Best Companies That Stand Behind Their Products & ‘No Fuss’ Warranty

54 Comments

1. Kohl’s
   We had no problems returning items with this company. Although they are more expensive on some items, they carry products I do not see in other stores.

   I avoid going in as, I always come out with more than I originally planned on purchasing.

2. Craftsman products are now made overseas, in China, Taiwan, Vietnam etc. Not made here anymore. I went to my local big box store and looked at the packaging on some Craftsman products and this is what I found.

   1. blackjack22,

      What you say about Craftsman tools is true………..for now (actually Stanley, Black and Decker, Craftsman). Read recently they have broke ground on a new facility in Ft Worth, Tx and would be moving some of their operations back to the U.S. as soon as possible, due to the tariffs imposed on Chinese imports. Not making the evening news much, those tariffs not working is the meme. Can’t give Trump policies any positives.

      1. I can only hope America has learned a hard lesson. I really hope the Ft. Worth deal is real. I hope the local yokels, state and Federals stay the hell away and let commerce happen. Seeing the writing on the wall, we broke ground on our new VN factory 26 weeks ago. Soft start last month, then they ramped up to 100% on 1st June. Oops… Your move Don.

         1. tmcgyver
            I did not hear of any tariffs against Vietnam but I could have missed it. Being a Nationalist, I would gladly pay more for goods manufactured in this country – why? It strengthens our country, employs Americans, and selfishness on my part, that I don’t buy much stuff but only a few quality items when needed. They can keep the plastic crap for all I care.

         2. hermit – That’s the whole point. We can’t tariff our way to competitiveness. We need a renewed American work ethic. We need government out of our way; indeed they should invest in new business; not strangle it with regulatory overlap. My office is half US and half PRC. Care to guess which group has all their “sick time” and ‘PTO’ and medical leaves and food stamps all lined up and dialed in? Care to guess which group shows up each and every day, without failure or excuse and quietly performs a meticulous, professional job? We need the old America back. Like those old Boeing films from the 60’s… We need THOSE guys back! Skinny ties, hair grease, pipes, unstoppable drive and all of it.

   2. You may have to hit up garage sales estate sales auctions etc… this is an excellent source of vintage made in the USA tools

      1. I do home repair / construction and handyman work and am always on the lookout for used tools at garage sales.

         They are well made, made to last.

         I usually wire brush them, clean them up and spray the meter with a clear coat of polyurethane and or paint as needed.

         This way I get a quality tool that will last and looks good.

         I also make almost all my own tool boxes out of wood.

         People see that you make a good-looking tool box and it shows you do good work. Nice tools and boxes are a good sales tool.

3. Filson. Filson.com Based on my experience, this company would be at the top of this list.

4. Smith & Wesson and Glock have always treated me well

5. Chewy has a really good warranty. When I gave an item 1 star, they immediately credited my account. I said I didn’t want a refund. They said, “too bad, your refund is already in your account.”

   Also, I recently had a question (not really a complaint) about a Thrive product. They no longer carry that item and didn’t know the answer, so they said “discard it and we will refund.” I probably bought it 8 or 10 years ago, but they still had a record.

   1. Love Chewy. Had been buying cat food from them for the last few years. DH decided to put in order for litter, they sent an email stating it had been delivered but we didn’t get it (80 lbs of litter, hard not to see the box ) Contacted them and 2 days later another shipment arrived, no charge. THEN 2 more days later the original shipment showed up, seems the box the bags of litter were in had broken open, guy took it back to FEx and taped it up then “forgot” to bring it to us. We contacted Chewy to let them know what happened and wanted to pay for the 2nd shipment. They said no need,Thank you for letting them know what happened. Surprised both of us.

6. Vortex Optics. vortexoptics.com

   Excellent products and outstanding customer service.

7. Sig Sauer – great rifles, lifetime warranty. Had two issues in the last 10 years. One required sending a rifle back. It was fixed, no questions asked. the other issue was that a firing pin developed slight shear damage. I called, they sent a replacement immediately. They didn’t even want the damaged one returned, just a photo of the damaged pin. They even apologized!

8. RCBS (reloading equipment) – Fantastic customer service and free replacement parts

9. I’m going to second the Leupold products.

   Short story, was in the Outback doing a little boom boom with an “ex-friend” Notice I said “ex”, he wanted to fire my little 300 Win-Mag to see what he thought, personally I did not care what he through, but ok, sure why not.

   Will as like must idiots, meaning me, I watched him fire 4 rounds, drop the mag, literally on the ground in the dirt, he opened the bolt and cleared the firearm. walks over and leans the boom-boom against the truck bed, turns back to pick up the cartridges and Mag. Yeppers, you guessed it, the rifle slides across the paint job and lands right on the scope, $1800 scope. I reached out for the Mag, picked up the rifle, hoped into the truck and left him standing there.
   I contacted Leupold, told them the story. Sent it into them and they replaced the scope tube and the front glass, no charge, they even paid the shipping back.
   PS; if ya see some sorry looking slob walking west with a riffle bag, do NOT pick him up, he’s worthless.

   Ok, my list of good companies.
   Leupold; GREAT Scopes
   Leatherman; I like the ‘Wave’
   Redman Boots; none better
   John Deere; I tried to break it many many times HAHAHA
   Cabalas used to be on the list till they got bought out; now on my poop-list
   Shiloh Sharps; No better Black Powder rifles made
   Kitchen Aid, very dependable appliances
   Kohler plumbing fixtures
   Quilted Northern; HAHAHA y-all know I would add that.

   Sure glad Ken did not say to make a list of crummy companies, thousands out there now-a-days

   1. Dang NRP man, you still mad about that? I said I was sorry, and I mean, it’s just a Chevy. I’m not walking west any more, got a ride; thanks anyway. And for heck’s sake will you please stop telling people we were doing “boom-boom in the outback”. That’s just wrong.

      1. – tmcgyver, NRP,
         I will admit that had me shaking my head for a moment. I kind of thought it was one of those, “don’t ask, don’t tell” moments!

         – Papa

         1. Right. Like, Broke Back Gulch, or,,,, ewww.

      2. tmcgyver:
         LOLOLOL
         Thank you my friend, I needed a good belly laugh tonight….
         AND no more BOOM-BOOM with you ifen ya keep telling folks.
         OMG just snorted gin out my nose
         ROFLMAO
         Love ya brother.

10. – Ruger; lost a spring, my fault, from the trigger mechanism. In the mail two days later. No charge. Can’t ask for better than that.
    – Papa S.

    1. Papa, I’ve got to add my vote for Ruger. I purchased a now unmentionable model more than 30 years ago. High cycle weapon, worn action, it developed a first fire trigger hang; sear problem maybe. I sent it in, totally willing to pay for repair; they sent it back, repaired at no charge. It gets better… because of a misunderstanding, they fixed the wrong thing. I sent it back a second time. This time it was returned to me completely rebuilt, to a newer, later spec, like brand new. Their gunsmith even sent me a video of him running a mag through it rapid fire without a hitch. Ruger is the best customer service!

11. Dillon reloading equipment has a great NO BS warranty, if you have a problem with one of their consumer reloading machines like the square deal, 450, 550, 650 or 950. Just call them up, tell them what you need and they’ll send you the replacement part no questions asked, and they pay the shipping too.

12. Zippo windproof lighters. You send them a defective lighter, and they will fix it for free.

    1. Zippo lighters are great. I carry one and have never smoked.

       I just got an old one back from Zippo. Sent it in and they put in a whole new insert. And it was very fast service.

       That old lighter, I bought at a garage sale 10-years ago.

13. You guys forgot to mention Gransfors Bruk. The make the best axes and other tools. They come with a lifetime warranty and are hand made in Sweden.

    1. Yep, I have one of their axes. Good recommendation!

       1. Ken;
          Recommendation please.
          Trust your suggestion.
          And need a “good” axe.

          1. I have a Stihl splitting axe. I love it. Never had a problem with it but my local dealer said he would replace it if anything ever happened to it.

       2. NRP,

          I will show you a few photos of my Gransfors Bruk “Small Forest Axe” (19″) which I just took this morning (will work up a post on the subject at some point). They make a variety of axes (in Sweden).

          WARNING: They are Expensive!
          Note that one could purchase a number of equivalent size axes for the same price, though of presumably less quality – however maybe still ‘good enough’!

          I bought this Gransfors Bruk several years ago when the budget was better! I do not regret it, even to this day. I have at least 3 other axes, which cost less. I’ve broken handles before on lesser axes. Once you hold a Gransfors, you’ll ‘get it’. The balance, the hold, it’s supreme. But they’re cha-ching…

          Anyway, I’m just saying it’s the best axe I’ve owned.

          

          Here are their various models, as shown on Amazon:
          Gransfors Axes

          1. Ken;
             Thanks for the reply and link, thinking on one of them seriously

14. ESEE Knives.

    No Questions Asked. Lifetime. Believe it.

    Difficult to wreck in the first place. They are that good, but if you do manage and don’t win a Darwin award for trying, they will make you whole.

15. Our warranty policy is anywhere from 1 to 3 years and we have several hundred people per day who make claims. Our eligibility requirements are not all that onerous and frankly for little stuff we bend the rules for customers all of the time. But when a customer phones our support center and decides to act like a bully and start pushing people around and threatening various actions…. may God have mercy on you… because we certainly won’t. The very worst ones, the folks who just won’t quit, end up talking to me. The “golden rule” is then strictly enforced; you will get back, by orders of magnitude, whatever comes out of that mouth next. Point being, even those companies with not so legendary warranty support can be profoundly swayed by basic human decency and respect.

    1. My company has a very easy warranty program. As you said some people like to bully and threaten. My policy with them is as soon as they say Sue or lawyer I tell them our conversation is over. Have your lawyer contact ours. They start backing up real quick at that point but by then it’s too late.

16. Estwing@ makes great axes and hammers, as well as being works of art. I have a pair of Carhart@ work pants and I gotta tell ya’, my ass never felt (or looked) so good.

    Can you find a quality product at Harbor Freight? Everything they sell is pretty much considered as being landfill, but I think they might start tinkering with higher quality goods. I bought their AA rechargeable batteries and they are performing quite well. Wood clamps were an incredible value and extremely well made, certainly comparable to Besey@. On the other hand I bought a $4.99 set of sockets that should’ve gone well with a Ken & Barbie doll from Toys R Us.

    1. Sorry, this is a mess, I wasn’t intending to comment on my physique but the well-cut pants. The humor didn’t show up. I’ll stand in the corner for now.

17. Best standing behind their product in my experience:

    Leatherman: no questions, great customer service, quick turn-a-round, paid return shipping.

    Sig-Sauer: no questions, great customer service, quick turn-a-round, paid shipping to and return.

    Smith and Wesson: no questions, great customer service, quick turn-a-round, paid return shipping.

    Not so good experience:

    Taurus: no questions, but takes forever for them to repair once they receive weapon, claiming extremely large backlog of weapons needing repairs. plan on 1-3 month wait, will not sell consumer repair parts.

    1. I bought a Taurus .380 from a local store. The first time I took it to the range the last shell in the mag would jam every time. Went back to the store and asked if this was a common problem. He gave me a new magazine on the spot. After some cleaning and oil the jamming problem went away. I took the extra mag back to the store and tried to pay for it and he would not take my money. This is one reason I like to do business with local people rather than on line. This is the same guy that said he would take care of the ax I mentioned above.

18. Henry Rifles. Bought a Henry 22. Closer inspection at home showed it had a bad spot on an otherwise excellent wood stock. Emailed a picture to customer service. Received a response in 24 hours and had a new stock in the mail within a week. Did not ask me to send them the bad one. Will buy another Henry if they make a steel 357 with the loading gate.

19. From my younger years literally making a living out of my backpack: I was 5’8″ at 130 lbs ( kinda skinny back then…) so the most comfortable backpack for me was made by Lowe Alpine Systems internal frame system. It made possible 20 mile days with minimal chafing. Average load out was 35 to 50 lbs. I was living and working at 7000 feet so my body was aclimated to the altitude.

    Outerwear was gore-tex rain suit by LL Bean, Down jacket and sleeping bag by The North Face. Hiking boots by Merrell or Columbia. All leather boots for the fire line were Red Wing Irish Setters. Wild land firefighting involved a lot of walking. Our Nomex was issued and our uniforms were Flying Cross. Our ballistic vests were made by American Body Armor.

    As a civilian, I like jeans by Wrangler or cargo pants by Duluth Trading post. I like SKB hard rifle cases because they are built to airline spec. With all the money wrapped up in rifles and optics, I prefer not to skimp on the rifle’s carry case.

    I am bald now so I must wear a fleece watch cap in cold weather by Eddie Baur and I wear a Tilley hat when I am out in the sun. Sunburn on top of the head is a drag…

    I like Remington 870 shotguns, rifles made by Remington, Savage and Marlin. I have many different brands of handguns including a few that have been rebuilt and, speaking of rebuilding firearms, I must mention:

    Midway/USA; Brownells; and Larry Potterfield’s U-tube videos on gun repair.

    I will not discuss what I drive because I do not want to get the “Ford versus Chevy” argument going. besides, I am an asian driver. I get in enough trouble in 4 wheeled motor vehicles.

20. No complaints ever as they went above and beyond:
    Lee Precision
    Agri-fab
    Miller family of welding products

    Worst:
    Glock. I was one of the lucky people that had a .40SW rail separation nearly 20 years ago. Hit me in the neck when the slide went into orbit. Buddy still has his, 50 serial numbers away from what mine was. Took Glock a year to do something about it reluctantly and only after I ruthlessly disparaged their customer service on forums. The customer service and their belief in “perfection” made me decide that I’d never have another one even if I needed to level my couch and had no phonebooks available. The nice thing was it did make me start wearing safety glasses more.

    1. pinky,

       Not a Glock fan myself (do own one), but know several folks that owned one of the first Glock .40’s that were built on the 9mm frame ( a mistake by Glock’s own admission). These were the ones that had frame slide rails fail. Everyone that had these early models sent them back and Glock replaced the 9mm frame with a new beefed up frame free of charge, even if they showed no signs of failure, no argument or questions asked. They even assigned the old serial number to the new frame, destroying the old frame. None had any problems dealing with Glock that I’m aware of. What was the point of contention with Glock customer service that you experienced? I have no dog in this hunt, just curious.

       1. Maybe I’m just ‘lucky’, but among other makes and models, I’ve owned a Glock G43 and G19 (Gen 4) for a number of years, and they’ve performed flawlessly.

          1. Ken,

             When I say that “I’m not a fan of Glocks”, it has nothing to do with reliability, function, or quality, they just don’t fit my hand as well as some others. I can say the same thing about Beretta 92’s and similar. I keep my G26 as a companion for my Kel-Tec sub2000 that uses the same magazines (the extended capacity mags). The two weapons and ten compatible mags ride comfortably in a laptop case when traveling away from home. Handy and discreet.

       2. Mine was a gen3 built circa 2000 maybe?

          They argued with me because I must have abused it because all the gen2 problems were solved. Wasn’t until tons of other people that were having problems that they did something about it. I think it was something to do with a bad polymer batch or something. I forget. I just remember it was bad quality control combined with bad customer service.

21. Big Ruger fan. Sorry Tommyboy, but my experience with Ruger rifles is not what yours has been. I like their handguns as well, though I don’t own any of those. Guns are only for target shooting and hunting. At least that’s what I’ve heard. If I were to EVER own a handgun, I would expect excellent service from revolvers and semi’s.

    Yea, I too like Leatherman, red wing boots, etc. Most of Harbor Freight stuff is junky. I still buy some of their stuff though. A pack of screw drivers for $5.00 or maybe free, how can ya go wrong. Use em for pry bars or whatever. Somethings, it really doesn’t matter much.

    1. Plains Medic
       Oh i like them, are decent well made rifles, just did not find them to be the most accurate, sufficient yes, exceptional, no.
       But they are a good piece of hardware. My custom just ruined it for me though, huge difference, didnt believe it before but do now

    2. Ruger gun story. I bought a 32 Mag single-six single action Ruger (9.5-inch barrel) handgun back in the mid-1980’s (32 Mag came out in 1984 I think) The gun had a problem in the firing pin would hit off center every so often.

       I sent it back, Ruger fixed it (a timing problem with the cylinder) sent it back with a personal letter explaining the problem.

       They also sent a coupon for 2-boxes of Federal 32-Mag ammo.

       Can’t ask for better service.

       That was the only gun (out of WAY too many bought over the years) that I ever had a problem with and Ruger went beyond in the repair and customer service.

22. – Not to just pile on, but I mentioned last week or so that I had used a.38+P as a LTL option. This was several years ago, and the weapon used was a snubby Taurus 5-shot revolver. I got the thing from a friend who was transferring to Germany and owed me $15. He was short on cash and couldn’t take it with him, and gave it to me alone with 2 boxes of ammo for the money. It was mine for about an hour until DW saw it and said,”That’s pretty. Thank you, I like it very much.” Fast forward a couple of years, we had a power outage and a hot humid night. The bedroom was stifling, so we were sleeping in the living room for the cross breeze through the windows. Guy tried the front door, heard the dog, decided that our house might not be a good choice. Decided to try next door neighbor’s backdoor. He had just gotten sent to Germany, she was very pregnant and not able to travel. The little Taurus was the first thing to hand. It worked, but the rear sight fell off. Trying to get it fixed was a huge exercise in futility. Eventually sold it, and it’s probably the only one that I haven’t missed.
    – Papa S.

23. Excellent subject. My list;

    Estwing- Replaced a Camp Hatchet that I had bent free of charge

    Ruger- Replaced the slide on my SR22 and paid shipping both ways

    Smith & Wesson-Other than long wait times on phone, technical staff is great

    Stihl Equipment- Excellent to work with

    The OLD Craftsman Tools-Lifetime Warranty and I used it twice!

    Delta Faucets- Made in America and will stand by products. Sent me a replacement valve for a faucet free of charge

24. Had a problem with the eyepiece on a pair of Nikon binoculars. It would not turn and extend out. I went through the process of requesting a repair. Paid the shipping. Back came the binoculars, repaired, cleaned, at no charge, I was very pleased with the repair and service from a large, worldwide company.

25. I’m late to the party as far as comments on this subject, I’ve been busy and my 92-year old Dad was in the hospital for a week.

    But my take on warranties and quality products are probably a bit different then most people.

    I don’t always see lifetime warranties as a indicator of top quality.

    It’s easy for a company to offer free replacement on an item and most times people will take that as an indicator of good products.

    This in not always the case.

    Companies have learned that a lifetime guarantee of free replacement leads to more sales and that few people (even people unhappy with the item) will make the effort to return an item.

    Being a prepper I feel it’s of utmost importance to buy good things and not worry about a free replacement.

    Yes it’s nice to know a company stands behind their products. And most of the things I buy are protected with a guarantee. But the guarantee is never a deciding factor as I buy good things that are unlikely going to need it. It’s happened a few times that I returned things, but it’s not very common.

    And if we do get some kind of bad SHTF event the guarantee may not we worth a thing as your ability to get a replacement could be impossible to do.

    A personal story about free replacement warranties.

    Back in the early 1990’s I bought a new Mauser 22-250 rifle action, it came with no stock. It took 4-months to get a custom stock made.

    The rifle and stock were (and still are ) top quality. “Lots of dead Woodchucks out there from this gun.”

    But I also ordered a Simmons rifle scope, the best one they had. It would not sight in and the bullet hit all over the place. I sent it back and got a free replacement. It sighted in great, only it was 6-inches to the right and would not center.

    I sent it back again and the third one was fuzzy around the outside of the ring when you looked through it.

    I sent it back and told them I wanted my money back, they said NO but would send me a free replacement. Being I was on #3 bad scope I said no to the replacement.

    They ended up settling with me by sending 2 lower model scopes and a set of mini-binoculars. I sold the scopes to the gun shop (I worked at a gun shop at the time) and gave the binoculars to my then 5-year old boy as I was done with Simmons.

    The binoculars lasted a week before each tube was looking at different spots.

    From that point on I did not view warranties in a good light as it’s easy to print the words “Lifetime guarantee” on a piece of paper or a cardboard box. I from that point on made sure I got good things.

    As far as what I replaced the JUNK Simmons with, can you say “Leupold”

    The Leupold was very expensive for my budget at the time, but it has been rock solid for 30-years.

    I learned a lesson back then that I will never ignore for the rest of my life.

    You normally buy quality one time but cheep things you buy again and again.

26. I can also add Hydro Flask to the List. Found one that was destroyed, top was not round, emailed the company and they sent me a new one free o charge!

27. i have to say about ll bean and vitornox. first, llbean in last few years has new ceo or whatever and they changed their lifetime guarantee, i bought parka years ago, did not have the receipt but zipper messed up and barely could get it off me, it still has their name on it. i called llbean and explained, lady explained to me that they have year guarantee, i told her i bought it before the new warranty, so she finally said to send it and they would look at it. they finally sent me gift card for about oringinal amount of parka. i dont buy from them anymore, too much hassle. lands end and eddie bauer have good warranty. victornox, i had knife for 20 plus years, started to break on handle, so emailed them and they told me to send it and to mention if sentimental for repair or new knife, i sent message for sintimental knife and they fixed it like new, they were very fast about doing it, i will buy victornox. also to add case knives, had one for 30 years, got to where would not open, sent to them and they said model not made anymore but would clean and hone, they did it and knife works perfect.

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