On the 'Net since 1994Sears - Craftsman Curve Shaft
Links
Black & Decker
Honda Mower
Sears
754 S State St,
Salt Lake City,
UT 84111
(801) 321-4159
Sears National
Customer Relations
3333 Beverly Road
Hoffman Estates, IL
60179
1-800-549-4505
Brand new, out of the box. And then the CRAFTSMAN WeedWacker melted.
keywords: Carrie, Corona, Sears, Utah,
manager, store, SLC, WeedWacker,
product review, personnel, weedeater,
weed, eater, whacker, wacker, lawn,
Kmart, AmazonAbout the "New" 2012 CRAFTSMAN WeedWacker - and about Sears.
After @ 45 minutes of first use, the tip of it -- the part that rotates and holds the cutting line -- melted.
I returned it to Sears. Sears gave me a refund. Unfortunately the clerk, his name is Jeff -- he would not give his last name except to say that his last name is also Jeff -- would not give me a refund for one of the special, oil-filled gasoline canisters (see picture) which I'd also purchased form Sears at the time I bought this Craftsman WeedWacker at this store.
Returning It Click / tap image to enlarge
When I was a young whippersnapper, ca. 1959, our town's Sears store had chiseled in the stone archway over its entrance, the proud words:
SATISFACTION GUARANTEED.
But no more. This wasn't the case at the my Sears store in 2012.
It's like pulling hen's teeth to get an honest refund from Sears, I think.
Sears sold me an ill-designed Craftsman "Curve Shaft" machine and in order to use it I had to use special fuel which I also bought from Sears.
When the thing melted I knew it was a crappy unit. And then I had trouble getting a complete refund for the stuff Sears tried to pawn off as a good thing.
The rotary tip of this thing which holds the cutting line is made of plastic; that's why it melted. It seems that both Sears and Craftsman know that this melting can happen. I think that because Sears sells an aluminum replacement rotary tip.
Mr. Jeff had given me a refund, minus the money for one canister of fuel. When I grumbled about that, he volunteered that he'd actually done me a favor by not charging a restocking fee! I thought it queer that Sears would want to restock it, putting this thing back on the shelf for resale, so I asked Mr. Jeff about that. He weaseled, saying that well -- the unit is actually going in for repair. So, if it's going to be repaired and presumably re-sold as a used unit, how would a restocking fee apply, anyway? Why would he bring this up, in the first place? Why would a clerk want to make the victim - I mean customer - feel grateful for taking back defective merchandise? I think its' normal business practice to for Sears to accept defective or shoddy merchandise and to do everything to rectify an unfortunate situation.
Mr. Jeff had told me "I've never seen anything like this", upon first examining the defective WeedWacker. That's something he'll never be able to say about this item and be truthful. If this is really an unusual occurrence, it would seem that Craftsman would be happy and grateful to learn of a possible mode of failure of its product! But instead I'm shorted on the refund by Mr. Jeff, and I think he tried to make me to feel guilty for asking for a complete refund.
When I learned that Mr. Jeff would not give me a full refund, and that I should be happy because I'm not billed for a restocking fee, I thought I should let other potential victims know about it and I told Mr. Jeff that I'd publish a web page about all this. Jeff started to retreat with the WeedWacker in hand and so I followed him down the isle. He didn't seem to want to talk.
In order to report everything correctly here, I asked what his last name is. His first name is displayed as Jeff on his Sears badge. He told me that his last name is also Jeff, which of course is suspect.
I spoke with the store manager, who identified herself "my I'm Carrie Corona, I'm listed listed as that on as the store manager, I don't have a problem with that", she said.
Regarding the fact that clerk Jeff wouldn't say his last name, Ms. Corona said "I wouldn't expect him to. (give his last name)". She volunteered that "there's been some instances, where it's just not required..." So I'm guessing that there have been other, instances of even more dissatisfied customers...
Ms. Corona gave me the additional refund, $5.65, for the fuel canister that Jeff Jeff refused to allow.
Sears might have thanked me for testing its new 2012 product, this Craftsman WeedWacker. (See my reviews on Amazon.com) All in all, the situation was amicably resolved.
I had boycotted Seas for over 30 years after it denied me a Sears store charge card when I was a student in ca. 1972. So far my love of Sears has not increased.
Nobody is happy when things like this happen. Craftsman isn't happy when its new product fails right out of the box. Sears isn't happy when it has to go to the trouble of returning poorly a designed item to its supplier. I'm not happy when I have to un-box a product and assemble it, study its instructions, see my purchase melt, disassemble the product to re-box it, pack it into the car and drive across town, explain the problem repeatedly, and be disrespected by a clerk in a store. Now my assignment is to watch my credit card statement to verify that all this refunding business has been taken care of properly.
This might be a better product -- check it out or see a video on You Tube.
Links
Sears financial trouble
Co-founder
Richard W. Sears
(1863-1914)
Publisher's statement: Any inaccuracies will be corrected if brought to publisher's attention.
A copy of this web page has been shown or sent to all parties involved.
Do these things suck? ~~ Unpleasant experiences.
Page updated 2013-11-03
