Snap on tools for the home user/weekend mechanic

[Johnson Chan]

I know snap on's are good quality tools and pricey. But beyond that, lets talk warranty and customer service.

I hear many different and contradicting things:

1- The lifetime warranty only applies to the original owner with a receipt. So if you buy it from a garage sale or ebay and flag down a snap on truck, you WON'T get a new free one. true or false?

2- snap on guys dont come by residential areas/homes. This seems kinda true cause I havnt seen one do this.

3- Why dont the snap on guys give out there numbers, so when you break something, they can come by and replace it immediately. Why do you HAVE to wait once a week (if your lucky). You miss the guy or take the day off work, and you have to wait another week. Hmmm... As most of us have experienced, if you break a tool, dont have the tool, or missing the tool, your progress goes to ZERO.

4- anybody have luck mailing there tools back to them for exchange vs. finding a truck? A truck is no big deal if you work at a large dealership, etc. where they visit you once a week. But for smaller independent places where they dont purchase much or a weekend warrior, its NOT convienent.

Any expereinces you want to share?

[P.E.Haiges]

Sear's Craftsman has a great replacement warranty. Just bring the broken tool and U get a new or rebuilt one. No questions asked.

P E H

[Johnhef]

1) false

[lutzTD]

Originally Posted by Carrameow

I dont think brand name means that much at time

it does when you are under a truck at 2 am and the cheap wrench spreads and rounds off a nut, I like craftsman for the value, but if money was no object I would have snap-on

[bgkast]

I would not buy snap-on unless I was a professional mechanic.

[777funk]

I use Harbor Freight all the time. Their wrenches and sockets work just fine. If they do break many of their tools carry a lifetime guarantee as well.

I've (user error) broken a torque wrench by over torquing it. They took it back. It said lifetime guarantee and there wasn't a problem with the return.

FWIW, my neighbor's craftsman 1/2 to 3/8" adapter socket twisted apart on a recent job he tackled. I handed him my $2 special from H.F. and it worked fine for the rest of the job. He was using a 5 foot breaker bar! So... I wouldn't knock the junk at H.F. It works.

[Peter Kraft]

Originally Posted by Johnson Chan

I know snap on's are good quality tools and pricey. But beyond that, lets talk warranty and customer service.

I hear many different and contradicting things:

1- The lifetime warranty only applies to the original owner with a receipt. So if you buy it from a garage sale or ebay and flag down a snap on truck, you WON'T get a new free one. true or false?

2- snap on guys dont come by residential areas/homes. This seems kinda true cause I havnt seen one do this.

3- Why dont the snap on guys give out there numbers, so when you break something, they can come by and replace it immediately. Why do you HAVE to wait once a week (if your lucky). You miss the guy or take the day off work, and you have to wait another week. Hmmm... As most of us have experienced, if you break a tool, dont have the tool, or missing the tool, your progress goes to ZERO.

4- anybody have luck mailing there tools back to them for exchange vs. finding a truck? A truck is no big deal if you work at a large dealership, etc. where they visit you once a week. But for smaller independent places where they dont purchase much or a weekend warrior, its NOT convienent.

Any expereinces you want to share?

I buy all my Snap On online direct from Snap On. They pay for free shipping(ground UPS), and the prices are great. All you have to do is create an account and enter your credit card number, you get a tracking number later in the day.

The prices are, in many examples, cheaper than the worn out Snap On tools sold on Ebay. For example, I just bought a T20torx screwdriver from Snap On, it was around $11.00 plus state sales tax and free shipping.

[Peter Kraft]

Originally Posted by P.E.Haiges

Sear's Craftsman has a great replacement warranty. Just bring the broken tool and U get a new or rebuilt one. No questions asked.

P E H

That used to be true, have you tried to return a tool in the last year? They got tired of people bringing in the yard sale tools they bought for .25 and getting a new one. Hurts all of us who supported Sears for years. They refused to warranty a 1/2" ratchet because they didn't understand that under torque it slipped and I was tired of the skinned knuckles. I left it on the counter and vowed to never buy another pos product from Sears again.

[bgkast]

Originally Posted by Peter Kraft

That used to be true, have you tried to return a tool in the last year? They got tired of people bringing in the yard sale tools they bought for .25 and getting a new one. Hurts all of us who supported Sears for years. They refused to warranty a 1/2" ratchet because they didn't understand that under torque it slipped and I was tired of the skinned knuckles. I left it on the counter and vowed to never buy another pos product from Sears again.

I just took one back last week. I guess it wasn't a Craftsman, it was a gear wrench, but they still replaced it no quesions asked.

[catmandoo62]

Originally Posted by Carrameow

I think this statement is baloney and you arent very experienced. Anybody knows the truth is a snapon wrench could round off a nut as well as any.If you are saying that you will never round off a nut because you are using snap on you are full of it. Come back in 5 years.

man if that ain't the truth.one thing about snap-on they will warranty wrenchs for flaking chrome.so about 15 years ago my dads old tools started showing some flaking,so i turned em in for new ones.and what do i get those worthless ass flank drive or whatever the hell they called em.the open ends had teeth.those things would round bolts like no tomorrow.the bean counters have taken over at snap-on,and quality has gone down the tubes.i was watching a nascar race about 3 weeks ago and before the race they were in the garage area and 3 out of 4 tool boxs were mac's.if you need to exchange em,find a local garage where they stop.at most of the bigger shops the service managers don't like them stopping by during business hours as it can take 30-45 minutes to get what tools the mechanics need plus they have to look over the new stuff.and then they usually have 10-20 mechanics.if they are all in the truck there isn't much work getting done.at least thats how it is here in my town.if i need to exchange something i drop by the chevy dealer on friday after 5 and there he sets.he usually doesn't leave there til at least 6:30 or so.

[rcounts]

Originally Posted by Peter Kraft

That used to be true, have you tried to return a tool in the last year? They got tired of people bringing in the yard sale tools they bought for .25 and getting a new one. Hurts all of us who supported Sears for years. They refused to warranty a 1/2" ratchet because they didn't understand that under torque it slipped and I was tired of the skinned knuckles. I left it on the counter and vowed to never buy another pos product from Sears again.

I've had the same kind of experience with them in recent years. Plus you have to stand in line while they fill out a bunch of paperwork and crap.

For electrics and specialty tools I usually buy at HF - not top of the line pro-quality, but they are a good value for the weekend mechanic/fabricator like me.

For hand tools, I've become pretty fond of the CrewLine brand that they sell at Schucks/Checker/Kragen stores. They are at least as good of quality as what passes for Craftsman these days, they cost about 2/3 of what Sears charges, and they carry a lifetime warranty. Their stores are everywhere in my area (unlike Sears which are few and far between these days), and they have never even so much as blinked at exchanging a broken tool the few times I've had to take one back. They just told me to grab another off the shelf, waved at me and said "have a nice day" - no paperwork or anything. Now THAT is what I call a no-hassle warranty exchange program - just like Sears USED to be.

I'm not quite so fond of them for parts, but they get most of my hand tools business these days.

[charmalu]

I have just about all Craftsman tools. I have taken a couple things back with no questions asked. but that was about 3 yrs ago.

I have a Craftsman torq wrench, goes up to 150lbs. turn the knob on the end and the # scroll by a little window. there are 2 windows nm and ft lbs. can`t read the ft lbs, some dirt or? in the window. took it back and was told there is no replacement like other tools. only the 6mo or what ever they come with.
was told to leave it and they would send it in to have fixed. probably cheaper to buy another one on sale.

Sears is owned by K-Mart soooo, there you go.

I have a set of polished chrome profesional craftsman, I really do like them.
So now I don`t do retail on tools, just buy them at flea mkt or swap meets.

Believe it or not, my most favorite ratchet was a Wizard I bought from Western Auto about 1970. the damn thing broke a couple yrs ago. can`t even find one on e-bay.

Charlie ☺

[Johnson Chan]

ANYBODY and ANY TOOL reguardless of being a snap on CAN round off a bolt. Professionals can round off bolts. I have friends that are professional mechanics that do this for 8 hours a day and they show me stuff and tell me stories of rounded off fasteners. BUT... Some of snap ons stuff has better teeth.

For example, show me a craftsman that has the special grooves on the 22 mm wrench:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=019&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=290231464126&rd=1


But still, we are getting off track, has anybody waved down a snap-on truck and gotten a free tool that wasnt the original owner or without receipt? Anybody have to mail back a tool for warranty?

1- False. If its a snap-on tool and broken, they will fix/replace it free (Except for power tools) without question of ownership or purchase history.

2- False, they won't come by on a weekly basis but if you schedule a time he/she will come by your home.

3- Look on your receipt, their number is on every one they print out and usually on every catalog they hand out.

4- You would have to contact a dealer or snap-on's website to find where to mail it.

Originally Posted by Johnson Chan

Any experiences you want to share?

Yes- For the at-home mechanic, stick with Craftsman or Harbor-Freight. Snap-on is too expensive for the casual wencher and a poor value anyways for everyone.

I've said for years if Sears would do a Sears/Craftsman truck franchise, they would easily put the smaller tool guys (Mac, Matco, Cornwell, etc) in a world of hurt and take a big chunk out of Snap-On's buisness. Half the reason people buy from snap-on is the convenience of them coming to you on their time rather than you having to go to a store on your time.

[pmckechnie]

I have a lot of Snap-On tools, and a lot of other brands. As for warranty, it depends more on the tool truck driver than it does the company. I won't even let a Mac truck on my lot because of one of their employes that used to be on the truck but now is a manager. He didn't want to warranty anything. Always came up with a (you broke it because you didn't use it correctly) or it's not broken, it is worn out, or ???. The tool man I have now doesn't work for any of the big names but gets tools and equipment else where and stands behind everything 100%. His prices are about 1/2 the price of the name brand, just as good or better quality.
By the way, about 10 or 15 years ago there was a Craftsman truck that started coming to our shop. It was a market test. He was doing a GREAT business and every thing was going great for him. After a few months, Sears pulled the plug and we never saw him again.
Paul