MATCO TOOLS Franchise Complaints

4,850 thoughts on “MATCO TOOLS Franchise Complaints”

• Here is another guest just for you….
  If you are considering the tool business and you are not self motivated, lazy, can’t get out of bed in the morning, need constant supervision, not good with people, are a slob, can’t manage money, have no personal skills, than consider another career…, how is that guest? That was my best job of the glass half empty .

• Former just wrote a 1,800 PSA for hand tools and cordless tools. It was nice getting that sale, see this guy couldn’t afford 100 a week but could $30 per week, and I get paid right a way.

• Guest do you know what a Psa is? Do you know what wolco is? Do you know what tp is, or what your tp balance is, do you know what a weekly report is and what are some key indicators on it?????

• Guest….we are sorry our offices are closed, our normal business hours are…sound familiar?

• Matco2 I appreciate your concern for my health as you are most certainly correct I am suffering. I am suffering from Fraud, Falsifyinging of Documents,Lying and False Termination of my Franchise at the hands of my Franchisor. WILL SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!!!

• Call Jerry todd

• ■Guest on December 29th, 2011 3:53 pm
  MATCO#1 writes: “I don’t know if they have performance standards at midas, the ones I service the guy owns , or I should say owned 8, he just sold 3″

  MATCO#1 adds another caution to those considering a Matco Tools franchise. With a legit franchise, like Midas, you can actually sell your franchise. Legit franchises are themselves assets, with value.

  According to the Marks & Klein report, fewer than 7% of Matco franchisees are able to sell or even GIVE their franchises away.

  Even Kevin acknowledges they can’t be sold because, one can only assume, they have no inherent value.

  Thanks MATCO#1 for another Matco franchise warning

  They do if you own your truck
  They do if you own your inventory
  They do if you own your accounts

  Midas stores usually only sell for what building and fixtures are worth, and only if they are profitable.

• Guest.

  How about the risk????? No answer??????
  Lets do a Guest move…… Me a 40lb over weight man trying to be a owner operator of a Javersize in tights would not be a good choice. Do you think that some people should not be tool dealers?

  Sorry for the bad pic… Hope no one was eating.:)

• Another addition to the “MATCO#1 is Always Wrong” Collection:

  MATCO#1 wrote: “guest son had a business but failed, guest bailed him out though….” “I have told you before guest, if your son needs a job because he is lazy, you don’t want him working in the office, a franchise is not the solution.”

  MATCO#1 is saying that my son is the failed Matco distributor named in the class action lawsuit. http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/franchise-lawsuit-matco-tools-scam/

  WRONG. If MATCO#1 would have someone read the lawsuit to him, he’d learn that the father who financed his son’s franchise was a highly successful Matco franchisee in Long Island.

  Are you really accusing me of being an ex-Old Boy’s Club member?

• These guys opposing us on this website are here to try and destroy our credibility! They are not here to listen and cast judgement about our situation and see if we are being truthful with our statements but to try and give Matco a glimmer of hope that they can discredit our accounts enough that some New Franchisee may see us as just pissed of guys who failed.

  That would be a HUGE mistake if A New Franchisee made those assumptions.

  I am stating that Matco used Fraud, Lies and False Documents to Falsely Terminate my franchise. They knew I had asked for and was promised a route survey and never did a thing till they gave me a separation letter. Then they perform a false survey and 3 days later hand me 405 customers.

  If you think by the demeanor of these reputable Franchise OBC Distributor’s is not enough reason to can the idea of becoming a Matco Franchisee and you do not take heed of the FACTS I have presented then YOU can’t say I didn’t warn you.

  It cost me close to $10,000 dollars for me to be able to tell my story. That is what Ernie Lauber and Mike Swanson offered me “No restocking fee.” All I had to do was sign their document which would have me waive my rights and anyone I know’s right to sue Matco . It also says I will place a gag on my mouth only having the ability to speak to my Attorney or with Matco’s written consent.

  That my friends is how Matco amicably resolves disputes.

  This is who I am!

  I am a Moral and Ethical man who has volunteered as a coach for soccer, basketball and softball. I have Never been to Jail, I have never received a DWI, I volunteer for my son’s cub scout troop. I go to church, I have actively participated in my church, I went to Louisianna to help Katrina victims with my church while working for MATCO. The same year I was #41. I served my Country for 3 years in the Regular Army. I also have been Married 13 years to my wife and I have only been married once. I have two wonderful children 11 and 12.

  I am not bragging or being prideful! I am trying to say I am not an idiot, fool, stupid, moron, liar or accuser. I am an HONEST man who ran an HONEST franchise and had it destroyed by lying, dishonest and fraudulent EMPLOYEE’S working for dishonest and NON-Supportive Management System.

• Guest just because you dint agree doesn’t mean I am wrong

  I do believe YOU where the one about a month ago referred to the lawsuit, but i am sure you will deny that too

• MATCO#1 writes: “Guest just because you dint agree doesn’t mean I am wrong

  I do believe YOU where the one about a month ago referred to the lawsuit, but i am sure you will deny that too”

  What are you saying? That I’m the father involved in the lawsuit?

• Guest I never said your son was involved in that lawsuit, but it’s obvious you have absolutely no clue on how to operate a tool franchise….YOU are the only one on here that had never been and never be a tool dealer.

• matco2 wrote: “How about the risk????? No answer??????

  My advice on risk: stay away from franchises with 37% SBA default rates, highest in all of franchising.

  Stay away from franchises with 49% turnover and less than 7% chance of being able to sell or give the franchise away.

  Stay away from franchises deemed by CNN to be the “riskiest.”

  Beware of franchises that create hype using meaningless claims (like #1 tool franchise when only two submit info to the ranking).

  Beware of franchises whose Old Boys Club is so threatened by the idea of change that they must try to distract, intimidate and overwhelm a conversation where they do not belong.

  Beware of a franchise whose supporters can’t muster up a couple of dozen positive comments on a page for supporters, but launch hundreds of personal attacks against those who push for change and improvements.

  Is that enough on “risk” matco2, or should I go on?

• MATCO#1 wrote: “guest son had a business but failed….” “I have told you before guest, if your son needs a job because he is lazy, you don’t want him working in the office, a franchise is not the solution.”

  MATCO#1 weren’t you the one outraged by a joking reference to your wife?

  Wives are off-limits but insulting and slandering sons is OK?

  Where are Kevin and Junior’s objections now?

  WTF are you even talking about? My son failed in business? My son is lazy? AAA changes my tires? WTF?

  Have you come completely unhinged?

• I believe everything in the franchise circular is there to make Matco profitable. That is FINE! Businesses exist to make money. Noone, including franchisees, is in Business to fail. But, when a franchisor stoops to lying, Fraud, False Documents and False Terminations in order to churn returned inventory and create new start-up inventory sales because the exhisting distributor has been in business for multiple years change needs to take place.

• Todd,

  My story has been from the DBM coming to a DM meeting to check up with the new guys to see if everything is going well and see if he made any mistakes in setting up the rout.

  I have a DM that is great. He will and does take care of us. RM same thing. He will meet with dist if they request when he is in the area.

  These are FACTS too.

  The rants here don’t help anyone or change anything. That is a fact.
  Some want this so they can Fish.

  If you were harmed go to court and take the judgement good or bad.

  You do sound like someone who put his hart and soul into his business. It didn’t work.

  Even if the judge rules in your favor its unlikley that you will get anything after the fees that will replace what you feel you lost.

  Spend some time with those family and frends and set up the next stage of your life.

  Realy man even tommy sleeps. At least he get paid for it.

• i always kept my skips very low but my rm was always wanting me to increase it.
  i told him why should i sell something to someone that will not pay for it just to raise my skip percentages. never made sense to me.

• Richard,

  Never in my career as a MATCO distributor or DM did I ever hear anyone say you need to raise your skips….maybe your TP balance but never skips, why in the world would anyone ever say this. Thats like telling the Packers, hey go out and loose this one, we don’t want to play at Lambeau Field for the playoffs.

• Guest
  My advice on risk: stay away from franchises with 37% SBA default rates, highest in all of franchising….LIE!

  Stay away from franchises deemed by CNN to be the “riskiest.” LIE…CNN the most untrusted name in NEWS!!!

  Stay away from franchises with 49% turnover and less than 7% chance of being able to sell or give the franchise away

  Beware of franchises that create hype using meaningless claims (like #1 tool franchise when only two submit info to the ranking). LIE, total of Four franchises MATCO #1, Snap On #2, MAC and Cornwell

  Beware of franchises whose Old Boys Club….Lie no such club, Guest is uniformed and under educated regarding tools business..never owned a franchise.

  Is that enough on “risk” matco2, or should I go on?….What you mean stop lying or actually posting facts….see you don’t know, you were never a franchise owner, you have to guess, or fish, or ask Tommy who failed.

• Matco1, I really don’t care what you think or have to say, you are meaningless to this conversation and your opinions don’t count. Go get an education and be someone in life.

  What rights does a matco trainer have to open an account to a illegal mexican on my truck, sell him about $650 dollars in tools, no social, no phone number and the illegal mexican, got away with my tools, mario, is the one who did this, matco should refund my money, especially when they preach to get all the information, before opening an account.

  Mario is a trainer for matco and should be held accountable, he spoke spanish to this guy and I was never told what was said.

  Matco way is to avoid any questions, run, hide and look the other way.ignore,ignore and ignore.

  DO NOT BUY INTO A MATCO FRANCHISE, RUN,RUN,RUN AND DON’T LOOK BACK.

  M- MATCO

  D- DISTRIBUTORS

  A- AGAINST

  C- CORPORATE

• MATCO#1 said on December 29th, 2011 4:12 pm
  Former just wrote a 1,800 PSA for hand tools and cordless tools. It was nice getting that sale, see this guy couldn’t afford 100 a week but could $30 per week, and I get paid right a way

  Why do you people keep giving MORE money to Matco?. You just lost 10% for a quick 20% profit (maybe 25%). And you’ll be collecting Matco’s money for another year and a half. Good for you!

  On that deal alone, Matco will make $800-900, (your purchase and the PSA), you made $450. And you’ll do all of the work, collections, warranty, customer service. matco end is all computerized. No work. You’ll collect via debit or credit card and pay an additional 2-3%. Only around an additional $65 out of your pocket.

  You guys are smarter than i thought.

• So Tommy this trainer you speak of would have rode with you your first week….you claim but cant back it up you finished in the top 200.
  It sounds like the trainer did good, unless you were failing and the trainer came out the week before you failed.
  But as you know training is the first week, so if you lasted the 3 years like you said you did…how did Mario hurt your business?

• matco#1
  mike ramey was the one that told me that. told me that my skips percentage was too low. i thought it was a rather stupid comment.
  he said that i couldnt tell if sonmeone could pay or not and that i needed to sell to anyone and everyone. you know as well as i that there are some people that you can tell just by talking to them that something is not right here.
  i told him that he could sell from his pocket but not from mine.

• Former, yeah but I would have made the $450 over 18 months your way. Now I can re-stock my truck and keep the truck with the most tools on my route.

  I take that back, wouldn’t have made it over 18 months, because my customer can only give me $30 a week, so he would have had to stay under $300, it would have taken 10 weeks to pay off, so then in 11 weeks he could have bought another $300, then 11 weeks later another $300, and all this sounds good until the Snap On guy comes in and sells to him first….yeah I think I will take the 9% loss instead, and it’s not MATCO’s money, I bought the tools, sold them, made a profit, sold the contract to matco, of course they bought it they made there 9%, but now I collect….I really dont have a problem with that.
  Send some of your customers my way I will do the same for them. Provide them an opportunity to be better and faster at their jobs, with a reasonable payment.
  You are right we are smarter.

• Former,

  You are only guessing that he paid the full net on those tools. hand tools and cordless it could be even higher gain.

  Instant cash flow always helps. That customer will be talking to him every week for the next in your time frame a year and a half.

  This gives him a chance to interact with him EACH week while the customer knows that if he is on a tight budget he can get even more tools from him and not pay another tool dealer 30 or so a week.

  Although the gain wasn’t as much he taking market share….. Let say that again MARKET SHARE……

• Good job Matco1 and 2. No problem, you’ll be talking with him while he buys off of some one else, because of your terms. he already knows Screw Matco, I’ll buy my sockets from Snappy. And I’ll milk him. You think he is not going to buy tools for the next 70 weeks? he can’t afford to pay you anymore.

  I would have been creative and carried the loan myself, charged the interest, but offer a discount off of interest for early payment. maybe a little higher down payment, depending on his credit w/matco he needed that anyway. Either way I would have made more like $1000 on a deal like that.

  But then again, I don’t know your situation, maybe you need that PSA to make your Matco bill this week.

• Market share means hes only going to buy so many tools and if I get a big chunk of that he will not be buying as much from the snap on guy.

  TP is great but PSA also helps. CASH flow.

  Lets not froget the skip factor. How much will it cost you when he bails in a few months?????

  Me it cost nothing. Wow all for 9%

• Buy the way, how many times have you had to repo cordless tools and hand tools 2 years down the road? They usually don’t last that long. And you most likely had to up his purchase to make the minimum for the PSA, again another buy with remorse because he really didn’t want that stuff.

  Your right Matco 2, he probably bumped the list on the guy too. I hope he didn’t pay full net, because being a cordless tool, odds are he’ll have to spend some more on shipping for the warranty repair just before warranty runs out.

  No wonder you guys are the OBC, feeding PSA’s to Matco, they love it.

  Matco’s point of view:
  Distributor buys the tool, 2 week terms. Cha Ching 40% profit
  Distributor sells on PSA, Cha Ching, 9% profit
  Distributor collects 22%+ for me, Cha Ching! Thank you distributor.

  As a side note, what is your approval rate in your part of the country? We here in our neck of the woods get about 5% approval rate for Matco PSA.

• Yea, lets talk about when he bails sometime. I have some stories there too.

  You know, the one about the distributor that ‘knew’ the tech was going to file bankruptcy and still sold him the $7000 box. Knowing that he can repo it later for resale. You know… Turn it in house, still collect your TP and then 6 mo- 1 year later when the Bankruptcy goes through, pick up the box, for that nice low price(fair Market) and give the good ole boy a kick back for working with you.

  Oh Yea! Baby! DM saw NOTHING!

• So former, you are saying instead of PSA, I should have charged him above list…which by the way I didn’t, charged him interest,but then offered him an early pay off incentive, basically taking away the interest I shouldn’t have charged him anyway since it was a truck account?

• Oh thats right, your a Matco Distributor, working for Matco.

  What!? you cant do a zero reserve PSA? And NO I DO NOT CONDONE selling above List. In fact I don’t condone selling at Matco List., But if the guy knows he can save money with early payoff, and he entered the deal honestly, he might just do that.

  I hope you know the difference between a TP account and PSA, Zero Reserve, Matco and Gold card?????

• PSA approval is I guess about 70%. Not sure never thought about it.

  No never had the bankruptcy thing happen. Was that your idea?

  I keep my guys with what they can pay. Beleive me or not… don’t care.

• I don’t think you guys got a clue how this all works….

• Matco2, – you keep your guys at what they can pay- I respect you for that.

  No, it was not my idea, I got caught up in it because the tech transferred to me and I got burned on a TP transfer and he told me what was going down. I did report it, but Matco, in all their wisdom, looked the other way.

• Sorry to hear all you Matco guys are so unhappy. I read the franchise agreement from cover to cover in 2008. After reading it I found you were screwed if you went forward. The agreement said it all if you were willing to see it. I choose not to go with Matco and went with Cornwell. I buy outside the program in order to make the margins needed to be profitable. Cornwell is not happy about that but they have no rules against it. Cornwell is in no way perfect but they will allow you more customers and area then you can handle and they will let you make a profit. There hard line warranty policy is second to no one. They will stand behind there product. In life being on top starts with being with a company that will let you be on top. Have a great day and buy CORNWELL.

• Believe me if I had 70% approval rate, I would be kicking ass!, but alas, not in this depressed ole town.

• Matco2

  My business didn’t fail and I don’t rant. Like I said I am a victim of lies, fraud, falsified documents and false termination. My Franchisor used me as an example of how to use Google Map to take shops away from Frachisees and make more Distributor routes with this new tool. Schemes like this is why LOC’s don’t work and Matco’s churning of Distributors has reached an all time high.

• Explain 70 % Approval rating.

• Todd said: “I call you this because you think you are better than those around you. You hear the truths and facts and hide behind your OBC Charter with two Franchises under one Distributor. Like I said before OBC could care a less they don’t have to play by the same rules as the LOC clan do they? It is easy to ridicule and call people names and make them a failure when you are spoon fed success from Matco. OBC is on hear because they need NEW recruits to pay for their EXPO next year. Anyone want to pay for Kevin a week at EXPO next year?

  Todd, are you drunk again? I’ve tried to explain the Distributor Plus program to you, but you still can’t understand. I can’t type any slower to help you. Please try to keep up. I own two franchises. My first is a charter, the second is the current agreement. Now could you please explain how I’ve been “spoon fed success”? Let me enlighten you a bit. When I started in ’89, we got 1 order per week. A PSA app took as much as a week to get an answer. Accounts were kept in a hand written account book, one for each day. At the end of each day, the info was hand written on a daily sheet, customer by customer. Closing out the day took as much as 2 hours. Then all this info was transfered to a weekly report on the weekend. Warranty returns were hand written, item by item, with quantities of each, on a warranty return form in duplicate, and sent back to Matco. I was in a gas burning truck, 4mpg, 850 miles per week. My loan payment was 1200/month, truck payment was 1157/month, in 1989 dollars. There were no cell phones. Calls during the day were made at phone booths or by using a customer’s shop phone. Now, again, please explain how I was “spoon fed”. You bunch of whiners want everything handed to you on a silver platter, with little to no effort, and threaten to sue if you don’t get it. You make me sick. I never once bitched about “uncompensated labor”. This is MY business, by MY choice.

  So you claim that you had this massive head count, and Matco took it away. I had a large area at one time also. Couldn’t cover it all, and Matco had every right to make another route in my area. I could have rolled over like your wimpy self, but instead, I did something about it. I started a Distributor Plus route so I could control the area instead of Matco drawing a line down the middle of it. Why didn’t you do the same? That’s called ambition, something alien to a few on this thread. I now have all the shops in my area, good or bad, and we service them all. I have the most successful Plus truck in Matco’s history, and we are also the most successful team ever. Work makes success. Bucking the system at every turn will lead to failure. Matco’s program works, if you choose to use it.

  By the way, you don’t have to worry about anyone paying my way to Expo- I’m not going. My driver is. I’m staying home to WORK.

• Not sure what your asking? Again never really thought alot about it.
  I would say some were around 7 of 10 are oked. It may be a little less but I think its close most by far are oked.

• Kevin, great points, man a week for a PSA that would suck. When I started in the late 90’s we were still doing the PSA sales by pen an paper, I can remember a couple times when a guy bought a ton of tools, you were about line 13 and you made a mistake, uggh. that sucked.
  A dbr in my old district, to this day still has not gone to MDBS. Still does everything old school, super guy, been doing it since 1981.

• Matco2, my approvals are at 67%, you can ask your DM, what your percentage is, he gets a monthly report of all apps called in, approvals and denials. It was actually pretty interesting to look at. I can remember one time as a district we were down in the low 60’s, but most the time district wide we were in the 70’s for approvals

• MATCO#1 said: “Kevin, great points, man a week for a PSA that would suck. When I started in the late 90′s we were still doing the PSA sales by pen an paper, I can remember a couple times when a guy bought a ton of tools, you were about line 13 and you made a mistake, uggh. that sucked.”

  Don’t I know it. There were many times I would stay up all night (really!) writing PSA’s by hand, and go out for signatures so I could send them in. Doing it at the shop took too much time. The wife would come down to the den at 6am “you still up?” Damn, more uncompensated labor. I should sue.

• My district runs about 66-67% PSA approval rate.

• I don’t know if I can believe your approval ratings. During our district meeting the DM would put the numbers up on the screeen, at best 10% for the district. Every meeting for 10 years.

  Maybe there is something to this little fact. I was destine to I guess if all I could get was 5-10% PSA approval.

  Sorry… Sorry… OBC, don’t respond….it was MY fault, I forgot….

  I guess I should ask what the median income of your techs are??? here in my lovely little town, the average income of my customer is $12/hr.

• Look into Cornwell Tools and see how you can be a winner. I keep watching dealer after dealer go out and we keep getting bigger and better. Wake up and remember why you are in business. It is to make YOURSELF money not Matco. Some people are just afraid to see the facts right in front of them. Have a great day. I am

• Cornwell, you mean the company that has been in business the longest, since 1919, but has the fewest distributors.
  The #4 tool company…really?

• wow former 10% that’s brutal never heard that low before?

• why is it that once you are terminated you disappear on the skip thing. people still owe you but matco doesnt want the new guy to be bothered by your skips, might hurt his sales. just asking. there is alot of that going on.