[Shop-talk] SK breaker bar Saga (the final update)

[old dirtbeard]

I am very sorry to hear this, Moose. I too have been a loyal SK customer
for over 50 years. I have a very larage collection of tools from them.

I know that they were purchased in 2021 by Hangzhou GreatStar Industrial, a
Chinese conglomerate.  I believe that some/most of the manufacturing is
still done here, but it is no longer an American company.

For new purchases I believe Proto and Wright still are US-made and owned,
but things changs.

I bought a Backyard Buddy 4-post automotive lift in 2019 that was
wonderful. It was made by Steel Valley Lifts. I ordered another one last
month, but now it is owned by Advantage Lifts which sells imported lifts as
well.

Although the core Backyard Buddy lift is still made in the US of US steel,
many of the ancillary components now are imported and it only says
"assembled in USA" instead of "made in USA." The substituted imported parts
are not up to the quality of the Backyard sold by Steel City.

I truly hate to see this degradation of quality happen to really good
American tool companies. I guess I am just glad that I have most of the
tools now that I will ever need.

best,

doug

On Thu, Jan 4, 2024 at 2:16 PM <eric at megageek.com> wrote:

> Well, in Oct, my SK breaker bar broke.
> I couldn't find any phone numbers or anything, just a website to fill out
> some info.
>
> After putting in a claim for the "breaker bar repair kit", I waited almost
> a month, nothing.  Then I posted here and others expressed their
> dissatisfaction with SK as well.
>
> I finally found an email and sent them one asking if they received my
> claim.  They stated that they did not have it.
>
> I resubmitted it, waited 2 days and emailed again.  Again, they said they
> didn't have it.
>
> Then about a day later, they sent me an email stated they DID have it, but
> they didn't see it because the email address (I have no idea what that
> meant.)
>
> But they also said that I would have to send them the broken tool in for a
> replacement, since the kit wasn't available.
>
> So I spend about $12 sending it in (with all the postal tracking and such.)
>
> About 2 weeks AFTER I confirmed they received it, I sent another email.
> Nothing.
>
> Then, I get an invoice for the shipping of the new tool to me for $8 about
> 4 days later.  I pay it within an hour of getting it.
>
> About a week later, I get a message saying they received my payment and
> will be shipping out the replacement.  Now, this was about mid Dec.  So I
> hoped they would get it in the mail sooner before the holidays.
>
> Nope, they waited until the new year to ship it.  Since the place is only
> about 4 hours away from me in PA, it only took 2 days to get it.  So I now
> have my new SK breaker bar.
>
> Note, in all my emails to them I expressed how much I loved SK tools, and
> how I relied on my breaker bar and how I would have to buy a cheap one to
> use in the meantime if it was going to take a while to replace.
>
> In the end, I am not at all happy.  American tool companies used to be
> worth the extra price.  However, I know that if I had a cheap Home Depot
> Rigid one and walked into a store with it broken, I would walk out with a
> new one.
>
> The other thing is that I had to pay the shipping BOTH WAYS.  Really?  If
> they didn't like the photos I sent, they could have paid for the shipping
> one way at least!  I mean, $20 isn't going to break me, but it is a drop in
> the bucket for a company that charges a MAJOR premium for tools.  And to
> have me without a tool for over 3 months!  I mean if I was making my living
> with their tools, I would have been starving.
>
> I will NO LONGER buy SK tools.    I hope they are happy.  If any of them
> break, I'm headed to a local Lowes and replacing them with their house
> brands (they used to do that in the past at least.)
>
> Anyway, just wanted to let all of you know what happened with the bar.
>
> Moose _______________________________________________
>
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