A New Garden Claw! (Amongst Other Things)

Friday, March 14th, 2008

This week was dedicated to returning items that did not live up to their many promises! For one reason or another, I have procrastinated them for ages but perhaps with the coming of spring, something has stirred…

When dealing with household items, there are always inevitably problems that crop up.  Things break, tools fall apart, and that feeling of aggravation sets in.  Then all those of “lifetime guarantees” start to come into play.  Do the companies really honor them?

 I had three chances this week to find out.

 The first was a storm door.  We have no less than 4 storm doors on our house.  One I already had replaced for free when I contact Andersen/EMCO because the retractable screen decided to stop working.  And the handle stuck in the open position.  And the seams split.  And we only had it for a year.  Not only did EMCO send us a letter that allowed us to replace for free, they had us bring the door back to our local Home Depot for disposal.  What service!

This latest screen door, also an EMCO product, started rotting right through the metal (who knew metal could rot?).  So same process, sent off the photos via email and customer service told me the warranty department would be in touch in a couple of weeks.  Okay, so this doesn’t look so good for the products, but customer service sure has been accommodating.

We also have a busted cellular shade, perennially stuck in the down position.  I will be truly honest–it has been stuck like this for almost 2 years.  But we never got around to taking it back to the store.  So this weekend off it went back to Home Depot, before the 3 year warranty expires in May.  We received confirmation that it will be fixed for free and sent back to us.

 The best of all was the Garden Claw.  Yes, I admit to buying one of those silly garden tools advertised on TV when I had a weak moment a few years back in Walmart.  To be fair, it does work on small plots of land, but you are not exactly going to till your field with it. 

Anyway, also a couple of years ago, one of the tines completely bent and rendered it useless.  So on a decent streak this week, I called up the Garden Claw people, expecting to hear some loophole as to why they wouldn’t honor their lifetime guarantee (Connecticut soil is has too many rocks, operator over 3 feet tall, whatever).  To my amazement, the woman simply took my information and told me she would ship me a new Garden Claw.  No questions asked.  Maybe it will even get here in time for summer!  I will keep you posted.

 I can say that I have had relatively good luck returning things over the years.  Say what you will about the U.S., but there is one thing in which we are superior (I think) to any other country I have visited or lived in.  We actually value customer service.  You are probably snorting with laughter when you think about this statement and the last time you tried to call your cable company. 

But, if you have lived overseas, you know exactly what I am talking about.  My husband, who is French, loves it.  No arguing, no debating, just take things back and generally very little hassle.  In France, attempting to have a dirty knife replaced in a restaurant can lead to all sorts of colorful insults and handwaving.  Entertaining yes, but fun, not so much.

 So the motto is: if you go to France, wipe your knife on your shirt and eat up.

Copyright 2008-2009 Kristin Delfau, author of Turbo-Mom's Guide to Saving Money Without Wasting Time a womens' personal finance book, and Aji Publishing.

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