MAC have really dissapointed me, What Happenned?

[Scotland Offshore ABZ]

I have here several pics of my own SO sockets, and ratchet.

The SO sockets are 5 years old and the MAC sockets are brand new, the SO ratchet is from the 70's. Ii have also pictured my old 70's MAC ratchet.

I also have a brand new MAC ratchet which I bought yesterday and a brand new set of MAC sockets.

The sockets are similar to my own SO set (except cheap ****)

MADE IN TAIWAN is why I originally said "No, Thanks" to the MAC man. (one of my co-workers bought them and loaned them to me for this post TY CA) When did MAC start making sockets and hand tools in China? This ratchet honestly feels like such a POS! I used to love MAC, can any of USA guys tellme what happened? Do they only sell **** in the UK or have I bought a pup? (The ratchet proudly states USA but the sockets made in Taiwan)

 

[Stuart in MN]

Are the sockets actually marked made in Taiwan? I can see the one socket is clearly defective, I'd think the dealer would replace that without any issues. Also, remember that Taiwan and mainland China are two entirely different places.

 

[lazer50]

Taiwan may be better than china.but they still use inferior metal and obviously use a different set of standards!

 

[Scotland Offshore ABZ]

Are the sockets actually marked made in Taiwan? I can see the one socket is clearly defective, I'd think the dealer would replace that without any issues. Also, remember that Taiwan and mainland China are two entirely different places.

The box actually said "MADE IN TAIWAN" for the sockets, downwhere on SO sets the ca no and description are. The Ratchet has USA per the pics but it feels very poor compared with my older MAC stuff. It is disapointing to find what you think is USA made turn out to br foreign junk

 

[Thumper68]

Taiwan may be better than china.but they still use inferior metal and obviously use a different set of standards!

Where do you get the idea that they use any metal other than what is specked?

Just like every other manufacturer they use what is on the spec sheet.

This if it isn't from "Mercia" it has to be **** is getting very old, or maybe you just aren't old enough to remember the cars from the 70's and 80's.


Tools and everything else is built to a price point, designed by a engineer then sent to the marketing and accounting departments where it is cheapened to a point where it will sell.

 

[Scotland Offshore ABZ]

Are the sockets actually marked made in Taiwan? I can see the one socket is clearly defective, I'd think the dealer would replace that without any issues. Also, remember that Taiwan and mainland China are two entirely different places.

I have uploaded a few more close up pics and the SO set are miles ahead in quality and finish. The outer casing of the MAC are on parallel with SO but internally they feel cheap and brittle. For this sort of money I personally expect USA made and top quality. The SO sockets are slightly heavier but internally you can tell they have been made to a far higher standard. For the difference in price I say SO. The MAC ratchet I bought was dreadfull. A lot of guy on here have said the new MAC ratchets are equal or better. Not IMHO.

 

[rsanter]

The change happened after they were bought out I belive.

I preferred the the made in America stuff especially at the price they charge for stuff

Bob

 

[dutchgray]

Stanley Black & Decker is what happened, they just can't help themselves.

 

[lazer50]

The finished product is not on par with us quality!

 

[Bryanthegreat]

The precision torque is the Taiwan stuff. They still have the US stuff. The Taiwan stuff is a little cheaper

 

[d.mcfarland]

Kind of like the Blue Point brand for Snap On.

 

[CKC]

MAC was purchased by Stanley, American Corporate greed at its finest.

 

[Wes J]

All of the tool trucks added cheap China tools because they were losing sales to Harbor Freight and whoever else. Matco has ADV. Mac has Expert or whatever it is now. Snap-on has Blue Point. Cornwell has one too.

They all still sell the good old made in USA tools that they always sold. It's not some conspiracy. You just need to use a couple brain cells and buy the USA stuff.

 

[Scotland Offshore ABZ]

The thing that gets me is that at least SO will tell you straight away if it is China, MAC seem to try and hide it. The Ratchet says MAC but feels like a HF tool. I won't be buying another one.

 

[sberry]

I am not sure why anyone would want the grief of the trucks anymore, seems to me buy once, pay 2 x or more and worry about it forever.

 

[red61cj5]

"This if it isn't from "Mercia" it has to be **** is getting very old, "

Where is "Mercia"? Is that one of those little European provinces?

 

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

"This if it isn't from "Mercia" it has to be **** is getting very old, "

Where is "Mercia"? Is that one of those little European provinces?

Yep, next to East Krapistan.

 

[sberry]

What a fact is that it is absolute nonsense and that if it was and could really be tested would prove most people are full of ****. They really cant separate how they feel about something from a fact. A China Sears wrench today is as good and maybe even better than it was in 1980. Another fact is it works fairly well and is very reliable. Another fact is its cheaper than ever. It doesn't round off bolts any worse than other wrenches or skin more knuckles.
My extensive personal experience do expose flaws but they resemble others with critical evaluation, never broke a wrench, busted some sockets right out the gat on 80's 90's sets and the ratchet is ****. I think it would correspond with the amount of returns.

 

[B_Bimmer]

All of the tool trucks added cheap China tools because they were losing sales to Harbor Freight and whoever else. Matco has ADV. Mac has Expert or whatever it is now. Snap-on has Blue Point. Cornwell has one too.

They all still sell the good old made in USA tools that they always sold. It's not some conspiracy. You just need to use a couple brain cells and buy the USA stuff.

This is the only intelligent post in this thread. That ratchet will serve you well, give it a chance and actually use it instead of examining it like some shity piece of art.

 

[dnschmidt]

I'm failing to see the difference. Which socket are you calling good and which bad. The left or the right socket? The lines you see on the left socket (the one with the 5 laser etched on it) are an anti-slip feature that's excellent. To me the left side socket is better than the right side socket but both likely work fine. What are you complaining about? Does it turn a bolt or not or any differently than the other one. Have you broken one? These types of threads are increasingly stupid.

 

[stikman56]

Don't you know Mac stands for "Made at China"?

 

[hdhogman]

Don't you know Mac stands for "Made at China"?

"Marginally Asian ****" or "Make Another Choice"

 

[zcbauer89]

Just about everything I've bought from Mac in the past 5 years has been made in the USA. 1/2 chrome SAE sockets, 3/8 master socket set, knuckle saver wrenches. They never completely outsourced. Most of their hardline is still made in USA. The Taiwan stuff is the Mac edge stuff. Those who think Mac has went completely overseas really don't know anything about what Mac offers.

 

[Jake C]

I like to buy stuff made in the USA too, but with the cost it's just not achievable to buy everything USA made. I use USA made Craftsman professional/industrial sockets, ratchets, and combination wrenches. However all my ratcheting wrenches are all Taiwan/gearwrench. They work just fine. They are affordable, a lot of the specialty tools I own and ones that you'll buy today are also Taiwan. I have never broken a socket or wrench, but That comeS down to using the right tool, should you be using a thin walled chrome socket and 1/2 in ratchet to break that lose, or maybe whip out the the breaker bar or impact with a heavy impact socket. As said buy others, buy the tool, use it, and if it breaks, you get a new one. Hell I have a chinese made tool box, I don't see how one can afford a 20k dollar box on a mechanics pay grade.

 

[gdocktor3]

USA Taiwan

Matco - Silver Eagle or ADV
Snap On - BluePoint
Mac - Expert or Edge
Proto - Black Hawk
Cornwell - Blue Power
Wright - Cougar
Williams - Williams Taiwan

They all have their second tier offshore brands necessary to compete with Husky, Kobalt, HF, Craftsman, etc.

 

[Wes J]

Be careful. There's a lot of Blue Point, Black Hawk, and Cougar tools that are made in USA. It's not easy to know what is what.

 

[gdocktor3]

Be careful. There's a lot of Blue Point, Black Hawk, and Cougar tools that are made in USA. It's not easy to know what is what.

I know that. I have a lot of USA made Blackhawk and BluePoint. All my 1/2" deep sockets are Blackhawk USA I bought on closeout from Mac about a year ago actually. I wonder though if someone got a USA made tool from a Taiwan based company, expecting a Taiwan made tool, would they complain about that too lol??


One thing that confuses me, for example, is my older pair of USA made BluePoint snap ring pliers. They're rebadged Wilde pliers, but at the time were also sold under the Snap On name. Its not like BluePoint was a separate entity selling their own tools. They were sold on the same truck as the Snap On badged pliers. Of course I may be wrong, but from the research I've done they're the same.

 

[lazer50]

The op thought he was buying usa sockets! Thats the point.and he sees obvious differences in quality.sherry i normally agree with you on every thread but this one i differ.you guys that dont think there is a difference in quality in usa vs china/taiwan tools obviously dont have the experience i have.working on cars and truck or even on farm equipment or even diesel you may not see much difference.a diy guy wouldnt either! But i was an industrial technician for several years and i worked on american,german,and euro plastic extrusion machinery.we often setup new machines and every fastener whether hex or allen type were exact tolerances.the first thing my boss told me was if at all possible not to buy any cheap tools!.especially allen wrenches.luckily i didnt have any asian stuff but i did go to our local industrial supply and bought allen wrenches up to 1inch.every fastener had torque specs,some guys would buy asian tools and constantly were either rounding tools off,breaking them,rounding fasteners.i seen guys get hurt using china pipe wrenches.i seen it in parts the company would by such as bearings that would fail prematurely.c clamps the list goes on and on.so maybe the average guy may not see a difference but i know from years of experience there is! I make it a point to buy usa made tools when i need one while i can.i buy usa boots they last longer! Some things i have no control over.

 

[Wes J]

Everyone rebadges everything. You can buy punches and prybars from Mac, Matco, Cornwell, Proto, etc that are all made by Mayhew.

Tons on snap ring pliers made by Imperial are sold under almost anyone else's name. Same with pliers made by Channel Lock.

 

[M6erfan]

These threads make me laugh.

You want "Made in USA"? Be prepared to pay more (and stop whining about it)...

Looking for a deal? Then don't be shocked to discover that the tool is made off shore (and, again, no whining)...

Now, a company that tries to hide the fact or be deceptive about where a tool is made? I would do business elsewhere...


Edit; to the OP, I looked at the pictures you provided and have no idea what your trying to support in regards to your complaint. I see nothing wrong with any of the tools you posted pics of...

-

 

[alexb2000]

Tool truck companies make their money off the specialty tools.

Using the example above, Mayhew makes everyones punches for retail 20% of the truck price. This is the kind of thing I believe a smart tech should avoid being sucked into. Some tools mainly sockets, ratchets, wrenches, do really matter. Otherwise be very careful.


Don't do this:

https://store.snapon.com/TORX-174-S...nd-3-8-Drive-TORX-reg-Socket-Set-P630555.aspx

Do this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QGSD7FK/?tag=atomicindus08-20

It's all about being a smart consumer, you can save money AND get a quality USA product in many cases.

 

[lazer50]

I could have went into more detail in the above post but most of the hard headed type it wouldnt matter anyway.but to simplify a bit the fasteners used on the machinery i worked on were precise.including the control boxes.you couldnt get away with cheap screwdrivers i used usa and german made.we used alot of allen type in impact applications.not only would the bit itself round off but sometimes the socket would break as well not always.im not a dedicated tool truck guy or a certain brand guy.i have plenty of snap on,mac,armstrong,proto,old blue point,craftsman,corn well and several others.oh i forgot to mention working in industry you find out real fast what air tools are good and not! Anything but dotco and ir industrial is pretty much disposable.but that was for that kind of application and constant use.

 

[tcianci]

He lost all his cred when he made the "feels brittle" comment. You can't feel the "brittleness" of a piece of steel or a tool by playing with it. Brittle is a term that denotes lack of ductility and ductility is what keeps a socket or wrench from shattering when you get on it. I think the OP just doesn't like Chinese tools and for the record, as it was already posted, there's a world of difference in the manufacturing capabilities of Taiwan and mainland China. And don't sell China short. While the general consensus is that they will short cut and lowball everything the manufacture in that country, the real truth is that they will build whatever they're paid to build and some excellent values in tools and other products come from China.
I wish it was a simple as USA=good, anything else=bad, but it's just not true. Don't forget that before we offshored so much stuff the cheap **** came from 'merica too.

 

[MDK22]

A China Sears wrench today is as good and maybe even better than it was in 1980. Another fact is it works fairly well and is very reliable.

I own both. The Chinese one flexes a hell of a lot more on the open end. Compared to the USA ones i bough 2 years before. I swear you post just to piss people off. Also there is a severe lack of access in the chinese wrenches vs usa ones.

As for taiwan vs american made. Yes they normally feel lighter. Though in my experience most of the taiwan tools have worked just as well if not better then the USA made ones unless the USA tools are 20+yrs or older. Then again though I always buy brands that make them for snap-on/mac or industrial suppliers so that may be why.

Chinese is a completely different story they almost always are worse.

 

[dutchgray]

Its also worth mentioning the the OP is in the UK, like me, we have different COO laws here and tools and their packaging don't have to be marked and frequently aren't, so it can be very hard to find out where something is made and very easy to end up paying much more than you have to for some Asian made tools.

 

[lazer50]

From my stand point and experience.i use quality usa tools! Ive used them in severe duty environments with no failures or warranty issues.as to the environment read earlier post.i dont hassle with warranty issues in any form tool truck,stores,on line.i see posts constantly pertaining to a companies warranty procedures whether it be a return to the store or mailing back.maybe the company has great service that still doesnt change the fact the particular tool failed.yet i see post where guys go on and how there taiwan tools are just as good.those same companies are the one i see in the warranty posts.im not saying everything taiwan makes is junk.gearwrench has upped their tools a level.a drastic difference in the china line! Carlyle makes good tools as well.but across the board defects failures etc.there is no comparison.ill say again ive seen first hand the difference.you can justify all you want and usually its because you dont want to spend the extra money.but it seems like people today justify buying cheap everything and wonder why it wears out so fast.

 

[DSLTRK]

Taiwan may be better than china.but they still use inferior metal and obviously use a different set of standards!

And you have hard evidence for this statement?

I'm failing to see the difference. Which socket are you calling good and which bad. The left or the right socket? The lines you see on the left socket (the one with the 5 laser etched on it) are an anti-slip feature that's excellent. To me the left side socket is better than the right side socket but both likely work fine. What are you complaining about? Does it turn a bolt or not or any differently than the other one. Have you broken one? These types of threads are increasingly stupid.

I agree. People are trying to come up with excuses why TW tools are so cheap. "Well, they MUST be inferior."

How about TW can simply kick our *** in manufacturing? Did that thought cross anyone's mind?

My experience concludes most TW sockets are very high quality at the fraction of cost. I've never had a failure of either impact or chromie TW sockets.
Our gov't and unions here have made easy manufacturing an impossibility. That's why a comparable US tool is 3+x as much and even professional tool 'brands' are now importing.

It's clear to me the MAC sockets are a better product: finger tip knurling, anti-slip broach and laser etched easy read markings. Not to mention OP stated they were lighter than the S/O equivalents. What's not to like besides they aren't 'Made in USA?'

 

[Skin]

You bought precision torque sockets. They've always been made in Taiwan as was the edge series that preceded them.

Having owned those ratchets they feel like anything but "cheap ****". Hard to take anything you say seriously with statements like that and general product ignorance as if there was some change that happened yesterday. I'll be more than happy to take that "HF ratchet" off your hands for the cost of shipping, just let me know.

MAC was purchased by Stanley, American Corporate greed at its finest.

I like when people say this like it was some recent buyout.

MAC has been apart of Stanley for 36 years.

Stanley is an American company with excellent customer service and also recognizes that USA means something to their customers and produces tools to fit all price ranges. At least they didn't go through a temper tantrum trying to strip "USA" off all their products nor do they increase their product prices by percentages that dwarf standard inflation rates. Most of Snap-Ons already grossly overpriced products have increased 15% in just 3 years. This is a company that has its core sales dependent on mechanics that make less that 50k a year. What was that about greed?

 

[Scotland Offshore ABZ]

I am not knocking the sockets. I am knocking the ratchet. It cost me a lot of money and it is a *************. Could I be any more specific?

 

[Scotland Offshore ABZ]

I'm failing to see the difference. Which socket are you calling good and which bad. The left or the right socket? The lines you see on the left socket (the one with the 5 laser etched on it) are an anti-slip feature that's excellent. To me the left side socket is better than the right side socket but both likely work fine. What are you complaining about? Does it turn a bolt or not or any differently than the other one. Have you broken one? These types of threads are increasingly stupid.

It is more the feel of it if that makes sense. If you actually read my first post instead of jumping on the troll wagon you would realise this. I use my tools daily in an Industrial Environment and not some hobby type style. I need them to be top quality and for £125 this is a *************. Snap-On would sell me one for the same price whioch actually delivers the goods. You must be a hobby tool man.