My better half was pressuring for me to clean up the garage. I was deep in that dirty task when I stumbled on an old aluminum carrying case that I had forgotten about. It's the kind of case that electronics test equipment was transported in. I've had this case for over 35 years and it ended up stuck in a dirty garage corner just getting old. After I pulled it out and opened it up, I remembered why it ended up there. The lock was broken. Other than that, for it's age it was in respectable condition. But, it was in need of a good cleaning.

I always assumed it was a Zero Halliburton case. So I did a quick eBay search for these cases to see what it was worth. I saw that they were being sold for around $300 with a working lock. Hey, this old case has a descent value. All it needed was a new lock. How much could that cost? I looked up the Zero Halliburton company's phone number on the inter-web and gave them a call. Their customer service rep wanted a description of the case which I gave him. The rep then told me it wasn't a Zero Halliburton manufactured case, but was instead made by Zero Manufacturing. I was then given the customer service phone number for Zero Manufacturing. Before calling them, I looked up Zero Manufacturing cases on eBay. Damn, they were being sold for twice what a Zero Halliburton case was selling for! I now had a dirty $600 case in my hands.

I called the Zero Manufacturing phone number and spoke with their customer support rep, Patty. She told me to take some photos of the case and email them to her. I did as she requested and yesterday, two weeks later, I received a package from Zero Manufacturing with a new lock inside. I called Patty to thank her and told her there was no invoice included in the package. She said the lock was sent to me at no cots. Today I'll be installing the new lock.

Here are the pictures I sent to Patty:

Don't you just love a quality company?
Mike

Sounds like you found Hero Mfg!

quote:

Originally posted by mcrimm:
Don't you just love a quality company?
Mike

Heck yes! Reminds me of when (pre-Internet) I broke my then favorite pocket knife, a tiny little Buck that just disappeared in the pocket. I sent them the knife and a letter confessing to breaking the blade by being an idiot and trying to use it as a screwdriver. I said that I had looked all over and couldn’t find a replacement and I really liked that knife. Could they please tell me how much I should send for them to fix it? They replied by sending a brand new replacement gratis. There is a lot to be said for a company that stands behind their products.

My first engineering project at Bendix Communications in 1966 used Zero Manufacturing cases. Hard to believe they are still around.

Well, the old broken lock just popped out. It was held in place by a spring clip. The new lock fit into place nicely. It is help in place by a lock nut. The old spring clip will not fit with the new lock. The only challenge was that the new nut needed a very thin 7/8" open end wrench to tighten. But, challenges were made to overcome and I was ultimately successful.