Marc Voorhees
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2021
- Messages
- 127
So after reading the forums pretty thoroughly, I decided that we desperately needed another ICON Tool Box Thread 
This one is a bit different though, I have actually purchased (though not received, more on that later) an ICON box set-up. I figured maybe there would be value/interest in a detailed discussion of the entire process, my experiences and impressions so far, what led to this decision, and finally what I see are good things and bad things. I have tried to break this down into sections for easy reading and following. This is long, but hopefully interesting to a potential buyer.
What I bought and What I paid: Letās get this out of the way up here. I settled on a 56ā Chest, 56ā Top and a 28ā Locker. I was torn between this set up and a 72ā Top and Bottom, but ended up going this way. We will see if I regret it.
The Price I paid is different from the prices listed on the website (I just noticed this now while writing this up). It is honestly kind of weird now that I take a closer look, but according to my receipt I paid the following with all items being listed as āPre-Saleā
Item 81748 56ā Chest: Website says 2199, my receipt says 1799.10
Item 81751 56ā Top: Website says 1699, my receipt says 1529.10
Item 81775 28ā Side Locker: Website says 1499, my receipt says 1349.10
Item 82051 Matching Lock set: Website says 20, my receipt says 17.99
Subtotal 5216.99
10% Discount from the card: 521.70
6% sales tax: 281.73
Out the Door Price 4977.02
My background: I am a prosumer I suppose. I work on things I own, I tinker, I screw about in the garage, I am handy enough to fix most things I am dumb enough to break. I am also 100% a white-collar worker who does things as a hobby and passion. I will (more than likely) never earn money or make a living with my tools.
The Decision: I own several US General Boxes (26ā top and bottom, 44ā bottom) and I have outgrown them almost as quickly as I bought them. I have always loved the USG boxes, and honestly, I started this journey fully expecting to buy more of the same. My budget was roughly 5k (As a cash buyer). Really, my only requirement was that the box be blue, and be big enough so that I didnāt have to buy another tool box in a year or two. I started at my local HF which also happened to have an ICON Box display. Again, I fully expected to just walk in and buy a USG 72 or something, except I realized in about 10 seconds that I ABSOLUTELY HATED AND DESPISED the little plastic tab thing on the USG drawers for chests larger than 44ā. After fiddling with the boxes for half an hour or so, USG Was out. Went home, started doing research on alternatives. This forum of course was a major source of options, all of which I explored to the best of my abilities.
Long story short, after exploring the options and ideas presented here on the forum, I realized other than the box being blue, things that actually mattered to me included: Delivery and being able to touch and feel the box (TWSS),and the drawers having detents to retain them as opposed to mechanical opening (Lifts, triggers etc). This unfortunately eliminated a bunch of the on-line sellers, the used options on Craigslist (Slim pickings here, but I did look), and even some of the stores that sold other things of interest because I couldnāt get a full set up of the box in my garage. I have no hoist or other type tool to lift a 4-600# top box in place, so I would rather have the burly delivery guys deal with it.
Personally, the ICON box felt good, and even though there were a few issues with the display (some drawers didnāt fully extend for instance) I chalked it up to people being idiots in a store, and more specifically given where this particular store is located, people just trying to wreck things for fun. I liked the drawer layout, I like the charging drawer, I like the tool storage drawer, that will be a MAJOR upgrade for me storage wise. I like the way everything felt, and honestly, my display store put things together pretty well, things lined up nicely, the alignment was nice, things looked good and attractive.
So after 3 more days of poking around, researching, trying to weed out the shills from the haters from the 1 or 2 people that actually bought these things, I went back to purchase.
The Purchase: The store manager that I worked with was extremely nice and competent. Over the few days I was making my decision, I spoke with her a few times about the ICON things she was knowledgeable, helpful, knew the stats and details, but I also got the impression I was one of a handful of people who had ever shown any serious interest. As I mentioned, this store is not in theā¦nicest part of town. Not dangerous per se, but certainly seen better days. Regardless, I have my design, order the box, pay on the Harbor Freight Credit Card (Taking advantage of the 10% Discount. More on this in a minute) She checks stock, sees it is all there, and away we go. I am fully expecting my new tool chest set up by about mid-June. Purchasing was very easy and straight forward, it seems that you have to work with a store manager for purchase, the regular sales people were unable to help and were honestly, pretty unknowledgeable.
The Aftermath: I made my purchase on June 1, and on the 14th I called the Dedicated ICON support line (Which didnāt seem particularly dedicated all in all) to inquire about scheduling delivery. The person on the phone was very helpful and extremely apologetic when she informed me that actually NONE of my boxes were in stock, one of them was coming end of the month and the rest END OF JULY which means delivery wonāt be expected until the first or second week of August. Which is where the story ends for now. Aside from being more than a bit annoyed, I am at a bit of a dead end. Do I cancel the order? (Wife says that is stupid). Do I settle for a USG Box that is more readily available? (Wife says that is even more stupid). Do I get back researching a finding a different box? (Wife rolled her eyes and made several comments about me preferring to agonize over research and decisions).
Now, we wait I suppose. There will be an update when I get the box (As well as pictures etc) for now however, this is where things stand. For now however, please see some below information that you may find useful. I am still debating going back and seeing if the 72ā stuff is what was actually in stock because that is what the manager and I looked at originally. 2 month wait is a really long time
Comments and Observations
Credit Card: The credit card is a nice thing! 10% off on your first purchase (As of June 2021 anyway), easy application on line, decision in 30 seconds AND 5% Harbor Freight Rewards. Here is where it gets stupid. I have a roughly 770 Credit score, my wife (Relevant information) has about a 740. We both make good money, especially relative to the purchase price of the items we are trying to buy. I was approved for the card with a $2500 limit. I called and talked with someone trying to get it raised, no dice. It seems the max they (Synchrony Bank) will approve you for a HF credit card is $2500 until you have āexperience working with that level of creditā. Okay, fine, whatever. My wife decides that she will also apply for a credit card, because we figure that if we both got 2500, that would cover the whole purchase after the 10% discount. Wrong. She was only approved for $2000. The long and short of it, is to buy this damned thing, we had to use 3 credit cards to do it. Which was simple, easy, HF was set up to do it, but all in all, pretty stupid.
My Comment on this, who the hell are they targeting this card and item to? If you are offering financing, that is great on a multiple thousand dollar box, but it is literally impossible to buy it on the credit card, unless you buy the smallest set up they have! Plus, if they are actually trying to compete with Snapon etc, I assume they would be having younger people with less established credit etc coming in. What the hell are they going to buy with a 1000 limit (Or less?)? That isnāt even enough for a USG set up depending on size. All in all, it is a bit weird and I am unsure of the point/direction.
Pricing: Really confusing to be honest. The price isnāt what the sticker says? The pre-sale ordering? I donātā know. I am not complaining, it saved me roughly $500 so what the hell. But still, odd
Coupons: I know that I just missed out on a 20% ICON specific coupon with no exceptions. That is really super annoying, but because of the confusion on prices, I genuinely donātā know if I would have been better off or not.
This was long, possibly boring without pictures etc, but maybe it will be valuable for someone! If you have any questions, please let me know! Always glad to talk (As you can tell)
Marc
This one is a bit different though, I have actually purchased (though not received, more on that later) an ICON box set-up. I figured maybe there would be value/interest in a detailed discussion of the entire process, my experiences and impressions so far, what led to this decision, and finally what I see are good things and bad things. I have tried to break this down into sections for easy reading and following. This is long, but hopefully interesting to a potential buyer.
What I bought and What I paid: Letās get this out of the way up here. I settled on a 56ā Chest, 56ā Top and a 28ā Locker. I was torn between this set up and a 72ā Top and Bottom, but ended up going this way. We will see if I regret it.
The Price I paid is different from the prices listed on the website (I just noticed this now while writing this up). It is honestly kind of weird now that I take a closer look, but according to my receipt I paid the following with all items being listed as āPre-Saleā
Item 81748 56ā Chest: Website says 2199, my receipt says 1799.10
Item 81751 56ā Top: Website says 1699, my receipt says 1529.10
Item 81775 28ā Side Locker: Website says 1499, my receipt says 1349.10
Item 82051 Matching Lock set: Website says 20, my receipt says 17.99
Subtotal 5216.99
10% Discount from the card: 521.70
6% sales tax: 281.73
Out the Door Price 4977.02
My background: I am a prosumer I suppose. I work on things I own, I tinker, I screw about in the garage, I am handy enough to fix most things I am dumb enough to break. I am also 100% a white-collar worker who does things as a hobby and passion. I will (more than likely) never earn money or make a living with my tools.
The Decision: I own several US General Boxes (26ā top and bottom, 44ā bottom) and I have outgrown them almost as quickly as I bought them. I have always loved the USG boxes, and honestly, I started this journey fully expecting to buy more of the same. My budget was roughly 5k (As a cash buyer). Really, my only requirement was that the box be blue, and be big enough so that I didnāt have to buy another tool box in a year or two. I started at my local HF which also happened to have an ICON Box display. Again, I fully expected to just walk in and buy a USG 72 or something, except I realized in about 10 seconds that I ABSOLUTELY HATED AND DESPISED the little plastic tab thing on the USG drawers for chests larger than 44ā. After fiddling with the boxes for half an hour or so, USG Was out. Went home, started doing research on alternatives. This forum of course was a major source of options, all of which I explored to the best of my abilities.
Long story short, after exploring the options and ideas presented here on the forum, I realized other than the box being blue, things that actually mattered to me included: Delivery and being able to touch and feel the box (TWSS),and the drawers having detents to retain them as opposed to mechanical opening (Lifts, triggers etc). This unfortunately eliminated a bunch of the on-line sellers, the used options on Craigslist (Slim pickings here, but I did look), and even some of the stores that sold other things of interest because I couldnāt get a full set up of the box in my garage. I have no hoist or other type tool to lift a 4-600# top box in place, so I would rather have the burly delivery guys deal with it.
Personally, the ICON box felt good, and even though there were a few issues with the display (some drawers didnāt fully extend for instance) I chalked it up to people being idiots in a store, and more specifically given where this particular store is located, people just trying to wreck things for fun. I liked the drawer layout, I like the charging drawer, I like the tool storage drawer, that will be a MAJOR upgrade for me storage wise. I like the way everything felt, and honestly, my display store put things together pretty well, things lined up nicely, the alignment was nice, things looked good and attractive.
So after 3 more days of poking around, researching, trying to weed out the shills from the haters from the 1 or 2 people that actually bought these things, I went back to purchase.
The Purchase: The store manager that I worked with was extremely nice and competent. Over the few days I was making my decision, I spoke with her a few times about the ICON things she was knowledgeable, helpful, knew the stats and details, but I also got the impression I was one of a handful of people who had ever shown any serious interest. As I mentioned, this store is not in theā¦nicest part of town. Not dangerous per se, but certainly seen better days. Regardless, I have my design, order the box, pay on the Harbor Freight Credit Card (Taking advantage of the 10% Discount. More on this in a minute) She checks stock, sees it is all there, and away we go. I am fully expecting my new tool chest set up by about mid-June. Purchasing was very easy and straight forward, it seems that you have to work with a store manager for purchase, the regular sales people were unable to help and were honestly, pretty unknowledgeable.
The Aftermath: I made my purchase on June 1, and on the 14th I called the Dedicated ICON support line (Which didnāt seem particularly dedicated all in all) to inquire about scheduling delivery. The person on the phone was very helpful and extremely apologetic when she informed me that actually NONE of my boxes were in stock, one of them was coming end of the month and the rest END OF JULY which means delivery wonāt be expected until the first or second week of August. Which is where the story ends for now. Aside from being more than a bit annoyed, I am at a bit of a dead end. Do I cancel the order? (Wife says that is stupid). Do I settle for a USG Box that is more readily available? (Wife says that is even more stupid). Do I get back researching a finding a different box? (Wife rolled her eyes and made several comments about me preferring to agonize over research and decisions).
Now, we wait I suppose. There will be an update when I get the box (As well as pictures etc) for now however, this is where things stand. For now however, please see some below information that you may find useful. I am still debating going back and seeing if the 72ā stuff is what was actually in stock because that is what the manager and I looked at originally. 2 month wait is a really long time
Comments and Observations
Credit Card: The credit card is a nice thing! 10% off on your first purchase (As of June 2021 anyway), easy application on line, decision in 30 seconds AND 5% Harbor Freight Rewards. Here is where it gets stupid. I have a roughly 770 Credit score, my wife (Relevant information) has about a 740. We both make good money, especially relative to the purchase price of the items we are trying to buy. I was approved for the card with a $2500 limit. I called and talked with someone trying to get it raised, no dice. It seems the max they (Synchrony Bank) will approve you for a HF credit card is $2500 until you have āexperience working with that level of creditā. Okay, fine, whatever. My wife decides that she will also apply for a credit card, because we figure that if we both got 2500, that would cover the whole purchase after the 10% discount. Wrong. She was only approved for $2000. The long and short of it, is to buy this damned thing, we had to use 3 credit cards to do it. Which was simple, easy, HF was set up to do it, but all in all, pretty stupid.
My Comment on this, who the hell are they targeting this card and item to? If you are offering financing, that is great on a multiple thousand dollar box, but it is literally impossible to buy it on the credit card, unless you buy the smallest set up they have! Plus, if they are actually trying to compete with Snapon etc, I assume they would be having younger people with less established credit etc coming in. What the hell are they going to buy with a 1000 limit (Or less?)? That isnāt even enough for a USG set up depending on size. All in all, it is a bit weird and I am unsure of the point/direction.
Pricing: Really confusing to be honest. The price isnāt what the sticker says? The pre-sale ordering? I donātā know. I am not complaining, it saved me roughly $500 so what the hell. But still, odd
Coupons: I know that I just missed out on a 20% ICON specific coupon with no exceptions. That is really super annoying, but because of the confusion on prices, I genuinely donātā know if I would have been better off or not.
This was long, possibly boring without pictures etc, but maybe it will be valuable for someone! If you have any questions, please let me know! Always glad to talk (As you can tell)
Marc
