OT - something good about Sears

[Andy]

I guess this is semi-OT because sears gets discussed (or maybe just dissed) here. Anyway, here's my story - maybe to make up for one of the many bad things I've said about Sears in the past. We needed a new TV, and found a pretty nice Toshiba at Sears, floor model so it was about 30% off. Bought it, got it home, and realized it didn't work. (Well, sort of worked, but it turned itself off whenever the screen was white). It was under warranty, so I considered taking it in to get it fixed, but then I saw a Sony of the same size on sale at Circuit City that would have only cost $30 more, since I had a 10% off coupon there. Sears claimed they had a satisfaction guarantee, so I took the broken Toshiba back there to get my money back, expecting to get a hassle because this was a floor model and it was broken. No hassle with the return, and when I told them about the Circuit City deal, Sears had the same Sony model, and they matched CC's price (and honored my coupon) plus gave me 10% of the price difference (which was almost $50). So I upgraded to a nicer TV that works for minimal $, and almost no hassle! Amazing. So Sears customer "service" isn't totally dead, at least in their electronics dept. Now if tools, just one aisle over, would take some lessons from them...

[John Thomas]

"Andy" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

(Good job on the TV! We've had Sony's for a long time with good luck from them)

But, since brought up Sears and tools:

[warning, this is long ...]

Found myself in the market for a CMS. (Annivesary present from SWMBO ...).

First CMS was the Hitachi, bought, then returned to Lowe's -- defective out of the box, but I think this was Lowe's fault; I think it was a customer return put back out on the shelf. The whole handle was darned near busted off (3 of the 4 plastic mounts for the screws were broken.); the only other one in stock was in a badly damaged box, and the nearest other Lowe's was quite far away. Back to the drawing board.(Other than the busted handle this looked quite good out of the box).

We'd been at Sears at some point in the meantime. Browsed through the tool area .. hm. Foolishly went back a few days later and bought one of the near top-end Craftsman 12" CMS. Laser (*not* arbor mount), upfront controls. On sale for $270 -- so definitely not at the cheap end.

Piece of crap. Really. Much runout in the arbor. Fence way out of square. Busted bevel control (I'd played with the one on display, so I know how it was supposed to work.). Saw blade moved way off the zero clearance kerf when set to a 45 bevel (as in more than the width of the blade).

Took it back -- they gave me zero hassle about the return. This was really too bad as the saw was quite well engineered -- just really poorly executed.(It really seems like they are trying to get better; but they are not there yet, at least with the CMS).

Back again to square one. Finally opted for the P-C 3802 (12" Twin laser). Now *this* is a sweet saw. Dead square out of the box. Lasers perfectly aligned, and very crisp. To boot, found a good, actual tool supplier (Western Tool-

) near home with great prices, friendly staff (same price as amazon, no shipping hassle). I'm still in the "make practice cuts" stage, but expect great things out of this saw. I've got one outside project to get done before the rainy season (PDX) sets in..

Morals: I've got a great SWMBO; avoid Sears tools (but their return policy was great); look for local suppliers and support them. Oh, and I really, really, like the laser, but an arbor mount (where you'd have to turn the saw on to turn on the laser) woulda scared the hell out of me.

[Mike Marlow]

This is the only part of your post that got to me John. Why would it scare the hell out of you? Miter saws have been used for decades with no laser at all and now all of a sudden one with a laser that only turns on when you pull the trigger scares you?

[Fenrir Enterprises]

Many companies, especially the big office supply/electronics stores, have a 110% competitor price matching program, though a lot of them will refuse to take coupons. Some refuse to take online coupons but will accept newspaper or catalog ones. However, most companies will also give you a big hassle so as to make sure you never actually try this, even though the policy plastered all over the board over the service desk (The ad 'isn't clear enough' that it's the exact same item, we don't honor buy one get one free, we don't honor that store's prices because they're not a 'direct' competitor, etc). Or they'll conveniently forget to do the 10% difference. However, if you find stores that don't give you a big hassle, then you can save a lot of money by doing all your shopping there (unless, of course, it's their ad which you would have to take to their competitor). Also useful when the store with the ad is out of the product within the first hour, such as the rare occasions when stacks of 50 blank DVDs are $7.99.

[John Thomas]

"Mike Marlow" wrote in news:c2f50$43221e0d$a2270060$ [e-mail]:

Big spinning blade, hands moving wood nearby. Just strikes me as being inherently unsafe. (Or, less safe ... your pick.)