MATCO TOOLS Franchise Complaints

4,850 thoughts on “MATCO TOOLS Franchise Complaints”

• One of the reasons Matco gave me that I wasn’t in compliance in 2010 was that I never returned the signed acceptance of the FDD. I had no Idea what an ‘FDD’ was.
  I finally called Mike Swanson and asked what the hell is and FDD? He immediately FedEx’d the FInancial Disclosure to me to sign and return. No explanation from him, the DM or RM as to why I should sign and return.

  10 yrs earlier it was called a Franchise Circular Offering. Needless to say things changed in 10 yrs. I just wonder if they expected me to abide by the new agreement if I were to sign acceptance? Many things changed, most notably off the top of my head was insurance coverage.

  Needless to say when the DM emailed me to find out if I received the FDD, I acknowledged receipt, but the Lawyer had it for further review.

  90 days out, Matco listed (3) things that I was not in compliance with:
  1. Purchase Average
  2. Buying outside Matco
  3. Did not return the signed acceptance of the FDD.

  I never heard from Matco again until the final termination letter..
  The only thing listed as non-compliance was the purchase average.

  I addressed a 3 page letter to Tom Willis 5 months before termination to convey my grievances, his response….(not an exact quote for legal reasons) …While we look into these things…GET out There and SELL!

  A lot has changed since 2006/2007 (maybe because of the Matco/TD Bank/SBA issue) VP of Finance quits, all new corporate Officers via the Danaher Business System…mmm…. Interesting….. I think Tom Willis is just a puppet now.

• WOW WOW WOW

  well, no longer does it sound like this lone woman in Colorado is whining – HA!
  I KNEW things were wrong, I KNEW it wasn’t ‘just’ me, although, ‘them boys’ worked hard and long to convince me otherwise.

  HA! There is no room for back pedaling now, time to face the music Matco!!

  I sent Tom Willis and Ernie Lauber a very long letter via certified mail AND email last week. Tom Willis emailed me Wednesday and said I would have a reply by –
  Today/Monday. Surprise, surprise, Ernie Lauber emailed me today, and NOW says, I will have a reply on Wednesday.

  I’m not holding my breath……

  MY complaints won’t be answered, the ONLY thing that will effect change is LEGAL ACTION.

  I’ll be watching :)

• Debbie ,was not trying to discourage you. Just wanted facts presented which proved the point. Windshield,cell service, email all trivial. But what it has brought out is the real problems which others have shown as well as you on here. I feel sorry for all dbrs which have been treated in the ways shown above. I wish all dbrs the best of luck in whatever they do.

• Debbie,

  Tell your DM to keep his ass out of your store ! Tell him he can follow in HIS personal vehicle if he wants, just stay OUT OF YOUR business. However don’t be surprised if a mysterious fuel bill shows up on your weekly. LOL !

• Hello?

• Wow, I think I am going to Jail. Have paid off about a dozen mechanics accounts this year, from Cornwell to Snap On. It’s true you can’t put a box witha lein on in it on a matco psa, but there is absolutely nothing illegal about calling Snap On or Cornwell up and paying off a guys entire account. You cannot seperate items from that contract, i.e if he owes $3,000, but the box is worth 1,500, you still have to pay off the entire $3,000 so there isn’t a lein, but illegal? Hardly. If that was the case nobody would ever trade in their cars to dealerships, what do you think they have to do, they have to pay the lein off.
  Carrying the paper and collecting interest, hardly illegal as well, why do you think you have the zero reserve option on your MDBS.
  I wonder if Tommy Cheung is getting $1,000 recruiting bonus from Jerry…lol

• Exactly Jay, you finally get the point. It didn’t matter “what” my issue was, be it whatever trivial matter I referred – the point was getting PROBLEMS recognized. I think maybe the petty bickering can stop and we can acknowledge and move forward.

  I honestly hope some change happens. You would have to be completely without heart NOT to feel for the loss. Real people, and lives ruined. I really appreciate your post. thank you :)

• Since you got me started… I’ll share more info.
  In 2004, I was asked by my 2nd DM to give up about 6-7 shops to a struggling distributor in trade for 4 shops on the other side of town. I agreed as it saved me time behind wheel and closer to home. Asked them to document it…. right! You already know what happened…. They put in a new distributor and assigned him 3 of those shops to his list of calls…. I LOSE.

  They finally surveyed my route 6 years later, per franchise renewal requirements. Only way they could come up with the minimum was to List shops TWICE, once on Monday and again on Thursday. They also added shops that were in other distributor list of calls. They never really surveyed, just used the numbers from 10 yrs earlier. I’m sure all of you have maintained the same ‘potential’ customer count over the past 3-4 years, maybe… some area are fine-but not here.

  It really seems that they are training the DM’s and RM’s to perform this way. Maybe not, maybe the DM’s are just so desperate for a buck. Ahhh The Matco Family :)

• Dear Guest3,
  Timing is everything – by the letter of the law- it IS illegal
  to finance a toolbox that still has a lein
  A car sale is different – it is explicitly stated in the signed contracts
  the prior loan will be paid. That is specifically why car dealers HAVE
  gone to jail- they didnt pay off the prior loan. However,
  We don’t sign anything, and the paperwork we DO send states
  the trade is free and clear

• Guest3, no I dont get paid by Jerry, but I hope we all do get paid by Matco when he rips them apart in court. I hope you have contacted him and get on board this train. We all have had similar problems with Matco and we need to make them understand that their deceitful practices wont go unnoticed. Keep telling everyone, pass the word along,speak loud and stand tall. Debbie and I are in this till the end and we hope all will join. GO GET EM JERRY.

• Of course its illegal to finance a box that has a lien on it. That is why you always ask the customer if its paid off, and if it’s not YOU pay it off. In your earlier posts you made it sound like your DM made you do something illegal by paying off a box and that was illegal. It’s not, when it’s paid off you own it and there is nothing illegal about that. Most DBR’s that selll a lot of boxes also pay off boxes to gain more toolbox sales and more MATCO customers.

• Interesting that I received an e-mail about this after so many years. I started with Matco in 1991 and signed the franchise agreement a few years later. I was pushed out by Darryl Pritchet and Mike Ramey after being a Matco distribuyor for 13 1/2 years. They first tried to get me to agree to taking a different area south of me where the previous distributor failed to give proper service and the Matco name was trashed. I guess they thought I could bring it back and make a living doing so. The two of them sat at my kitchen table and told me I had a bad additude when I didn’t agree with what they wanted to do. I was told this is the way it is and we’ll serve you with papers, it’s going to happen either way. I threw them out and went independent right away. I know most of you don’t have that option with the agreements you’ve signed. I’ve been an independent distributor now going on 6 years and I’m so much happier now. Darryl Pritchett is an ass kisser, he’s afraid of losing his job at any given time and will do whatever Matco tells him. Mike Ramey isn’t much better. Every time I see Darryl, I tell him to “go fuck yourself” with a big smile on my face.

• @Guest3 ………. Wow, dude, really…. I thought we got past picking apart every tedious detail of every post.

  YOU KNOW what they had us do was illegal. The PSA Department told me explicitly – PAY OFF THE TRADE FIRST – ****THEN*** I could write a contract and send it in. They were pretty adamant about that too. So, after they chastised me – I knew

  Timing, all about the timing ————– and YOU KNOW THAT TOO

• And you never rolled the customer TP balance into the PSA? Old DM told me to do that.

• pat i didnt drink pritchetts blend of matco coolaid either lost almost everything,only took them 2 years to bleed me dry.

• https://www.facebook.com/pages/Matco-Tools-Distributor-Association/293379297348041?skip_nax_wizard=true

  the more information that is ‘out there’ – the more it will be seen
  post!

  FB Page VIEWS
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  Post Views?
  23,774
  ************people are reading!************

• @ mike ….”blend of Matco coolaid” LOL!!! almost spit coffee out my nose!

• Are any of the failed or terminated Matco distributors here military veterans? Do you know of any who bought in through the IFA’s VetFran program? Feel free to email me at UnhappyFranchisee[at]gmail.com, as I would like to do a story on that program. Matco distributed a press release this month saying it was one of the top 10 most popular franchises of the VetFran program which promotes franchise opportunities to veterans. Thanks.

• deb they make it if you dont drink it,well just look at were alot of us hard workers ended up.

• Would have been more funny if he spelled it correctly

• @Guest3 ………. Wow, dude, really, Again…. I thought we got past picking apart every tedious detail of every post…………..

• Matco, Matco man, I want to be a Matco man. Wow great morning first shop and sold a toolbox

• I was also a victim of team Darryl Pritchett / Mike Raimey. After two years I was kicked to the curb. What is worse, Darryl replaces me with a guy that has failed the tool business not once, not twice, but three times! He was with MAC, Cornwell, then tried a run independent.

  Keep in mind he was put into the same territory that he had tried 3 different times before. He had a reputation of really bad warranty service. Most of my (old) customers remember this and do not want to deal with him. That is if they even allow him in the shop, he has been run out of at least 10 that I know of.

  In the period of six months Darryl churned myself and two others out of the district.

  Admin- I signed on under the Vet-Fran agreement, it doesn’t matter because a $1000.00 commission trumps everything.

  @ Tommy………..call Gerard and get my cell # from him. I would like to talk to you when you have a chance.

• Tom.Willis@matcotools.com
  Ernie.Lauber@matcotools.com
  sue.kolat@matcotools.com don’t exactly know who this is, but an email
  I sent Willis and Lauber was replied to and her address was included

• Email addresses for Matco people are
  FirstName.lastName@MatcoTools.com

• Sue Kolat is and Executive Assistant @ Matco

• It keeps getting better and better, keep posting, telling everyone your problems with matco and be heard.

• We need someone to go on vetfran and post a comment leading to this site. They have a chat forum, I was having a problem gettin logged in.Tell everyone and be loud and be heard.

• Hi Tommy, where is your route at, I need to stay away from that area

• guest3 needs to put his village people 8 track back in a sell some tool boxes and stop worrying about everything else

• Mike your jealousy flatters me, I didn’t criticize your pour grammar, why you dissing on me man!

• Pingback: MATCO TOOLS Franchise Report Alleges Distributor Churning : Unhappy Franchisee

• Question – I keep getting the ‘threat’/reminder if I
  quit – any PSA I have written in the 90 days prior to
  me terminating – will be charged back to me!

  1. It doesn’t make sense- customer applied for and promised to
  pay Matco credit

  2. If charged back- does customer get a letter? What? Saying
  his box is paid?

  3. **OR** does Matco “double dip”??
  Confusing to me, makes no sense to charge back the dist.!

• you dissed me twice and tommy once all it one day sorry if i hurt your feelings,nothing hurt mine as much as that selling tools.

• Check out:

  MATCO TOOLS Franchise Report Alleges Distributor Churning

  This Marks & Klein report alleges significant franchisee churning, up to 49%. Everyone involved with the Matco Tools brand should be paying very close attention to this discussion and read this report, because things are getting real serious, real fast.

  Our intent is to provide a voice to both sides of the issue and let readers decide for themselves. Matco Tools officials are invited to submit a clarification and/or rebuttal to UnhappyFranchisee[at]gmail.com.

• Debbie
  Had you read your franchise documents which you signed you would have realized this from the start of your business that psa contracts written within 90 days of your untimely demise would be charged back. Sounds like you should have gotten Jerry to read your franchise documents before you started.

• How many guests are on here????????

• Guest3, my route was in Jacksonville, Florida, southern states, with Darryl(dick)Pritchett and Mike(scum)Ramey.Stay away and run like hell. I am glad to see ADMIN getting in on the chat. This is starting to get real interesting. If you look at alot of the complaints, you will see alot of them are coming from this area,why?Matco has problems everywhere, just read all the posts. Debbie, great question about charge backs when terminated. It does sound like matco is double dipping, and that probably is illegal.If they purchase a contract, it should be a done deal.Keep posting and stand tall and be loud. GO GET EM JERRY.

• @guest2, I did read, didn’t sound fair then either
  After reading the “churning” report – seems their PSA policy
  isn’t the only Unfair practice!
  In fact, I’m quite certain “fair” isn’t in Matco’s vocabulary!

• i just got off of the phone with the credit dept. they wanted to know what i was going to do about it. i told them i was in discussion with an attorney at this time. i was then asked who he was and i told her , jerry. she sayed ok and bye. i did call jerry and had to send some paperwork,done. i have to call back monday and see what can be done.

• Boy Tommy wouldn’t it be weird if you won a lawsuit against Matco then Pritchett and Ramsey won one against you for slander…just saying I would be careful

• “Boy Tommy wouldn’t it be weird if you won a lawsuit against Matco then Pritchett and Ramsey won one against you for slander…”

  Not to nitpick, but slander is spoken, libel is printed. Both are forms of defamation.

  From expertlaw.com: “The most important defense to an action for defamation is “truth”, which is an absolute defense to an action for defamation… A defense recognized in most jurisdictions is “opinion”. If the person makes a statement of opinion as opposed to fact, the statement may not support a cause of action for defamation.”

  It’s not slander if 1) you’re clearly stating it as your opinion or 2) things you state as fact are true.

  Good stuff to know in these heated discussions. Just saying…

• Guest, never stated it to be a fact, this whole conversation on this site has always been my opinion. I feel it to be true with my personal thoughts against them and will defend my feelings and opinions. My opinion also is that this whole district thinks the same about them, I have spoken to a bunch of distr in this area who feel the same.

• “Guest, never stated it to be a fact…”
  I don’t think anything you’ve said approaches defamation.
  Just more bullyboy tactics. Keep talking the truth, Tommy!

  I wish guest2 and guest3 would go get their own names :)

• I think all of the guest should state their names we know matco has problems with the way they treat their distr. Man-up , put your names out there and lets go after matco as a team, we have nothing to lose, if we were to lose in court (which I doubt), just file bankruptcy again, just as matco forced us to do when we signed with them. The bigger the team, the better. Stand tall, stand proud and be loud, voice your opinions and lets be heard.

• I’m guessing none of us like to file and pay our sales taxes. I understand it is all part of doing business. I accept that.

  I am curious however; just as a survey – How many tax jurisdictions do you have?

  I have 15 – yes 15 sales tax returns that need to be prepared – it has been done on a quarterly basis. So, each quarter I take my reports to my accountant and pay her $195 – so she can tell me how much to pay each.

  Do it yourself? Well, I would but, there is STATE TAX, COUNTY TAX, CITY TAX, RTD TAX, AND LOCAL TAX. Each jurisdiction has different rates and different taxes. To boot, each quarter – since I’ve been in business – a least one tax changes.

  NOW, I receive a letter from the state of Colorado telling me my revenue meets the requirement and I MUST FILE AND SUBMIT MY SALES TAXES MONTHLY.
  Now, I get to pay my accountant EVERY month to complete the tax return and tell me how much to pay.

• how often is your dm supposed to ride with you. i have never got the same answer as a positive yes. mine never rode with me for any length of time. he would just get on my truck and snoop around to see what i had that wasnt matco.

• EVERY time mine rides with me – my sales DROP. I know now I don’t have to allow him ON my truck – do I have to let him go on my route?
  Meaning, make him follow in his own vehicle – but then follows and observe.
  He can’t actually “ride” with me as I’ve taken the passenger seat out of my truck. My dog rides with me and is too big to fit :)
  He creeps out my customers and makes me highly uncomfortable.
  So much for “my OWN business”…………..

• I have 14 tax codes. Set it up in mdbs. Pay monthly for taxes. Do it myself takes 25 min. Don’t pay an accountant. Save 195 dollars per month evidently. Set up your mdbs. It will do everything for you, hit print, file taxes and drink beer done!

• @Tommy – what was the website for Vets?? I would post some info there too, just not sure where to go