The Festool Owners Group has become a premier destination on the web for people who are seeking information about Festool products.  One of the best sources of information is reviews that are written by our members.  This educates others about the products and offers an unbiased, first-hand account of the tool or accessory.  For our next contest, members will be asked to submit a product review in their own words about a Festool tool or accessory that they currently own.  I would say that the majority of forum members have, at some time, benefited from the sharing of knowledge here on the forum.  This is your opportunity to share with others and have the potential of being rewarded for your endeavors.

Contest Rules

• The reviews must be your own original material.
• You may submit reviews of more than one product to increase your chances of winning. Multiple reviews of the same product are not eligible for consideration.
• Existing reviews are not eligible for this contest.  You may not submit a review for the contest of a product which you have already reviewed on the forum.
• Reviews must consist of two or more photos of the product in use and a minimum of 400 written words or a minimum of ninety seconds (90s) of video.
• Video reviews should be uploaded to YouTube and then submitted to the Festool YouTube Group Channel.
• Contest entries must be posted between Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 and Wednesday, June 30th, 2010.
• The contest is open to all members of the forum including those outside of the United States who are at least 18 years of age, except where prohibited by law.  Participants must be from a country where Festool is sold to be eligible to win.
• Festool employees, dealers and affiliates, and FOG moderators are not eligible to win (but may choose to participate).
• Festool reserves the right to use the content from any entries in the SysNotes email newsletter or other marketing materials.

Prizes

• Video prize: Randomly selected from video review entries, a Festool Rotex 150 FEQ.
• Written prize: Randomly selected from written review entries, a Festool Rotex 150 FEQ.

Winners will be randomly selected from the list of entries that adhere to the contest rules above and announced by Monday, July 5th, 2010.

How to Enter.

Members must submit their entries for the contest in the form of a post on the forum.  The post must include the following information at a minimum:

• Reviews should be entitled "Review of Festool" and then the product name and product number and should be posted as a new thread in the Festool Tool Reviews section of the forum.
• Written reviews must contain two or more application photos showing the product in use and a minimum of 400 words.
• Video reviews must be a minimum of ninety seconds (90s) long and should be uploaded to YouTube and then submitted to the Festool YouTube Group Channel.  Video reviews can also be posted in a thread on the forum using the same formatting listed above for written reviews.

Feel free to post any questions you might have.  Best of luck to everyone!

I'm not much of a writer (or a TV presenter for that matter!) but I think I'll enter anyway just to show support.

Notice there's no prerequisite for being a great writer or camera person.     I think visitors to the forum will appreciate the information contained in the reviews regardless of whether the content is written eloquently or even grammatically correct.  I look forward to seeing your review JRB.

If you do not need it, sell it here on the classified section or on E-bay? I think it is great that  Shane does the contests, make it easy on him. He most likely has a bunch of red tape on the corporate side to get this stuff approved. It can be tough to keep going back to the well to get approvals.

Shane,

could you please clarify the following rule:

• You may submit reviews of more than one product to increase your chances of winning. Multiple reviews of the same product are not eligible for consideration.

Does this include reviews of different types, ie could someone enter one written review & one video review, both of the same product?

Thanks,

JRB

OK, thanks Shane.

I do have more than one thing I could review, but I don't want to review most things I already have, for a couple of reasons:

Firstly, I'd like the review I do to be as useful as possible, to as many people as possible. Reviewing an old product (eg TS55) would for most people not be very helpful, since there are so many reviews out there already that would be far more comprehensive than anything I could do;

Secondly, I've been thinking about the process of writing a review, and it is far easier (at least for me, the way my mind works) to write my thoughts as I explore a product that is new to me. I have tried to do this for stuff I know well already, and found the process to be very difficult.

So for those reasons, I'd like to review one of the newly released products. I feel this would be much easier for me, more informative for the FOG readers, and would give me an excuse to convice the LOML that I really do need that new product. "If you buy me this, I might get a free Rotex, too!"

TBH it's unlikely that I could do a video review justice, so I'll just stick to the written one!

JRB

I wish! Can't stretch to that I'm afraid. I'm not going to say what I'm looking at though - It'd spoil the surprise!

Shane,

Great contest idea, but I think you should cut to the chase and go ahead and send the sander to Brice right now.    His reviews are as good as they get :-)

Fred

I agree that I think Brice's reviews are very good.  BUT, this contest is to be determined based on submissions and *luck* of the drawing.  That's gives posers like me (us?) a fightin' chance to win.   

Ah......   I missed the "randomly selected" part.   That does level the playing field.   Sorry Brice, I thought for sure you'd end up w/ a new sander :-)

Fred

Aww junk, I had big plans for that new sander. Actually, I hadn't planned on doing any new reviews within the time frame of the contest. 

Just a reminder to everyone about our contest.  This is an opportunity for you to give back a little to our online community and share your experiences with a product with fellow forum members.

I am a disappointed with the number of entries we had in our FOG for Charities contest and we have not had many entries in this contest so far.  I would like to encourage you to participate so Festool can continue to sponsor such events on the forum.

The entry deadline is at the end of this month, June 30th.

Thanks,
Shane

I am a disappointed with the number of entries we had in our FOG for Charities contest and we have not had many entries in this contest so far.  I would like to encourage you to participate so Festool can continue to sponsor such events on the forum.

The entry deadline is at the end of this month, June 30th.

Thanks,
Shane

I'am in, just posted a review of the Guide Rail.
Review of the Festool Guide Rail

Well, as it stands, it looks like the prize for a video review will be forfeited due to lack of any entries in that category. 

Here are the entries that I currently see in no particular order.  If I have overlooked your entry, please send me a PM or email.  Current odds of winning in the written review category is 1 in 8.  Odds based on the number of entries, which may change between now and the entry deadline.

The entry deadline is next Wednesday, June 30th, 2010.

Thanks to all who have participated thus far.  Good luck to everyone!


Review of Festool DTS 400 EQ (Product No. 567825)
ScotF
5/30/2010

Review of Festool Rotex RO 125 FEQ Plus Sander (571536 US / 571533 EU)
Chris Meggersee
5/18/2010

Review of Festool: Guide Rail FS/2 Product No.: 491 501
GPowers
6/15/2010

Review Of Festool Stickfix Hand Sanding Block, 583129
johnny round boy
5/10/2010

Review of Festool Quick Clamp (491594 EU)
Chris Meggersee
6/5/2010

Review of Festool: ETS 150/5 EQ Random Orbital Sander (product #571738)
GPowers
6/21/2010

REVIEW OF FESTOOL FS-RAPID/1 (489790)
joiner1970
6/16/2010

Review of Festool Workshop Cleaning Set (Product No. 454767)
ScotF
6/11/2010

Hello Shane was there not a video review of the parallel guides?

The only video of the parallel guides that I recall was done by Roger Muller, who is an employee of a local Festool dealer.  Therefore, his video is not admissible based on the rules of the contest.

Well, as it stands, it looks like the prize for a video review will be forfeited due to lack of any entries in that category. 

Does that mean that if someone makes a video before tomorrow they win the rotex or is that the end?

I thought we had till june 30. I have some reviews up my sleeve, but I haven't had time to work on them yet. I had a really big job the last 3 months that took up all my time. Did pay for 5 new Festools though. And got quite some good use out of them, so I got enough experience. But my job finished yesterday, so now I got time. It is a shame though any review is a 'review'. There's quite a bit more to tell about my new CS70 then there is about a guide rail or a clamp.

Quote from: Chris Meggersee on June 22, 2010, 03:03 PM

Does that mean that if someone makes a video before tomorrow they win the rotex or is that the end?

Chris, the deadline is next Wednesday.  If there is only one entry, it would be declared the de facto winner.

Go on Chris give it a go