I got the proper person at MAC tools and all seems to be good, though I haven't gotten it in the mail yet. Once I got the proper email address at MAC- they asked me to reply with a pic of broken socket, part #, my address and phone. I did that and I got a email that warrantee was approved and I should get new socket in a couple days. Still a good company and honors the lifetime warrantee.. good deal...
Over the years I have bought a few HF tools that didn't last 15 minutes of use, they do have a good return policy (or at least did have back then), they gave me a second of the same tool, that one lasted a day. They did refund my money after I returned the 2nd same tool in 2 days time. It is a good thing the HF store is just 15 minutes away.