Rick Potter
02-04-2015, 10:06 PM
In April '09 I bought a Ridgid 12V drill, and registered it for the Lifetime Warranty. A few days later, one of the two batteries would not take a charge, so I went back the HD, and they just gave me a new kit. On 2-9-10 I took it to HD in Phoenix, where I was using it, with one of the batteries not charging again. That store was nice enough to take it back and exchange it for another whole new kit. If you are keeping score, this is kit #3.
I keep this kit in a condo in Phoenix, where it gets very light use, and it gets charged up every 4 months or so. It has been great about keeping a charge, and has always worked well before charging.
Last month, one battery would not take a charge again, and the Phoenix store said they didn't handle warranty issues, so I brought it home and took it to another store, who said that I needed to go to a store that had rental tools, and they would handle warranties. At that store, they said they did handle lifetime battery warranties, and found my warranty registered properly, but naturally, the batteries registered were the original ones from way back when I bought it.
The person at HD was very helpful, and spent over an hour trying to figure out how to help me, finally managing to do it. He took back the batteries and charger, and gave me new ones, then spent half a hour re-registering the battery and charger serial numbers so that I would not have this problem again. Serious props to HD for customer service.
OK, here I am now with my fourth set of batteries, fourth charger, and third drill. The store told me the lifetime warranty procedure is that even though the new battery numbers were in the system, I still had to phone them and confirm that I had them. So, I did. I called the number and confirmed the numbers.
Now, here is where the story takes a twist, as the Village Idiot just had to say more than he needed to. The numbers are confirmed, the warranty is updated, and Mr. Big Mouth just had to ask if he should change the numbers on the drill also. This resulted in a 20 minute explanation of the above, which resulted in the nice lady putting my entire warranty on the disabled list, including the new batteries that were just entered. Silly me, thinking that reason would prevail. Now they want me to write a letter including all paperwork (which I do have), explaining how my entire set of tools is still original, just replaced piece by piece.
That is not gonna happen. Why? Because, I am done. Right after talking to the nice lady, I went out and charged up my new pair of batteries. Guess what happened. One new battery took a charge, the other would not. Ironically, if I had charged them before calling, I never would have called. In spite of great service from all stores involved, the fact remains that I have had four pairs of batteries, and one battery of each pair has been bad.
I did go back to my HD store, and asked if I could have my old battery that was good in trade for the new bad one, and the store gave me back my old one, telling me to keep the new one, so I do have two useable batteries. So, next trip it goes back to Phoenix.
Rick P
A final irony. After all this, with nothing to lose, I just rapped the bad new battery hard on the cast iron shaper table, and it is now taking a charge. Who knows for how long.
I keep this kit in a condo in Phoenix, where it gets very light use, and it gets charged up every 4 months or so. It has been great about keeping a charge, and has always worked well before charging.
Last month, one battery would not take a charge again, and the Phoenix store said they didn't handle warranty issues, so I brought it home and took it to another store, who said that I needed to go to a store that had rental tools, and they would handle warranties. At that store, they said they did handle lifetime battery warranties, and found my warranty registered properly, but naturally, the batteries registered were the original ones from way back when I bought it.
The person at HD was very helpful, and spent over an hour trying to figure out how to help me, finally managing to do it. He took back the batteries and charger, and gave me new ones, then spent half a hour re-registering the battery and charger serial numbers so that I would not have this problem again. Serious props to HD for customer service.
OK, here I am now with my fourth set of batteries, fourth charger, and third drill. The store told me the lifetime warranty procedure is that even though the new battery numbers were in the system, I still had to phone them and confirm that I had them. So, I did. I called the number and confirmed the numbers.
Now, here is where the story takes a twist, as the Village Idiot just had to say more than he needed to. The numbers are confirmed, the warranty is updated, and Mr. Big Mouth just had to ask if he should change the numbers on the drill also. This resulted in a 20 minute explanation of the above, which resulted in the nice lady putting my entire warranty on the disabled list, including the new batteries that were just entered. Silly me, thinking that reason would prevail. Now they want me to write a letter including all paperwork (which I do have), explaining how my entire set of tools is still original, just replaced piece by piece.
That is not gonna happen. Why? Because, I am done. Right after talking to the nice lady, I went out and charged up my new pair of batteries. Guess what happened. One new battery took a charge, the other would not. Ironically, if I had charged them before calling, I never would have called. In spite of great service from all stores involved, the fact remains that I have had four pairs of batteries, and one battery of each pair has been bad.
I did go back to my HD store, and asked if I could have my old battery that was good in trade for the new bad one, and the store gave me back my old one, telling me to keep the new one, so I do have two useable batteries. So, next trip it goes back to Phoenix.
Rick P
A final irony. After all this, with nothing to lose, I just rapped the bad new battery hard on the cast iron shaper table, and it is now taking a charge. Who knows for how long.