]

That is how I found 2 of my knives, by buying replacements 2 times.

[DerbyDad03]

I had 2 of those grabber picker-upper things. Always kept them hanging right next to each other in the garage. Lost both of them. Searched on and off for 2 weeks.

I decided to buy a cheap one on Amazon because I knew the other two had to be somewhere in the house/garage. Yes, "buy a new one, find an old one" went through my mind. That's why I went cheap. $10

What I didn't expect was that it would take less than 10 minutes after the new one was delivered for one of the old ones to be found. Seriously. I was out in the garage, took the package from the delivery guy, and almost immediately found one of the old ones in the bottom of a bin while I was looking for something else.

Well, now I had 2 again, so I decided to do a test. Pick up the same item with each grabber to see which one I liked better. Old faithful picked up that sneaker with no problem. New-Kid-On-The-Block twisted under the weight and the jaws never matched up again. What a POS.

Later, as I was clicking the "Return" buttons on Amazon, fully expecting them to refund my $10 and say keep the broken grabber, I got surprised once again. Not only did they want the broken grabber back, but they authorized free pick-up by UPS. For a broken $10 piece of crap. WTF!

I wanted to contact the vendor and say "Hey - why are you paying for UPS pick-up on a $10 item that you can't even sell again? Save your money and put it towards building a better product!"

[krw]

A friend lost a carpenter's square (how do you lose something that large?). He found it when he demo'd the wall he built several years before.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Why? Because it is cheaper than the alternative. If they do that all the time they will suddenly get 50 calls about a broken grabber.

[DaveInSoTex]

I'm on my third folding pocket knife of the same make and model. Had the original [perhaps] 30 years before losing it 10 or 12 years back. Lost no. 2 three or four months ago and immediately went on amazon and ordered another of the same make and model. A week later I happened upon no. 2 laying in the grass apparently having slipped out of the pocket of my shorts while on the zero-turn mower. It appeared unscathed even though the regular lawn guys had no doubt run over it during their regular weekly mowing. Perhaps more surprising one of them didn't spot it and pocket it.

[J. Clarke]

I lost a whole socket set in a plastic case once. Spring came and the snow melted and there it was right next to where I had been fixing the snowblower. Turns out it was none the worse for wear except that the case was full of water (it was double walled and the water was between the walls). Was a Harbor Frieght set--no rust or anything, which was kind of surprising.

[Bill]

When I'm missing tools, I look under the hood of my car! ; )

[Puckdropper]

Bill [e-mail] wrote in news:ZxU_I.117239$ [e-mail]:

Note to self: If you need to "borrow" Bill's tools, look under his hood.

If you know what I mean.

(Sorry, I just read that sentence and thought it needed that!)

I once found a part of a tool under an airplane hood. It was a bright orange cap that had been there for at least 2 weeks. The plane had been preflighted by many different students and flown and it was still there. (Valuable lesson there: Don't trust anyone else's preflight.)

Puckdropper

[krw]

Not a good idea. There's often very little space between the structural parts of the car and the hood. It's happened more than once that the impression of a tool is left in the hood.

[Michael]

FOUND!!!

Behind a box of framing nails.

Sorry, no 1/2" socket adaptor back there.

[Markem618]

It is those damn elves!

[DerbyDad03]

That's old school thinking.

Big retailers have the numbers and know that in many cases it's cheaper to let customers keep inexpensive items than require the item back. They've done the risk benefit benefit analysis and are willing to take the "50 broken grabbers" chance.

I've had Amazon, Target and other retailers refund my money and not require the item back. One example: I've bought a $30 set of cereal bowls from target.com. I wanted to return them because I didn't the look once I saw them in person. When I called to get the authorization to return them, they refunded my money and said keep the bowls. It's getting more and more common.

Even if this particular vendor wanted the item back to prevent a rush of false "broken" claims, they could have stopped at the first 2 return options on their list: Drop off at Kohls or drop off at UPS. Those are Amazon's most common options, although "drop off at an Amazon locker" is often an option. IOW, if the customer wants his money back, he'll have to do a little work. However, for the vendor to pay for UPS to pick up a $10 item at the residence doesn't seem to make economic sense, especially when cheaper ways to get the item back are readily available.

[Brian Welch]

Happened recently with a large pet food etailer. We special ordered a prescription dog food for our senior and ailing pooch. He ended up crossing the rainbow bridge before we opened any of the cans. I contacted Chewy to find out the return protocol. They immediately offered to refund our money 100%, but requested that we donate the food to a shelter or SPCA, which we gladly did. I now order our regular dog food from them, even if not quite as cheap as Amazon. They earned me as a customer...

[DerbyDad03]

Oh yeah...Chewy was another example for me.

We bought a rubber mat that goes in front of the litter pan to stop kitty litter spread. My cat was elderly/ill at the time and decided the mat was a better place to pee than the litter pan. :-(

I called Chewy and they said I should keep trying it to see if she got used to it. I found out that I had a year to return it for a full refund. A *year*!

Our cat crossed the same bridge as your dog and I stuck the mat in a corner and forgot about it. 9 months later, I found it, called Chewy and they issued the refund and said keep the mat. I gave it to a neighbor who is very happy with it.

We buy the vast majority of our pet supplies from Chewy. Their CSR's are great and their emails are kind of cute.

[Leon]

Well that may be naive thinking.

Until there is a problem, they do need to see the issue.

After a while they may say keep it, we know there is a problem but at the beginning of an issue they simply do not know.

See above. At some point if there is a real issue they need to examine the problem rather than just replace with another defect.

I have several Cabinet Master clamps. The early ones had an aluminum adjustable head. Those cracked in a relatively short time. Jorgensen replaced it for no charge but wanted the broken one back. Several months later this happened again. Same procedure. About a year later 2 were cracked. The rep asked how many more I had, 8 is said. They shipped me the 8 new ones and did not want me to return the broken or the unbroken ones.

All of the replacements were steel. No problems in the past 14 or so years.

BUT that was not a defect issue, you were simply not happy with your choice.

[DerbyDad03]

My post wasn't about the request to return the item. It was the fact that they offered the most expensive return option along with the cheaper ones. Many vendors want their items back before they will issue the refund. Relatively few offer the option to have UPS pick it up for free. Typically, it's drop it off at Kohls, the UPS store or an Amazon locker.

Paying UPS to *pick up* a $10 item certainly seems to make no economic sense. It's a cheap, plastic grabber. Do their engineers want it back so badly that they don't want to risk the customer saying "Hey, it's only $10. I'm not driving to a drop off location. I'll just toss it."?

See above. They offered 2 cheaper ways to get to it back. Why add the most expensive option also - on a $10 item?

Apples and oranges. I'm going to guess that those clamps cost more than $10. I'm also going to guess that the vendor has more of a reputation to protect than someone selling $10 POS grabbers on Amazon.

You're talking about a specialty tool that required some serious engineering and has a relatively small targeted audience. Get it wrong and the company could be out of business.

In addition, this item is sold by multiple vendors. *Maybe* I bought it from someone who cares about the engineering and wants to correct the problem or stop selling the item. It's *possible* but I still don't see that being worth using the most expensive option to get the item back when there are cheaper options available - and offered.

Actually it was. The reason I did not like the look - and I said this to the Target rep when I called - was that the finished was mottled, there was the occasional protrusion in the ceramic (like an inverted chip, if you know what I mean), etc. They were perfectly serviceable, I just didn't think I should pay $30 for bowls with imperfections.

More importantly, it addresses Ed's "they will suddenly get 50 calls about a broken grabber" comment. Using his logic, people could call Target and say the bowls were chipped or scratched if they know they can get a refund and won't have to return them. In my case, I had an actual defective item and they didn't feel a need to "inspect them".

It was merely another example of where the vendor did not want their item back, even at the risk of the customer being dishonest. As I said, they've run the numbers and the risk apparently isn't big enough.