SnapOn Tools are known as fine tools but the prices are quite high. One would think with these high prices would come world class service. That is NOT the case with SnapOn Tools.
I started my search for the SnapOn local dealer on the Web after settling on the tool I wanted. Why did I start on the Web? Because the SnapOn Tool dealer is not listed in the phone book! More on that later.
That led me to a center in PDX with a toll-free number. I called up and got voicemailed at 2:30 in the afternoon. Now this was puzzling as the center's operator should have been on duty and when I called back to use their menu, I found the business hours were until 5 PM. Where the heck was this operator?
I did find another part of the menu on their automated phone system that gave me extensions for various people. I finally found a real live human being to answer the phone with the fourth attempt to reach one. My feeling is that some of those uber-high prices I'm paying and many other people pay SnapOn should be going to sterling top-notch customer service. They're just ripping me off if they can't deliver the whole package as a retailer.
I do get the phone number for the Coos Bay dealer but when I mention the lack of a listing in the phone book's Yellow and White Pages, he says a lawyer advised SnapOn to not let their franchisees place a listing in the phone book. When I pointed out the phone book was chock full of franchisees, he had no good answer and could only fall back on this lame excuse of legal beagle counseling. Not only does SnapOn have an inability to be customer-oriented at the PDX center, they also have a 'tard for an attorney who just kills them for advertising their product. With the Big Bux SnapOn pulls in from their highly overpriced lineup, you'd think they could afford a better attorney than that.
With the phone number in hand I call up the local dealer. I get voicemailed again but hey, it's just one guy in a large commercial van selling his wares, so I'm okay with that but I do expect a quick callback. A bit over half an hour goes by and still no callback, so being the kind of guy I am who just doesn't lay around and let idiots and fools run him over or worse, ignore me, I got on the horn and got ahold of him. The old "I was just getting ready to call you" excuse came out to smooth things over but you dear reader know as well as I that was just some social lube to not ruffle any further feathers and help the cause of a sale.
I gave him my address. He asked what landmark it was next to despite it being a landmark on it's own right in the frickin' middle of downtown...LOL! Sheesh, one might as well ask what the Coos Bay Bridge is next to. He says he'll be over within the hour.
I'm taking it easy, expecting my intercom to buzz. Instead I get a phone call and he's a block and a half away, on the north section of the street when I clearly gave the south section. He can't read intersection signs or figure out that the back of a building fronting North Broadway is not the same as the front of a building on South Second. On top of that, our buildings in downtown Coos Bay have legible address numbers on them and they're on the FRONT of the building, yet he winds up in the back lot of another. This guy is so easily lost. It turns out he's been here a year and doesn't even know how to find his way around downtown Coos Bay!
I figure "What's the use?" and walk a block and a half. I do get my tool and even though he didn't have the exact one I wanted in stock, he did have an acceptable substitute and the price was the same as if I had bought the tool off the Web.
The purchase was for a Phillips #2 screwdriver that I need for working with interior trim screws and I need as good a head on one as possible to avoid stripping screws, which is why I did buy the SnapOn brand, which to it's credit is good even if it is overpriced. Had I received the complete level of service that kind of pricing merits like other highline brands do, I'd give them 4 or 5 stars. The lack of quality customer service on the PDX center's end, the stupid lawyer who killed the chance of the franchisee to advertise in the phone book which would have saved me a LOT of time and the near total lack of local knowledge for one of this area's most common districts by the local franchisee all combined to leave a sour taste in my mouth. If this is the best we can get from a supposed quality manufacturer, then what chance to we have with the rest of America's tool suppliers?
The two star rating instead of a one star rating is strictly for the quality of the tool, not the price or the service. I'm never afraid to pay the price for items and services that are worth it but if you want to keep me happy, you had better perform to perfection when you charge me up the yin-yang for your product. If I wanted a $1.97 screwdriver made in China I could have bought one at NAPA. Instead I got $1.97 service. read more
