Tekton’s warranty actually means something

Most warranties are hollow. They might make you feel good at the time of purchase, but they’re mostly meaningless.

To begin with, many product warranties stop long before anything catastrophic might happen to the product (such is the case with most 90-day warranties).

Or product registration is made to be a precondition of the warranty.

Or you need to keep track of a receipt that’ll probably fade in a few months.

And still other warranties include a bunch of legalese hoopla that make you feel like there will be indeed many hoops to jump through to get the product repaired or replaced even if the issue falls squarely within the terms of the warranty.

A warranty that keeps the manufacturer from having real skin in the game is a sham. A warranty should be about standing behind the product and legitimately vouching for its quality through the conditions of the warranty. The fulfillment of a warranty claim should be more costly to the business than to the customer. The more strings that are attached, the less the warranty means.

With all the phony guarantees floating around today, it's refreshing to encounter a rock solid warranty, like the one from Tekton.

Tekton makes hand tools for mechanics, and they have perhaps the best warranty I’ve ever had to use.

I bought my first set of Tekton tools in 2017 when I started working on my own vehicles, and I haven’t looked back. I make it a point to buy Tekton tools as much as possible because their products are top-notch, and the prices are reasonable. If I have a hand tool for mechanic work that isn’t from Tekton, it’s probably because I was in the middle of a time-sensitive job, so I had to just buy what was available locally. But if I can handle a couple of days of shipping, Tekton is my first choice every time, and a big part of that is their warranty.

At time of writing, their warranty reads like this:

We keep it simple—if your tool doesn't work like it should, let us know and we'll make it right. We ship replacement parts within the United States and Canada.

Request a Warranty

No Time Limits

It doesn't matter when you got the tool or how old it is.

No Receipts

You don't have to worry about keeping receipts. If you own the tool, our support comes with it. Often, we ask you to send a picture of your product to verify your request and give us more information.

Shipping on Us

When we send you a replacement item, we always cover the cost of shipping the new product.

What more could you ask for in a warranty? Everything is there in plain English, plus they removed every single friction point from making a warranty claim.

A few weeks ago, I had to take the lug nuts off of one of the wheels on my wife’s vehicle to fix a flat. I used my 3/8” drive socket set and ended up shearing off the 3” extension to the socket. Admittedly, I was using a cheater bar because those lug nuts were really stuck.[mfn]Using a cheater bar means slipping a pipe over the end of a wrench or a ratchet handle to get more leverage. The increased leverage makes it easier to break loose a stubborn bolt, but it may produce torque in excess of what the tool can handle.[/mfn] The wheel lug nuts are torqued to 140 foot pounds which I find excessive and unnecessary. In retrospect, I probably should’ve used my beefier 1/2 inch drive set to loosen the lug nuts.[mfn]Socket and ratchet sets are sized according to the drive tang, which is the square bit that actually holds the socket. Bigger drives are better suited to heavy torque than smaller on"es, but smaller ones are more nimble for tight spaces or delicate parts. A 3/8" drive set is a good all-arounder for the home mechanic.[/mfn]

But the point is this: I went to the Tekton website, supplied the necessary photographs and information of the breakage, submitted my claim, and within three days I had the parts I requested, which included:

• The 3 inch extension
• A 22 mm socket
• An 11 mm socket that I lost about 10 months ago and couldn’t find. I even mentioned this in my description of the issue.

They replaced every single piece no questions asked.

This isn’t the first time that I’ve submitted a warranty claim for Tekton tool. They've replaces one or two torque wrenches a few years back. If my Tekton tools frequently broke, and I often had to submit a warranty claim, then the actual quality of the tools would be in question. But as it is, I rarely have to use the warranty because the tools are just that solid.

Together, the extremely high-quality and the peace of mind that comes with such a great warranty produce a virtuous cycle that increases and enhances customer loyalty. If you make an excellent product and support it with a meaningful guarantee like Tekton, you can earn a customer for life.