The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Husky tools

A while back I bought a set of Husky tools at Home Depot since they had a a lifetime warranty and looked to be the same quality as Craftsman. Yesterday I split a 5/8 socket and went into Home Depot for my replacement like I would at Sears and they no longer stock a selection of individual sockets and told me to call Husky and they would mail me a new one but of course Huskey is closed on the weekend. I asked Home Depot for my money back so I could go buy a set from Sears that actually has a useful warranty but they said they wouldn't do anything and I would just have to wait for Husky to mail me a socket that I need today. In short, don't buy their tools unless you don't mind being without it for a week or more if it breaks.

call home depots home office in atlanta ga ask for cust service and tell them you are not happy at all and would like your money back that you need a tool the same day you break it not a week later you should get some results. did you talk to the store manager is so get his name and store # and he will get a nasty gram form corpit office

I did get the store number and manager name along with sending them an email on Monday that they have not replied to. I also called Husky and ordered the replacements and told them that I was not happy but they just kind of listened and when I was done said thanks for buying Husky and hung up.

You know I got a set of BenchTop tools years ago for a christmas present.. guess thats what you get for sending the wife to buy tools, right??

Anyway, they seemed to FEEL heavy duty enough, and came with a lifetime warranty.. just take the busted tool back to any K-Mart and they replace it for free on the spot.

Long story short, I made about 7 trips to K-Mart in one day replacing busted ratchets and split or stripped sockets.

They didn't give me any crap.. just said go get another one! On my 6th trip, the manager actually gave me a whole new set of tools that was bigger than the set I got for christmas.. and let me keep the old set!

When I find the time to work on something, I want to spend that time doing the work, not hangin' out at K-Mart waiting around for a replacement socket.. that's why i've always tried to make a habit of buying only Craftsman tools.

Sure Mac and Snap-On are great tools, but i'm no professonal mechanic, and i'm three times harder on my tools than those guys. I've used my Craftsman rachets for hammers, glass buster-outters, pry bars, and have even tied them to wires for a ballast when running wires over rafters in ceilings.. and they've never let me down.. in fact, of all the Craftsman tools I own (most bought second hand at auctions and garage sales) i've never had to bring a single one back to sears for replacement.

The best kinda warranty in my book is one you never have to use.

I seem to do a good job busting things, no matter what brand. Some cheapies have survived well, and I've busted a lot of Craftsman stuff. Luck of the draw.

The only ratchets/sockets and open-end wrenches I've never broken were the GM Goodwrench stuff. My parents gave me a 1/4" and 3/8" socket set in a molded case in high school, and it's survived a lot of abuse. Later, my dad and I found some 1/2" socket sets at a swap meet for next to nothing, and those have lived through a lot of abuse, too. Good stuff. For a while, they were hard to find, but O'Reillys is carrying Goodwrench tools now.

They emailed back today and sounded excited to help me:

Thank you for contacting The Home Depot Customer Care.

We appreciate receiving feedback from our customers and want to thank
you for taking the time to forward your concerns about your product. We
apologize for not meeting your expectations.

Home Depot works closely with our vendors to ensure the quality and
satisfaction of the products we sell.

If you would like to speak to a Customer Care professional, please call
us

I have always had good luck with Sears Craftsman,I have broke a few over the years and Sears always replaced them on the spot.

I once had a set of Craftsman combo wrenches. Open-end on one end, with a socket on a hindge at the other end. I put a 3 foot cheater on the 3/4 inch wrench and stepped on the end. Twisted the socket right off. Sears gave me a new one without questions.
After my toolbox was stolen, I got a set of the cheapo Benchtop brand mentioned above, and haven't broken one.

Craftsman tools are great amazing the problems with others lifetime waranties I have a rigid pipe cutter with liftime warranty the c frame stripped out called rigid they said this was normal wear and tear not covered by liftime warranty if it would have been a craftsman would have been replaced on the spot I always try to buy craftsman

i took a pair of craftman wire strippers back today that i broke using them as pliers.they swapped them out without a word.i also have a set of the benchmark tools that have never broke.

I worked for Homey for 10 years before retiring comfortably, and I'm a young man. The game is to be played this way...when something breaks, go but a new one dammit. Wait three, four, five weeks-anything up to the 90 days- then return the one that broke. Get your money back and smile. If anyone here thinks that the corporate return policy is going to get any better, you're right. Oh yeah, they're going to start building '59 Caddies again next Wendsday... K-Mart just bought Sears. Go look at K-mart's return policy and memorize it. It's gonna be in all of the Sears stores before long. K-mart WILL be selling Craftsman and Kenmore. Brand dilution and the accompying issues will result. Tis the nature of the beast.

My problem was they don't even carry the sizes I need anymore in single sockets. The replacements finally arrived in the mail after about two weeks and the walls look even thinner than the ones that broke.

Just another example of the BIG BOX STORE ATTITUDE! Home Depot/Walmart /K-Mart etc, come in to an area, price things so low they drive the little guy out and when they have the only game in town you find out that it's now a take it or leave it attitude. I ALWAYS support the small businesses if I can. The couple of extra dollars I spend lets me know who I'm dealing with, gets me recognized when I walk in the store (not always a good thing ) and insures I have a choice. It's getting to be that we have fewer and fewer choices as to how we earn our moey and how we can spend it.

I went with a buddy to a sears counter to exchange a broken speed wrench. My friend walked up to the counter, laid the wrench down and grunted. The guy behind the counter picked it up... examined it... raised his eyebrowns and grunted too. He walked over to the display, picked up a new one, handed it to my friend and grunted again. After an approving grunt from my buddy we were on our way.

It was very "Tim the tool man Taylor" in there for a minute, but the wrench was replaced (literally) without a word.

-J

There is no doubt that Home Depot failed miserably in their attempt to unseat Sears/Craftsman as the tool supplier of choice.

When they first came out, H-D offered to swap broken Craftsman or Snap-On tools for the equivalent Husky. Hah! You would have had to be nuts to do that.

Although they made a lot of bluster initially, HD never mounted a serious effort against Sears. Their line was limited to basic tools, far less than the extensive line carried by Sears, which includes a lot of fairly-specialized Craftsman tools.

Ditto for Lowe's attempt with the Kobalt brand, originally made by J.H. Williams (subsidiary of Snap-On), now made by Danaher (parent company of the maker of most Craftsman sockets and wrenches. The Kobalt tools are still USA sourced.

The Husky tools are (for the most part) made by Stanley. For the first few years, they were labeled "Made in USA". Then Stanley got nailed by the feds for mislabeling their tools for USA origin. I believe they were importing the raw forgings and finishing them in their US plant.

About the same time, the Husky tools started being labeled with China or Taiwan as country of origin. I suspect that they were always as such and simply labeled improperly.

You can literally buy the same tools (but branded "Stanley" instead of "Husky") at Wal-Mart. Stanley used to make the old Popular Mechanics tools for Wal-Mart, and I considered them to be a good value for the money (even if they were from Taiwan). They now simply brand the same tools as Stanley, but they are quite a bit less than Husky in price.

In my opinion, if you are going to pay Craftsman-equivalent prices, you might as well buy Craftsman to begin with. H-D/Husky prices are pretty close to Craftsman. If you want the cheaper tools, go with Wally instead, get the same tools and save a few dollars.

If K-Mart ends up sells Craftsman tools, this would not be a first. When Sears owned Western Auto (since sold to Advance Auto Parts), the WA stores carried Craftsman. No change in price or warranty.

Say what you want about Sears and their Craftsman line, but they have been around a long time and they have sold an incredible amount of tools. Of course, the warranty is only as good as however long Sears stays in business, but the price to performance ratio is hard to beat. I'll bet that the vast majority of race cars fielded by weekend warriors are primarily wrenched with Craftsman tools.

Interesting point, Stanley bought the mechanic's hand tool business from Ingersoll-Rand about 15 years ago...IR manufactured all their hand tools in the USA...Stanley doesn't. IR used to build all their air and power tools in the USA..now they build about half here and the rest...you know where.
But, they have to compete so they can pay for my pension/trucks.

It will be interesting to see what happens at Sears,now that KMart has bought them,or was it a merger.

I stand by my GM Goodwrench stuff.

I bought some Husky tools about 8 years ago, most notably a 1/2" drive socket set. Like the above mentioned, they quit selling this set. My guess for the discontinuation of this (and the single sockets and what not) is because it was/is a barebones set, big ratchet, breaker bar and 7/16 up to 1 3/16 sockets and the big tool sets sell better. Better value blah, blah, blah. I've put it thru hell and it's held up but, I'll be in the same boat come warranty time.
Very recently, the Navy Exchange (the Navy's department store) started selling Craftsman tools. Weird huh? Thus far it's only basic stuff and those large 100 pc or whatever size tool kits. Hopefully they'll add more. It'd be nice to be able to buy tools tax free.
-David

BTW, from what I can tell, the GM Goodwrench tools (at least the wrenches) appear to be made by the same folks that make the Benchtop tools for K-Mart. Also the Westward brand from Grainger. Take a look at the combo wrenches and see if you don't agree. They appear to be decent tools for the money.