The Ridgid LSA experience

Ridgid makes a big deal about their "Lifetime Service Agreement" ("LSA"), but how does it work in practice? I've gone through the process twice now with my Gen 5X impact driver, so let's dive into how it works.

The victim

First off, the failures. I will admit that my impact driver was used heavily for the first year I got it, and often in environments where it would get splashed with manky, sandy, water, or dropped on sandy soil, and even dropped from unfortunate heights. While I'm certainly not a professional, and not leaning on the tool day in and day out, it certainly did not live a charmed life.

The first failure came while driving some 3" construction screws to join some 2x stock for a cat tree. The driver stopped going "dugga dugga" and instead produced an amount of burning electrical smell roughly corresponding to the amount of trigger input. Full trigger would also produce a noticeable quantity of smoke. Trying to get it to spin further resulted in a terrible grinding noise and the ejection of pieces of the cooling fan directly at my face.

This was repaired under the LSA. When I got it back, the lowest speed was no longer able to produce any meaningful amount of torque (I could stop it with my fingers), but since I almost never used this setting I didn't think too much about it.

The second failure was less dramatic, it developed ever increasing amounts of chuck wobble until it became almost unusable. The tool eventually became completely unusable when it could no longer develop enough torque to drive a fastener on any of the three settings. What follows is a rough outline of getting this second failure repaired under LSA (with some additional anecdotes from the first repair experience). Note that this is during a global pandemic, so quality of service may not be as high as during regular operation.

There are two Home Depots (actually three, but I never go to the third) roughly equidistant from my residence. Taking the tool to the customer service counter of my preferred Home Depot resulted in me being told that Ridgid service was handled at tool rental centers, which that Home Depot no longer had. They offered to ship the tool over to the other Home Depot's rental center for me, but I declined the offer and took it over myself. Mildly annoying (mostly because renting tools from that Home Depot was more convenient for me), but at least customer service is aware of how and where tool service is handled. In Home Depot's defense, this is plainly stated on their website. In my defense, that Home Depot did use to have a tool rental center.

Taking my impact driver to the tool rental desk at the second Home Depot the gentleman working the rental counter was able to start the process of accepting the tool for repair. This comes with some additional stipulations:

First, you must pay an $18.95 (+tax) diagnostic fee right up front. This is refundable at the time you pick up your repaired tool. I was told this would not be returned to you if your tool was not successfully enrolled in the LSA program.

Next, you must pre-approve up to an additional $100 of repairs upon pickup of the repaired tool. I was told I would absolutely not be charged this if the tool was successfully enrolled in the LSA.

While filling out the myriad of paperwork required to actually get the tool to be repaired into the system, personal information such as name, phone number, address, and e-mail address was collected, and the tool's LSA status did appear to be checked. This happened with both of my repairs, so presumably if your tool was not covered under the LSA you would have an opportunity to back out before forking over the funds and the pre-approval.

Finally, after nearly half an hour of entering data across three different point of sale terminals, and having me sign several different sheets of paper, as well as scanning my credit card twice, the tool was accepted for service. I was told, given the pandemic, turnaround for tool repairs was almost eight weeks. If I didn't pick up my repaired tool within 30 days they were no longer responsible for it.

Two weeks later (this was consistent for both repairs, the pre-pandemic one, and the pandemic one) I was called and told my tool was repaired and ready for pickup. Going in to pickup my repaired tool resulted in almost another half hour of entering data into POS terminals, signing paperwork, and scanning my credit card to get my $18.95 (+ tax) refunded. When all was said and done, I did get the tool back.

Remember after the first repair, the lowest speed setting no longer functioned correctly. I am pleased to report after the second repair all speeds function correctly, however the clamshell was not put together with any particular care.

 

For those curious, here is what was listed on the invoice:

• Gear box assembly
• Gear case assembly
• Motor assembly
• LED assembly
• Gear box cover (x2)
• Oil seal
• Ring gear
• Pin
• Slide switch
• Labor (x3)
  

 

Overall, my thoughts on the LSA program as mixed. First of all, look at that above list, that is nearly every part of the tool replaced: everything but the trigger, battery terminals, and exterior plastics. Assuming labor is by the hour, that's 3 hours of repair and diagnostic time. Even at an average $35 / hour compensation, the cost to repair the tool ($105 + parts) almost certainly outweighed what it would have cost them to just grab me an equivalent off the shelf. Even if they d

id see value in repairing the tools, why are they repaired on site, instead of shipped to a central repair location? It would almost certainly be more cost effective to repair at a central location, and ship back already repaired tools as refurbs to cover LSA repairs. Turnaround would almost certainly be quicker as well.

And talking of turnaround, is a two week (quoted at eight weeks during the pandemic) turnaround really useful for a professional? While I consider it perfectly acceptable for an ambitious home owner hack like myself, I don't see a professional being able to go for 2 weeks without a tool. Perhaps that's the plan? The tool being repaired under LSA becomes the backup, and the professional buys another tool so they can keep working.

As for that professional's time, waiting almost half an hour (twice!) for processing isn't great either, time is money, and this process wastes quite a bit. Admittedly, the customer service I received was good, and everyone involved seemed knowledgeable of the process, but it still feels like an excessive amount of time spent (and paperwork produced).

Unfortunately, the quality of the repairs seems overly dependent on whoever is doing the repairs at your Home Depot rental center. While I got a "working" tool back both times, I personally would not have returned a tool in the condition I got it back either time. While I'm impressed they can get parts and get tools repaired in a two week turnaround, I'm less impressed with the repair itself.

Finally, Home Depot advertises the LSA program as "Parts, Service & Batteries, Free for Life". I don't know about you, but loaning the Home Depot $18.95 for two weeks doesn't necessarily feel "free" to me, neither does forcing me to pre-approve an additional $100 repair fee. They seem to verify LSA status during the paperwork phase, and assure me as long as the LSA status is verified the $18.95 will be refunded, and the $100 will never be charged, so why make me go through the dance in the first place?

So there you have it, the Ridgid LSA experience. It's certainly not a warranty, but there is definitely service involved. Unfortunately more of it than you might want. A parting nugget of information that was given to me by the rental center employee: if the tool to be repaired is still under warranty (3 years) you may be better served calling Ridgid for a repair instead of using the LSA. I have not tested this, but it's something to keep in mind.

The good:

• Got a tool back that worked better than the one I brought in, both times
• "Free"
• Fairly quick turnaround for a repair
  

The bad:

• Two weeks for a repair is likely not acceptable to a pro using their tools every day
• Repair quality will depend on the person doing the repair
• A lot of paperwork, and a "diagnostic fee" and "preapproval" that could both ultimately cost you money if something goes wrong
  

The ugly:

• Pretty sure the tool fit together when I dropped it off