MATCO TOOLS Franchise Complaints

4,850 thoughts on “MATCO TOOLS Franchise Complaints”

• matcoman is our best advocate. $200,000 in giveaways at Matco Expo. So your bragging that they screw you out of money and then they give some back. You know with the NON-existing gap in price between Snap-On and Matco the two companies should just combine and have one Super company then Churn 1000 Distributors and Saturate the market.

• Former…MATCO is fair. You ever call and try and get a deal on something. I have several times. Everytime I get….we cant do that it wouldn’t be fair to everyone else.

• Yeah the ISN show is pretty good. I do admit a lot of dealers from company like yours and other attend. Sow have told me they got better deals and treatment at a place they aren’t even suppose to be :)… I’m sorry that still cracks me up.

• No combine, don’t want Snap On on my truck, don’t want to loose 125 headcount. I work hard enough as it is.

• Tool man, what company were you former with?

• Matco#1,

  1 Jack and 2 plier sets, kinda saving up for expo. Wish it was “The Beast” I would have bought 4!

• Cary so you think Matco will be forgiven sometime for their Lying, Fraudulent ,False advertising and false Documenting ways.

• Matco 1, do you make over $100k a year right now with zero debt in your business?

• Cary, you are very naive. And maybe too young still to know better.

  yes, matco may still be around when I’m in my grave. But if I can save just one life from being ruined by a deceptive company ie. -Matco Tools, my legacy will live on.

• I was with no company. Just friends that looked at being a tool man like me and decided grass was greaner joining a franchise and all sunk with similar stories like some Folsom on here.

• See even Jason knows who the #1 tool company really is SNAP-ON.

• Correction , folks on here….

• Tool man, yes and no, just bought a new truck this year.

• Oh come on former I’d love to see you there!

• I dont even see Jason posting on here, and I certainly didnt see anyone post Snap On was #1. MATCO #1 5 out of the last 6 years. Congratulations MATCO on being named the #1 Tool Franchise for 2012.

• Is everyone that is in the legal battle with matco using the same attorney?

• Actually! Profit per capita Tool Man probably is the KING!

• Thats a tough road Toolman, I could see going independant once you had a base, but starting that way, seems like it would be tough. That’s like starting a “bob’s burgers next to Mcdonalds, Burger King, and Wendys.

• Do you know a good one?

• I don’t know about that #1 franchise list. It depends on what magazine company listed it. There are many and seen some that put matco in the 30″s. I think those ratings are based on how much the company wants to pay the publisher to be #1

• Hey everyone good night, my wife wants me to come to bed.

  FORMER…good luck tomorrow, go out and kick some but, lets here your success story tomorrow too. See if you can break 10k for the week prove to people it’s possible.

• Former your legacy as well as your lifetime guarantee dies with you as discussed several days ago….. I will pass mine on to another sucessfull MATCO distributor. Now Im done with you.

  Todd “A”

  Nice redirect….. still avoiding my question, you are as bad as debbie. I’ll help you with your next post CUT, COPY, & PASTE.

• Butt.

• Actually it wasn’t that hard building the route. I carry strong name products like gear wrench which makes some of your tools, ir, milwakee, makita, power probe, OTC, etc etc. Actually funny thing is I carry more products in my catalogs then you guys do. I learned that servicing people every week and taking care of them is the biggest battle. I take care of everyone and my customers say ” I love buying from you because the tools are so much less then the other trucks” most of my customers will buy boxes from you guys and will buy the rest from me to fill it up. I can’t complain.

• There is a burger joint in town always packed great food great service right next to a Burger King and Mcdonalds so it can be done

• Yeah and no bully’s telling you what to do..

• Toolman, Thank you for buying KD (gear wrench) Danaher our parent company appreciates it as well as your sales of Fluke…..right Todd.

  Its late, thanks for getting me pumped up for tommorrow, its payday for most of my techs and I’m going to sell some MATCO tools.

  Debbie enjoy your day off I’m sure you will spend most of the day reposting and quoting irrelivant statements.

  Night Night

• Hey Tool Man have you heard this new song

  All you Presidents,
  With your FLASHY cars and BOAT,
  Better run, run, run
  Run from my Attorney

  Tom Willis retired-Ex President of Matco Tools

• I can also thank danaher for helping me make that $100k a year and having trucks like yours out there that inflated the prices on tools so guys like me can walk in and sell those same tools at a lower price to your limited amount of customers.

• LOL where are you at Tool Man?

• I just always knew these tool truck franchises were scams. That was why I never went in with those companies. After seeing an article in the ny post about matco and being on this site the writing is on the wall. I guess it’s the old saying goes ” when something is too good to be true it is”…

• Interesting read tonight. Just a couple more comments from the perspective of looking back on the experience.

  The customer or potential customer count is a way to quantify what a territory may support one or more trucks. The reality of it if half the head count is lube techs, and tire busters who may want but have little need for tools, not much potential there. Also if they head count is made up of old heads who own more tools than anyone should own, they are not good prospects for much future tool sales. So not all territories are equal. And that was the problem.

  So the best route would be full of young techs who need everything, they are of course the most risky and least stable. Some distributors that I knew here in WA state had that and did very well, others in poor territories struggled.

  I was on the MDAC and made several meetings, of the distributors that went all were very dedicated to trying to take Matco to task, some had been doing it for a while, and all were frustrated with the lack of progress on some items. Also to do this we all had to take one or two days off from our routes = loss of collections and sales. I am sure there are some that are less than dedicated, but ones I got to know were all good men.

  Matco 1 asked the question why I stayed on after Matco splt my route for almost 3 years more. Fair question, I had quit a good industrial job with over 20 years of senority to have my own business and had resigned with complete loss of of the position, so 1 I had nothing to go back to, and two I had my pride, I did not want to admit to friends and most importantly to my wife that I had made a horrible mistake. I continued the route in the false hope it would improve to the point it should be, But all the while it was eating at me, and I felt that I was mostly a bill collector to the point that a number of shops I went to I only wanted to collect my money and hoped no one would want to buy anything, not a good salesman mo.

  Matco1 also if I read his post correctly called me a loser, guess it depends on your take on that, I choose to cut my loses (and bad attitude) and move on. I have several boxes of plaques in the shed for high collectins, ect. My weekly average was about 4-5K better than some of the other distributors I knew, but nowhere near a Snap-On guy who was doing 10K plus on a smaller route.

  As for Matco wanting you to fail, I don’t think so, it is in their best interest to have you buy a lot of tools with no problems every week. However I DO think they did a very poor job in making people successful. And some of their policies and programs did seemed designed to have distributors fail. And some DM’s I met struck me as arrogant fools who did like that big boost they got to start up a new truck.

  Wow, did not mean for this to be a such long post. Guess I had a lot of pent up feelings. Rereading what I wrote my comments are tempered by time. I am still unhappy about a lot of the time with Matco, and my wife is very bitter so it is rarely discussed and caused a lot of discord over the years.

  I will continue to read this as it is interesting, but I do not feel I have anything more to contribute. All the very best to all of you.

• Jason, Matcoman,guest17, and the rest of the defenders, we will be here for you when you fail, because its coming, its called churning and you will be churned.

  You all know where this suit is headed, and its not where you want it to go, there will be more company vehicles on the road soon, under selling you and they will force you out, you are an employee of matco, its called termination.

  The beast is a piece of taiwan shit, the cylinders dont even hold pressure, they let down. Another fine piece of matco tools.

  What happen to the cd, that matco made against snapon? Why was it pulled and we were threatened with our franchise if we didn’t return it? Another defective product.

  Defenders, watch out in your hometown for more ads to come, including CRAIGSLIST, MAILINGS, AND ARTICLES POSTED IN YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER. ITS CALLED FREEDOM OF SPEECH.

  Hal, thanks for your post, it is pretty straight to the point. It goes to show that matco really dosen’t care about anyone but them. Their policies must change in regards to signing people, they are deceitfull and less than honest. I bought almost fifty dollars in stamps yesterday, just to send out flyers to shops, just to let shops and techs know to be informed before buying a franchise, this money came straight out of my pocket and I will spend more to let people be informed.

• Hal, sorry if you were confused with all the name calling going on out there, NO I DID NOT CALL YOU A LOSER, I was the one being called a loser.

  I am sorry if your route was cut after you started, your DM should have never done that, didn’t that DM get fired?

  I heard somewhere it took a MAC competitor off the MAC truck and onto a MATCO truck???

  I have plenty of lube techs and tire busters on my route, in fact I go to (4) firestones. (3) goodyears, (4) fletchers tires, and have numerous dealerships with lube guys. I seem to do just fine with them.

  Don’t fault you on collections, a lot of guys dont like having there money out there, and also dont like to have to ask for their money.

• Hey Tommy you say hi to all my friends for me?

• Hal,

  How’s things going after leaving Matco in 2002. Did you start any new businesses?

  Did you buy a $500,000 mansion like Tommy?

• Wheres your other d.m. , the one that was terminated, he got scared and ran? typical of all D.M’s .

  How did you like my post about D.M;s AND R.M.;s ? About how they treat distributors, they lie and treat distributors like crap, thats why you are not a D.M. anymore?

  You must have got tired of lying to your distributors or did they terminate you also, as they did your buddie?

  You don’t have any buddies here, you would not survive in this redneck area, we do not do well with transplants down here in the south.

• DISTRICT MANAGERS AND REGIONAL MANAGERS ARE LIARS, DECEITFUL AND MISLEAD POTENTIAL DISTRIBUTORS

  THIS IS A PRACTICE THEY ARE TAUGHT. DISTRICT AMANGERS ARE OUT TO PAD THEIR POCKET AND NOT TO HELP ANY DISTRIBUTORS

  RUN,RUN AND DON’T LOOK BACK.

• Tommy the liar on here is YOU!

  I thought you were calling all the old dbr’s in Washington, Crickets huh!

• I continue to get a laugh from the moronic, parrotlike chants of “Matco is #1!”

  One of the Old Boys Club actually uses it for a screenname!

  Take a look here: http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/mobile-tool-franchise/.

  All of the tool companies have tons of complaints, have been sued or are getting sued. The whole category sucks for distributors. If you are talking about most online complaints, Matco is definitely #1.

  How moronic is it to claim to be the best of 4 bad choices, especially if you aren’t even the largest, oldest, or sell the most?

  Snap-on is considerably larger, has more distributors, sells more tools, has a longer history and has a much stronger brand name, both in terms of recognition and respect. Snap-on is clearly bigger, stronger than Matco, but still it sucks and has been sued even more (though Matco will catch up soon. Thanks, Jerry!).

  Think of it this way, bragging that “Matco is #1” is like running down the halls of the hospital yelling “Cancer is #1! Cancer is #1”

  “Wait a minute!” says Heart Disease. “We kill more people! We’re the leading cause of death. We’re #1!”

  “No way!” says CANCER#1. “A magazine we pay says Cancer is #1. They give no rationale or reason, but it’s in a magazine so Cancer is #1!”

  It doesn’t really matter whether heart disease, cancer, stroke or respiratory disease is #1, its wise to avoid ALL of them.

  The same could be said for the leader Snap-on, Snap-on wannabe Matco, Mac or Cornwell.

  So which is the best mobile tool franchise?

  Independent Dealer is #1!!!!!

• Love Fridays 3 guys back on the books, 450 later on to second shop

• Guest what tool dealer where you….oh that’s right you don’t know the difference between a muffler bearing removal tool and a metric crescent wrench, YOU WERE NEVER A TOOL DBR!

• Tommy didn’t run, charged his customer 10% over list and bought a $500,000 mansion!

• Ooo Tommy I hope they’re nice color flyers, your mom would really be impressed if you drew the pictures yourself and colored inside the lines!! Ill even post one in the truck for you and all the guys can marvel at Tommys talents! So be sure to send some our way!!

• Oh guest, hey forgot to tell you, got me 2nd tv mounted in my truck last weekend been on all week….SHAKE and BAKE baby!

• Yes , I charged 10% over list as instructed by my district manager, who works for Matco. So does this entire district, I can spill more info that will bring this district down as instructed by our District manager.

  Yes, matco instructed us to charge more than list, yes his name is darryl pritchett.

  Yes, he instructed us to charge more, he is our boss,just as you have many in corporate. He told us to rip matco’s customers off, because they are not your customers.

  You are an employee, you work for matco, as a d.m , how many potential or current distributors did you rip off? Many, because you got them to sign on and they lost everything .

  WHY, DID OUR D.M INSTRUCT US TO RIP OFF CUSTOMERS, TO COVER OUR EXPENSES, SUCH AS GAS,REPAIRS,TIRES,ETC, YEA, HE WANTED MATCO’S CUSTOMERS TO PAY FOR IT.

• Tommy is helping guest do a google search for a metric crescent wrench

• Tommy as a dbr you don’t have a boss, your decision to screw your customers was yours.

• Tommy you never listened to DP, why did you only listen to him when it was time to rip your customers off?

• This site, UNHAPPY Franchisee was intended as a forum for UNHAPPY distributors to share their stories.

  This site, has turned into place for little men, with big egos to parade their good fortunes.

  In the last completed and posted Franchise Business Review Satisfaction report, of which only half the active
  Matco distributors actually completed – A WHOPPING 95.5 % ARE WORKING over 40, 50, 60, AND MORE HOURS PER WEEK

  I’ve stated multiple times that I put 60-70 hours/week in my business. EVERY unhappy distributor has shared stories of HARD work.

  It is obviously inconceivable for the successful, those in the Top 10% – to comprehend that the remaining 90% are not as successful.

  Instead, they opt to resort childish diversion tactics, name calling, and embarrassing attempts to derail the conversation. They have abused this
  site to banter petty conversations among themselves, spewing self indulgent kudos……………..

  In the Franchise Business Review it was also noted that .7 % of Matco Distributors are women.
  LESS than ONE PERCENT

  Clearly, these little men, with big egos feel a woman is an easy target.

  Easier for them to label me as……….
  Irrelevant
  Lazy
  Moronic
  Liar
  Queen
  Bitch
  Pathetic

  Easier for them to call me names and stroke each other’s egos than to actually face FACTS –

  SBA LOAN FRAUD case files, SEVERAL other law suits files, by multiple attorneys, HUNDREDS of UNHAPPY DISTRIBUTORS>>>>>>
  ******************************************************************************
  HOWEVER: I would like to get back on track and actually discuss REAL ISSUES ——–

  Yes, Danaher Corp. owns many companies, of which Gear Wrench is one.

  Then, WHY do Matco distributors have to sell Gear Wrench for MORE than the competition??

  Why does Sears, Amazon, and the like ALL have better prices than Matco trucks??
  IN FACT, A MATCO DISTRIBUTOR CAN PURCHASE GEAR WRENCH FROM AMAZON FOR (IN MANY CASES)
  CAN PURCHASE FROM AMAZON FOR LESS THAN THE MATCO DISTRIBUTOR’S COST????

  Matco’s parent company Danaher makes Gear Wrench – Matco distributor SHOULD be able to purchase Gear Wrench for LESS than the competition.

  Geez, tough to be competitive if you can’t sell tools at a competitive price…………………
  I’ve spoken to Customer Service and heard the explanation for Matco’s higher prices on some items, I just can’t understand, WHY???? with an item from GEARWRENCH – which is MADE by Danaher — WHY in this case is the MATCO cost higher than other sources???