https://www.autonews.com/fixed-ops-...ome-techs-saps-service-department-morale
Some excerpts:
Quote
When Kevin Inkell was a service technician in his teens, he decided he had to have a state-of-the-art toolbox. He eagerly awaited each visit of a tool company representative to his dealership's shop. In their fancy trucks, the persuasive salespeople displayed the latest, greatest, shiniest tools to the techs. Money was no object to Inkell. That was the problem. "I was 18 years old, living at home with Mom and Dad, with maybe $200 a month in expenses," recalls Inkell, now 39 and a veteran tech at Arrigo Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram in West Palm Beach, Fla.
"I started to pull credit lines from all the tool guys," Inkell told Fixed Ops Journal. "I had $10,000 here, $15,000 there, $8,000 at another. I just went on the truck and said, 'I want this, this, this and this.' I handed the tool guy my credit card and told him to charge it."
Despite working what he calls "crazy hours," paying back as much as he could and at one point returning $8,000 worth of tools he had bought, Inkell amassed tens of thousands of dollars in tool and interest charges. Coupled with an on-the-job injury and the costs of a subsequent marriage and divorce, the tool debt Inkell couldn't repay forced him to declare bankruptcy.
...Credit and financial services can be major profit centers for tool companies, but the problem of technician debt is one that the companies evidently don't care to discuss. Spokesmen for Snap-on, Matco Tools and Mac Tools — the largest suppliers of automotive tools to techs — did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story...
...Greg Sutton, a service technician at a dealership in Pennsylvania that he asked not be named, says he avoids debt by paying cash for tools. "I have seen guys buy quad-bay toolboxes, spending $10,000 to $20,000 just to hold their gear," he adds. "To me, that's an irrational move. If you work for a dealership, you'll need some specialized tools rather than gear for every make and model of vehicle."...
...Evidence of technicians' tool debt is more anecdotal than statistical. The National Automobile Dealers Association says it has no data on such debt.
But a forum for technicians on the job website Indeed.com includes numerous accounts of technicians who say they are "drowning" in debt because of "massive" and "skyrocketing" tool prices, double-digit interest rates on tool purchases and "house-sized" investments in their toolboxes....
Some excerpts:
Quote
When Kevin Inkell was a service technician in his teens, he decided he had to have a state-of-the-art toolbox. He eagerly awaited each visit of a tool company representative to his dealership's shop. In their fancy trucks, the persuasive salespeople displayed the latest, greatest, shiniest tools to the techs. Money was no object to Inkell. That was the problem. "I was 18 years old, living at home with Mom and Dad, with maybe $200 a month in expenses," recalls Inkell, now 39 and a veteran tech at Arrigo Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram in West Palm Beach, Fla.
"I started to pull credit lines from all the tool guys," Inkell told Fixed Ops Journal. "I had $10,000 here, $15,000 there, $8,000 at another. I just went on the truck and said, 'I want this, this, this and this.' I handed the tool guy my credit card and told him to charge it."
Despite working what he calls "crazy hours," paying back as much as he could and at one point returning $8,000 worth of tools he had bought, Inkell amassed tens of thousands of dollars in tool and interest charges. Coupled with an on-the-job injury and the costs of a subsequent marriage and divorce, the tool debt Inkell couldn't repay forced him to declare bankruptcy.
...Credit and financial services can be major profit centers for tool companies, but the problem of technician debt is one that the companies evidently don't care to discuss. Spokesmen for Snap-on, Matco Tools and Mac Tools — the largest suppliers of automotive tools to techs — did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story...
...Greg Sutton, a service technician at a dealership in Pennsylvania that he asked not be named, says he avoids debt by paying cash for tools. "I have seen guys buy quad-bay toolboxes, spending $10,000 to $20,000 just to hold their gear," he adds. "To me, that's an irrational move. If you work for a dealership, you'll need some specialized tools rather than gear for every make and model of vehicle."...
...Evidence of technicians' tool debt is more anecdotal than statistical. The National Automobile Dealers Association says it has no data on such debt.
But a forum for technicians on the job website Indeed.com includes numerous accounts of technicians who say they are "drowning" in debt because of "massive" and "skyrocketing" tool prices, double-digit interest rates on tool purchases and "house-sized" investments in their toolboxes....
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