Packaging of SO master sets

[George in Rancho Cordova]

My former employer bought two SO "Master Sets" of tools & boxes from SO Government Sales.

We were surprised to find that the sockets & other sets of tools were not packaged as they would be for retail purchase.
The sockets were mixed up in several plastic bags, as were other tools.
We found that some tools were missing, and there were duplicates of others.
The sales rep didn't seem at all surprised by the omissions & overages & immediately corrected them.

Was this done to save money on retail packaging?
Was it to force the purchaser to inventory the contents?
Was it done so the buyer couldn't claim that; "the 1/4' drive deep metric socket set is missing, along with the Torx drivers & stubby wrenches"?

 

[meank20]

In for an answer....

Seems pretty shoddy to me, I hope your employer got a good price on those because I would be pissed to pay "Snap on royalty tax" for ****** packaging.

 

[George in Rancho Cordova]

About half of retail.

 

[meank20]

Oh, then I wouldn't care too much...

 

[Fedwrench]

There's no rhyme or reason as to what snap on sends. One order will be as if you bought off the truck complete with shrink wrap and plastic storage trays. The next order will be lots of ziplock bagged items. At half off list, I don't care too much since most of the trays get tossed into the trash anyway.

 

[BigAl62]

Craftsman tool sets come that way and nobody complains, what make Snap On so special? Yes, I own Snap On tools, but that's because that's the only tool dealer that has consistently showed up at any of the shops I worked at.

 

[chevy_cowboy]

Craftsman does the same thing with their "ultimate Professional" sets, I've bought several of them lately to quickly build a second set of tools, and 95% of the stuff comes in plastic bags. stuff like torque wrenches comes in retail cases, and a few odds and ends like the bolt out set, but wrenches, sockets, extensions, ratchets etc all come loose or in plastic bags. A big part of why they can sell them for less than half of retail is by eliminating the fancy packaging.

 

[iajonesy]

I read somewhere that packaging accounts for almost 45% of a products cost,so those plastic bagged items could lower the price quite a bit. I know the company I work for did a cost study on cardboard boxes and found that each 1/8" less material on end flaps amounted to a $250,000 per year savings. Little things add up.

Mike

 

[LawnDart79]

If it makes the tools cost less, I'm all for the plain-jane packaging.

I'm yet to figure out why people are obsessed with keeping and using the idiotic plastic trays that come with tools. For the most part, all they do is waste space in a toolbox. there are a few exceptions, but not many. Most of my plastic trays were pitched in trash the day I bought said tools.

I guess that's why guys have a huge toolbox with not much inside wondering why they don't have any room left.

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

messes up the museum quality display potential of the tools

 

[dclassical]

If it makes the tools cost less, I'm all for the plain-jane packaging.

I'm yet to figure out why people are obsessed with keeping and using the idiotic plastic trays that come with tools. For the most part, all they do is waste space in a toolbox. there are a few exceptions, but not many. Most of my plastic trays were pitched in trash the day I bought said tools.

I guess that's why guys have a huge toolbox with not much inside wondering why they don't have any room left.

Because at some point in time (might still be true), idiots at Lowes wanted you to return to return the whole set, complete with the case, to warranty one socket.

Since then I have decided that I could not care less about lifetime warranty (except from SnapOn, Craftsman and Facom since it is so easy to warranty).

I also trash the container the day I get the items (few exceptions apply).

 

[adcrawfo]

As long as they corrected it, I'll take plastic bags and 1/2 off every day of the week. Got that with the craftsman set I bought at work however they wouldn't correct the duplicates/shortages.

 

[chadster1]

Was this done to save money on retail packaging?

Yes

Was it to force the purchaser to inventory the contents?

Completely up to the end user if you want to inventory the contents.

Was it done so the buyer couldn't claim that; "the 1/4' drive deep metric socket set is missing, along with the Torx drivers & stubby wrenches"?

You answered your own question with this statement...

We found that some tools were missing, and there were duplicates of others.
The sales rep didn't seem at all surprised by the omissions & overages & immediately corrected them.