Prepare to read rambling crap.

Just a little background. A few years ago, my grandfather passes away. He was a mechanic all his life. My sister buys the house once my grandmother follows my grandfather. About a month ago I went with my father to the house and dragged out a giant roll-away toolbox from the basement. Loaded it up, brought it home, sorted out the tools. Easily 500-600 individual tools. Lots of big names. Snap-On, Mac, Matco, Proto, Cornwell, Craftsman, etc..

Unfortunately, most of the stuff is past its prime. The cheaper tools have long since rusted, the higher-end stuff is mostly fine but it's all worn out.

So I start organizing everything. I took every Snap-On tool out, organized them, cataloged them in an excel spreadsheet (sizes, part #s, etc). 128 individual tools all together. Mostly sockets and wrenches. Probably $3-4k worth of stuff (if it was new).

Call up Snap-On, talk to their customer support. They won't say what they will replace, just that if the tool no longer works as it was designed, they will replace it. Cool. They want me to inventory it (done) and ship it out to them. Perfect!

I pack everything up securely, print out the inventory and a nice 1 page cover letter on the origin of the tools, just really polite and stuff. Send it off via Fedex.

Couple days later, it all comes back. Exactly as it left. Nothing was touched at all - I had even taped all the similar stuff together (big wrenches, ratchets, extensions, etc). None of it was disturbed. With it was a note saying that they wouldn't warrantee anything. Why?

Reason #1 - they say that it's all rusted, and rust voids the warrantee (????). It's true, some of it (maybe 1 out of 5 or 6) was rusty, due to the plating wearing off and then rust starting. A lot of them had the plating worn off as well without rust (newer tools).

Reason #2 - the tools have engravings. Also true. Some (maybe 1/4 of them) have my grandfather's initials on them (I also explained this in my very nice letter). This also voids the warrantee. Yes, it really does. I could see if the engraving caused the tools to rust, sure, but that's not the case. All the engravings are perfect and intact. The plating is worn off on the 'teeth' of the tools, which is where any of the rust is.

I'm so angry over the whole thing right now. You'd have to see the tools to understand. There's a bunch of u-joint sockets. They are so worn that they are completely useless. All of the joints have so much slack that you couldn't possible use them without hurting yourself. I sent 4 ratchets back. 2 3/8th, and 2 1/2 drives. They were all in good shape, no engravings, no rust. However 2 of them were frozen, one didn't ratchet at all (spun freely), and one would slip if you put any torque on it. Think any of them got fixed or repaired? Nope. I even described them specifically in the letter. The list is too long to mention. Wrenches actually broken in half. 12pt sockets and box ends so worn down, that they really don't have teeth anymore. Just round. Ugh. But nope, despite the fact that they cost 800 times more than any other tool, they aren't warranteed. I can (and have) buy junk Craftsman for 1/10th the cost and crush it in a hydraulic press and bring it back and they don't even look at it, they just give me a new one.

So basically, some idiot opened the boxes, took a cursory glance, and wrote a rejection letter. Most likely because he was too lazy to go through everything. All that work for nothing.

I'm so pissed, I'm trying to find an email or phone # for Snap-On's complaint dept (if there is one) to bring this up just so I can feel better. I have the guy's full name that did the 'analysis'.

Dope

 

Boston: 800-879-3322
Chicago: 877-762-7662
Dallas: 800-756-3344
Sacramento: 800-865-1199
USA-national: 877-762-7661

Call around until you find somewhere that can help.

 

That seriously sucks! My Father really likes Snap-On, I tend to lean towards craftsman. I have never had a problem with them. How did the other tools look compared to Snap-On, which held up better over the years.

 

I just cant see spending the dinero for Snap On tools. For not making a living off the stuff, Craftsman does the job just fine for me.

And I hear ya, I could see that if the engravings caused the problem as to them voiding the warranty but if the parts rusted on their own or they had all the other flaws due to useage or other problems, you'd figure a company like Snap-On would cover that. Keep on "bitching" till you can find someone to give you a proper answer, you may not be the purchasing customer but the parts should still be covered IMO.

 

Wow, that's really lame...

 

Luckily, I am friends with a father/son team who run their own automotive shop. They have a great relationship with a Snap-On driver who comes by a lot. Maybe I'll call in a favor.

Honestly, I have to admit, despite not knowing actual ages on any of the tools (some could be easily 30-40 years old), the Snap-On stuff was by far the best stuff. Some of it is super old you can tell, old script/logos. Most of it looks fine, some of it still even shiny! All of the ratchets were frozen, the u-joint sockets were all loose, and most of the 12pt box ends/sockets were worn out on the inside 'teeth'. That's the major issue with most of them. Some of them were so worn that you really couldn't read the part # or size anymore, but otherwise appeared fine.

The cheaper brands were completely rusted. I mean, completely. Wrenches/sockets made of rust, looked like they would fall apart if you dropped them.

That's great and all, but if the **** is worn out, and they won't replace it, what good is it?

Dope

 

thats lame. Hell, I've tig welded my initials on some large wreches before and Craftsman took them back when they broke or rounded off.

Snap-On is overpriced. As much as they cost, they should be warranty no questions asked.

 

Don't know if this will help at all but all the techs at my shop buy ALOT of Snap-On tools and my rep is a great guy, I will show him this tread on Monday and see if he has any insight.

 

crasftman or Matco here

 

...and give you a BJ at the same time. Seriously, for that kinda money they should be begging to help me out.

Dope

 

craftsman stuff here, and anything else i can get my greasy hands on

did you guys see the american hotrod episode where bluebear bent that big *** wrench (like 1.5") like 90 degrees in a vice with a torch to tighten a bolt, then brought it to sears and told them it just bent when he was using it? they took it back

i need a new tool box, i got a little one last year thats on my rolling tool cart, but its overflowing.

my GRANDMA scored that tool cart off the side of the road in the woodlands, shes kick ***!! its even red and matches my tools/compressor and car

 

Snap ON here. That suxs they wont warrnety it. My dads never had problems with his REP.

 

craftsman here professional grade

 

i use mostly craftsman as well, I can't see spensing the kinds of $$$ snap-on wants for some of their stuff when I can buy craftsman and have gotten stuff replaced with no hassle at all.

That's just total BS. Guess they don't care about negative advertisement

Derek

 

snapon cust service sucks, trying to get stuff warrentyed is like pulling teeth with a pair of vise grips.
Well since you
1, used you screwdriver to pry
2, used you chrome socket on an air tool
3, uses a pipe extension on your ratchet
4 etc

I cant warrenty it but I will give you 25% off a new one
**** that
this xxxxxx (fill in the blank) was xxxxxx and I only used it twice
tough luck.
**** the snap on guy
I really liked the matco guy we had but hes serveing 15-20 for banging lil girls

 

everything snap-on, everything has my initials ingraved in them, over 100k worth, never had a problem, and i have mutilated plenty of tools, depends on the rep, if he wants to be a dick he can, but i can go to another dealer and buy what i need and he can watch me open the 1k of new tools when he comes in and i can tell him the other guy replaced it for free so i'll buy what i need from him

 

My Snap On dealer will warranty any tool I want him to. It doesn't have to be faulty or broken at all. He told me once "if it bugs you I'll replace it". And he does exactly that. That's why I use him

 

Exactly, dont deal with those corprate ****s. Go to a local dealer & get the stuff warrantied.

 

I use Craftsman stuff... well, except for one hex wrench which is a Snap On, since Craftsman doesn't make one in the size needed to fit the fill plug on my Moser 12 bolt... 26 bucks for a freakin' hex key.

 

Agreed, your local rep can probably do the deal for you....