Another blow to a love affair

No, Georgia and I are doing well, and nothing spiritual here. You need to go down to the December 24 post for that. Here is just an old man pissed at an institution that has disappointed him for the last time. It revolves around what I thought was a great Craftsman model#315.115690 cordless jig saw. You will need to go back to my post, "My turn to vent" dated Tuesday, July 14, 2009. I had just purchased this saw and wanted to use it in Gas City, but had left my charger at home. Read that post for that story. Well. Here we are in 2013 and I found while working on the additional reindeer for the lawn that my jig saw batteries would not charge. Oh, while we are dealing with this, our local Sears store is closing and looks like a wasteland at this point. I finished the reindeer using a good old corded saw, then went to Sears to see if I could find a replacement battery. NOT!!! They suggested I check with a battery company. I found a local Interstate Battery store and they showed that both my Li-ion batteries were defective and they didn't find that they had a battery that worked. Here at the local Ace hardware, where Craftsman tools are sold, there was no such battery and they couldn't order one. So today, after the dust of celebration has settled, I went to SearsDirect.com to find a replacement battery. Well that was a bust. so I called the number. After the obligatory wait while listening to elevator music, I got a nice young man who tried. He could find no such battery, but did however find that there was a different battery available for this model of saw. Only $194.. You gotta be kidding me!!
I then took a look at their site and found a saw nearly identical to mine which is in the "C3" line. I mean I could not tell it from mine except that the battery post on the C3 was molded just slightly different. I then recalled that not long after I bought my saw, Craftsman came out with that C3 line of interchangeable tools. Aha.... foiled again. I'm now thinking that they found that the tools with the technology that I bought weren't working well so the launched another campaign with this new line. As best I can tell, about April, 2010. The saw identical to mine costs around $50 today and the battery is on sale for $19.95.  Now I must decide, do I yield and buy a replacement saw and battery as I chuck the old one, perfectly good .... with no power, into the trash, knowing that as soon as I buy it, Craftsman/KMart will discontinue that line and come out with something new; leaving me with yet another paperweight? I know this because they are already pushing their Nextec line. I do know that my reverence and attraction to Craftsman tools has withered to nearly nothing. You will be seeing more yellow and black stuff in my shop as the years pass, along with whatever ever my new love, Harbor Freight, is pushing at the time.

Good bye Craftsman. You've hurt me for the last time.