Most large store employees (not just Wal-Mart) don't care about customers. You saved them the time it takes to assemble another display unit.

IMO if you have more than just a slight amount of trimming you may want to consider another brand. Weed-eaters are kind of like Bic lighters, which can be OK if that's what you want. I use Bic lighters and razors, they have a place.

weedeater, which is made by poulan, doesnt know that it was sold as a display unit. and walmart doesnt warranty the units anyway. the info you received was wrong and poulan would have warranted it. better to go with a different brand anyway. pay the extra for an echo and dont listen to the sales people. always ask a qualified lawn and garden dealer. hope this helps.

Would be hard to warranty it if you don't have the paperwork to fill out??????? I say "Just walk on by" IMO no manufacture going to warranty a product if they don't know when you brought it by filling out the official paper work which will match the sales recipe.

This past Spring I bought a (factory refurb) Poulan WeedEater
at Northern Tool for $40 + $11 for a 2 year extended warranty.
It has worked fine all this summer.

Don't think even Wally World can beat that deal.

Pooh Bear

i was a dealer for 12 years and never once asked to see a sales receipt to do warranty work. the manufacturer has a date code on most machines telling the date of manufacture. the warranty covers from date of manufacture not date of purchase. most customers NEVER fill out the warranty cards. I also worked for GENERAC for several years and can honestly say that 99% of people never sent in warranty papers on a $2000 generator!! Generac knew when that generator was made and never required a receipt to prove when it was purchased. any HONEST dealer will tell you if its under warranty or not. when was the last time you sent in the paperwork for the television,DVD, or computer you purchased? again, the manufacturer knows. hope this helps.

niroja you're dead wrong. Warranty begins on the date of purchase, not manufacture. I can only imagine what kind of dealer you were not knowing that. Of course that made it easy for you to deny warranty on many units and cheat the customer. It isn't uncommon on some units to not be distributed and sold as much as a year or more after production. Most are sold 3 to 6 months after production which by your rip off method still cheated customers out of much of their warranty period.

Production dates are useful in warranty work only when the unit was never registered or the customer didn't keep his sales slip, in those cases if the unit is within warranty based on production date you don't need verification of sales date.

Roland;
If the Weedeater was not a recon it would have still had the factory warranty and your sales slip would be your beginning date for whatever the factory warranty specified. An authorized Poulan/Weedeater repair center would have honored any legit warranty problems based on your sales slip verification of purchase date.

That sort of mis-information is the problem with many box store personel, they don't know a hole in the wall from the hole in their...............rear.

While we're on the subject of Warrantee Registration,
On those cards they survey you by asking you all kinds
of personal information, (what you do for a living,
how much you make per year, what your hobbies are, etc),
Then they reward you by making you spend money on a
postage stamp to send it in. I'm sure they are selling
the survey info and making money on that too.
So from what I've heard here, that card is worthless
and can be discarded?

The card you send in to the manufacture is of importance to them but also to you.

The manufacture uses that info to determine what kind of people are using their products. It does help them with marketing.

The benefit to you is if there is a product recall for either safety or improvement, they have a real address and name to send that notice to. For example, if some kind of safety matter comes up that requires a recall to fix or replace the unit, that card you send in is the best, quickest way for you to be notified.

Today, most servicing dealers send in the card via the internet. Box stores are suppose to according to the contract with many manufacturers but some like the Orange Box is notorious for not doing so. Around 15 years ago Briggs had a major fuel tank or fuel shut off valve problem. That tank to this day will be replaced for free when it comes in to a authorized dealer even if it isn't in for a fuel leak problem. At the time Briggs realized many folks would never recieve their recall notice because those cards were not sent in so they spent millions on tv, radio, newspaper and magazine ads to try and inform buyers they had no refernece for. Even all these years later we still see 1 or 2 of these recall tanks every year and most of them leak or did until the owner JB Welded the entire valve assembly.

"Can you believe that. Another typical Wal Mart story. I told them to keep it. Any comments?"

Yes. Also typical of Home Depot, Lowes, Menards, most of the hardware stores I visit, Burger King, McDonalds, Valvoline Rapid Oil Change, Tires Plus, auto and motorcycle dealers, and a depressing number of full service chainsaw and landscaping type dealers. The fact of the matter is that an unfortunate percentage of retail employees are in their very first job on their way to something better and simply don't have the knowledge, training, experience, or sometimes even motivation to be competent. Not sure what that has to do with Wal-Mart, unless you wish them to be unique among all retail establishments.

Yep, consumer beware. Thing is most box stores will have one employee that does have some knowledge. If a consumer doubts what that pimple faced punk is telling you, ask to talk with a manager. If he says he is, ask for his boss or supervisor. If in question never take the word of the floor walker.

In this case "roland" did get to the next level employee and unfortunantly still got the wrong info regarding warranty. Unless the product was a recon or being deeply discounted as damaged goods there will be a factory warranty.

They had no warranty card to provide and obviously were not going to electronically file as dealers are expected to do these days so walking out was the right thing to do.

There is something very underhanded going on in this case, or at least it sure smells that way. Not sure what Weedeaters current policy is but many manufacture warranties are only good for original purchaser. It sounds to me that this unit was a return and they knew it was previously registered. Normally a sales slip would be all needed for warranty repair at an authorized repair center but those center typically file electronically as soon as repair is done. This means if the unit was previously registered, the warranty would kick back before being picked up.

This sort of thing is why so many non selling repair centers shy away from even offering warranty repair on these box store brands. When a customer is informed that he will have to pay, that repair center gets all the grief from the unhappy customer. When all along the fault for all the problems is that of the box store. We still repair Weedeater and many other box store brands where i work but no longer do warranty work on them for this and other box store faulted reasons.

Quote:

"i was a dealer for 12 years and never once asked to see a sales receipt to do warranty work. the manufacturer has a date code on most machines telling the date of manufacture."

What did the manufacturers do then for the machines that *didn't* have a date code on them?

As nevada walrus posted, the companies always ask for the "in service" date when addressing warranty concerns. The date of manufacture doesn't factor into it at all.

As for the Walmart situation, I have to ask.....why buy something that doesn't include the factory packaging or manuals? I always want the box myself. If the machine isn't completely set up and assembled, it could very well still find its way to the display counter.....while the factory packaging with some small parts finds its way to the box baler.

I won't buy anything new without a manual either. Not only is the manual full of information on how to maintain and operate the machine, but setup info is also included. The guy in the back of the store might have loosely assembled something just to get it out on display.

I've always sent my warranty registration cards in, and it's a good idea to do so. There's no information required on the cards that's worth anything to anyone else, so being concerned with your personal info being sold isn't worth worrying about.

We get safety and product improvement updates constantly on the machinery we sell. If a customer's machine DOES have an issue later on, the end-user never fails to say, "You never told me that", when we mention a bulletin that could have prevented whatever issue they're having. The thing is, WE don't have a database that records which machines have been sold to which customers. WE don't record and monitor product changes and serial number breaks.

The manufacturers DO keep track of such things, but they only can if they're provided the info. Then when there's an issue, the customer gets sent a card, and we get one too....if the customer listed us as the selling dealer when they filled out the card that is.

The only thing I get from this post is that a cheapskate is complaining that he could not get Walmart to make the deal cheap enough.

1. Don't buy tools at Wal Mart
2. If you buy cheap s**t, fix it yourself or throw it out. It's not worth the trouble finding someone to fix it, hassling with warranties, etc.

Sounds like a couple of you could use a nap................

I'm with lbpod on not sending the warranty card in, my junk mail has decreased by 2/3. I do keep the receipts for proof and date of purchase. I realize I'm rolling the dice with recalls but I'm willinc to chance that.

Thanks for the info, nevada_walrus. I found it interesting myself...and don't need a nap either. ;)

Anyway, I usually send in my warranty info through the 'net. Doesn't take a few minutes...and you don't need to fill out all the personal stuff.

That's right. Name,address and date of purchase is all that is necessary.The personal information is for their marketing people which just increases the junk mail. I had a construction contractor decline providing his address when purchasing equipment the other day and he paid cash. I have to wonder what kind of business he is running.

You can fill out warranty registration online.
Also someone says: "Warranty begins on the date of purchase, not manufacture"
Not so with everything. Ingersoll Rand Factory air compressor warranty begins when shipped to the dealer. You can get around it most times but it can be used to protect the company sometimes. Most dealers and air centers will honor it.

Well I don't know about I.R., sounds chintzy to me. The engine on it however will be from date of sale. L&G equipment and the engines powering them are from date of original consumer sale.

Even had Briggs reps make the point of 20 year old engines that got lost in a warehouse that ended up being warrantied for a problem shortly after being found and sold.