I was under the impression from several sources that WIHATools.com is a private dealer that also happens to be the exclusive US importer. Never see any other manufacturers compete with their distributor base. And their site never lines up with the real wiha which has different versions for england and several other countries.
I don't see the chisels, punches, wrenches, Heyco socket line, a line of swedish crimping tools, that corny chinese neck light and who knows what else in the German site. US stock is always a decade behind what it shows at WIHA.de like they get a good deal on all the closeout stuff and thats all we can get here in the states. Whats with the cheapo inomic pliers this side of the atlantic?
Wihatools.com is owned and operated by wiha as far as im concerned.
now the fact that the tools never line up with the german website, here is a quote from an email i sent to wihatools.com asking about this issue:
"Some of the items in Germany do not get brought into the USA for a variety
of reasons, It's kind of like the car manufacturers only offering the best
selling models worldwide, and other models that are produced locally stay in
the local market only. Did you know that Ford makes a hard top convertible
Focus that they only sell in Europe? So the short answer is NO, we will not
offer these designs in the USA as they have not sold well in Europe, the
price is 35% higher and there are functional problems in the materials they
are using."
the specific question i asked was about the diferences in the inomic pliers, but this basically covers the rest of the items not available in the USA.
on a side note: wrenches, sockets, and ratchets are made by HEYCO in Germany, and wiha germany as well as wihatools usa use wrenches, sockets and ratchets with their own insulation as their insulated line.
tweezers: wiha uses tweezers made by VOMM Germany to make ESD safe tweezers using their own ESD safe coating.
crimpers: crimpers are made by pressmaster inc. and wiha just buys them and sells them in usa. im pretty sure pressmaster knows that wihatools.com is putting a wihatools.com sticker on their product, so who really cares???
they are still quality tools....
the wrenches, chisels, punches, sockets & ratchets, crimpers, and tweezers are similar to a car, for example a Geo Metro. GM buys a blank car from SUZUKI and puts a GM label on it. so is it a GM or is it a SUZUKI? and the big question: is this reason enough for one to stop buying GM automobiles????
Wiha USA probably wants to give the customer the opportunity to order a complete selection of hand tools from their site. Other companies also offer tools under their name which they don`t manufacture like Felo (pliers) or now manufacture other tools to broaden their tool lineup like Wera who makes sockets/ratchets now too. So if the quality is good why not ??
you hit the nail right on the head....
its too bad all these people are badmouthing buisnesses for doing things that are usually considered common practice.
that is why i originally joined this site, to see what other people say about certain tools
i mean it is totally justifiable to badmouth a company if all of the tools you bought from them failed and caused a problem, but dont skew somebody from buying something just because the country of origin or business practice doesnt match up with your paradigm.
im done here.