Even though I'd rather chew on broken glass than have to reach out to Fein USA (or Fein Germany, for that matter) for help, I found myself earlier today needing to ask for some assistance from Pittsburgh.
Why broken glass? Well, every interaction I've ever had with Fein over the last couple of years (since before even becoming a customer) has gone like today's did. Nowhere. Usually they just don't bother to answer my emails. Today, however, was an exception.
What I encountered is sure to produce confused facial expressions from all who read past this point.
You see, what I discovered is that the email server at Fein USA is configured in such a way as to prevent Joe public (hey, that's me!) from transmitting an email with hyperlinks, attachments and/or embedded images. This restriction presents a serious problem when the information you seek is the part number for something you've only seen a couple of images of online. On its own, this hurdle wouldn't have been such a big deal. However, when this encounter turns out to be enigmatic of literally every interaction you've ever had with Fein, you may be better equipped to understand why I immediately went from zero to ten.
This was about more than a part number, after all.
Realizing this was going to take some effort, and not wanting to add insult to injury by picking up the phone only to be met by someone on the other end who has no idea what I'm talking about (another experience common to my past interactions with Fein), I took a few minutes to fire off an email that was as critical of Fein the company as it was insistent of my need for assistance. Wise by now to the email server's whims, I made sure not to include any links or images in this transmission.
In short order (remarkable speed given my past experience) I heard back from a person of the Customer Service Manager persuasion. His reply was brief but failed to include the kind of on-your-feet thinking I was longing for. So, taking it upon myself to do his job for him, I next offered a couple of workarounds, all aimed at my being able to one way or another send him the links. The last thing I wanted to do was to play "telephone" with a long web address, actually three long web addresses. His response back, also brief, was so devoid of what one thinks of as the act of providing "Customer Service" that I almost filled my diaper.
Which reminds me, at this point in the festivities, I just happened to scroll down past his earliest reply to discover that the email thread continued. And you'll never guess what my eyes lit upon next. How about the kind of correspondence - between "Betty", one of this guy's customer service charges, and the manager himself (let's call him John - O.K., that's really his name) - that neither would ever want the customer reading:
"This could be another problem child, like Bobby? Just forwarding this to you as an FYI… Betty"
Oh, now I was loaded for bear.
I fired a warning shot back in John's direction which consisted of a preface to the body of my original email, the latter of which I copied into a new email and from which I took care to remove the offending links and image. In short, the preface warned John that the "problem child" had returned and was now going to be taking matters into his own childlike hands. I went on to state that I would be posting a rather scathing critique of the Fein organization on the company's social media page and that I would append to that, the product links and product image that had been the source of so much angst. Doing so would ensure the email's ability to to sneak past the watchful eye of the Fort Knox...I mean, Fein, email server. I also instructed "Dear John" to please navigate his way to his company's social media page and to my uploaded post so that he could locate and then follow the included links, the result of which would finally and quite gratifyingly consummate this brief but no less stupefying relationship. Did I mention that I also uploaded a snip of the most incriminating part of the email thread? Yup, I did that.
And that's where I left it. As chance would have it, the business day would come to an end without me having heard back from anyone at the Fein organization.
No matter.
Following some additional time spent on the interwebs searching, searching, searching, I managed to stumble upon the part number for the accessory I was curious about. I'll remind you here that this was the culmination of hours of unpaid work.
Where did I find the mystery number?
As luck would have it, I'm pretty web savvy, so I just happened to identify the part number as the series of numbers appended to the web address of the page on a retailer's website that's dedicated to the allusive accesory. Had the part number been listed on the page (where, of course, it belongs) I would have noticed it long before I'd reached out to Fein and I would have had something other than just an image to go on. But, then, I may not have had this story to tell. We'll never know.
With the part number in hand I quickly sent an abbreviated email to the Fein retailer to ask if they'd ever tried to fit the accessory (which I was finally able to describe with a valid part number) onto the latest version of the Multimaster. I expect I'll receive a reply sometime tomorrow. No thanks, mind you, to the company that manufactures the two products featured in this story. The End.
Actually, it's not completely "The End".
Before settling in to write this post, I searched the FOG for any mention of this accessory. I wasn't surprised, though, when nothing by way of a result was returned. After all, judging by how difficult is was for me to find anything out about it, I hardly expected any of my fellow Foggers to have already discussed it. Now, I should mention, that what appears to be an earlier and much clunkier version of this accessory was mentioned a couple of times in the past. But since the "new" version looks like it might secretly be compatible with the latest MultiMaster and maybe the Vecturo too (and because the "clunkyness" problem seems to have been addressed), I though it warranted its own post. So, here goes:
Has anyone ever held the following part in their hands and tried to install it on the latest iteration of the MultiMaster or on the current version of the Vecturo?
[attachimg=1]
Here's the "clunky" version I referred to earlier:
And here's what appears to be another iteration of the same version:
And before anyone queries....yes, I'm aware of the forthcoming cordless Vecturo and yes, I'm also aware of its updated (and very effective looking) dust collection attachment. Also, yes, I know that Fein manufactured the existing Vecturo and that it also will be manufacturing the soon to be released cordless version. Hence why I'm asking about the compatibility of this one accessory between these various makes and models.
Edit - The part number for the (apparently) new bolt-on version of the dust shroud is 32133021010.
Why broken glass? Well, every interaction I've ever had with Fein over the last couple of years (since before even becoming a customer) has gone like today's did. Nowhere. Usually they just don't bother to answer my emails. Today, however, was an exception.
What I encountered is sure to produce confused facial expressions from all who read past this point.
You see, what I discovered is that the email server at Fein USA is configured in such a way as to prevent Joe public (hey, that's me!) from transmitting an email with hyperlinks, attachments and/or embedded images. This restriction presents a serious problem when the information you seek is the part number for something you've only seen a couple of images of online. On its own, this hurdle wouldn't have been such a big deal. However, when this encounter turns out to be enigmatic of literally every interaction you've ever had with Fein, you may be better equipped to understand why I immediately went from zero to ten.
This was about more than a part number, after all.
Realizing this was going to take some effort, and not wanting to add insult to injury by picking up the phone only to be met by someone on the other end who has no idea what I'm talking about (another experience common to my past interactions with Fein), I took a few minutes to fire off an email that was as critical of Fein the company as it was insistent of my need for assistance. Wise by now to the email server's whims, I made sure not to include any links or images in this transmission.
In short order (remarkable speed given my past experience) I heard back from a person of the Customer Service Manager persuasion. His reply was brief but failed to include the kind of on-your-feet thinking I was longing for. So, taking it upon myself to do his job for him, I next offered a couple of workarounds, all aimed at my being able to one way or another send him the links. The last thing I wanted to do was to play "telephone" with a long web address, actually three long web addresses. His response back, also brief, was so devoid of what one thinks of as the act of providing "Customer Service" that I almost filled my diaper.
Which reminds me, at this point in the festivities, I just happened to scroll down past his earliest reply to discover that the email thread continued. And you'll never guess what my eyes lit upon next. How about the kind of correspondence - between "Betty", one of this guy's customer service charges, and the manager himself (let's call him John - O.K., that's really his name) - that neither would ever want the customer reading:
"This could be another problem child, like Bobby? Just forwarding this to you as an FYI… Betty"
Oh, now I was loaded for bear.
I fired a warning shot back in John's direction which consisted of a preface to the body of my original email, the latter of which I copied into a new email and from which I took care to remove the offending links and image. In short, the preface warned John that the "problem child" had returned and was now going to be taking matters into his own childlike hands. I went on to state that I would be posting a rather scathing critique of the Fein organization on the company's social media page and that I would append to that, the product links and product image that had been the source of so much angst. Doing so would ensure the email's ability to to sneak past the watchful eye of the Fort Knox...I mean, Fein, email server. I also instructed "Dear John" to please navigate his way to his company's social media page and to my uploaded post so that he could locate and then follow the included links, the result of which would finally and quite gratifyingly consummate this brief but no less stupefying relationship. Did I mention that I also uploaded a snip of the most incriminating part of the email thread? Yup, I did that.
And that's where I left it. As chance would have it, the business day would come to an end without me having heard back from anyone at the Fein organization.
No matter.
Following some additional time spent on the interwebs searching, searching, searching, I managed to stumble upon the part number for the accessory I was curious about. I'll remind you here that this was the culmination of hours of unpaid work.
Where did I find the mystery number?
As luck would have it, I'm pretty web savvy, so I just happened to identify the part number as the series of numbers appended to the web address of the page on a retailer's website that's dedicated to the allusive accesory. Had the part number been listed on the page (where, of course, it belongs) I would have noticed it long before I'd reached out to Fein and I would have had something other than just an image to go on. But, then, I may not have had this story to tell. We'll never know.
With the part number in hand I quickly sent an abbreviated email to the Fein retailer to ask if they'd ever tried to fit the accessory (which I was finally able to describe with a valid part number) onto the latest version of the Multimaster. I expect I'll receive a reply sometime tomorrow. No thanks, mind you, to the company that manufactures the two products featured in this story. The End.
Actually, it's not completely "The End".
Before settling in to write this post, I searched the FOG for any mention of this accessory. I wasn't surprised, though, when nothing by way of a result was returned. After all, judging by how difficult is was for me to find anything out about it, I hardly expected any of my fellow Foggers to have already discussed it. Now, I should mention, that what appears to be an earlier and much clunkier version of this accessory was mentioned a couple of times in the past. But since the "new" version looks like it might secretly be compatible with the latest MultiMaster and maybe the Vecturo too (and because the "clunkyness" problem seems to have been addressed), I though it warranted its own post. So, here goes:
Has anyone ever held the following part in their hands and tried to install it on the latest iteration of the MultiMaster or on the current version of the Vecturo?
[attachimg=1]
Here's the "clunky" version I referred to earlier:
And here's what appears to be another iteration of the same version:
And before anyone queries....yes, I'm aware of the forthcoming cordless Vecturo and yes, I'm also aware of its updated (and very effective looking) dust collection attachment. Also, yes, I know that Fein manufactured the existing Vecturo and that it also will be manufacturing the soon to be released cordless version. Hence why I'm asking about the compatibility of this one accessory between these various makes and models.
Edit - The part number for the (apparently) new bolt-on version of the dust shroud is 32133021010.
