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CoThG's Toolbox question thread

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CoThG

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Yep. Tech left the shop and left the box. Snap on guy came to repo. My buddy owned the shop and bought it cheap from the snap on guy. Not his first repo’d box buy.
Why would the tech leave his box?
 
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CoThG

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I had a Matco truck and can tell you it's no game. I was forced out of business because economy sucked so bad. When I got out I count myself lucky because I was only owed 12k. I knew toolmen that were owed 250k and couldn't get out because they were owed so much. I had mech. have their wives tell me they were dead to filing bankruptcy. If I had $25 everytime someone told me I have to catch you next week I would still be in business.
It's hard for me to believe that those "techs" couldn't even pay you a few bucks a week. It must be true, the stories I've hears about mechanics being terrible with their finances.
 

mepstein

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Why would the tech leave his box?
I’m guessing he wasn’t making payments so I guess he figured why move it if it’s just going to get repo’d.
I’m not a tech and I don’t buy my tools on credit.
 
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CoThG

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I’m guessing he wasn’t making payments so I guess he figured why move it if it’s just going to get repo’d.
I’m not a tech and I don’t buy my tools on credit.
I wonder if he got his tools out or were they subject of being repoed as well?
 

scooby074

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No, but I bet the tool truck guy wouldn't be giving you any deals if you willingly didn't tell him where the deadbeat mechanic was hiding.

Nah. Drivers usually wont cut their nose off to spite their face. Their beef is with the deadbeat, it would be pretty stupid to piss the rest of the shop off over the jerk.
 
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CoThG

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Nah. Drivers usually wont cut their nose off to spite their face. Their beef is with the deadbeat, it would be pretty stupid to piss the rest of the shop off over the jerk.
You would think that the rest of the shop would want the deadbeat gone while staying on good terms with the tool truck guy.
 

mike93lx

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You would think that the rest of the shop would want the deadbeat gone while staying on good terms with the tool truck guy.
Choosing a relationship with a vendor over a coworker when the issue is that coworker's personal debt to said vendor? Really?
 
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CoThG

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Anyone know what happens to the tools in a repoed box if the tools are either fully paid for and/or a different brand?
 
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CoThG

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Choosing a relationship with a vendor over a coworker when the issue is that coworker's personal debt to said vendor? Really?
I guess it comes down to what you value more. I for one, don't associate with deadbeats and don't have them as friends.
 

isb cornbinder

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My wife hired a house keeper. She was in out home one day a week. She was a union member and worked for a school-board. We paid her the union rate.
She told me that she was $90,000 in debt to credit cards and she was borrowing money from one card to pay another card. She drove a new Buick and had just co-signed a loan for her son's new car. I thought she must be stealing because she could not pay. I parked up the street and waited, with binoculars in hand. In a few minutes it was time for the HK to leave. She came out to the road and looked both ways, returned to our house and appeared with several plastic bags filled with can-goods and paper products. She had a few clothing items also.
I called my wife on her cell. She happened to be close, in her company car. She arrived and after a short discussion, the housekeeper was terminated and we had the locks changed.
 

mike93lx

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I guess it comes down to what you value more. I for one, don't associate with deadbeats and don't have them as friends.
Your coworkers don't need to be your friends, but you do need to be able to work with them.

You also don't need to throw them under the bus
 

smokey0810

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Canyon, Texas
I’ve talked to my snap on guy on how much it ***** to chase down and repo a toolbox….he hates to do it, but that’s $$$ out of his pocket when someone isn’t paying on a $5k toolbox….thankfully my snap on purchases have been few, and have always been paid off in full at time of purchase or when the payment was due.
 
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CoThG

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My wife hired a house keeper. She was in out home one day a week. She was a union member and worked for a school-board. We paid her the union rate.
She told me that she was $90,000 in debt to credit cards and she was borrowing money from one card to pay another card. She drove a new Buick and had just co-signed a loan for her son's new car. I thought she must be stealing because she could not pay. I parked up the street and waited, with binoculars in hand. In a few minutes it was time for the HK to leave. She came out to the road and looked both ways, returned to our house and appeared with several plastic bags filled with can-goods and paper products. She had a few clothing items also.
I called my wife on her cell. She happened to be close, in her company car. She arrived and after a short discussion, the housekeeper was terminated and we had the locks changed.
Did you notice anything missing from your home before this incident?
 

Radio Flyer

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Yes, I hide from the snap on guy.

Can’t stand listening to his “Cool Deals” shpeal about $150 flashlights.

And I hate that he wants personal information, even if I pay 100% in full, in cash for a socket.
 
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CoThG

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Your coworkers don't need to be your friends, but you do need to be able to work with them.

You also don't need to throw them under the bus
If I'm working my **** off to do the right thing and I see some deadbeat screwing the system, then yes, I have no problem calling them out.
 
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lakelandcat

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It's hard for me to believe that those "techs" couldn't even pay you a few bucks a week. It must be true, the stories I've hears about mechanics being terrible with their finances.
I had one mech. got on my truck and bought over $1k worth of tools and a cart and quit 2 days later, he had a 5 day head start and took off with my tools. You realize the tool company doesn't supply tools to the toolman he has to buy them then he resells to mech. The whole business is based on credit.
 

Jagmandave

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That's how I got my first tool box, it wasn't exactly loaded with tools but it had sockets, wrenches, and screwdriver sets in it. Snap On man repo'd it and I bought it from him.....
 

Shoreline_

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It's sad to think of someone loosing their means of making an income. I've never seen it. But my driver carries a conceal weapon and has repo'd boxes. It gets as crazy as repoing cars.
 
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CoThG

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I had one mech. got on my truck and bought over $1k worth of tools and a cart and quit 2 days later, he had a 5 day head start and took off with my tools. You realize the tool company doesn't supply tools to the toolman he has to buy them then he resells to mech. The whole business is based on credit.
And yet it seems the vast majority of the customers have poor credit. How is this sustainable?
 
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CoThG

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I had one mech. got on my truck and bought over $1k worth of tools and a cart and quit 2 days later, he had a 5 day head start and took off with my tools. You realize the tool company doesn't supply tools to the toolman he has to buy them then he resells to mech. The whole business is based on credit.
With the number of deadbeat mechanics out there, why don't the big tool truck brands make a device built into the box with a GPS tracker and a ways of remotely locking the box if the mechanic misses a payment?
 

scooby074

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And yet it seems the vast majority of the customers have poor credit. How is this sustainable?
The vast majority dont have bad credit or at least not true deadbeats. Most are more than capable of making min. payment.

Plus, usually a driver doesnt give you much credit until he gets to know you and youve been at the shop a while. First week I might have been able to run $200?? I think I bought a set of screwdrivers IIRC. Plus, I was in a dealer HD shop with mostly older techs who were established and been there forever, which lent me some extra trust I think. We werent some fly by night place with lots of staff turnover.
 
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txvwnut

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Bedford, Texas
Had two guys at the job that would disappear when the tool truck(s) would show up. One came back to find all of his cheap import tools on the in a pile and his box with the good stuff all gone. The other one got caught when the tool guy used his pov instead of his tool truck.
 

BrandonV

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When the tool truck passes by the mob run auto repair shop... that's when the tool truck guy goes into hiding.
 

redwrench60

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I’ve probably seen a dozen. Never any drama. What can you say? Can’t pay for it, then it’s not yours. Never saw any serious, veteran techs boxes get repo’d. It was always the yokels and *** clowns who had substance problems, or had to have a big box to be a lube tech.
 

redwrench60

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If you had a co-worker obviously hiding, would you point out to the tool truck guy where he is, in order to stay in good graces with the tool truck guy?
Yes. Not to kiss the tool guys *** though. It’s called having an upbringing. A thief is a thief. If he would steal from the tool guy then he would steal from me too. Or you.
 

jsaw

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Geneva, N.Y.
I worked beside a guy who saw the Snap on guy pull in. He closed the hutch on top of his box but not quite all the way. When the Snap On guy came in he saw a warm MC Donalds s hamburger still in its wrapper under the partly open hutch. He went into the office to tell management what He was going to do. He came back into the shop and rolled the delinquent mechanics tool box out the front door of the shop and right onto the liftgate of the Snap on truck and proceeded to load it onto the truck.
The next day the Snap on guy returned to tell the guy that if He wanted to get His tool box back, He had to pay his current payment plus he had to pre pay the next weeks payment so that He was always a week ahead on payments or else His Box would be repoed again.
 

lakelandcat

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And yet it seems the vast majority of the customers have poor credit. How is this sustainable?
You cant do a credit check unless they want a loan 0n a box for example then tool co. has to approve before they release box. You can submit their name and if it comes up a hit tool comp will let you know. Its to easy for Mech to screw the info. I did have some come up as owing another toolmen and you are suppose to collect for them. I had more not collect for me than I collected for others. If anyone was to ask me if its worth getting into I would say run fast run far.
 
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