I must have too much time on my hands, because I’m writing another post.
I needed a new belt sander the other day. After going through my collection of hand-held power tools, each in its case and fairly well taken care of, I could not find one. Power tools last a long time for me, since I only use them occasionally, and try to keep them in good condition. Strangely, I could not find a belt sander, although I know that I have at least one and probably two of them… somewhere. But my old ones seem to have disappeared – probably loaned out and never returned, or something.
So I went down to Home Depot to pick up a new one.
There were several models displayed, everything from a cheap unit that would only be good for a few uses, to a semi-professional-looking unit that looked as if it would stand up to frequent use by a contractor or professional woodworker. I chose a mid-range unit – although the body was plastic, it appears to be well enough built to last for decent period of time in light/occasional usage. The design looked like a fairly good derivative of the classic design for this tool, with recent refinements incorporated, including the ability to directly connect a shop vacuum to the debris exhaust for dust control purposes. The sander I chose was manufactured by a Chinese tool company that is distributed under the brand name “RIDGID®”, at least here in the States.
But the package did not include a protective case for the tool. Not even one of those cheesy blown-plastic cases with hinges that break the second time you open it.
So being in a pesky frame of mind, and discovering (to my amazement) that there was a Home Depot employee present in the tool department, I inquired as to where I could find the case for the tool I planned to purchase. His response was that tools are no longer supplied with cases, as customers would not pay the extra $20 it would cost to include a case, and simply buy some other tool (without a case) for a lower price.
Bummed, I was, since only original the manufacturer can make a case that fits the specific form of their tools – it apparently has never made sense for after-market case manufacturers to attempt to make cases that fit specific products. Home Depot does carry a line of generic canvas tool cases, but there are designed for small collections of hand tools, not for power tools.
The HD employee did encourage me to register the product with RIDGID® in order to “activate the warranty”, which of course is a sham, probably illegal, and certainly unethical, but that is the subject of a different rant. The HD salesdroid emphasized that the warranty covered life battery replacement, despite that fact that I was purchasing a corded, line operated tool.
However, that fact that accessing a web site is required in order to “activate the warranty” gave me hope that I could find a case for the sander on the distributor’s web site. No such luck, of course. In fact, the distributor’s web site is badly broken and fails to load the main page. Using a search engine to access deep links, I was able to search for accessories and cases on the distributor’s web site, but they simply do not list any.
This is all a bit frustrating, since I hope to make this sander last many years, and part of that means protecting it during storage and transportation. It would also be nice to simply have a container with carrying handles to keep the pieces together and contained during transport. Perhaps I can find a generic case that will do a reasonable job of protecting the tool, but it makes one wonder if cases are intentionally not made available with the intent of reducing the life of the tool. After all, the faster these things get damaged, the sooner the manufacturer can sell more of them.
Having wasted time time ranting about this, I guess I’ll now waste some additional time hunting around for some kind of a container with handles to carry the sander around in. Hopefully the thing is well enough build to last a few years, and none of the plastic parts break off before the non-warranty on unregistered products expires – which probably happened the moment I carried it out the door of the HD store. Clearly I am not going to get the benefit of the “lifetime service agreement”, with the necessary web site broken. Oh, and the UPC code that I am supposed to cut off the box and send in with my registration code from the web site doesn’t seem to exist, and they also want the original copy of my receipt, the lack of which would preclude me from returning the tool to Home Depot if it breaks.
Or… maybe I should just get used to the idea that expensive tools are intended to be disposable. Omitting a case is certainly one way to assure that.
Anyone who pays attention to product quality over time has surely noticed that product quality has been in a general state of decline for many years. This phenomenon has been mentioned by many previous commentators over the years, usually in the context of specific products. Some neologisms have even been created to describe this phenomenon, such as “de-contenting” (the engineered removal of material or processing). Probably the first neologism coined on this subject was the phrase “planned obsolescence”. In terms of functionality, one particularly pernicious phrase that came into currency during the 1990s is “Quality of Service”, which is a euphemistic term for measuring and describing intentional reductions in service quality. When you notice the long delays, random noise, and dropped calls that interfere with cell phone conversations, you are experiencing “Quality of Service”.