I just found out my son loaned out a tool and it wasn’t returned. I don’t know how this happened after my repeated warnings about loaning out tools. I have decided to share my wisdom with the steem community. Here it is… Do not loan out tools!
It’s happened to pretty much everyone that owns tools. Your friend comes to you with a sad puppy dog look and tells you a story about how he needs your tools to fix his problem. He is 100% accurate about having a sad story. It’s always a good cause why he needs your tools. The problem doesn’t lie in the story, no the problem lies in the fact 99% of the time people won’t be bothered about not returning the tools. They must get extremely lazy about other peoples things. So your out trying to fix something and it hits you, you don’t have the tool you need, because you loaned it out and it was never returned.
Ok that is my rant. Let me tell you how this worked out for me. My brother comes to me and says he needs tool to fix his car. I told him I don’t loan tools. He whines and cry’s at me. I loan him the tools. They don’t come back. I ask him if he fixed his car. He says yeah man it works great. I wait they never return. I call him and say I am coming to get my tools. He whines he is going somewhere. I explode and tell him THIS IS WHY I DON’T LOAN OUT TOOLS! He waited for me and I got them back. It still cost me time and gas money.
OK so this won’t stop people from still wanting to borrow tools. I have found there is only one thing that people care more about then borrowing your tools when they need them. Money! If you take a returnable deposit on your tools they will come back. Make sure the deposit is more than the tool is worth or you will just be selling your tools for less than it costs to replace. I only buy expensive tools like Mac and Craftsman so losing them isn’t an option. I now charge 120% of the tools cost in a returnable deposit. I will hold the pink slip on a car or truck. Anything of value. It has worked wonders.
Here is where the rubber meets the road. You can still loan out your tools. See what happens. I would get something of value in exchange to make sure they return. I now consider tools as money.