Shopsmith Forums

Has anyone subscribed to the one year Handyman magazine and club deal? The one were you get to try new tools and keep them for 1 dollar a month for the first year. One, is it really only a buck or after a year do they sky rocket the price and is it really worth it? Kinda seems like a mail order scam type thing but not sure wanted to get the opion of my fellow sawdust makers first.

Yes, The tools are junk! I never did bite on the lifetime membership - only subscribed for two years. Goodness! I must have gotten 20 "special" offers (mail & phone) trying to get me to re-subscribe and to join their lifetime club.

I look at it not as a scam, but as a racket! I tried quite hard to get to try out one of their tools, came to find out later that only "life members" get to do that.

Check out the "Free" tools you'd get for joining up. If you can recognize the brands, you are doing better than I did. They might be of a similar quality to some of the Harbor Freight electrical tools.

sambofl,

I have been a Life Member since they started some years ago. It gets you nothing. The tools are junk, but they do have a lifetime satisfaction gaurantee: They quickly replaced the cordless drill that quit working. They are not made in the USA and I do not plan on buying any more. The two times that they sent me notification that I had been selected to try out a new tool, and that I would receive it in X number of weeks, I did not receive the tool. The magazine is pretty worthless. The best thing that I got for my Life Membership fee was the nice Leather jacket. It too is not perfect... the HCOA logo is on it!

Thanks guys those two replies spoke volumes to me and I won't be getting it.