Big tool companies and repossession.

[inline 6]

I was just warned about something and I know we have a bunch of guys in here who use their tools for a living and may have some insight.

This last weekend I purchased a snapon tool box second hand. I paid about 1/4 What it cost new. The guy I bought it from purchased it new this year and looks as if it was rolled right off the truck and not used. The manual and handle were still wrapped up and in the lower drawers. I met the guy at his place of employment which lowered my thoughts of maybe its stolen or some other fuckery going on.

Fast forward to this morning and one of my coworkers told me that I better hope it does not get repo'd if he still owed on it and quit paying. I asked by who and was informed snapon.

Does anyone know if when snapon loans for these toolbox if they are loaning money for a specific serial which would entitle them to repossess it even from a third party? Or are these unsecured tool loans?

Google returns answers all over the place.


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[scootro]

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tool-box-warning.263226/

Just to let you guys and gals know,If by chance you looking to buy any high dollar tool boxes on craigslist,make sure the owner can provide a legit reciept to show that its been paid for.A lot of guys are buying these boxes,then changing their career field and trying to sell them for profit.We just has a guy at our shop who was a complete hack get fired after 1 week.The next week he has his box on craigslist for 5k. The Matco guy found out who's it was and came and repo'd the box and said he owed 8k on tools and the box.He also said if one of us had bought it and he found it he can repo it from the purchaser as it is "stolen" property.Just lookin out for the fellow HAMBer.

[scootro]

Can you imagine a Snap On guy running around shops checking serial numbers on tool boxes to repo! i bet he'd get his ass kicked

[akfodysvn]

Lol good luck finding the box at someone's house

[inline 6]

Lol good luck finding the box at someone's house

Only chance is if the guy gets pressured into giving up my phone # to track it down.

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[shumpertdavid]

It is like buying stolen goods, the serial number is registered to the loan account, be it a toolbox or a\c recovery machine, scan tool, etc. I've had my local dealer find guys that were 2 or 3 years behind on making payments before. We (shop I work for) had looked at a recovery machine we found on craigslist. I was able to give my local dealer the name and phone number of the guy and found out he still owed like $1800 on it.


Basic hand tools don't have any way to i.d. them, the specific dealer would have to catch the guy selling items he knew still had a note against them.

[inline 6]

It is like buying stolen goods, the serial number is registered to the loan account, be it a toolbox or a\c recovery machine, scan tool, etc. I've had my local dealer find guys that were 2 or 3 years behind on making payments before. We (shop I work for) had looked at a recovery machine we found on craigslist. I was able to give my local dealer the name and phone number of the guy and found out he still owed like $1800 on it.


Basic hand tools don't have any way to i.d. them, the specific dealer would have to catch the guy selling items he knew still had a note against them.

I have never had credit with a tool guy before so I don't know how it works with them.

If it's anything like a credit card or any other type of unsecured credit the stuff isn't considered stolen when you let the card go. Capitol one isn't chasing down naynays to get the new J's off their feet they racked up on the $500 credit card they let go.

Nor is that merchandise considered stolen.

[mstng86]

This is why you will only find the finest Chicago tools in my garage.

[Big Dad]

The tool guy I delt with in Fort Worth .. Bob Conner

slick as a old catfish , I liked him , never did me wrong but ..

if you even moved to new location without telling him , he would come after you, tools and box ..no matter what

he did it all the time , made sure I kept him paid in full, always

[ceyko]

I don't know about what is legally true, but if there is a serial number on the toolbox - can't you just get rid of it?

In my opinion - any debt owed is between the salesman and the previous owner. If a tool sales dude rolled onto my property trying to repo some toolbox, his paperwork better be legit. I'm not saying I'm shooting on sight or anything, but I would not allow access to it (if I knew he was there) and the police would be on-site if he were persistent.

In that case if the paperwork was legit, he would legally have it returned. Past that, it's not in their best interest to physically escalate the situation. Especially with an unknowing 2nd owner - even if it is legal for them to "repo" it.

[inline 6]

I don't know about what is legally true, but if there is a serial number on the toolbox - can't you just get rid of it?

In my opinion - any debt owed is between the salesman and the previous owner. If a tool sales dude rolled onto my property trying to repo some toolbox, his paperwork better be legit. I'm not saying I'm shooting on sight or anything, but I would not allow access to it (if I knew he was there) and the police would be on-site if he were persistent.

In that case if the paperwork was legit, he would legally have it returned. Past that, it's not in their best interest to physically escalate the situation. Especially with an unknowing 2nd owner - even if it is legal for them to "repo" it.

Yes I believe there are 2 places a serial is placed on the box and both will be removed when I return home.

I'm trying not to be paranoid about it but after the fact hearing about this potential issue and thinking back about it, the signs are there.

1) new 2017 box
2) condition is as brand new (guessing not owned long)
3) sold for not clear reason besides needs the $
4) Original cost over 9k
5) I paid 1/4 new cost.

Im thinking there is no way this guy had the box paid off and then let it go that cheap. Not saying he didn't make good money but the place where he worked didnt look like they paid big bucks.

***If I*** busted my ass to pay something like that off in that short of time I damn sure wouldn't turn around and do what nearly amounts to giving it away. I'd rather let it rust back into the ground before I did that.

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[kingjason]

I have no idea how Snap On sets up their contracts but Rent-A-Center does this bullshit to skirt the credit industry basically. The laws intent, originally, back in the day was to keep people from renting heavy equipment and keeping it. We can file theft, or UUMV(heavy equipment) on that shit when they don't bring it back. Rent-A-Center has a contract that basically if you don't bring it back they can file theft on people. Most of the time, we would get the case, call the people and bam it would return. Sometimes they would tell RAC and US to F off and we would put them in jail.

I never agreed with that bullshit. F-U RAC. As a matter of fact eventually I got it squared away that if the people made half the payments or more we wouldn't take the case. I mean hell they had actually paid more than the stuff was worth. I did not mind taking the ones that made the down payment and then just burned out with the stuff.

Either way, if they do rent to own, yes they could file theft on him. Not sure we had any cases where they sold it and then we filed on the next guy. We could list the items stolen at one point though. Always made me wonder about the people selling their brand new dirt bikes cheap when they paid 69 down and 69 a month back in the day. Only option there was to repo though if they could find the bike since that was actually based on credit.

I wouldn't do shit unless actual LE contacted me! Sounds more like they fell off a truck to me. Who doesn't put shit in their new box?

[Rick Modena]

I do know that Snap-On dealers will get your license when you open an account and they knew where you lived in case you bailed with several thousands of dollars in equipment/tools/boxes.
They also formed an alliance with the owners and management of the Mech/Tech/body shops to see if you were a good employee.
Also if you bought big boxes, they would move your box for free to your next place of employment so they could always get paid or sell the note to the local Snap-On dealer if you were out of their area.
They usually don't lose any money, since they aren't going to give you a $10k box if you don't have one up for trade or are not a lifer in the industries.

[yellowstang]

File the serial number off, like on guns!

[snacksnack]

I just sent this thread to Snap on, figured they could give you a better answer to your question.