Chainsaw fiasco

In March, my chainsaw broke. It was the threads on the oil tank. No big deal right? I had a 2 year service agreement... I looked online to see if this was a common problem, and guess what? There's a recall on the handle of this model. A recall of the handle on a chainsaw. THAT's not good...

So, I go the store (sears) for a repair or replacement, and they send me to the sears service center. Fair enough. I go to the service center and drop it off for repair. 10 day ETA... sounds good.

3 weeks go by, and no call. I call sears, who says they're "waiting for a part" which the CSR thinks is the cap for the oil tank. Sounds wierd, but OK, whatever.

2 more weeks and we get a call that it's ready for pickup. So, I go to the service center, and sure enough they fixed NOTHING. That's right. It took them almost 6 weeks to decide it was cheaper to replace it, and sent it back.

After getting over my irritation, I decide that at least I can get a new saw. I'm told I have to go back to the store to get a replacement. Ok.... so off I go to the retail store. Now, I like sears in some ways, but their tool sales people sure do suck. After 30 MINUTES to figure out what the repair center was saying on the form, and ANOTHER 30 MINUTES to figure out how to ring up what was determined to be a "return" (and 3 sales people to decide what the reason code should be... is it "poor performance" or "product does not function"? good lord...) they realized they didn't have that model in stock anymore. (remember the recall?)

In the end, I got the original cost of the saw PLUS the 2 year agreement back, and got new Husqvarna 18" (instead of the 20" craftsman) and a three year service agreement for the same price. If you know chainsaws, you'll agree that the loss of 2 inches of bar length is worth the dramatic increase in product quality. So a happy ending, but what a pain in the ass.