I have found that if you can actually get to a store and talk to a person, the service is usually very good. Unfortunately, that's not always possible.

I took an old busted Craftsman socket wrench (I think my Dad gave it to me years ago) to Sears. The guy at the counter took one look at it, went to a bin, pulled a few good ones out, and told me to pick the one that would work best for me, since the old model was no longer being made. I took one, and walked out of the store. No paperwork, no cost, no questions.

It was a "certified rebuilt" one, not new, but works great. And he said it has the same lifetime guarantee.

The age of the shade tree mechanic is not quite dead. I have two car mechanics I use. Both work out of little shops on the wrong side of the tracks, and both are geniuses at fixing things right and doing it cheap.

I still find good service, all things considered, to be the rule rather than the exception. A lot depends on how competitive the field is. Sure as heck my cable company got a lot more friendly once dishes and other alternatives finally got let into their sweet little franchise monopoly.