Last Ridgid Product For Me?

Paul Douglass

Member
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4,984
Location
S E Washington State
Last month I purchased the Ridgid belt/spindle sander. It was suppose to come with the "lifetime warranty", which it did, but they put me through several gyrations to obtain it. If it comes with it you shouldn't have to go through several steps to prove your purchase. They already have all the info. Anyway, that is just part of the story. Today, I got to thinking, what if I need repair, where do I take it? So I went to their site and looked it up. My closest authorized service center is almost 200 miles away! Does not make me happy, hope I never have problems with it!
 
The LSA is a nice feature but, as you discovered, you do have to be diligent about following the registration process and it takes a long time. Getting service seems to be sort of subjective. Dad has been able to get his local Home Depot to take care of replacement batteries for him. I have had to go to a service center. Now that it has been a few years and I am on about the third set of free batteries, I get to just send the dead ones to the service center and they send me back new ones (cheaper than gas and my time). My sander developed a shimmy and I did have to take it to the service center (onl 40 miles one way for me) but, this is true of DeWalt, Delta and other brands.
 
I've acquired a number of Ridgid tools. All have worked well so far. I hadn't really thought much about registering and warranty. So what kind of hoops do you have to jump through?

Luckily, there are 4 service centers for "Power Tools" in my metro area and one about 45 miles north.
 
I've acquired a number of Ridgid tools. All have worked well so far. I hadn't really thought much about registering and warranty. So what kind of hoops do you have to jump through?

Luckily, there are 4 service centers for "Power Tools" in my metro area and one about 45 miles north.

I tried to register online. I got a response there was something wrong with my attempt, but no explanation what was wrong, just instructions of what 4 things I needed to mail to them, registered mail, with receipt requested. It was a "noreply" message so I couldn't even ask what the problem was. Cost me $6.70 to mail the stuff per their instructions. I've always felt if you buy something with a warranty, it should automatically have that warranty. You shouldn't have to register the product or anything. The selling company has all the info of the purchase. If another company handles the warranty, the selling company should be linked to them so the info is transferred to them. Maybe at the store you should have to give them some info, i.e. address, name. But actually they already have that info, unless you pay cash. I know, even in this electronic age, I'm expecting too much.

Guess I'm just in a grouchy mood today....:tantrum:
 
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I know the LSA is a PITA to navigate, and it's unfortunate that the nearest service center is so far from you. I generally don't give the LSA much weight in a buying decision. The good news is that this particular unit has a pretty good track record and is sort of in a league of it's own in this price range.

I try hard to never completely write off any brand name, because there's always a chance that they'll produce a gem eventually that I'll dismiss. Inversely, I also try hard not to drink the koolaid of any elite manufacturer because sooner or later they're likely to produce a lemon with a marquis logo on it, and sell it for a premium because the tactic works....for a while. I make them earn my money every time!
 
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I tried to register online. I got a response there was something wrong with my attempt, but no explanation what was wrong, just instructions of what 4 things I needed to mail to them, registered mail, with receipt requested. It was a "noreply" message so I couldn't even ask what the problem was. Cost me $6.70 to mail the stuff per their instructions. I've always felt if you buy something with a warranty, it should automatically have that warranty. You shouldn't have to register the product or anything. The selling company has all the info of the purchase. If another company handles the warranty, the selling company should be linked to them so the info is transferred to them. Maybe at the store you should have to give them some info, i.e. address, name. But actually they already have that info, unless you pay cash. I know, even in this electronic age, I'm expecting too much.

Guess I'm just in a grouchy mood today....:tantrum:

Yikes! No, I don't really think you're out of line. Especially in today's world "online" and "snail mail" as the two choices are unacceptable. Additional options could be emailing a scan of the documents or FAXING the documents. Physically mailing documents around the country is asinine from everyone's standpoint... I mean, Ridgid now has to have a person open the envelope, read the contents and manually enter them into a computer somewhere. Talk about time is money....
 
Oh, no they wanted my original invoice, "advice you make a copy for yourself"! Oh, well, I was notified I received the LSA. It is not what made me decide to get that machine, but it was suppose to come with it so I was going to have it!:D
 
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