Well so much for Ridgid power tools

Life time service agreement . I was just told that after all the ridgid power tools that i have bought that they never received the warranty cards that we have sent in and there for they will not honor there warranty . I know for a fact that with each tool that i have bought we have sent in a warranty card. And each time that one of them went down it was always a fight . The latest was my 1/4 sheet sander the head came off while sanding and it hit me in a place that ya just don't want hit and it put me to the floor . Yep i know i should have bought something better and i have learned from this and there will be no more RIDGID power tools from home depot .

Who told you that, Ridgid or Home Depot?

Makes H look better and better huh????? I've been buying some things off ebay here, get a better gaurantee.......

If you bought them at Home Depot, I'd be raising heck with them to get the warranty honored. Do you have the receipts or debit or credit card records for payment? Maybe the store has a record as well?

Some states, like mine, require the maker to honor the warranty regardless of whether or not the cards were sent in. Might be worth checking into.

I had a Rigid shopvac die after a few weeks. Took it in, the folks at HD told me that I would have to take it to the Rigid warranty guy. Rigid guy does not do vacs.... So the Rigid warranty is absolutely worthless.

BTW, No more Ridgid anything for me.

(quoted from post at 19:11:33 12/27/11) Life time service agreement . I was just told that after all the ridgid power tools that i have bought that they never received the warranty cards that we have sent in and there for they will not honor there warranty . I know for a fact that with each tool that i have bought we have sent in a warranty card. And each time that one of them went down it was always a fight . The latest was my 1/4 sheet sander the head came off while sanding and it hit me in a place that ya just don't want hit and it put me to the floor . Yep i know i should have bought something better and i have learned from this and there will be no more RIDGID power tools from home depot .

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And I just suspect it is Made in China ??
Ridgid, among many others, is selling on past reputation. That was all thrown out the door with Chinese manufacturing.
I have a large variety of power tools, none of which are made in China.
I buy American-German-Japanese --never China made (most times old) from pawn shops or eBay.
Strange, but understandable, why I usually never get a response from a seller on eBay, when I ask where an item is manufactured!!I would rather buy a "old--worn tool" then new Chinese!!
I have had great success without a single failure in many hours of use.

ALL warranties are written in the manufacturers favor--MANY ways they can dishoner warranty!

I had the same trouble with craftsman tools.A tool broke and i was told since they didn't sell that model anymore they wouldn't warranty it.They would sell me another at a reduced price.

Tahoe Power equipment company wont honor a warrenty on a $1500 generator i bought...and it took me 3 phone calls to a motion light company to get them to replace a lense that broke because the clip holding it simply fell apart one night hanging on the garage. I dont think anyone is really going to honor a warrenty without a fight these days.

Well lets start from the beginning here on the sander as i will not get into the hassle over the 12 volt drill from several years back. This is sander #4 that has throwen the sanding head off and the second one that has hit me in the NUTS putting me on the floor . I have been busten my donkey tryen to get these book cases down BEFORE Christmas , as you can see i did not make it . Anyway when i was able o get off the floor i Cleaned it off from the dust and put it back in it's case and get in my truck and drive to Home Depot (not that far for me like 2.5 miles ) walk into store and go up to the service desk and the manager of the store is standing there and she said not again , yep sure did . She calls the guy in tools and tells him to come to the service desk. He come up and Lorie tells him to get me a new one , OK this will work. HE come back with a 6 inch round one , mine is a 1/4 sheet square i have reams of sheets of all grades of sand paper and no disc. Ah no i prefer the 1/4 sheet ones , he tells me that they do not make that one nomore . BUT they will send it in and get it fixed . Today the warranty center calls and says i must call Ridgid and get them the warranty # and call them back so they can fix it . OK so i call sat on the phone for 55 min waiting , yea i am stubborn all the while slowly simmering . Guy come on and i give him what he asked for and he tells me that i never sent in the warranty card on it . Oh yes i did along with the 12 volt cordless drill and the band saw the roto rooter and a couple other tools that i have bought in the last eight years from Home depot , nope don't have a thing on you so you are SOL good bye and hangs up. Oh and he told me that if they had received the warranty card i would have been give a # to keep with each tool . Never got a thing from them ever. So i called back to the service center and tell them just to sent it back to the store and i asked to see how much it would cost to fix , they told me that it would cost 86 bucks to fix a 49.96 dollar sander . SO as far as i am concerned there warranty is not worth anything and the card you get with the tool should be a gift certificate for a roll of toilet paper and a tube of K Y jelly. Yep you guessed it i had a big mouth and believe me when i tell you this i will put down RIDGID each and every time someone asks me about it . And if my big mouth causes them go go under i could care as much as they do about there customers.

Only thing I have that is made by Ridgid is a pipe cutter,up to 4 inch, that my father bought in 1985. Looked at their power tools and didn't like what In saw.

Vito

When the CEO of Ridgid/ Emerson tells his stockholders that he would rather send all manufacturing overseas to get a better labor rate than try and get the same product made here in the USA them I stopped sending any of my money to his off shore bank account.

Only have one electric tool from them, a plug into the wall electric drill. Fabulous!!!! Don't know about the rest of the company as to handling problems, but with HD and Rigid, I wouldn't expect any problems....I mean, I can create a scene at the store if the store manager wants to be an orfice.

Mark

I have to take your work on this as I never buy there tools anyway. If I can afford it, Porta Cable makes the best of everything with a cord, Dewalt makes the good cordless. Ridged is neither more affordable or dependable. I've used a few the GSA supplies the Coast Guard, while they do okay, I certainly wouldn't pay about the same as Dewalt or Porta Cable for them.

I had the reciept. But after 30 days, it becomes Ridgid's problem, not HD. According to the folks at hd.

Sounds to me like it's time to start taking the chinese trash, back to homo cheepo, and stick it to the front doors, with liquid nails, and a note sayin warranty me! Best to do this when they are closed, and if you put it in just the right spot, you can make the front door inoperable, too. So much for my people skills!

This is one of the punishments we get for driving the Japanese out of their country in WW2. We should have know it was coming after they killed John Birch.

Opinion: The Ridge Tool Company and Emmerson, both became perveyers of second rate materials and tools. I have seen several compnies do the same. Skill, and WEN are two examples. When the transition happened, the image of the professional grade tool served for the first purchase. when that failed in action, no further repeat customers were on hand. A sorry state of affairs. Jim

Emmerson is buying up everything. They bought up RIDGID and it has been terrible ever since. We ordered a standard RIDGID npt pipe threader from MSC back in October. they said 3-4 weeks, but we still havent seen it. Emerson also bought some other companies we do business with. We cant but from the company anymore because we only spend 5K a year and they want $20K and up accounts. Now we have to buy through a distributer. The price has increased by 300%!!!

I just go to Harbor Freight. They don't even try to act like their stuff is not cheap Chinese merchandise, but the quality is better than you would think and their warranties are good. I'd rather buy Chinese stuff with no name than brand name stuff that is the same thing but with an American brand name and a higher price. Of course, I would rather have good quality American made products, but the sad fact is most of the time they are not available even if you are willing to pay extra.

Sounds like the way Sears won't honor their "lifetime" Craftsman gaurantee. I wasn't surprised to see today that Sears is closing 100-15- stores. Sounds like Rigid is heading down the same path.

Forget about brand shopping....there is only one brand left "China". Buy and match expectations accordingly.

Bought an 18 volt drill from HD when they first opened. Rigid warranty said lifetime warrantee on the batteries. Was one of the main reasons we went with it. Wellll, the first time one went dead, we were told to take it to a repair center. No problem, one is only 2 miles from my place. They take it in and look at it and tell me that the lifetime of a drill battery is only 2 years and mine was older than that. So the lifetime warranty was for the life of the battery, 2 years, not my lifetime. Took the battery back to HD one night when the kid were working and told them it went bad and was supposed to have a lifetime warranty. They discussed it and went and got a new one so still turned out ok.

Many years ago, KMart sold lifetime auto batteries. I bought one for a 70 Chevy truck. Six yeras later it went bad so I took it in and they replaced it with their best battery and made a notation on the recept that it had a lifetime warranty--they no longer offered a lifetime battery.
This lasted 5 years and I went for a replacement.
Little girl in charge of automotive refused to make it good--said 10 years was lifetime!
I throwed a FIT!! No cursing but everyone around knew I was upset! Manager of store showed up and stated they would have to see the truck it came out of???
This is a TRUE statement---Little gir came to my home and verified I still had the same truck!!! Unbelievable--But True!!
They replaced the battery under same warranty as first exchange.
Got mad at the truck one day and sold it--forgot about the battery!!!

The fact you have the receipts proves you bought it new and didn't get it second hand. A lot of lifetime warranties are void if it's not the original owner. Try talking to someone higher up at HD. If all else fails, do like what was suggested, make a scene in the store and have all your receipts and everything right there for proof. Maybe a local TV station (or newspaper) has a consumer advocate that would air your story for thousands to see? I remember back when Emerson bought Ridgid and Ridgid was not happy about being forced to put their name on power tools to sell at Home Depot/Aikenheads. Ridgid were/are the cadillac of professional tools for plumbers and pipefitters. Emerson banked on this reputation to draw people to buy "Ridgid" power tools and Ridgid's reputation, I think, has suffered. Ridgid also used to have the best calenders, bar none, to hang in your shop or garage too but like Snap-On went politically correct. It was a real shame they got rid of the calenders!

My uncle has an 84 Nissan truck that he puts very few miles on. Not surprisingly, it has a tendency to go through a mufflers and exhaust pipes. He got one from Midas over 20 years ago with the lifetime warranty and they have replaced at least 4 or 5 mufflers with no complaint.

Two quick (hopefully constructive) comments:

1) I find that the "catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" saying has a whole lot of truth. I typically start my "return item conversation" with a smile and an apology, and I can't remember the last time the employee hasn't done everything they can to make me happy.

2) I wouldn't fill out warranty cards. Like somebody already mentioned, some states have outlawed the requirement to fill out the card to receive the warranty. Even without that, it rarely matters, and the information you put on the card is typically resold. See following dated (but still relevant) article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/25/technology/do-you-really-need-that-warranty-card.html

Good luck!

Chet