WORCESTER, MASS. (WHDH) - “You want to set a screw, you just put it in and it will drive a screw right in,” says Alan Baer, showing off one of his favorite tools to use around the house, a Rigid drill.
With his career in the rearview mirror, the Worcester retiree has plenty of time now to focus on something he loves to do: working on projects around the house.
“[I] finished off [the] downstairs,” Alan says. “There’s an office in there and a full bath and a little kitchenette.”
The drill he purchased 12 years ago remains one of his go-to tools.
“It’s a fantastic little drill,” Alan says. “Part of the reason I grabbed it is there was a lifetime warranty on the batteries.”
In order to activate the warranty, you have to register the tool and batteries with the company, which Alan did.
After five years of heavy use, the batteries stopped working and a Rigid repair center nearby was able to replace them.
“[The employee] says, ‘Now these are all registered,'” Alan says. “He says, ‘Now when I do replacement batteries, I have to send Rigid the serial numbers for the defective batteries and replace them with serial numbers of the batteries I replaced them with.'”
That all sounded good to Alan. “Beautiful,” he says. “I don’t have to do anything.”
Alan’s new batteries lasted him seven years this time, until this past June.
“Both of those batteries eventually weren’t any good,” he says.
He reached out to Rigid to get them replaced again, but was shocked at what he was told.
“They just said, ‘Those aren’t registered, we can’t replace them,'” he says.
The representative said the serial numbers didn’t match. The ones in Rigid’s system belonged to the batteries Alan had replaced many years ago.
“I was very unhappy,” he says.
He kept calling and sent an email explaining what happened, but never heard back.
“Not a word,” Alan says.
Alan had to buy a new battery so he could continue working on his projects, but he still wanted the other ones replaced. So he called Solve It 7 for help.
“Basically all I want them to do is register the battery and reimburse me the hundred bucks that I had to spend,” Alan says.
We told Rigid about Alan’s burdensome batteries and the company representative promised to hammer out a solution.
“I heard from one of their service reps the next day,” Alan says.
Rigid replaced and registered Alan’s two old batteries and refunded him the money he spent on the new ones.
“You guys had the ability to get in through the wall to the right people,” he says, bringing his persistent power tool problem to an end.
“Thank you very much,” Alan says. “You made my birthday, that was yesterday, very very happy.”
Got a problem you can’t solve on your own? Let us try and construct a solution! Send us an email to SolveIt7@WHDH.com or give us a call at 617-367-7777.
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