SNAP-ON TOOLS Franchise Complaints

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• Definitely contact Jerry Marks. I was in an absolutely disasterous situation after leaving snap-on after only 9 months. My BM went from showing me a business snap-shot showing 34,000 in equity after only 6 months. Needless to say I was very happy and excited despite all the hard work and countless hours I had to endure on top of fixing business relationships snap-on and the previous dealer had ruined.

  3 months later, on credit hold and on the hook for nearly $16k in un-returnable diagnostics that my sales manager gave me the old "not going to bill you for them if you don't sell them, we will move them to another dealer." my business folded and I was bullied into signing a termination paper.

  A couple months later I get letters from snap on saying I OWED $66,000 when I was under the impression from my BM that they were going to OWE ME $30k. I opted to not respond to the letter after I had asked for an itemized list and absolute proof in simple writing why I owe this balance, which they could not/refused to produce.

  I thought it was all over, sold a ton of irreplaceable belongings to pay back my $10,000 in initial debt I had to borrow, only to find out that when I applied for a home mortgage I got denied because snap-on reported to MY PERSONAL CREDIT that I owed $88,000!!!!!! I immediately filed a dispute with the credit bureau, and posted my story online and was contacted by Jim Lager.

  Jim Lager has been an absolute god-send. I was completely hopeless until he got in touch with me and let me know that I'm not alone. He also put me in touch with Jerry Marks, and we currently have a lawsuit in place. We are 9 months into the case, and should see resolution soon.

  In the meantime, the credit bureau did an investigation and found those charges to my credit to be entirely fraudulent and removed them from my credit report. Another slice of evidence in our corner regarding the lawsuit.

  You can read more of my story on http://www.mobiletooldealersassociation.com where I shed light on the hardships in purchasing my family home.

  If any of you have been screwed over by a tool corporation and it's promises, THERE IS HELP. If anyone is in the process of getting out, contact Jerry Marks immediately, and tell your story on http://www.mobiletooldealersassociation.com

• In 1994 I had high hopes for becoming a Snap-On dealer and spent a month looking into the purchase of a franchise. Initially, market acceptance of the product and the business model were very attractive. Then I rode with and picked the brains of 3 different dealers. They were cautious about what they revealed to me but I soon realized that their relationship with Snap-On was seriously adversarial. Then I tried to make sense of the accounting system which seemed bizarre. My accountant's comments were not encouraging. When I questioned the area manager, he told me I was being "too analytical". I decided not to invest a cent in that franchise deal but later I was offered a job as a direct factory rep for industrial sales. Again, due diligence revealed they treated their employees as badly as their dealers. Current reports indicate that not much has changed. It's a shame that a once great company with a still great product appears to be managed with a deceptive mentality.

• After working for the company for several years they treat the employees like dogs.
  Comments such as "it's the man not the land" "it's not the route it's the man" "you might not be the man for the job" and on and on. Hard pressure tool buys from the canned scenario sales meetings every month were a joke. BM's, SD's FD's and diagnostic reps make it hard on you if you reject to purchase items at these meetings.
  BM's and SD's have access to everyone's inventory balance and look to vulture that balance by making purchases behind the scenes and then when your hit with the merchandise nobody can seem to track where it initiated from. FPT's BM's having to move 3 million a quarter worth of merchandise turns them into rude and pushy so they conjure up some bogus numbers from routes that have 2 or 3 trucks to say "look at what profit looks like" making you think a single franchise is rolling these fabricated numbers. Trained liars or high power car salesman types.

  The "Paid Sales" monster is only what all the leadership is looking at. The wheel of death business model they harp at the propaganda training meetings are unachievable in a terrible economy we are currently residing in. The upper echelon managers all sound like they've all attended the Snap-On Tools puppet brainwashing training classes. "Growing the business, Growing the business" and collections song is wore out.

  Yes, I know that is how you get profitable and your business thrives to an extent. I compared the way sales on the street is conducted to being similar to be a drug dealer. Buy it today and pay me when you get paid. Most grease monkeys are broke and can't pay you today anyway so, you go on the assumption of will he pay on Friday or will his card be rejected when you run it? The real deal is he looks in his wallet or bank account and thinks "who can I screw out of this money" you guessed it, the tool man!

  There are several serious issue variables when thinking about doing this for a business. I wouldn't suggest a new guy try this but the old timers that have their business paid for and don't owe Snap-On a dime can thrive to a degree. Don't even think of having employees to assist you in the mountains of paperwork to keep up because it's against the rules. The upper echelon has no rules, ethics, character, décor or conscious.

  I've only touched on a small portion of what goes on behind the scenes at Snap-On. Please heed this warning at all costs.

  Stay away from this business venture and I can't stress that enough. Don't fall victim to the vicious Snap-On treadmill of making lost profit on the street by taking all of your hard earned money vested and leaving you looking for food stamps next. DON'T DO IT!

• There is a mega list of crap owning this franchise. There's always some mystical magical answer for the moves upper mgt. does and it's all a blame game. I don't care what answer you come up with those jokers in management have the Dallas brainwashed negative answer training ready for ya.

  As stated earlier, the act like high power car salesman feeding of the honest vulnerability of the franchisee or fresh meat.
  Your kidding yourself if you think your going to be some high $$$ earner when the bills to operate a non brick and mortar store are out of the roof.

  Work dumber not smarter is the rule of thumb here.

• I was a franchisee for Snapon from 2003-2006. Not only was I a top performer but I made a lot of $. It's funny to see some of these complaints. People that complain for a living instead of work hard for a living. Remember, they created the brand and the quality. We had the the opportunity to run with the opportunity to sell those quality products or expect them to sell themselves. I had territory issues with Snapon. That's why I left. Not all peaches and cream but well worth the time and investment

• Jason,

  I know top performers such as myself that still found it hard making a good living because managers promising you the world and always helping them yet I was always stuck with a high invoice. Can you explain that?

• I worked as a Snap-on dealer customer service rep during the mid 1990's. First real job out of college. They treated their company employees very well... but it was a totally different story for franchised dealers. Most of their problems at that time stemmed from offering customers way too easy credit that would end up in default. Was not unusual to have a dealer saddled with a $200,000 tool bill that would never be reduced or collected. One dealer I supported covered the entire eastern part of Wyoming and western part of Nebraska single handed. He easily worked 100+ hours a week covering that area... while at least 4 dealers were assigned to the Omaha metro area alone. The running joke among the company managers was that they couldn't afford to buy Snap-on even via employee discount... so they buy all of their personal tools at Sears because Craftsman was cheaper and every bit as good as Snap-on.

• Hi

  Having read the posts there's a lot of negative comments and experiences. I am looking into joining and looking for experiences of uk dealers on how they find being a franchisee. Are you making the figures you were budgeting for etc?

  Would you do it again?

  I have done a couple of van rides and it looked like the dealers i was with had it wrapped up, they made it look quite easy.

  Any view welcome to help in my decision

• I don`t know if Snap-On will be selling the same contract as they do in the United States but I would pay close attention to what it says. I imagine it will be quite lengthy. Please keep this in mind though. If Snap-On has 5000 franchisees and 1000 fail a year you would have very little chance of retaining your franchise over a five year period.

• Nearly there... You get as much out as you put it, its been the best move I have made.
  Theres to much to put in a message,but if you need to know more about being a dealer in the uk, just let me know and I will help as much as I can.