If I could give Zero stars I would!
My Strimmer died 1 year and 1 day after purchase. B&D offer a 2 year warranty. I call and they say they will arrange for it to be collected and repaired. Fair enough I thought. But no. 24 hours later I get an email saying it will be collected next day by UPS and it must be in a secure cardboard package else UPS will not accept it. Now where does a normal household find a box over 1 meter long by 45 cms wide? I know. I will just open my household vault of cardboard boxes of varying sizes. Not! I call B&D support and speak the someone in the Phillipines. Explaining my issue he tells me to use Plastic wrap instead. I ask what type of plastic and he tells me to use food bag plastic!!!!!!! Seriously Yet UPS only accept secure cardboard boxes!?! A call from the UK service centre tells me they can't help as its my responsibility to package it up properly. They suggest I make a box by using various other boxes to fashion one big secure box. Well even the best Blue Peter badge holder is going to have a difficult time doing that. OK I get it for small devices like a drill or Jigsaw but what about bulky/ irregular items like Strimmers, Lawnmowers etc? Unlike many other companies I have dealt with who supply the appropriate packaging for bulky items, Black and Decker do not. Thus making their warranty a worthless bit of paper. Needless to say having an item that becomes faulty just 1 year 1day after purchase shows that the build quality is suspect. I recommend you avoid B&D. I certainly will never, ever, buy their equipment again