Roylin Hammond
Columnist
Years ago I took a TORTS class. I didn’t learn a lot about the law but one of the terms I remember was, “The Buyer Beware,” which in legal terms basically means “what you buy may not be worth a darn but you are stuck with it because you didn’t do your due diligence to determine if it was functional, or stolen and belonged to someone else, or was just a piece of incomplete junk.
I’m sure a lawyer has a much better definition for this.
I say this based on a recent experience I had with a product purchased from a local big box store.
Have you ever purchased or been given a battery-powered power tool? Drills, I think, would be the most common and most popular. Every battery-powered tool I have EVER purchased came with at least one and maybe two rechargeable batteries and a charger to recharge the batteries. It didn’t matter what brand it was …. Dewalt, Skil, Milwaukee, Makita, Hitachi, Craftsman, Kobalt, or whatever brand it was, it came with at least one battery and a battery charger.
Now, I will be the first to admit, no two brands had interchangeable batteries or chargers and only rarely did batteries interchange between different tools made by the same manufacturer. That would have been way too customer-friendly and a really poor marketing strategy.
Well, this is where the “Buyer Beware” part comes in.
When Sears was a thriving retail outlet, they marketed Craftsman tools exclusively. Craftsman hand tools had a lifetime warranty, no questions asked, period. They (Sears) also stood behind their Craftsman power tools with usually a one-year or maybe longer warranty. And guess what, the battery-powered tools came with a battery and a charger. But unfortunately, SEARS went the way of many large chain stores and went into bankruptcy.
But Craftsman tools were used world-wide, even used by the military. What was going to happen to the lifetime warranties? They made great tools for the do-it-yourselfer, ere they just going to disappear?
It appears that the big-box corporate minds saw an opportunity (and dollar signs) and managed to become the new Craftsman distributor to the uninformed do-it-yourself homeowner and weekend fix-it guy (I am both of those). After all, that is the big box store’s target market — the naïve, inexperienced homeowners,
But someone in corporate marketing had an idea: Sell the Craftsman power tools cheap …. with no battery and no charger. Make a $50 power tool sound like a great deal, particularly during holidays, and then we can sell batteries and chargers at a premium price to make the tool actually work. After all, Craftsman tools have a great reputation; uninformed homeowners will buy the tools and not read the fine print about no battery or charger. Then they will come back and buy a $50 to $150 battery and a $100 charger (the local big box store only had a $99 double-battery Craftsman charger in stock when I went to check on its cost.
We can sell a tool normally worth around $100 for at least $200. Hey, we can do this with the store brand too. Great idea … great profit margins and we can put up return policies on the wall at the return desk, certainly not at check-out for the customer to read before they make a purchase, saying we will not take these products back after 30 days (because they are power tools) or without a receipt. That will cover gifts being returned with no purchase receipt.
Full disclosure: All the above verbiage is a product of my own thoughts and the result of my frustration in trying to return a $50 gift (a power tool) that will cost me between $150 and $250 dollars to make operational. The manager at the big box store who I asked to speak with (and only had to wait about 10 minutes for him to appear) was very nice and seemed to understand my frustration. However, he has a job to do and a corporate policy to follow. After all, the policy is right there on the wall at the return desk. I would have to assume there is a reason for that.
So, BUYER BEWARE: The purchase of a Craftsman power tool (and possibly other brands too) may be a major investment if you actually want to use it!
And by all means, visit the Return Desk FIRST and read the return policy before you buy anything. Don’t be uninformed as I was and have the expectation that corporate will do the right thing. You might even consider asking the manager to explain the return policy in detail, if you have the time.
Roylin Hammond is a Laurinburg resident and former Scotland County Emergency Management Services director.