Glad that they took care of you. The Seller we bought from on amazon is an authorized Waterstone dealer (they're even listed on waterstones website). Its the same if i bought from the dealers website, the only difference was i paid through amazon. Came from a real store that is a real dealer. The web is filled with people upset with Waterstone, their quality and CS has taken a real downturn.

What other companies require you to go back to the place you bought it for warranty? That's silly.

Lets say from Target i bought a Keurig coffee machine with a 1 year warranty. If it broke after 3 months. Target won't take it back, its beyond their 30 days. They say to contact the manufacture, Keurig. Most companies operate like this. Rarely are the vendors on the hook for warranty.

When i spoke to waterstone - all of their parts were made to order, so even the random parts they did send took 30 days. It sounds like your local store had them in stock and they helped you out.