{"id":9160,"date":"2025-02-07T09:06:40","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T17:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/?p=9160"},"modified":"2026-03-19T13:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T20:46:14","slug":"craftsmans-lifetime-tool-warranty-is-a-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/craftsmans-lifetime-tool-warranty-is-a-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Craftsman’s Lifetime Tool Warranty is a Fraud ! — Craftsman’s Motto “The Customer is Always Wrong”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Craftsman

Craftsman Socket Cracked & Lifetime Warranty Ignored & Blocked\u00a0 by Stanley \/ Black & Decker<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

More than 40 years ago I purchased a broad set of Craftsman mechanics Tools (wrenches, sockets etc. ) – in no small part because of their “Lifetime Warranty<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

That had a nice feel ever since – that I would be taken care of if any of my Craftsman tools ever failed.<\/p>\n

My craftsman tools never failed – until a year ago. A 14-mm socket wrench cracked.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite my familiarity with Sears failing<\/a> I still imagined (sadly that term “failing” turns out to be the correct choice) my tools would be insured as they promised, taken care of, etc.<\/p>\n

So I called and wrote to the proper places<\/a> to get my broken Craftsman 14 mm socket replaced.<\/p>\n

That was a year ago.<\/p>\n

I’m still waiting.<\/p>\n

Craftsman “Warranty” (Now Owned by Stanley-Black & Decker)<\/strong> continually puts new Privacy Violating<\/strong> hoops for me to jump through.<\/p>\n

After a year of nothing – now they’re demanding my full legal name, my phone # and my street address. Or they won’t give me a new socket to replace the broken one.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I live in one of 2,000 US towns & villages without street addresses<\/strong>. Most of us only use PO Boxes – which I gave the Warranty people.<\/li>\n
  2. I don’t give out my phone # – because they don’t need it.<\/li>\n
  3. And why does Stanley\/Black & Decker want my full legal name?<\/strong> – So they can sell all my information to Data Brokers.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Contrast that with the original Sears Craftsman warranty —<\/p>\n

    “If any Craftsman guaranteed forever hand tool fails to provide complete satisfaction, return it for free repair or replacement. Period.<\/strong><\/em>“<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    No demand to “Give us your personal private Information – or we won’t honor our promise \/ warranty.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    So after a year of their outrageous demands I can now write with complete confidence and disgust — Craftsman’s \/ Stanley-Black & Decker Lifetime Tool Warranty is a Fraud !<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Here’s my last email to them —<\/p>\n

    I FULLY OBJECT TO YOUR DEMAND TO HAVE MY STREET ADDRESS & PHONE NUMBER TO FULFILL A $5 F**KING WARRANTY CLAIM.

    You DEMAND my street address even though You DO NOT NEED IT and<\/p>\n

    it is private personal information PROTECTED by California Law and Constitution !
    (Article 1 section 1)

    Everyone else in the world from China, Kyrgystan, Amazon, DHL, USPS, UPS, Fed-Ex – <\/strong>EVERYONE else ships to my PO Box.<\/strong><\/span>

    But NO – NOT CRAFTSMAN ! Still operating in the 1950s?

    BTW: Carmel DOES NOT HAVE STREET NUMBERS<\/strong> or home mail delivery just like
    some 2,000 other villages in our USA !

    WE ONLY USE PO BOXES.<\/strong>

    How are you going to solve that?

    You aren’t BECAUSE Craftsman POLICY PREVENTS YOU from taking any responsibility <\/strong>to help with this legitimate warrant claim.<\/strong>

    Never forget your Craftsman Motto – “The Customer is ALWAYS WRONG”<\/strong>

    AND You ALSO DEMAND my phone number – even though you DO NOT NEED IT.<\/strong>

    You’re not going to call me. In fact I FORBID you to call me.

    But you probably want to sell my address and phone number to a data accumulator – trying to make this Warranty a REVENUE Center<\/strong> – Not a Warranty fulfillment.

    I OBJECT TO YOUR SHARING or RETAINING my personal identification information IN ANY WAY !

    You warranty form absurdly DEMANDS “Did you follow the troubleshooting steps described in the instruction manual?<\/em><\/strong>“

    Gosh, until I lied about this and answered “Yes” because your web-form wouldn’t let me “submit” it for warranty.

    Great Business Model ! — It reeks of “THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS WRONG”<\/strong>

    Of course I had to lie on the form – because — Follow me closely here —<\/p>\n

    THERE. IS. NO. INSTRUCTION. MANUAL. for. a. SOCKET !<\/strong>

    WTF ! is the matter with you guys ? ? ?<\/strong>

    Are there any humans paying attention?
    Or just thick-glasses geeks web “designers” telling you what “everybody else does” with Warranty forms.

    Oh, of course I understand – like so many other detestable businesses<\/strong>
    your JACKASS Business model is set up to BLOCK legitimate warranty claims – <\/strong>so that the customer gives up.<\/strong>

    Well, this failed warranty is going to cost you a lot more in Good Will<\/strong> than the pennies you’ll make by selling my personal information and the $5 your CYA Boss wants to save by not sending my 14 mm Socket.<\/strong>

    Because I am going to shout it at the top of my FINGERTIPS to as many customers as I can reach with my blog.

    How many more wholly irrelevant or absurd hoops will you demand I jump through
    to BLOCK me from LEGALLY DEMANDING to get a warranty replacement for my $5 cracked socket?

    LET ME GUARANTEE (Which is Tons more CREDIBLE than your Fraudulent Warranty)
    THAT I WILL NEVER – EVER – BUY ANOTHER CRAFTSMAN or STANLEY or any BLACK & DECKER tools ! ! !<\/strong><\/p>\n

    # # #<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    More than 40 years ago I purchased a broad set of Craftsman mechanics Tools (wrenches, sockets etc. ) – in no small part because of their “Lifetime Warranty.” That had a nice feel ever since – that I would be … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":3,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consumer-protection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9160"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9286,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9160\/revisions\/9286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}