Craftsman Professional 17 in. Drill Press 179.99 (normally 529)

[mac-54@excite.com]

Hey Babe,

Got a question about the topic you can't discuss.

Was your order an instore or an online.?

Mac,

[Uncle Cracker]

Also, the way the handle is connected to the ratcheting mechanism makes it quite easily damaged or broken if too much force is applied.

Ahhhh... You guys are using it for a bearing press, aren't ya??

[Jeffrey Schronce]

What broke in the arm? I ask this because I know nothing about the arm and did not test one in the store. Thom was over and noted that he could not get the adjustment mechanism to work on mine like it did in the store.

SteveK2, you are probably looking at a poorly assembled store model in combination with the ratcheting effect of the single arm mechanism thingy. I haven't really gotten into mine to check it out but I could see where you would think there is slop, whereas it is acutally a handle leverage adjustment mechanism.

BTW, I actually broke the arm on mine as well! Got the replacement today and installed it. I *believe* that anyone having problems with the ratcheting mechanism likely has the two little set screws too tight. They only serve to hold the handle in place and should not be tightened too much. Overwise I will not allow the ratchet to function.

If you have any questions on this shoot me an email.

Also, the way the handle is connected to the ratcheting mechanism makes it quite easily damaged or broken if too much force is applied.

[Uncle Cracker]

Congrats, Bade! The system usually does work, only sometimes you have to use more of it than you should... I wonder if we'll ever know what happened to whatever "professionals" at Sears were responsible for what has turned into a huge PR faux pas...

[BadeMillsap]

Settlement reached with Sears ...

I realize that many of you think this whole ordeal was not worthy of the ergs and electrons spent on the thread ... if you are of that mind set ... no need to read further (but I see you DID open the thread yet again ...)

For the rest ... the Sears legal folks called me today and in a very cordial couple of phone discussions we reached a very satisfactory (for me at least) out of court settlement. The specifications in the settlement do not allow me to discuss the actual terms of the settlement ... but I CAN SAY ... I am currently shopping for a really nice 6" jointer due to a sudden increase in my tool budget. Grizzly or Rikon I suspect ... it will NOT be from Sears ... and depending on what I find as a deal on the jointer .. I may be seriously considering a HF 17" Drill press ... it's bound to go on sale again sometime!

To me it WAS worth the effort ... I learned many things I did not know about filing a small claims court suit ... anytime I learn something .. it is worthwhile.

[tsbrewers]

Ok, not really much I can add here, but I will just add this. I have not stepped in to a Sears in many, many years, and situations like this are why.

After probably 3 or 4 times of absolutely terrible service from Sears, I started to shop elsewhere. Being a professional I have spent literally tens of thousands on tools since then and not even a penny to them. I will not even go in to replace my broken craftsman tools. I have just been slowing replacing them with better stuff.

Brew

[BadeMillsap]

My small claims hearing is set for 1/24/08 ...

Mac-54 ... thank you for the pointer to the fatwallet thread ... since sooo many of those posters in the last couple of months (as recent as a few days ago) have in fact received their DP at the sale price ... I will certainly use those posts in my plea to the JP this Thursday ... HOPEFULLY with what I consider a binding contract of a store sale receipt AND the precedent set by these other folks all receiving the DP even after being denied by the local sales manager ... I too will be victorious ... this has GOT to be a headache for Sears they just want to make go away ...

[mac-54@excite.com]

Victory

Victory!!!!

Recieved a call on Wednesday (1/16) that it was in. Then on Fri. (1/18) I recieved a call from a Sears rep asking if I was happy with my drill press. I'm thinking, "Okay, here we go again!". Because I haven't picked the **** thing up yet!!! So I go in yesterday (1/19) expecting the worse, but pickup went without a problem.

BTW, there's a long thread about this here at Fatwallet. Might be usefull to some of you that have ordered.

[KC7CN]

Bump!

Sorry, just had to do that! Want to keep this one alive!

What gets me is this Sears $5 Off Coupon:
http://www.sears.com/ue/home/5Offcoupon.pdf

It looks to good to be true! Found it on the WN forum. Several posted that it worked in the stores, but a few said they would not honor it.

So,,,, my question, is it good, and if not, why is it still on the Internet?

-Don

[maxparot]

Perhaps my point didn't sink in! The people who were trying to purchase the saw were abused, delayed, misdirected, lied to, and generally mistreated. I'd say more than $180 worth probably more than $600 worth. If Sears had a standard policy that was well stated and posted for it's customers to see and their employees to quote then foulups of that type would have less chances to happen. Responsibility for all the problems associated with the original ad and the problems that followed are Sears fault and the losses involved to me seem as only partial accountability.

[davidtu]

Perhaps the morality lesson was in this case not directed towards the sale price / customer service issue but rather towards the notion of allowing a company to make a mistake of refunding payment twice, thus giving the product for free. I think there is a clear distinction between "negotiating" with customer service to honor a price--which they can then agree or disagree to do--and knowningly allowing customer service to errantly double credit a refund.

Well, I'll stop short of saying what should or should not be done here. I'll just say that I had the same situation whereby my original credit card order had been refunded and when the store manager was about to let me walk out of the store with the drill for free based on the "paid receipt" I'd shown her, I made sure to correct her and had her re-charge the purchase.

Bargains are great when they are steals, unless they are actually steals.

[mac-54@excite.com]

in fact, i dont think was a screwup, because they had signs with a huge reduction in price in stores next to the original price (just read all the 1000 posts).

That was my situation. The manager working at the time said it was an obvious mistake, but since it was posted she had to give it to me at that price. The sign came down as we walked to the register. I specifically asked if I could have a copy of the tag since it was so cheap, and I didn't wan't my order to get cancelled. She told me not to worry..... "Since your paying for it now, that's the price your paying and there will be no problems at all." Well guess what....? The expected delivery date was 11/28, which was quite a bit away, but I didn't worry too much since I made my presence known. Which was a good thing because when I went and checked for the 4th time on 12/20 I was told that the order was cancelled on 11/13 by an unknown. Told them no way in Hades I cancelled, so there must've been an error.

Long story short........

The manager remembered me because I even offered to take the display since they didn't have any instock. She stated, "Wouldn't you rather have a new one still in the box?" I said..."You bet." In the end, they ordered another for the $179 price with a new delivery date of 1/22.

Now where was I going with this? Oh yeah..... If I see a price tag that's too good to be true, you can bet that that's the price I'm gonna pay.

[footprintsinconc]

i'm with maxport on this.

in fact, i dont think was a screwup, because they had signs with a huge reduction in price in stores next to the original price (just read all the 1000 posts).

for heaven's sake, quit posting on this thread, it just keeps reminding me of the deal of a drill press that i missed!!!!!

[maxparot]

Some people are obviously morally superior to me.

Will this thread ever die?

Perhaps for next year, you should strive to do what's right.

Perhaps for next year people would stop trying to express their own moralities on others.
There is a big distinction between doing unto others and doing unto a large retail chain.
Retail chains trying to make and use the rules, laws and the whole system work for them.
I for one have no problem with the system being turned around and working against them!
I have found the way Sears handles these types of problems to be totally horrid. If they had a policy that complied with the laws of all the states where they do business and stuck to it it wouldn't be a big deal. The fact of the matter is they don't. They aren't even consistent within stores in the same state.
The time that some people put in trying to resolve Sears flawed customer service is worth something and if a member of the forum was able to take advantage of Sears I have no problems with it.

[Al Garay]

Will this thread ever die?

Perhaps for next year, you should strive to do what's right.