Yay for Milwaukee service

[ear3]

I have the M18 jobsite radio, which has an awesome sound, and also serves as a battery charger.  It's great for site work when there's multiple folks on the job, because it discourages people from bringing in their crappy tin-sounding portable speaker to play their even crappier music, since it will be drowned out by my booming system.  After having it for only a couple of months, though, the bluetooth function went kaput.  Since I run all my music while doing site work off my phone this meant I had to hardwire the phone to the radio with an 1/8 cable through the auxillary input.  Not a huge deal, but if a call or text came in I would then have to walk back to the radio to grab it, which might or might not be feasible with the work I happened to be doing at the moment.

So I finally remembered to double check the manual/receipt to see how much time I had left on the warranty, and saw that it was coming up this Sunday.  So I looked up the nearest Milwaukee service center, which was only about 5 miles from my house as it turns out.  Went up there this morning -- was the only person in the joint (guess people had left early for the 4th of July weekend), and had the full attention of the repair tech.  Described the problem, figuring I was going to leave it there and come back in a couple of weeks to pick it up.  After inputting my info, he said it would just take a few minutes in the back.  Ok, I'll take that deal.  So 5 minutes later he walks out with a brand new radio in an unopened box.  He said that they couldn't fix the electronics on site, so he was just giving me a brand new one.

So I'm happy.  And maybe when the bluetooth on this one goes out in a couple of months, I can do it again next year, and have my own personal radio exchange program.     

 

[copcarcollector]

Nice! Good that they are empowered enough to make it right on the spot, not 'oh we have to send it in... it will be two weeks...'

 

[rst]

I have had great service from Milwaukee also.  I bought the 18v vac and was pleasantly surprised to find that it used both the old style lithium ion batteries as well as the new ones.  After traveling in my van for a few months the vac would no longer work with the old style batteries.  While I did not buy it from my local lumber yard and Milwaukee dealer, I took it in to see if they could help.  they gave it to the local rep and he took it despite the fact that my warranty had expired a month prior.  A couple days later the yard called to say I could pickup my vac.  Milwaukee had given me a brand new vac with a new five year warranty!!  [big grin] [blink]  I love my Milwaukee 12 and 18V systems as much as my Festool collection.

 

[RKA]

That's great to hear!  I need to bring in a 6 month old LED tripod light because of a broken clamping mechanism on the post.  I inquired about the part so I could DIY, but they don't sell it.  . Did you bring it into a factory center or some other affiliated/authorized center?  The only local place for me is Cooper Electric Supply.

 

[Tyler Ernsberger]

Milwaukee service has been a lot better lately.  I had a m18 drill non brushless from them and had horrible luck with it.  I sent it back a total of 5 times.  Two of the times the transmission went out and the other 3 the motor had to be replaced.  I got the new pdc when It was released last year and kept the Milwaukee as a back up. 

I went into the grocery store to pick up some stuff from the deli for my wife.  While waiting I started talking to a guy that was in line in front of me about his Milwaukee heated jacket.  I asked how he like it and he said he had to say good being he work for them.  I told him about the issues I had with my drill and he guess the model number of drill that I had and asked If I want to trade him drills.  We exchanged email addresses and we met up a couple weeks later and he gave me a brand new in the box m18 brushless fuel.  I thought it was really cool. 

 

[RKA]

Well, I guess I'll be hanging around my local deli counter with the tripod light!  *holding my breath*.

 

[Mort]

I actually had a not-so great Milwaukee service experience. The chuck on my M18 Fuel Drill/driver has never been quite right, and I took it in to get it fixed (200 miles from home, living in a remote valley sucks sometimes). They replaced the chuck and mailed it back to me free of charge (good!), but its actually worse than it was before. Still usable but I'd hate to send it in again and maybe it'll get fixed, maybe not.

 

[ear3]

It was an authorized service center [member=21249]RKA[/member] .  That's where they told me to go over the phone.  Cool place -- they had the full line of tools on display, including a few I'd never seen even at the Milwaukee dealer I sometimes go to.

That's great to hear!  I need to bring in a 6 month old LED tripod light because of a broken clamping mechanism on the post.  I inquired about the part so I could DIY, but they don't sell it.  . Did you bring it into a factory center or some other affiliated/authorized center?  The only local place for me is Cooper Electric Supply.

 

[Marven]

I had a impact driver that had a bad switch.  I didn't have the receipt but they fixed it at no charge and shipped it back in about 2 weeks.

 

[Tinker]

Wow, with such great service, I should maybe take my old 8-1/2 inch circular saw in for warantee service. It is practically brand new, or it was brand new only about fifty years ago.  After thirty years cutting everything except what it was meant to cut, the darned thing caught fire. 
Tinker

 

[HarveyWildes]

After thirty years cutting everything except what it was meant to cut, the darned thing caught fire. 
Tinker

Or to give it a different spin, it went out in a blaze of glory .