I’ve got to rant about some stuff.
Value if Purchased Separately
“Over $XYZ Value if purchased separately.”
Home Depot and Lowe’s seem to have competing with each other to see who has the most obnoxious way to advertise tool deals and special values.
Advertisement
“If purchased separately.”
When you buy a 12-pack of beverages for $10, the box doesn’t say “over $40 in value if purchased separately.”
Imagine if they start slapping these exaggerated claims on everything. Crayons. Socks. Chicken cutlets. Silverware.
I feel that these claims have been getting out of hand.
Mass Media Tool Deals Coverage
A shocking number of media sites gave up in recent years, abandoning “written journalism.” The larger ones that remain seem to have thrown their standards out the window.
Oh, wow, Walmart is selling Craftsman’s tool set for $55? Lowe’s has it for $39.98.
Advertisement
See Also: Craftsman V-Series PRO Tool Deals at Lowe’s are Impossibly Good!
Walmart’s not even an authorized dealer for Craftsman tools.
There’s been all kind of these “tool deal finds” in my news feed all season.
“Home Depot is handing out free cordless tools for Black Friday.” No they’re not. They’re not just “handing out free tools.”
“Amazon sliced 62% off Dewalt, Leatherman and Milwaukee tools.”
No, they didn’t. And Amazon is not an authorized dealer for Milwaukee tools. All those Ryobi and Milwaukee tool “deals” on Amazon is simply people selling stuff they bought (or stole) from Home Depot or other retailers.
This Dewalt cordless drill kit from Amazon is NOT 45% OFF!!!
“But they say you’re saving 45%.” No.
No.
NO!!
I keep waiting for any of the countless mass media sites pushing these “deals” to say “hey, that’s Amazon’s deals, here’s something better…” but they don’t.
And this is what generative AI is being trained on.
Home Depot Husky Tool Storage
Home Depot had the Husky Pro workbench tool cabinet on sale as part of a deal of the day after Black Friday, and from what I saw, they didn’t sell a single one. I took a screen capture when the deal went live and again when the deals ended turned over, and Home Depot started and ending with the same number of these Husky tool cabinets.
The deal was great last year – half off and you got a free accessory. Home Depot severely disappointed and inconvenienced some readers by not holding onto a couple of units to replace damaged units.
The line was available in 2 colors and with a range of accessories.
Home Depot seemed to have been abandoning it last year when they were fire-selling it for Black Friday. They took down the pages and it looks like everything was discontinued. They couldn’t provide a straight answer as to whether they were restocking the line or not.
I think they mistook the enthusiastic sales and reordered just the workbench in black and I believe just 2 of the accessory options.
Anyway, it bugs me that Home Depot and Husky never made things right for readers last year.
Scammers
Don’t click links in text messages unless it’s something you were expecting.
I’ve stopped answering my phone from unknown numbers. 99 out of 100 times, it’s spam of some kind.
Facebook Scammers
I’ve already posted about this – see Facebook Private Group Tool Deals are a Scam – but it’s an ongoing annoyance.
Facebook makes it incredibly difficult to deal with scam postings. Every day, there are comments to private “deal groups” where admins will steal your money, or links to other marketplace listings where scammers will… you guessed it, try to steal your hard-earned money.
It takes multiple steps to block/ban accounts, and there are new ones each day, and then a couple of steps to delete the spam comments.
There’s also no easy place to see these. Once I get a notification and see the signs of a scam link, it takes multiple steps to get to that comment, multiple steps to prevent the same person from leaving another 10 more across different posts, and then multiple steps to delete all the comments they’ve already left.
I shouldn’t have to do this – social media platforms should do more to prevent scams.
ToolGuyd Ads
This looks terrible, what happened here??
To the left is a new collapsible mobile display anchor ad that Google automatically activate for my account, and to the right is how the ads look collapsed. The example on the right is kind of how “anchor ads” looked before.
Our ad settings disallow automatic changes like this, but apparently it’s not a new ad type, it’s an “enhancement” to the existing one.
I feel that the ad style on the right is tolerable, but the new one on the left is egregious and unacceptable.
Google says:
This is an enhancement to the anchor ad format. Collapsible anchors automatically enlarge their ad height on mobile devices for better viewability. Users can immediately collapse them to the standard anchor size.
“Users can immediately collapse them…” and I did just that the two times it came up for me between yesterday and today. The first was to reply to a reader comment, and the second was to check the details for one of the Craftsman V-Series tools I posted about.
The collapsible ad – in my opinion – contributes to a poor reader experience. Sure, bigger ads mean more money for ToolGuyd, but that just looks terrible.
Uch. I disabled it this morning.
There’s a chance I might reactivate it next November for Black Friday week – we’ll see.
Some ads are necessary, but there’s a line between “tolerable” and “squeezing readers to the point of driving them away.” I figure that if an ad annoys me, there’s a high likelihood that it’s going to annoy you too.
I also feel bad about “leaving money on the table,” but patting myself on the back helps a lot.
Continue Reading
There are new details about that topic you’re reading about. Something, something, something, about only half the story, and…
If you’re reading an article, why should you have to click a button to keep reading? Please tell me I’m not the only one that hates this practice!
I truly feel that most online publishers don’t read their own content. If they did, they wouldn’t pull this kind of nonsense.
Broken Browser Back Function
While I’m at it, breaking the browser “back” function is a terrible practice. If I’m hitting the back button, I don’t want to be taken to a list of clickbait articles.
Just because it’s become commonplace, that doesn’t make it right.
Home Depot’s In-Store Comparison Poster
I saw this “Steel Storage | Dare to Compare” chart at my local Home Depot, where they claim Husky wins over Lowe’s and Harbor Freight offerings.
I found it to be incredibly tacky.
Hon Cho
The pot calling the kettle black. Your irritation at modern marketing is understandable, but don’t you realize you’re part of the machine you criticize?
Jared
What does that even mean?
Is the idea that if Stuart allows ANY marketing or ads, he’s the problem? I don’t think that’s true.
You can market something without lying or deceiving your customers. Your webpage can include advertisements without having them cover the content. Your sales recommendations can be well-researched – they don’t have to take advantage of your reader’s ignorance.
There are good marketing practices and bad ones. It’s ok to be annoyed by the bad ones.
Hon Cho
It means what it says, Stuart does Stuart for clicks and, presumably, revenue, just like the others. He’s not wrong that the others are irritating, but, to me, he’s just whining with regard to his complaints about marketing. In the USA, we have a very permissive environment for marketing claims. Stuart takes ToolGuyd where he wants and let the others take their sites where they want.
Marc
Firstly, anyone who uses the internet is part of the machine. That doesn’t mean you can’t criticize it.
Secondly, I’ve been reading ToolGuyd for years and it’s one of the few websites that doesn’t inundate me in ADs – which I very much appreciate. It could be so much worse, but I feel that Stuart wouldn’t do that.
So saying he’s part of the machine is both accurate and incorrect.
As long as we are ranted let me add the top of the page menus that get larger as you scroll down a page and end up hiding text I’m trying to read.
I have two tools that combat these annoyances, but they are not really germane to Stuart’s topic.
Doresoom
This criticism is laughable. Stuart runs the most consistently honest tool news/deals website I’ve found. He’s staunchly in the consumer’s corner and actively points out when “deals” that retailers and advertisers run aren’t deals at all.
It seems like your take is “all marketing = bad” rather than “dishonest marketing = bad.” You missed the entire point of this article.
Rog
I feel that this is truly the most trustworthy tool site on the Internet. Ads are an unfortunate side effect of a site on the Internet but Stuart does a good job of keeping this well managed.
Vards Uzvards
I started using ad blocker in my web browser only in spring 2023, after seeing this:
https://www.ipernity.com/doc/uzvards/52720436
Stuart
Ugh. When ads get weird like that, let me know, as I don’t see what you’re seeing.
I test for readability on a 34″ ultrawide desktop monitor, 27″ desktop monitor, iPads (7″, 11″), 14″ MacBook Pro, and smartphone (personal and simulated in browsers). On desktop browsers, I test for 100% and 125% text magnification.
If you use an ad blocker, make sure it’s reputable – I occasionally get yelled at for things breaking due to garbage 3rd party plugin conflicts.
As an aside, I blocked Temu from Google ad spots a while ago, although sometimes they get around that with links to the Google Store app. Nobody should ever be seeing Temu ads here.
Evan
I appreciate your transparency and thoughtfulness in these replies Stuart!
No
I run Ublock Origin on all of my devices, use a PiHole for LAN DNS and dGuard on my upstream VPS-based VPN node, and have SecDNS resolve via Quad 9.
I might see one ad a year and that’s only when my lists need an update.
To me, the whole internet started looking like your screenshot around 2006. I could not tolerate it.
Stuart is consistently one of the only content creators with any integrity left. Other notable good creators outside of the tool space are GamersNexus, Spectre Media Group, and VSauce.
Stuart
GamersNexus is single-handedly keeping the tech industry in check.
Mark W. Ingalls
+1
Stuart
Why can’t I be “part of the machine” and also unhappy with the way the rest of the machine works?
Media and marketing practices have deeply discouraged me the entire holiday season. I’d like to think that maybe I could inspire others do be better, but I have no hope left. This was just venting.
Regarding ToolGuyd’s approach, if you were in my place, what would you do differently?
I was recently told by a tool brand that they don’t send review samples out anymore, not even to woodworking magazines, and that they’re focused on influencer product placements that bring the most hype and ROI. Prior to that, their communication efforts have been both untimely and inadequately shallow.
What am I supposed to do? More brands are going down that path.
There are no role models anymore. I learned that 2 years ago, when so many mass media sites and news personalities were promoting “Maglight” products – https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/overpriced-mini-maglight-led-light-not-maglite/%3C/a%3E .
But from what I’ve seen this holiday season, there’s little integrity left in the industry.
My concept of tool media is a paper sailboat floating down a polluted river, and there are new pinholes every day. I’m going to steer the ship in a direction I can feel good about, until it inevitably disintegrates. What else could/should I do?
mark w
Alot of what you talked about above is why I’ve spent a lot of time since 2020 eliminating as much internet media from my life as possible & narrowing things down to places like this that operate in the older way still. There are small blips of people still doing it thankfully. Alot on YouTube (smaller channels typically, and ones with a purpose outside making YT revenue).
LGonToolGuy'd
I do outdoors/firearms writing and see there is no room for investigative writing. Just press releases and reviews, or experiences out on trail. Never prompted to fluff a review, but I have been discouraged on writing about discontinued items since affiliate links couldn’t be used.
I respect your work.
Shane
Lol, the “machine”. Kind of like the “deep state”. Give me a break! Though I do not contribute much, I have been following this site for years. To me, it is hands-down the best review site for tools and related discussions and I think Stuart tries to keep it on track with what his vision is for the site. Sure, he has to make money to keep this going, but he seems to try to keep everything above board and honest as possible. When you make that kind of statement, it completely disregards intent. I can’t think of any other site like this that is open and honest with who their advertisers are and what tool brands pay for space exposure on the site. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.
MTOOLS
Please explain how the writer is part of the machine.
Jim Felt
Precisely my thought too.
Ben
The “continue reading” button is to boost click numbers, which is intended to drive ad revenue and artificially inflate engagement metrics. PITA for me as a reader, but a good self-interest tactic for the page owner.
The “WE WIN” poster gives the same impression one of those highway billboards for sleazy personal-injury lawyers.
Would recommend Brave or Firefox browsers on mobile, and uBlock Origin extension on desktop (using Brave or Firefox) for adblocking. Yes, I recognize Brave is built on Chromium, but it at least pays some lip service to privacy / UX.
I use the Honey extension, as well as CamelCamelCamel, to track Amazon prices over time, so that BS 45% off “deal” nonsense is easier to spot.
Alexk
Thanks for the info, Ben.
John E
Saw a box of Cheerios the other day that said:
“$180 value!
(0.5¢ each if purchased separately)”.
I bought three.
Alexk
Funny. I couldn’t help myself and did the math. 360 cheerios in a box according to you.
John E
I want a refund.
James
*36 000 cheerios
John E
Sounds about right. I was at Costco.
Steve
Stuart, you could probably break this into a few articles. The misleading “discount pricing” is so bad that Black Friday is a mirage.
Also, the scams on FB…I am so sick of that…there seems to be a resurgence of Craigslist which would be so great. The scammers are still there but it isn’t tied to social media and all of its problems.
Stuart
I abandoned a few drafts and decided one post might be better. Otherwise there’d be too great a risk of a week of nothing but complaining.
There were deals for Black Friday. The marketing hype has increased over the years, and for a longer stretch, and that skews things a lot.
MM
Nonsense specs really grind my gears.
Shop vac advertised at 3 HP? No, you’re not getting that kind of power out of a normal wall outlet, it’s mathematically impossible. This is a lie based on peak ratings, which are meaningless.
100,000 lumen pocket flashlight? Yeah, sure.
Chinese alphabet-soup brands claiming their illegally powerful laser pointers are safe around kids and pets? Just no.
Another thing that bothers me is companies being vague about specifications. Don’t tell me that a new tool is “30% more powerful than the old model”, just tell me its honest specs. Publish RPM, torque, power output, etc, in clear terms. I really appreciate how Flex prints the power output of their batteries right there on the pack clear as day; Metabo HPT’s marketing for their new tabless batteries did this right as well. And while we’re at it, let’s see ALL the specs for tools, including noise and vibration.
Scams on social media are a serious problem that will likely never go away. For starters it’s an unimaginable challenge to crack down on scammers in the first place. And second, the social media companies honestly do not care. You are not paying for Facebook et al’s products, you are their product. The only ones social media companies listen to are their advertisers, who sometimes also happen to be the scammers as we can see from various examples of google ads for impossibly low priced tools.
The final one? Obvious bullpuckey answers from product reps. For example, remember when Toolguyd asked Milwaukee about the reason behind the failed redesign of the 2767 impact? Milwaukee’s answer was this line of garbage:
Products can change several times within their lifetime for a variety of reasons, but the goal is always to exceed the users’ expectations. This time we clearly did not hit the mark.
This is peak politician: throw out a nice sounding statement, but don’t actually answer the question and pretend that nobody notices. I noticed, and it absolutely affected Milwaukee’s reputation in my mind.
TomD
There’s a solution to the social media problem, but nobody will ever want to implement it, because nobody values social media enough.
You charge people for accounts. Right now it’s infinitely free for scammers to create thousands of accounts (at most, they have to have massive cell phone banks to receive authentication texts) – but if it’s a cost, it will be a minor one for legitimate users and much more difficult for scammers.
Or you block social media to regions – if Facebook was USA only, scams would be significantly reduced.
The sad thing about the Milwaukee PR response is that it actually admits they messed up, even if not providing specifics – compared to most large companies, that’s huge. Most companies will never admit they messed up unless forced to by a court.
TomD
> Don’t click links in text messages unless it’s something you were expecting.
No. Just don’t click links in text messages. Ever.
Maybe ones from close friends and relatives, but even then only if you can be sure about it.
Otherwise navigate to what you want from the website you know.
The reason is these shipping scam texts work on the theory that if they send out ten million, some percentage of those people WILL actually be expecting a package or similar, and they’ll click the link because they’re expecting one.
Mark. M
That last photo of the local HD sign is pretty insightful, actually. Rather than list the specs and prices and let those speak for itself, someone felt compelled to put not one but THREE callouts. Because we (the consumer) are too stupid, in their eyes, to digest information and make our own decisions. I find that insulting for the same reasons I hate the legacy media outlets trying to tell me what to think rather than just being an objective source of information.
The upside, though, is that in this sea of BS and carnival barkers, plains speak and *real* customer service stands out. Few brands and companies will take that road but the ones that do will be rewarded, and that gives me hope.
TomD
The HD sign at least does what Stuart asked for at the beginning – it lists real verifiable specifications (cost, gauge, weight limits and capacity) for various products from different companies.
And looking at it, sure HD wins on price, but the HF units seem “better” to me if price is ignored, at least on the stats (minus the smaller unit on one).
But the real giveaway is the bottom right corner. “Proprietary & Confidential” – this is a sell sheet provided by corporate that is supposed to be posted in the break room or other place where the HD employees can see it but customers can’t. It’s designed to give talking points to help sell the HD product.
Some local manager stuck hand-written “we win” stickers on it and posted it for all to see.
Champs
Yeah that definitely doesn’t look like anything that belongs on the sales floor to me either. I was also surprised by the Homer cameo, since he’s all but erased.
My bs theory is that THD accidentally ordered billions of 5-gallon Homer buckets, is still trying to sell through decades later, and the lesson learned from that explains why the 2-gallon is so rare.
Stuart
21 gauge steel construction for $298 vs 18 gauge for $349?
Without images, model numbers, or deeper details, the comparison seems too limited to be helpful.
John Blair
Thank you. Beyond being tacky it shows whoever made the chart has zero idea what they are talking about.
Bigger Gauge in steel means Thinner! 18 gauge is 1.214 mm thick 21 gauge is 0.836 mm thick. 45% thicker. I think they should have included the wait capacity in stone just to have another measurement they didn’t understand.
John Blair
wait = weight. I guess I shouldn’t be making charts either.
Goodie
LOL. I understood. Weight in stone is a necessary statistic that I want.
MT_Noob
The one that annoys me (in addition to all of the above) is when tool companies consider a consumable as part of the number of items in a kit. For example, a sander with 10 pieces of sandpaper is not an 11 piece tool kit, rather, it is a 1 piece tool kit with 10 free pieces of sandpaper.
Stuart
Some brands have different counts for home center accessory sets than for their other sets. I asked why, and was told “that’s what the customer (the retailer) asked for.”
I asked because the home center set had say 8 hole saw sizes, 1 arbor, and 3 pilot drill bits in a 12pc set, while a pricier 11pc set had 10 hole saw sizes, 1 arbor, and 2 pilot drill bits. (These numbers are fictitious, but in the spirit of what I noticed and asked about.)
It turned out that some SKUs were for Black Friday and holiday season deals, with a different way of counting the accessories.
Because of that, I try to always mention hole saw size counts when talking about holiday deals, because things like cheap pilot drill bits or arbor accessories included in the count can skew things.
eddiesky
I guess Hon Cho misunderstands that Stuart IS Toolguyd dot com and he can post whatever he wants. And he’s not whining…nope. He’s inciting a common interest in how deceptive or impractical marketing dumbs the stupid into thinking, “its a deal!”. Its not a deal. Nor does Lowes or Home Depot have sales. They may have clearance because the vendor discontinued the item, or allows incentives.
But where are the complaints that Home Depot put Sale prices on top of the regular price but it hasn’t changed?
You want whining, Hon Cho? How about whine at Home Depots Fake black friday deals?
https://fortune.com/2024/12/05/home-depot-accused-faking-black-friday-deals/
Thank you Stuart. Your point is taken. No has to agree or disagree with you. These ads that base a price on “itemized” cost..should next show the mining of the metals, the forging, the fuel costs to transport from overseas, the wages to union dock workers, the transport drivers to LTL to the warehouses. But us stooges will shop and do selfcheckout while CEOs reap windfall bonuses and… ok…I won’t go there.
Stuart
Thank you, I appreciate it!
I’ve seen a bunch of articles about Home Depot being accused of faking Black Friday deals.
In my opinion, a lot of the accusations are unwarranted or inaccurate, and nobody fact-checked or did background research to investigate them.
If you read them closely, all of the articles focus on the TikTok and influencer claims without actually validating them.
A customer complained that “prices in Home Depot’s catalog and its website didn’t match.” The news site then described the sales flyer as “Home Depot’s Black Friday catalog.” But the sales flyer says on the top “4th of July savings.”
I have seen my local Home Depot update shelf stickers at the same time that Black Friday deals go up on items they carry year-round. Sometimes they put other signage over those stickers too. Just because the sticker prices match, that’s not any indication that “OMG, it’s a SCAM, people!”
Pointing out that the “Black Friday catalog” and website prices aren’t matching, when the “catalog” is really a July 4th sales flyer, is just an epic fail.
That’s not to say that there’s not a lot of marketing BS and deal hype, but there’s also a lot of unjustified indignation that nobody bothered to fact-check.
We get news stories about influencer TikToks, and then more news stories pick up on more influencer content with everyone chasing the hyped-up attention train, and it all ends up being a giant nothingburger.
I lost trust in news publications after I started seeing headlines like “I made pizza with glue and ate it, because AI said to.”
Tim+E.
I see this so much now, seems like every day there’s some person complaining about a company doing something they don’t like, and gets a bazillion views, but it’s really the person making the video being ignorant or outright wrong, but I guess it drives “viral” content.
Just the other day I saw an example, it was Costco diapers, and the person was complaining that Costco changed prices and was charging more for fewer diapers. But then if you pay attention, they were comparing a house brand pack with a name brand pack, both from Costco. Yes, the Kirkland Signature has more diapers and is slightly cheaper than Huggies, so saying Costco made a change was just flat wrong, you purchased name brand instead of house brand and tried to use that to inflame people that they were getting ripped off. And unfortunately it works and tons of people were like “OMG never shopping at Costco again!”. It’s almost equally sad that people consuming this type of content don’t have the wherewithal to understand what is being presented or realize it maybe not be entirely accurate, they just take anything as face value truth and adjust their life based on it.
Rog
Ps. I really enjoy when these posts happen, I appreciate the humanity behind them.
Al
Thanks for disabling the drop-down ad that covers half the screen on mobile. It makes it appear that your web site is infected, or that it’s just another click-bait site.
I really wish the T*mu adds would just go away. They’re beyond tacky. It’s offensive. They’ve infested Gmail mailboxes, and Google does not allow blocking of the advertiser.
They deliberately post pictures that are sexually suggestive, like women (never men) in nude-colored body suits. Or a down-blouse shot of a woman with cleavage, then a triangle-shaped plant hanger that’s photgraphed to look like a crotch with lace panties.
There’s zero relavance that I see for this site. Google targets these ads to men, not women.
It’s your site, and your income, but it really makes the site look sleazy when these banners cover the top of the page.
Stuart
Yep – that’s when I started blocking Temu. Whenever I see sleazy or controversial ads, I hop onto my Google ad review center and block them.
A few years ago a reader yelled at me for obscene ads they were seeing on ToolGuyd in their browser. I was highly concerned, but it turned out that they were seeing ads for women’s sportswear because their spouse had been shopping online on their computer.
Dave Schwartz
I’ve gotten lots of good deals and pointers from your website. But, as I use the Brave browser, I don’t see any of those ads and probably don’t contribute any ad revenue.
Do you have a PayPal/Patreon/etc way for me to contribute to ToolGuyd? (Because I don’t mind paying my way… IF it doesn’t mean seeing ads again. 🙂
Stuart
Maybe eventually?
I’m not a fan of paywalls, exclusive subscriber content, or things like that.
I’ve been working on a site redesign, and have been looking at ways to reduce ads for daily visitors.
I considered a “tip jar,” but I’ve seen some really shady stuff happening in YouTuber and influencer spaces.
Dave Schwartz
Completely agree about paywalls. (I just look over them anyway.)
But, I support several content creators on Paypal, Patreon, et al on a “tip-jar” basis.
If you get something like this setup, please let us know. I’m guessing several people here would gladly send you a tip directly and cut out the middleman (Google).
Dave (not here)
Agreed on all of these gripes, but I specifically wanted to say thanks for the explanation on the ToolGuyd ads. I hate the “takes up half the screen, has a minimize button so tiny you’re likely to miss it and accidentally click on the ad link” format – regular ads taking up 10-20% of the screen are fine and I understand the site needs them to make money, but I’m glad to know the scammy ones didn’t show up here on purpose.
Stuart
I try my best. I blocked a bunch of “coupons” ads that seemed very low quality. They remind me of the “Download Here” ads on software pages that take you to completely unrelated sites. Google’s ad review process tends to work most of the time.
“If it bugs me, it’ll bug readers.” That seems to have worked well for 16 years now.
Perry
I appreciate the way you run ToolGuyd Stuart. The obtrusive ads and marketing speak are why I stopped visiting another prominent “pro” tool review site, because of the blatant ad copy and lack of any objective criticism.
I may not always agree with you, but I know that your POV is honest and I appreciate it.
Jim Felt
Completely agree.
Jim Felt
I’ve a question for your fellow readers:
I only ever see ToolGuyd on my iPhone.
What ads are so annoying? Haven’t we all learned to just tune them out? Habitually?
It’s really no big deal.
Criminy.
Stuart
The top ad on my phone doesn’t get in the way, but the new expanded style was terrible in a “stopped me in my tracks” kind of way. I took the screenshot above of an actual ad the second and last time I saw it before going in and removing the new “enhanced” setting.
No one should have to close an ad to read content, and ads shouldn’t block content.
I don’t like vignette ads or similar and have those disabled too.
Scott K
I agree with all of your frustrations. I would add inflated parts counts to that list – if I’m looking at socket sets, adding 25 disposable 1” driver bits to inflate the number frustrates me. It would be more honest to advertise it as X sockets plus this many other small add ons.
fred
That is frustrating – but nothing new. When i was a teenager- reading magazines like Mechanix illustrated – adds for tool sets would show cheap hacksaw blades and Allen keys to fill out the parts count. The same sort of junk – except in the 1950’s it was junk made in the USA
Nathan
Amen.
S
The home Depot poster is actually sort of funny. It gets me thinking at least.
In order:
the first one, it’s really a somewhat fair comparison. Similar box specs, except each stores model has differing metal thicknesses, with Lowe’s being one gauge thicker and an extra $100, and harbor freights box being 18 gauge instead of 21 gauge, but is only $50 more. Personally, I’d vote harbor freight here based on the features they specify. Not a good idea of they’re trying to get me to buy a home depot box…
The second one makes assumptions I don’t like.
The only advantage to the home depot over the Lowe’s model is home depot includes a metal peg board-which won’t work for every tool box location-i would never use it, paid for, or not. Otherwise lowes is $50 less and same features. The harbor freight is shorter, but has higher rated slides, thicker metal, and heavier duty wheels, for $100 more. Again, for $100 for something a little heavier duty, I’d go with harbor freight, even if it’s smaller and doesn’t include a peg board.
The last one is sort of truthful. But I admit I’m biased, as I own an older version of that box. I’m still not sure how they make that box for the price with the features it has, and I bought at $1,000. $800 for a double-stack of 120/200 pound rated slides is basically untouchable by the rest of the competition. It’s why I got one. I figure it’s got to be a loss leader for them. Even considering the Lowe’s does the same thing with cheaper slides, and the harbor freight is $600 for the same features(when not on sale, which seems to be at least once a year). $600 is some real savings, where $100 difference can easily be made up in personal mind game hassle with different drawer latch designs between the brands.
I don’t mind the comparison, but it’s just a crummy comparison because despite zero research and only using the facts that they offered, I still voted harbor freight two of three times.
But I guess who’s really laughing, because I paid for that husky box, and don’t own any ‘US Genital'(seriously, look at the printing in the handles next time you’re in a store) tool boxes…
Jerry
One thing that really grinds my gears would be regarding the ads. I realize that the pop ups pay the bills to keep ToolGuyd online, and I have no problem with ads in general, but every now and then an ad pops up that looks like something I might be interested in, and then it turns out to be NOTHING like it appeared to be.
An example would be a day or two ago, an ad showed pictures of a couple multi-tools, and was labeled something along the lines of ‘gifts for dad’ or something along those lines. I’m kind of a multitool junkie, or even a collector, and they looked to have unique features I would be interested in at the right price. So, I clicked the ad (figured if I’m gonna be tempted to buy something, might as well give Stuart the 1/50th of a cent or whatever he gets for a click) and after scrolling past an endless list of OTHER ads, I gave up in frustration that I would ever find the multitools that were pictured. I have no problem with ads for products, but when I clicked that ad, it just opened up a portal to other clickbait ads. I have clicked a few ads since then, and it hasn’t happened real recently, so maybe it was just something that slipped under the RADAR.
Stuart
Please let me know if it happens again. I can block individual ads, ads that fit certain keywords, entire ad networks, and specific brands and retailer URLs, and I use every such tool at my disposal.
The problem is that there’s not a lot of control over ad network ads. It’s a bidding system via Google. Google approves the ads and then they bid for display based on the page contents and topic, or reader interests and targeting.
You might have noticed that if you shop on a retailer, that retailer might follow you around the internet with ads.
Google’s approval process seems to do a good job most of the time, and I block the ones that slip through. There are “sensitive” categories, and I blocked those years ago, probably at the very beginning.
J.How
Everyone could let vendors who DO advertise in a more ethical way, or those that buy tools from companies that follow more ethical marketing standards, can purchase those tools from most of those vendors and let them know in comments and on their own media the value that many of us see in Toolguyd, which could certainly both promote the value of the site, but also drive more revenue to the host to improve and grow.
I know I do when I end up with a tool that started it’s discovery here. Love the site, I check it daily, and have discovered a lot of new tools here.
Skylar
This is (and has been) the single best, most reliable, and most honest tool-related news website on the internet for as long as I’ve been reading it. I check it every weekday and read every post.
I appreciate that Stuart makes it known when posts are part of a paid partnership or a sample sent for review, but I still haven’t found any reason to question the integrity of those posts or any others. Gotta make revenue numbers work in as many ways as he can.
There are a few other channels I look at frequently (Insider Carpentry, Awesome Framers, TTC) that provide great content as well. I wish there were more like it but sadly the list of ones I avoid (VCG &Tools in Action, for example) is much longer.
Keep doing what you’re doing; it’s the best thing around.
James
THANK YOU for getting rid of that expanding ad. It was a round for a few days or so and it was driving me nuts, although funny enough I never considered that it was something you might have control over. I just would have to hit the little arrow with my thumb while trying not to click on the ad, and it was frustrating.
Anywho, much appreciated, and seems like a decent moment for some general appreciation for what you do. This is the only site I check daily, and I’m always learning from you and the community, and that has direct positive impact on my life and business, and sometimes just gives me stuff to talk about with the boys over a beer. The tone is refreshing and the consistent thread is you. Thanks!
Stuart
You’re welcome!! I’m sorry, I saw it once, and then after the second time it was gone.
As long as you’re not trolling, please tell me if an ad, feature, etc, is ruining or severely impacting the reading experience.
Another Bob
Just a thought on the cringe Homedepot ad. I’d like to think it was a senior manager letting one of the new/younger employees work on marketing/ad copy. Mentoring someone who has ambition.
Let’s hope it was that and not Bob in accounting looking for an easy project during Black Friday hell week.
Matt F
I’ve been visiting this site religiously for two years but it’s rare that I comment.
On this topic, I feel the need to agree with the rest of you that Stuart does an excellent job with Toolguyd. I never see any post as pushy or inflated, just honest reviews and informed opinions.
Thank you, Stuart for running a site worth visiting and reading daily.
Nate
I frequently do the inverse of the “if purchased separately”, like okay, this socket would be $1.71 “if purchased in a set”, so it’s probably reasonable to pay $5 for it when I lose one and need to replace it, but not $23.
That’s the last time I’m buying a Neiko socket set, by the way.