Hello all, I normally try to post upbeat posts but am a bit ticked off right now at Woodcraft.com and Rikon brand. I have used a 4x36" combo sander for 10 years made by craftsman, a few years ago it was getting well worn and I had to tear it apart to grease the BUSHINGS!? but hey it kept ticking and I would do that maintenance every few months. My local (25 miles away) Woodcraft store had a sale on the same size sander made by Rikon and it had a slight bit more horsepower so I bought it. A couple months later I retired the Craftsman and installed the Rikon and wow it worked nice untill I had about 8 minutes of use on it and it made a huge POP! sound and a mushroom cloud of smoke. I took it back to the Woodcraft.com store in Tigard Oregon and they told me any warrentee issues I had to call the manufacturer so I did. They were very nice and told me I could have my refund or they could replace it. They said they would email the store manager and let him know...........
A week later I called the store because I had been pretty much dead in the water making stuff and they were quite rude and said they had not heard anything. I stewed on this a bit and early this morning I took a drive to Harbor Freight...I know, I know but hey I thought if it got me through a week or two I would be happy. I bought a 4x36 combo sander and guess what, it had bearings for the rollers, more HP and when I fired it up it was nice and smooth. Great story so far but...
My daughter was going right by the 25 mile away Woodcraft.com store and I gave her the Rikon and all the paperwork along with the reciept that says "if you are not satisfied we will return your money within 90 days". Today is day 88. They were very rude to her and come to find out at the bottom of Woodcraft.com reciept it says they will not take back any power tools. They pointed out that the unit was well worn because of 3 scratches on the platen, hell buy a new one and turn it on and sand something for 5 minutes it will be more worn than the unit I returned. They then said they won't take it, so I got a phone call from my daughter, I explained some more the issue and gave them the name of the Rikon guy I talked too, but he never sent an email. I realize they may have store policies but after questioning the manager on particulars it's pretty much NOT the "if your not satisfied" clause but more of "if you didn't step off the curb and the package has not been opened".
I have spent a ton of money at this woodworking store called Woodcraft.com and guess what at Harbor Freight they gave me a 2 yr no questions asked bring it back and we give you a new one, you don't need your receipt because the sale was tied to my phone number!
I think it's like Kia years ago, they had cheap cars and everyone dissed them, then they started having great warrantees, won some rally races, won some other races, then got a better serve ecord than some big names and now they get a bit higher price than they used too and it's a better car.
Sorry for the rant but be rude if you want repeat customers, don't make up stuff like how well worn a product is when you don't know what your talking about and try to keep in mind that not everybody wants a tool for a hobby that you can wait weeks before an issue is solved.
Sorry again,
Keith
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