Missing Snap On dealer part 2

[Robert Haas]

Snap On corporate have left me hanging. The last assurance from them was that they would be calling me, they haven't.

I sure love the tools they sell, and some of their dealers are damn fine people, some from this very board have reached out and worked hard to help in this matter.

That said, I quit. I will not be opening a "new" account on another dealers truck and will buy tools from here on as needed from the used market, or if all else fails from the Snap On web site.

The tens of thousands of dollars I have spent will earn me zero good will from anyone, customer loyalty ain't worth the ink it takes to scratch it out.

From today on , I will buy Snap On used, take advantage of it's massive depreciation and see just how much I can actually cost Snap on corporate in terms of warranty support.

I sure won't be working as an unpaid advertiser for them like I have in the past, if anyone ask me what tools I own or use I will answer old ones and leave it at that.

Happy New Year everyone. may 2011 be the best year yet.

 

[Roots]

Robert, I'm quite sorry for all of the problems you've had with this ordeal. Good luck in the future.

 

[Ohio Auto]

From today on , I will buy Snap On used, take advantage of it's massive depreciation

First....to any Snap on dealers driving trucks...no offense meant by what I'm going to say next. I can't even explain the rush I have experienced every time I've climbed on that familiar white truck over the years.

But......as Robert alludes to....I've been buying most of my Snap on stuff off of craigslist for quite some time. Snap on has changed my driver so many times...and we've gone through long stretches of time we had no dealer. I can usually get what I need for a fraction of the price. And...Snap on has never balked at any legitimate warranty claim.

I"ll never pay full retail again for a Snap on tool unless I can't find it somewhere else.

 

[Vinko]

As for the OP, call it a wash and forget about it until he decides to surface. Buy the tools elsewhere, and if he shows up, give him his $75.

+ 1

I sure love the tools they sell, and some of their dealers are damn fine people, some from this very board have reached out and worked hard to help in this matter.

That said, I quit.

Finally! You owe the driver $75. He doesn't owe you anything. Why o' Why the thread for all of this? You suffered no damages. You suffered no loss. You have no complaint.

 

[a390st]

The SO dealer where I used to be came to our shop about one time in five years. I had to track him down if I ever needed anything. He wouldn't even stop by when I asked him to bring tools I wanted to buy. That's what got me started on eBay. I can sure understand the frustration of people who don't have a good dealer.

 

[Roots]

Employers providing tools thru a tool room for every little thing is crazy. Its not efficient, and as you can see on this board, everyone has personal preferences as to the type and feel of wrench or tool to do a job. Handing them a few tools and expecting them to do the job, "thats it, you don't get anything else" is simply tying their hands behind their backs.

What you are describing does NOT work in a Maintenance and repair environment. In a PRODUCTION environment it works well. Hand the guy a tool kit will all the stuff to do a certain job, because you can predict what he will need, but in a repair there is no telling, too many variables, dirt, rust, non standard configuration, damaged or non functional components, things that contribute to the need for a different tool every time you do the same job.

Charles

It actually can work quite well in a maintenance and repair environment, if handled properly. Although, often employees are issued service carts, with which they can have stocked from the companies tool crib on a permanent basis with their chosen particular tools from the approved tool list.

 

[Robert Haas]

+ 1



Finally! You owe the driver $75. He doesn't owe you anything. Why o' Why the thread for all of this? You suffered no damages. You suffered no loss. You have no complaint.

Seriously?

I have no friggen complaint?


Are you trolling this thread to get a rise out of me?


I have a ******** huge complaint.

I spend over 30 thousand dollars with a company through one single individual and then that same individual goes missing, he has several incomplete orders that consist of tool sets that he parted out to other clients and sold me the remains, promised to complete these sets and never ******* did

I contact his boss, the Snap On Tools corporation and get zero results after over half a dozen separate phone calls. Nothing, nada.


Yep nothing to complain about at all


You sir are not very bright and if this is how you expect a multi national corporation is supposed to work, you are delusional.


Happy ******* new year

 

[Daddy_Rabbit]

Finally! You owe the driver $75. He doesn't owe you anything. Why o' Why the thread for all of this? You suffered no damages. You suffered no loss. You have no complaint.

Nice troll.

 

[Simplespeed]

This thread grabbed my interest since i have had now 2 less than desirable experiences with the only 2 SO dealers iv spent money with.

First guy, recomended to my by a friend. I paid half of a roll cart in cash upon delivery. Was told id receive an email receipt. After going back and fourth for a couple months about the receipt i told him i would not pay the balance until i got a receipt in hand. He continued to harass me for the balance even though i never got the receipt. I got fed up and called him and told him i will pay the balance right now over the phone if he will send me a receipt for the total amount through email right away. I paid, he didnt email it. I have him the benefit of the doubt and gave him some time. mrshaun helped me a bit and gave me some advice. Both receipts showed up in my mailbox with amounts paid but did not say what i had bought. Done with that dealer.

Moved to a new shop. Waited for the SO truck to roll in and planned on making a good impression and letting him know im gonna be buying from him regularly. Gave him 300 bucks cash first time i set foot on the truck. He kissed my *** and gave me a free hat. All was good. I kept buying a couple months paying 100 cash a week. He comes on mondays, im off on mondays. He never shows up at the same time so i cant meet him at my shop so i call and track him down or drive along his route every monday to find him and pay him 100 cash. I never complained once. A couple weeks at work were slow. I paid him 40 bucks one week and was back on track the next but he gave me a little grief about it. Another week i told him i couldnt make a payment but would pay double the next week. He gave me hell about it and told me my minimum is 50 bucks a week. I reminded him that he had never told me i had a minimum and its probably because i was paying him double what he thinks my minimum is every week and sometimes more. He didnt seem to care about that. I gave him a scanner back that was untouched and still in box and told him that this should cover the 300 bucks i had left. Didnt shake his hand and walked out. The next week he told me i still owed 13 bucks. I paid it, didnt shake his hand again, and thats that. He gave us all cookies and shirts and calendars for Christmas. I left it sitting on my box right where he left it. Its still there collecting dust and grease.

I know the mans got bills to bay and i gotta pay him. I know he game me the truck account out of good faith. But im a good customer and expected to receive a little respect behind that handshake. Once i feel like you do not respect me, you just fucked up. Turns out the entire shop has stopped buying from him for similar reasons.

Im dealing with the matco guy now and he stops by whenever anyone needs anything and doesnt push payment unless he knows he has a problem with a customer. He treats us paying guys like gold with shirts, hats, jackets, cookies his wife made. Hes a great guy and im glad we have him. Thing is, theres still some snap on tools i want but wont buy.

Sorry for stealing the thread. The end.

 

[GeorgiaHybrid]

Seriously?

I contact his boss, the Snap On Tools corporation and get zero results after over half a dozen separate phone calls. Nothing, nada.

Robert,

I understand the frustration that you have with your dealer (had something similar with a Mac guy long ago) but Snap-on corporate is not his "boss". He is an independent and is his own boss. They can force him to do something if he is still an active dealer but they are probably trying to find him just as hard as you are.

Without the records from your dealer, anyone would have a hard time sorting out who owes who. I can understand their reluctance to get involved in this case. I wouldn't as it is a civil afair between you and the dealer.

That does not help you any with your problem but you are money ahead at this point. Be thankful that you are not in the hole (I was for about $150) and who knows, you might find the guy some day.

**** happens, I know. I have had to call a customer with a tale so outlandish that Jake said he knew I was telling the truth becasue no one could think up a lie like I told him...

 

[Vinko]

Are you trolling this thread to get a rise out of me?

I'd say on the contrary your entire thread was a troll from the start. I'm just calling you on it. We get dribs and drabs of the story until we find out that your driver owes you nothing that you haven't paid for.

Again, You owe the driver $75. He doesn't owe you anything. Why o' Why the thread for all of this? You cannot demonstrate damages. You cannot demonstrate that you've suffered a loss.

I spend over 30 thousand dollars with a company through one single individual

Maybe you did, maybe you didn't. But from what I can tell, what you paid for, you got.

he has several incomplete orders that consist of tool sets that he parted out to other clients and sold me the remains, promised to complete these sets and never ******* did

Again, you indicated above that you did not pre-pay for these orders. It appears you owe the Snap-On money, not the other way around. Since you did not pre-pay, you can still be made whole by ordering those parts elsewhere.

You sir are not very bright and if this is how you expect a multi national corporation is supposed to work, you are delusional.

Again, what real loss or damages can you claim? If your complaint is that you want the remainder of your sets made whole, you can get them to that state by ordered through SO or another dealer. You've made a mountain out of a mole hill. If you're going to post in a public forum, you can't expect everyone to believe your complaint is just.

 

[Vinko]

"Now if an employer totally distributes tools for the techs to use I bet there would be a lot of theft. Im curious how this works in other countries?"

Works well here in Finland!

Happy New Year

I supply a certain amount of tools to employees. I've found what can happen is a certain amount of tool abuse that wouldn't happen were the they employee-owned tools.

 

[Toolhorder]

There's no arguing with that. As I've stated elsewhere, their "business model" IMHO is not long for this world. It's grossly outdated. I don't hate the tools or the folks who sell them though. They're danged nice tools. I even own a fair amount of S/O stuff, even though I haven't bought any in over 20 years.

In aviation, there's just not an ongoing demand to get new tools. You buy your SAE stuff and other common hand tools with a few specialty items thrown in when you're young and use them forever.

The trucks still have some "specialty-highpriced-wigglywobbly-timesaving-get-up-under-yonder" items that the auto techs need but even some of those type items are now becoming available from cheaper sources.

That's just your prespective though, many end users are NOT in your field who buy snap on and need to continue to buy new tools.
The fact that you even use an SAE tool makes me think your industry is just outdated not SO's business model. SAE tools are going the way of the dinosaur.

 

[Toolhorder]

"Now if an employer totally distributes tools for the techs to use I bet there would be a lot of theft. Im curious how this works in other countries?"

Works well here in Finland!

Happy New Year

No from my experience the company buys poor quality tools, mainly because they want to avoid theft and keep costs down and what happens is they break and you have twice as many problems not being able to finish a job or you break something you wouldn't have with a quality tool.
Theft of low quality tools is rare because they are garbage.
My opinion is based off a short lived job at "Jiffy Lube" while going to tech school as a young man. I believe I worked two whole weekends before walking away. Most of the supplied tools were beyond broken and stripped out. I was the guy on the bottom draining the oil or whatever. Between the pressure to hurry up, the tools, the under reporting of my timecard, etc.. and the lack of any management whatsoever I decided I didn't want to be part of the "J team". Anyway that was my experience with employer provided tools or whatever. Sorry I got off topic.

 

[Vinko]

No from my experience the company buys poor quality tools

My opinion is based off a short lived job at "Jiffy Lube" while going to tech school as a young man. I believe I worked two whole weekends before walking away.

Anyway that was my experience with employer provided tools or whatever.

It's an interesting topic, and probably deserves another thread. I'm not sure that 2 weeks at Jiffy Lube is enough insight or experience to really make any significant generalization.

Three arguments against having cheap employer provided tools are 1) if the employer has a good system for keeping track of tools. 2) cheap tools can end up costing the company a lot more money in lost production time, poor performance, and 3) liability (product and employee).

I've got some high-end stuff that's provided (Apex sockets, IR impacts, Sturtevant torque wrenches, and a few SO hand tools), as well as older tools like Plomb, Buffalo, Martin, etc that were bought at flea markets but do the trick. (I had no idea they were collectible before I came onto this board ). Also several wrench sets I've gotten for cheap from Cornwell, Armstrong, Craftsman (the V or VV series).

I did buy a HF socket set and plier set (they **** - but they were the cheapest of the cheap) for one employee who does non-critical work and wasn't very "responsible" with tools.

From a business perspective, I wouldn't make it with cheap tools for many applications. The work wouldn't get done right, or we'd lose production time (broken tools or tool doesn't perform as well), or a tool failure that causes employee injury, which could cost more than many a set of the best tools available.