Christian O. said:
Hello Dixon Peer,
Yes, we are reading most of the posts. The questions in the "Contact Festool" section are the ones we are answering (there are exceptions, see
this post). I agreed with Matthew Schenker a long time ago to be available for questions in the "Contact Festool" section.
Festool does not own the forum. This is your forum and not a company forum. If we took part in every single discussion, it would become a company forum quickly. This is not our intention. This is why we read everything, but stay out of discussions most of the time.
A lot of things that are discussed in this forum lead to changes. We take all the opinions seriously. Sometimes
we can do something about it, sometimes not. But we review and discuss almost everything.
Hope that answers your question.
Christian Oltzscher
Festool USA
I, for one, do not think manufacturers should become involved in a whole lot of forum talk. Some forum questions and remarks do have a lot of validity and end up as being very constructive. There are others that can turn into just plain gripes that will not be resolved by anybody. those who are designing, producing and selling any product must balance out a whole lot of information and determin exactly what makes sense to add or subtract from the product of discussion.
If a company does not listen, and react, they will soon be out of business. The prospective customer will eventually react by going somewhere else. If Festool decided to enter into a forum on a general basis, there would be a whole lot of stuff that would end up being discussed that could possibly be of more help to competitors than to the questioner. NOT good.
As it is, we can see the value first hand of the Festo pruducts by using them. We can see the value to the market place of their products by observing how many other manufacturers are coming up with "copies". They are not coming up with their own "improvements" by becoming involved in answering a lot of forum questions. go to any other forum and mention FESTOOL. you will not get very many sensible replies but a whole lot of venom. I don't think it is to Festools benefit to involve itself in any sort of forum and answer questions that can possibly turn into the same sort of tripe.
They do not need to tip their hand with technical explanations. They do not need to spend their time replying. Just design and build. That is enough for me.
Another quickee story that might be a little appropriate to add to my above reply:
I was doing a complicated footing/foundation project that required expertise above and beyond the usual engineering for a small residential house foundation. I was running into a new problem to solve each day. I was not an engineer and neither the owner nor the builder had wanted to hire an engineer for the job. (This was back in the late 50's and the house was a somewhat typical 2 story colonial. Once the foundation was completed, the carpentry would be staight forward copy cat ticky tacky boxy construction.) As i aproached a particularly difficult problem, the owner showed up. At that point, i was discussing the problem with my crew and trying to come up with the best solution possible.
The owner started asking questions, none of which i had a positive answer to. I struggled with the first couple of replies, but realised i was getting into deep water and could only convey my own indecifness. i finally went into a very long explanation during which i said absolutely nothing. (an excellent political type desertation) I just talked around in circles and made it so confusing, i don't think the smartest engineer could have figured out what i had said. When i felt i had everybody totally confused, i looked at my foreman and told him to unload the big truck and meet me at another job in one hour. i hopped into my truck and left. The owner was just standing there with his jaw hanging.
When my crew showed up at second job, the foreman was laughing. He told me that as i drove out, the owner had asked, "What did he say?"
foreman replied, "I don't really know."
I laughed and said, "That was exactly what I wanted to hear."
An hour or so later, we all went back to first job. By that time, we all had a better idea of how we wanted to advance. We got to work and eventually poured the concrete. in the meantime, we never saw the owner again until the lumber was being constructed on top of the foundation. the foundation came out dead on level and square and the house is still standing. :
Question: do we really need that sort of info from Festool? I don't think so. I think they are doing a good (make the Great) job and the clues are that somewhere along the way, they are listening to somebody.
Tinker
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