Several readers wrote in, informing me that CPO Tools is not selling Milwaukee tools right now.
CPO Tools, an online retailer, has a message on their website where there used to be Milwaukee Tool product listings:
Please note: We are not carrying Milwaukee products at this time. We apologize for any inconvenience.
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Every reader who wrote in about this expressed interest and curiosity as to what happened and why. I too am curious, but there’s no public story.
There are any number of possible reasons and explanations as to what happened, but the “at this time” language suggests at least the hope of this being a temporary situation.
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Hon Cho
Hmmm, something went wrong. CPO tries to leverage Milwaukee/TTI for better margins? Milwaukee/TTI punishing CPO for violating terms of sale? Milwaukee/TTI supply constraints forcing them to divert inventory to their big Customer (Home Depot)? Combination of above or something else entirely? We’ll probably never know the real reason and just be denied a source to purchase Milwaukee products.
Joellikestools
Probably hurts CPO the most. I would guess Milwaukee has a ton of retailers (maybe only second to Dewalt). So customers and TTI probably don’t see the effect as much.
Will
Around me you can purchase Milwaukee products at Ace Hardware, Home Depot, Sutherlands, Total Tool, Northern Tool, Ferguson and Neenan (plumbing supply houses), Strasser (local hardware store), and a number of other lumber and specialty supply shops, to name a few off the top of my head.
Alex
CPO Milwaukee is where I started my obsession with everything red…I didn’t even know CPO was a whole larger entity until months later.
Mike M
Agreed. I was the same way. I will truly miss their Milwaukee refurbished tools. I never had a single issue with the several that i have purchased over the years and their prices were unbeatable. I can’t see myself buying as many Milwaukee tools now at full price. A great many of my purchases from Milwaukee CPO were luxury items that wouldn’t see a whole lot of use, but the price at the time was too good to pass up.
TomV
Agree – my story is the same as MikeM. Started out with refurb then purchased some new. Can’t tell you the number of people I referred to CPO for Milwaukee stuff over the years.
MM
I’ve purchased Milwaukee tools from CPO before and had excellent service. I’m curious as to what happened here.
Jeremiah Ducate
Same here, im curious. There are some other, fairly large online, retailers who still have milwaukee products so some violation of agreements would be my guess.
MB
Were the prices good. And, are they licensed to sell millwaukee products?
Jim
Prices were always best on internet or better. And they called recon.
They are an authorized seller.
My guess is someone forgot to renew a contract or something.
MM
When I bought from them the prices were good, yes, but they weren’t so good that it seemed like there was something fishy going on. When I bought from them most of the other big vendors like Home Depot, Acme, etc, had similar promos going on. I don’t know anything about their licensing status, but I can’t imagine them selling the volume of tools they did without being an authorized reseller.
I’ve bought Dewalt from them as well, no problem with those orders either.
Carl
Likewise this is sad
Tim
I believe there is a huge Milwaukee tool shortage. My local hardware store usually has a ton of packouts, but they said Milwaukee is having trouble with production. They were hoping to have more by late Spring 2022.
Stuart
Many brands across all kinds of industries are going through supply shortages and fulfillment delays right now.
chris w
I work at home depot and we haven’t had problems getting anything milwaukee. The milwaukee rep is in our store a few days a week so maybe home depot is special….idk
CJ Caufield
I, too, work at Home Depot. In rare cases, we have difficulty getting a specific item, but generally, we have a very good stock of Milwaukee products. It seems to be a significantly different explanation than “manufacturer supply” with CPO. There’s definitely more to that story.
Tucker McElroy
Someone on Reddit posted that the margins for Milwaukee sales were incredibly low for retailers who don’t move volume like big box stores such as Home Depot
Stuart
The same has been said for other power tool brands as well.
Al
Were they ever listed on the online dealers list? https://www.milwaukeetool.com/buy-now
Gordon
According to reddit they were. That was in 2019 so who knows when or why CPO was removed.
fred
Many years ago, I had a bad experience with CPO – involving getting tool kits with missing batteries. They were gifts so the problem was not discovered immediately – and customer service was not understanding. I figured that it may have been a fluke – but decided I’d take my business elsewhere and never bought from them again- even though their sales are sometimes tempting.
Jim Felt
I think we all remember the lousy transaction longer then the simple smooth one. But I’m not a big tool gifter* which would of necessity better match the Amazon Holiday Return Policy.
*They go into rotation too fast for that.
Kent Skinner
I’ve purchased 2 items from CPO, and their shipping department screwed up both times.
One was a Milwaukee Hole Hawg refurb, that they dropped into a cardboard box (no case) with a small inflatable pillow. It beat the drill horribly, but it’s a Hole Hawg and it’s fine. I sent a polite email about the shipping methods, and got no reply.
The next time I ordered from CPO, they put a shipping label on the systainer (whatever Makita calls them) of my track saw, and UPS’d it to me. I contacted CPO about the damaged systainer, and got two replies, but they never offered a solution. They finally they stopped responding to my email. They stretched out the process long enough I couldn’t do a chargeback.
Everybody has a bad day now and then, but CPO doesn’t seem to try and fix their errors. There’s so many reliable companies selling tools, that I see no reason to do business with CPO ever again.
Jim Felt
Those are both pretty egregious “errors”. I only twice bought anything of value from them years ago and they in a normal safe fashion. Just lost interest in refurbs which were their specialty at that time.
fred
In my case the recipients of the tools (they were Greenworks OPE) told me that there were empty spots in the packaging where the 40V batteries should have been “cradled in”. The packaging proclaimed battery included, I paid battery-included prices – but was foolish enough not to check on receipt. I suppose that the batteries could have been filched anywhere along the supply chain. I ended up re-buying batteries from a different supplier – and just wrote CPO off. I now check contents of packages – especially when bought for gifting at a later date (like on Black Friday for Christmas)
Rob
This is precisely why Festool cancelled CPO’s contract, CPO almost always ship in the retail packaging.
Installerman
Who cares Milwaukee products are everywhere.
Stuart
Enough people cared to write in about it.
CJ Caufield
Ummm – some of us care because the prices could not be beat. Your question seems strange and from ignorance or arrogance.
GNew
Hopefully this is Milwaukee moving all their Recon/Factory blemished over to Direct Tools Outlet. I see some Milwaukee items when I shop in store at DTO (usually accessories, not tools, but its been a bit since I shopped in their store)
Mr. Certainly
That would be golden. I’ve given DTO more money than I’d like, and if Milwaukee decided to sell through them….well, my wallet wouldn’t appreciate it 🙂
Rob
Two of my suppliers received Milwaukee recon stock the past month.
Oly
I bought a lot of Milwaukee tools from CPO when I got rid of all my Dewalt tools a couple years ago. Had a minor Issue that they took care of right away with no problems. I think we have a issues with all of them all now and then, I’ve had my share, move one. They’ll be back
Mr. Certainly
CPO was such a headache to work with.
I ordered a milwaukee tool package from them — the order went through twice for whatever reason (two separate transactions though I only ordered ONE), and it took forever to cancel the extra order.
They also forgot to send the extra goodies — the storage bag and extra battery.
Argued with me that the battery included with the unit was the “extra”, when in plain language on the product page listed TWO batteries.
Their excuse for the missing storage bag? None. Totally ignored it in favor of fighting with me about the battery.
The entire customer service transaction left a foul taste in my mouth — I was polite, but it felt like I was just “bugging” them as they ignored issues, waved their hand at excuses instead of offering solutions, multiple emails to get basic things done, etc.
I finally got what was owed, but not without it being “just one more thing to deal with.” I didn’t buy another thing from them since that incident. Not worth the hassle.
As much as I detest big chain stores, there’s an elegance to knowing legitimate problems will be resolved in a timely manner.
Matt the Hoople
Bought from CPO a couple of times. No issues. Both times were refurbs. A weed eater and a Makita angle grinder. The prices were really good at the time. With a name like Certified Pre-Owned, I could never figure out why anyone would buy anything new from them. I have never not been able to find an equivalent or better price from a more convenient source.
Quell
Cpo was good to me when I got a faulty bosch charger with a hammer drill set.
Maybe the remanufacturing business is not operating at capacity right now and it affects the reman inventory.
Greg
My experience was great with the 4 refurbished Milwaukee m12 tools I bought. Ironically I had more issues with customer service and brand new Milwaukee m18 tools I bought.
This being said I still considered them an option for buying but they were just further down the list. Genuinely curious what happened here.
I will say CPOs new web presence sucks compared to how it used to be. Sure the older version was dated in looks but it was easier to navigate imo.
XRH07
never had any issues with CPO, whether directly from their site or their store or on eBay.
They have a 99.1 on eBay too. So they’re clearly not as problematic as some people think.
Plain grainy
I made some Off Topic sale posts in the Ryobi Link discussion on December 30th. I mentioned that CPO had a large Milwaukee sale going on, with many Packout items on sale also. Then some other posters replied to my comment on December 31st, stating that the CPO site isn’t carrying Milwaukee at this time. So the brakes went on between December 30th & 31st!
Plain grainy
Is that timeline close to the emergence of the “Verified” entrance pages?
Rog
I’ve purchased from CPO via eBay and never had an issue. Granted it was bare tool items but I was pleased w them and would shop again.
MFC
I’ve bought the most from cpo over the years due to their sales and have never had any issues. Definitely one of the better suppliers online. (I have had issues from acme, toolup and toolnut)
I think any of them could have issues though.
Plain grainy
I have always had perfect service from online tool companies.
Guerin Fairfax
My partner purchased from them several times and and after the coronavirus he had a problem with one instead of two batteries. It took to long to send him the second battery. He said they corrected a similar problem fast in the past but he said he had to purchase a second battery before they could send him one recently. I’ve had problems with the Home Depot because of their inventory of several things after the coronavirus.
Adam
Reading the comments it seems very one sided. Most seem quick to blame CPO for this. I think the problem is just as likely with team red. I can see retailers being frustrated with the short supply from manufacturers right now. It is industry wide, but team red is a big seller with almost no domestic production that I know of, perhaps I am wrong on that, that means a lot of over seas shipping. Maybe they got tired of taking back orders until supply gets more reliable.
Adam
As a follow up I looked and they are producing more of their tools state side so that is a plus for shipping constraints. I am sure overseas shipping is still an issue for non us made products.
Mike
Production and assembly are two very different things. The parts for almost everything are made globally now, and the “global supply chain” right now is screwing everyone hard. You’d think that this would be a wake up call to people to bring back more domestic industry, but it ain’t because most people are treating this as a “perfect storm of unfortunate events.”
Flotsam
Never ordered from CPO so i have not had any first hand experience. it seems like Milwaukee likes to tightly control where their product is retailed as there is only unofficial offerings on Amazon and seems primarily sold through Home Depot.
This seems quite unlike DeWalt which seems distributed far wider. Not sure about the market share question.
DC
CPO doesn’t ship to Hawaii so I don’t care. Tried to purchase items direct from them or via Amazon and no shipping to here.
Joellikestools
Toolnut is having a pretty good Milwaukee flash sale right now.
OldDominionDIYer
Speaking of Milwaukee, their Dual M18 21″ Self-propelled lawn mower is on their website. I likey! Sounds impressive and is going to be expensive!
Big Richard
$999, but comes with 2x 12Ah batteries and a dual rapid charger. That’s around $500 right there. Still not cheap.
I like how it already has two 5 star reviews, despite not coming out until April2022. And one of the guys is in Minnesota. Ain’t no one cutting their lawn in Minnesota right now.
Mike M
Yeah I can’t stand that. A lot of people base their purchase decisions on others reviews prior to purchasing. A review for a product should not be able to be left on a retailer’s website unless it’s made by a person that actually bought the product from that particular retailer.
Like everything, people find a way to intentionally screw it up. Fake reviews, people being paid to write reviews all day to boost algorithms in searches, you name it. Everyone’s gotta twist the facts to suit their goals. It’s too bad. If left alone natural selection would allow the good products to remain at the top for people to easily find and purchase and the less reliable products would sink to the bottom and remain unpurchased to the point they’d fade away.
Rob
Before I was a customer, I knew CPO as the company that shipped Festool by merely slapping a label on the Systainer.
I finally gave them a shot three or four years back and have purchased from them since. I haven’t had any issues. I communicated with customer service on an issue with one of my first purchases and that experience was better than most.
A caveat though. I don’t recall them ever using packing of any sort. They just slap a shipping label on the retail box .
Festool dropped them. Maybe Milwaukee dropped them. Simultaneously, I know of some stores dropping Milwaukee over parts supplies issues. Who knows?
JR Ramos
Well that’s a bummer. I order from all kinds of places but I’ve used CPO many times and have never had any issues at all. Their site seems to be completely scrubbed of anything Milwaukee…makes me think it was something bigger rather than a minor quibble.
Did anyone ever find more to the story with KC Tools and Wiha?
Stuart
Regarding Wiha and KC Tool, I did not inquire further as their statement (quoted here) seemed to convey the general reason. “Wiha Tools USA continued to be unable to meet KC Tool’s and, more importantly, customers’ expectations over the last year.”
One of KC Tool’s competitors unloaded a lot of complaints and criticisms in comments to one of my social medial posts on the topic, leading me to believe that Wiha somehow upset more than just KC Tool.
Wiha’s business practices surprised me at times over the years, such as when they would undercut their dealers’ pricing with special promos. Most brands that sell direct-to-consumers try their best to avoid situations like this.
For others’ reference: https://toolguyd.com/kc-tool-wiha-split/
JR Ramos
Yeah…it is a sticky situation and I don’t think any retailer likes it when manufacturers support direct sales unless they are rigid about price fixing…I mean MAP stuff. 🙂
I’m still trying to get more information about the Porter Cable thing I mentioned in another post. They’re waiting on replies from different reps but I have a feeling now that there may have been misunderstanding on some level. I think I’m at the point where seeing the PC brand just makes me sad anyway…they’ve been dead to me in terms of purchasing for awhile but it was still nice to see the label and color scheme around. It’s a real shame what SBD did with them.
Stuart
With Porter Cable, they have a new arrangement with Tractor Supply – https://toolguyd.com/porter-cable-tractor-supply-exclusive-cordless-power-tools/ – and they promised that new tools are on the way.
Rumors have it that Porter Cable stopped making woodworking routers. While I have not been able to confirm this, it doesn’t look like you can buy PC routers anywhere anymore, and this has been true for maybe a year now.
Switching over parts numbers might simply be for logistics purposes.
Ken
100% complete satisfaction w/CPO Milwaukee. Someone needs to fix this! any new scuttlebutt? Come on man!