I have alot of diiferent brands that I have collected over the years and I do like my Craftsman tools, but their tools are turning to junk latley. I went through four of their ratchets in one week, but have had my one Snapon ratchet for 5 years now. I know how to use my tools and I do not abuse them, but the ratcheting mechanism kept going out and all Sears will do is give you another used ratchet to use.

 

A Used rachet??? As a replacement??? Demand a new one. That is what you bought and take nothing less. I have had a Sear employee try to give me a "Sears" brand tool in place of a Craftsman and you have to let them know, rudely if nessesary, that you bought a Craftsman and not a "Sears" brand tool.I hope that this was the exception, not the rule. I am a big supporter of Sears because of their polciies reguarding our serviceman and women. So don't let that 12 year old sales dude cushion his commision wiht a lesser tool.

 

I think it's a pretty general consensus, Snap-on and Mac are putting out real quality stuff. I personally use Craftsman as well though because of $$ (poor college student) and the lifetime warranty.

 

On another forum I belong to it was stated that it is Sear's policy that you are not suppose to get a "new" replacement for a ratchet. If you notice that when you bring in a tool for replacement that they have a separate table that they go to and get you a repalcement, not from the shelf. Now you will probaly get one off the shelf if it a speciality tool, but for everything else you will get a replacement from a separate area. I do not take the crap they give me aither, but I no longer buy Craftsman tools because I am not going to argue with them when I need a replacement.

 

I said Craftsman as a fair majority of my tools are Craftsman, but I also use Husky and Kobalt which are home depot and lowes brands. they also have a lifetime no questions warranty. the only downside to craftsman for me is i don't have a sears very close to me, closest one is about 20 minutes away so if i need it fast i go to Home Depot and get Husky tools

 

I have never heard of anyone getting a used tool in place of the broken one! Maybe just your store?! I solved the arguing by going to the shelf, picking out the replacement myself, then walking up and handing them my broken tool and the new one.... no problems at all with that method.

 

Craftsman.

and Harbor Freight.

I use Harbor freight whenever I need a specialty tool becuase of the price and THEIR two year unconditional warranty. I still have not had a Chicago tool Break on me. I don't know whether it is from lack of use or what. I like to save money.

Regular Handtools; for that just Craftsman.

 

I felt i should make a further expansion upon my post earlier. Yes I choose Craftsman, thats for Garage tools. All the tools I keep in my Garage are Craftsman, Husky or Kobalt for hand tools. Power tools are all Dewalt, Milwaukee. welder and Plasma cutter are both Miller. Air tools in the garage are all Husky. when it comes to my garage and shop tools (home shop) I buy the good stuff. As i said before I like Craftsman but if i need it fast I go Husky as theres a Home Depot 5 minutes away. I have yet to break a Craftsman, Husky or Kobalt tool.

Now for the tool box in the Jeep, thats a different story. 99% of the tools i carry in my Jeep are from Harbor Freight. I keep cheapies in the toolbox there because if they get rusty, lost, borrowed and not returned, etc I don't really mind since they were cheap. I have had pretty good luck with most of the HF hand tools i carry. wrenches, impact sockets, etc. Only exception is i occassionally have problems with their cheaper ratchets getting stripped out. but like i said they are cheap so i can just get a new one for 5 bucks or less. For my impact wrench and air cut off wheel and drill i carry in the Jeep I use the cheap blue ones from Wally World (ingersoll rand i think, cant remember the name at the moment) and these hold up really well. I also use the cheapies in the tool box i have mounted to my Quad trailer and in my junkyard tool box. when i get wheel well boxes for the dodge i will get some cheapies for them too.

In my experience alot of the HF stuff actually works really well. there are some things to avoid, basically any of their purple power tools just suck. I've killed about 4 of their purple 4.5" angle grinders. I have one of their drill presses and it works great, bench vises are good, most hand tools are decent (NOT Torx bits!!!) their u-joint press tool is indespensible and a must have, jack stands and such are great too. so don't put HF out 100% there are quite a few things i buy from them. good source for consumables too like cut off wheels

 

I voted Craftsman, because I've never had any problems with them at all. I love Craftsman stuff, been using it for as long as I've been wrenching. I've also broken a few Snap-On sockets and extensions, so despite all the hype I hear, I've just broken too many of them for me to consider them being superior to Craftsman.