Outstanding Customer Service....And Not So Much

[Ronald Blue]

Around the 1st of August a deal popped up for a Milwaukee M18 Fuel impact driver, 2 batteries, charger, and case on WOOT.. Around $100. I grabbed one. Worked great. Then about 6 weeks in I popped a battery on the charger and no charge. Nothing I tried would make it charge. This was a brand new tool not a refurbished one and represented to have full warranty. I happen to have a Milwaukee warranty station in the area. So when I had a chance I dropped in there and became educated and frustrated both. I had already checked the date code on the battery and it was outside the three year standard warranty. What the education was is that Milwaukee has a dealer network of authorized dealers. They wouldn't warranty it because WOOT which is part of Amazon isn't an authorized dealer. I need to contact WOOT again. I emailed them and it said I would hear from them in 24 hours. That was probably 8 weeks ago. Now for the great news.

I called Milwaukee's warranty hot line and they confirmed what I already knew. That it wasn't purchased from an authorized reseller. However and they didn't have to do this they sent me a new battery anyway. I thanked the customer service representative repeatedly for this. This blew me away. I love the driver and having two batteries just makes it more convenient. I'm still a fan of most Milwaukee tools. Just wanted to share this.

[Paul F Franklin]

Always good to hear when a company does the right thing even when not obligated to do so. Guess we know why it was on woot for a good price....

[Jim Becker]

Glad you got your issue taken care of and it was very nice for Milwaukee to step out of policy and do that for sure.

Always be aware of "who the actual seller is" when you buy off a platform like Amazon or Walmart. Many things are sold by third party sellers, even if "fulfilled" by Amazon's warehouse and delivery system. And there are absolutely some organizations that sell off old and/or excess stock. Woot is one of them. That does affect warranty terms for manufacturers that require only authorized dealers to have access to selling their products. As an example about how extreme it can get, never buy a Nikon product from a non-authorized source...not only is there no warranty, but they are unlikely to even fix something for a fee. And grey market is the same...products identified by serial numbers as having been manufactured for sale in one geographic region, but sold in another, even by "authorized" dealers get no manufacturer warranty/service with them. Some tool manufacturers enforce things like this, too.

[Frederick Skelly]

Great news! Thanks for telling us about it.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

It's great to hear Milwaukee stood behind the warranty even though it wasn't bought from an authorized dealer and it was outside the date code for warranty! It is also great you gave them the due public credit! Too often dissatisfied customers don't hesitate to berate companies online while satisfied customers remain silent. Good on you!

[George Bokros]

Another great company for customer service is Kreg. A few years back I sent drill bit to them to be sharpened. I thought I had packaged it well. Kreg contacted me via email and said all they received was my check. They sent me a brand new drill bit for the cost of sharpening.

[Bob Jones 5443]

“Woot”? (That’s all I wanted to post, but it was too short.)

[Ronald Blue]

“Woot”? (That’s all I wanted to post, but it was too short.)

woot.com/?&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_campaign=561426480-AllWPC-2020-12-16-EngTar&utm_content=Newsletter-allWPC-1216-Header&ref_=pe_3323880_561426480

[Bob Jones 5443]

Thanks, Ronald. That one got completely by me.

[Jack Frederick]

I was a manuf rep in the HVAC/P&H business for 35 yrs. Warranties! They and the companies behind them are maddening. What I take pleasure in here is that Milwaukee gave their service advisor the latitude to make a decision to support your purchase. Good for you. Good for them and all of their customers. I like my tools Red!

[Ronald Blue]

I was a manuf rep in the HVAC/P&H business for 35 yrs. Warranties! They and the companies behind them are maddening. What I take pleasure in here is that Milwaukee gave their service advisor the latitude to make a decision to support your purchase. Good for you. Good for them and all of their customers. I like my tools Red!

In the future I will definitely pay attention to who is selling the product. I've been pleased with the red tools and basically have converted totally to them. They aren't always the best in class but their cordless impacts are class leaders and everything else more than meets my needs.