brand-new tool

[AlexThePalex]

The question is
" .. how one can know the tool was not returned when salesperson bring the box in front of me?"

You can't know, unless you're clairvoyant.

So no use worrying about it. If you get a tool that's not performing as it should, return it or have it serviced.

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

In some US states it's illegal to sell something as new if it has been sold and left the store. This includes items that may have never been opened and immediately returned. The reason is the vendor has absolutely no way to know for sure what has happened to the item while the item was out of the vendors control. Thos is one of the reasons major retailers like anazon have open box deals, and the reason there are plenty of resellers of new "other" items on ebay.

I presume Festool might want to look into this and follow it.

I've always presumed the reason Festool guarantees parts availability for the length of time they do, is because California has a law requiring parts availability for a certain amount of time, for electrical items costing more than X amount. 

 

[antss]

which states have that statute Rip ?

 

[Jozsef Kozma]

This is common practice at Home Depot
I can even say that Dewalt , Bosh and Milwaukee know
about it
I try to by all tools from people I trust and sometimes that
comes with additional time spend while getting a tool
A professional relationship goes a long way

 

[RussellS]

4) In the rare event (Has this really ever happened to someone (here)?) that someone bought a tool under the 30 day return period to exchange a part in order not to have to pay for said spare part and/or the repair costs and I would be affected by it in any other way than a pre-mature trip to the Festool-Spa for the tool in question - I would know how to deal with it.

Kind regards,
Oliver

Being the simpleton that I am, I had never even thought of such a thing.  Thanks for educating me how the real world works.

 

[deltafunction]

I bought a "new" pasload framing nailer last fall.  Took it home and worked with it for a few weeks.  put it away and pulled it back out for another project this past January.  The gun wouldn't work so I ended up talking to customer service at passload and they asked for the serial number for the tool and battery.  Long story short I guess I ended up buying a tool that gave every appearance of being new but had an aftermarket battery in it.  Passload was good to me and sent me a new one but it makes me not want to buy tools from the local big box store again.

 

[antss]

This is common practice at Home Depot
I can even say that Dewalt , Bosh and Milwaukee know
about it
I try to by all tools from people I trust and sometimes that
comes with additional time spend while getting a tool
A professional relationship goes a long way

Well, not exactly.  [huh]

A lot of items are returned to the shelves.  But they also send stuff back to the manuf. via RTV - return to vendor.  It's negotiated / coerced at the contract stage.  You wanna sell your widget in our stores; you're going to take back every return we get and credit our account.

Where do you think all that stuff at your local liquidator or at large eBay sellers comes from ? The stuff often has orange or green stickers from the store on the packaging that designates it. Not always though. 

The manuf. doesn't really want any of that stuff back at their facility. It's just a part/cost of doing business.  Just like a defect rate or food spoiling before its bought at the grocer.