Facom fakes?

[Applesauce]

I saw recently on Hazet's website that there are a rash of fakes from dodgier vendors on eBay. Does anyone know what the likelihood is that there are similar issues with all the eBay Facom kits? I'm looking at a decent metric 3/8" socket set to slot between my 1/4" and 1/2" sets, and am drawn to some of the Euro tools... But some deals seem too good to be true, even after factoring in shipping from Britain or the continent.

 

[shoturtle]

I know about fake hazet. I would not be surprise that there are fake facom and other brands out there floating one ebay.

 

[Rico.]

There are lot's of end of line Facom socket sets on ebay in England right now
and the prices on them do seem to good to be true, but amazingly in this case
it is true... For some reason Facom prices here are very good value compared to
Snap-On and Hazet.

However, and as always, caveat emptor....

Make sure you do your homework on the sellers, and be very thorough. There
are many tool sellers on ebay uk that have been around for a long time and
have near 100% and many thousands of feedback. Try and stick to these type
of sellers especially if the tools are to be posted overseas.

I have bought thousands of pounds worth of Facom stuff a fair amount of it
from ebay and have never had a fake, and with the amount of pieces I have
bought over the years you would have thought the law of averages would have
sent me at least one fake tool.

So take from that what you will.... Either I've been lucky, chosen my sellers
wisely or the fear of fake Facom tools is much greater than the reality of them...
...Or maybe a bit of all three. Good luck.

 

[ChevyEFI]

That's interesting. I've considered buying from UK sellers on eBay to flesh out my Facom pliers, or some other items. There're not a ton of options from U.S. sellers.

 

[Applesauce]

Thanks for the basically ringing endorsement, Rico...

...which leads me to my next question. How much of this stuff is still made in France? I'm not averse to stuff made elsewhere (particularly eastern Europe), but if I want character-free Taiwanese sockets I can get them from Westward with very little hassle. Could these £100 socket sets actually be French?

 

[willhollin]

Which ones are you looking at in particular?

 

[Applesauce]

Which ones are you looking at in particular?

These, and probably half a dozen others from the same seller.

 

[kythri]

Are they truly counterfeit, or are they "grey market" goods - i.e. they weren't sold through the "official" price-controlled channels?

 

[ultgar]

Thanks for the basically ringing endorsement, Rico...

...which leads me to my next question. How much of this stuff is still made in France? I'm not averse to stuff made elsewhere (particularly eastern Europe), but if I want character-free Taiwanese sockets I can get them from Westward with very little hassle. Could these £100 socket sets actually be French?

I bring in lots of Facom items and they all have country of origin on the paperwork. Most of the sockets and wrenches are now made in Taiwan and ratchets made in Italy (except for the pear heads and roto ratchets...Taiwan). Pliers and screwdrivers are still made in France as are their JET series tool boxes.

Surprisingly, US pricing on Facom is now on par with that of the online dealers in the UK (usually less) plus you don't have to pay transatlantic shipping costs or customs fees if its shipped from a US distributor.

My items come in from the Morangis France address....sure have to hope none of them are fakes. SD

 

[Rico.]

Thanks for the basically ringing endorsement, Rico...

...which leads me to my next question. How much of this stuff is still made in France? I'm not averse to stuff made elsewhere (particularly eastern Europe), but if I want character-free Taiwanese sockets I can get them from Westward with very little hassle. Could these £100 socket sets actually be French?

As steve said, Socket sets and most of the spanners (wrenches) are now made in Taiwan,
however I have France made Facom sockets and Taiwan made Facom sockets and being
completely honest with you the Taiwan made sockets are every bit as good quality and the
finish on them is actually a tiny bit better.... They are flawless... at least they were until I started
using them...

Another way to look at it, even though Stanley (who, as you may or may not know, own Facom)
have their own factories in Taiwan, they were unable to produce high enough quality
wrenches to meet Facom's very high standard so they were actually contracted out
to Rotar and the quality of those is truly amazing. I needed to remove a pipe fitting once
and the only tool that would fit on it was a teeny tiny 10mm open ended spanner. To cut
a long story short, it was so stuck I lost my temper a bit with it and started smacking this
tiny spanner with a big hammer... I honestly thought I would break the spanner, but to my
amazment it broke the fitting free and the spanner undamaged.... Incredible.

As you can probably gather I'm a huge Facom fan, not even close to one breaking no
matter how much I have had to abuse them to get the job done, and trust me after you
use them for a while they start to feel like a good mate... dependible, reliable, honest and
hard working.

Do they have Character..? Oh my good God Yes... By the bucket load.