Warranty Scam by Unscrupulous Repair shop.

[happy_hipster]

https://www.ridgid.com/

I have a Ridged light I sent in for repairs. When i turned it on, it would stay on a minute, and then blink several times and shut off. I tried it with several batteries and plugged it in. All with the same results.

I sent it in to the repair company and a few months later received a notice that nothing is wrong with it. They wanted over $40 to tell me that nothing was wrong with this. I don't know what kind of degree it takes to take a half hour to tell there is nothing wrong with something and then charge $75 an hour, but this is unreasonable.

I wonder if they tried it, saw it came on and then moved to the next item. If this is the case, charging 30 minutes is fraud. I also wonder what they did for 30 minutes if it did spontaneously fix itself. Maybe there is some sort of expensive diagnostic machine that tells them that a light works perfectly, and it takes 30 minutes for it to do its job. I don't know, but if not, it still sounds like fraud.

I have not been able to respond until I got a notice today. Even though it took some time to get to my defective product, they are now charging me an additional $5 per day to store this light. I imagine the bill is now beyond the cost of the item. It seems they had no problem storing the item until they "fixed" it. Does it seem reasonable TO YOU that they would charge $5 a day for a week after months of doing nothing with my broken item?

Is it possible that they fixed the broken item in under 30 minutes, and then did all this to get more money? There really is no telling for a shop willing to charge 30 minutes to turn on a light, is there?

Is this what a having a warranty means? This is gouging, not a warranty.

Please address this issue,

Adam Wright

[Mightyservant]

From the shops point of view diagnosing intermittent problems can be tricky. Trying to recreate a problem that a customer has is sometimes a matter of luck. You should discuss this with a manager to come to some agreement. I'm guessing the authorized Ridgid repair shop is independent and repair more than just Ridgid tools. They might have a fee schedule to cover inspection, repair and long term storage.

You should contact Ridgid for help tel:1-800-474-3443. You can find more information including a customer survey at Ridgid at the top of the page. Hopefully this is an LSA repair which can be remedied if your properly registered.

[CWSmith]

Adam,

You said, "Is this what a having a warranty means? This is gouging, not a warranty."... that was of course a closing statement after your other explanations.

Was this light really under warranty and was this a Ridgid authorized service center? While I can presume that it was, you didn't make that clear; and, if so, were you identified as being under warranty (serial number, LSA ID (if you had registered the tool in the program), etc.; or did you just send in the tool without any explanation of warranty or even what the problem was that you were having?

I ask the question only because you mention being charged a fee, and that there are further "storage" charges pending your picking up the tool. Frankly, this doesn't make sense to me, as there should be NO charges under warranty! When you send the product to an authorized service center, you most always have to show that the tool is either under warranty (3-years from date of purchase, copy of the receipt required), or it is properly registered into the LSA system, in which case you usually identify your registration number, so they can confirm.

Having the warranty or the LSA identified, my experience with tool repair is that I call them to confirm the information and then send the tool to them (in my case, using UPS) with a detailed explanation of the problem. Once I confirm they have it, I call them to see if they can give me a schedule as to when they think they can get to it and IF they have my description of the problem. Once repaired, there is no charge and they send it back to me with them paying the shipment. There's never a "storage fee", and they certainly don't wait for my pickup, unless perhaps it's a very local shop (in my case, there isn't anything local)!

NOW, if I have a tool that isn't under warranty, then a repair shop certainly has the right to charge me for that; AND, if I fail to show up in a timely manner, then they certainly have a right to charge some small fee while they hold it. In many cases that I've experienced, a shop will only hold a repaired tool for a stated amount of time and after that, the tool becomes their property and they either re-sale it or scrap it, depending on it's perceived value. Doing business as a repair shop doesn't allow you a lot of room to store tools that a customer who is dissatisfied with the charge or has low priority on when they'll get around to pick up.

Perhaps you can clarify,

CWS