Funny Festool/Retailer Story...

[PaulMarcel]

I wondered why Derek's mugshot showed up on my mugshots.com RSS feed.

I also wish they only made the holey rails.  I think the added cost of drilling the holes would be easily offset by not having to stock two lines of rails (holey and, uh, evil

).  Inventory is usually costly.

 

[PeterK]

If all the shorter rails were holey, if would save a lot of confusion, returns, dealer's time. People new to the system have no idea they can exchange the rails for different lengths or holes at the time of purchase - at least from the super dealers who participate here!

 

[darita]

I wondered why Derek's mugshot showed up on my mugshots.com RSS feed.

I also wish they only made the holey rails.  I think the added cost of drilling the holes would be easily offset by not having to stock two lines of rails (holey and, uh, evil

).  Inventory is usually costly.

Mugshot...that's funny!  When I started thinking about how Festool would know who I was purchasing from, well that's when I knew something was fishy.  It also sounded so anti-Festool.  Again, if a chain is going to feature a line of tools, you'd think they would make sure everyone was trained on them.

 

[Paul G]

Does this retailers name appropriately rhyme with daft?

 

[darita]

Does this retailers name appropriately rhyme with daft?

Wooddaft...now that's really funny!

 

[Paul G]

I've had mixed experiences there. I use them because they are extremely close to me and I like to support local businesses when possible. An odd one was they couldn't help me buy General Finishes paints in gallons unless I buy it by the pallet, they only sell the smaller cans. The GF regional rep took care of my needs. The Festool tale I heard was in response to my inquiry about why the area road shows are in small towns and not here, was told the stores pay Festool for the road show, I wonder how true that is.

 

[Stephen B]

Have just returned home, it's 12.30am (AEST), from a celebration with fellow staff at the hardware store at which I work part time.

We have won the Australian national and state awards in the Home Hardware Group for customer service. Significant as we are in a large regional town rather than a city. (We are a sub group of the Masters Stores which should be familiar to those in the USA.

Anyway the bottom line is - Do not  'bull sh ....' the customers, talk through with them their needs and close the sale to their satisfaction!

 

[darita]

Have just returned home, it's 12.30am (AEST), from a celebration with fellow staff at the hardware store at which I work part time.

We have won the Australian national and state awards in the Home Hardware Group for customer service. Significant as we are in a large regional town rather than a city. (We are a sub group of the Masters Stores which should be familiar to those in the USA.

Anyway the bottom line is - Do not  'bull stuff' the customers, talk through with them their needs and close the sale to their satisfaction!

Exactly.  In my younger days, I worked as a retail Manager.  I was always told to work with customers within reason and know your products.  This is the Manager and he didn't even know what a Festool holly rail or LR32 was.  What can I say...

 

[rrmccabe]

Have to say my retailer (woodsmith store) was excellent.  Years ago I bought the TS55 and a couple tracks. I might have bought the 1080 at the same time. I really don't remember.  A couple weeks later I realized that they had a package deal with the CT22.  I wished I had got that instead. I went in to buy the CT outright and told them I wished I had bought the package a couple weeks ago. They said no problem...  We will refund your money on the saw and sell you the package at special price.

Of course it was just all on paper as all I did was go pickup the CT22 but it was much appreciated.

They are a great store although I try to avoid them. [eek]  Seems I walk in to buy a $14 T track and leave $500 poorer. I believe they are using magnetic shopping carts. All this stuff seems to jump into my cart as I go by.

 

[darita]

You can return or exchange a power tool within 30 days. It doesn't matter why.

Like you were told by my colleague, we want to make sure you're satisfied with your purchase.

Sorry for the hassle.

Shane, Festool has nothing to apologize for.  Festool was great.  Not only was that Manager's policy out in left field, but he didn't know what an LR32 or holly rail were.  Thanks for the words.

 

[rljatl]

You can return or exchange a power tool within 30 days. It doesn't matter why.

Like you were told by my colleague, we want to make sure you're satisfied with your purchase.

Sorry for the hassle.

Shane, Festool has nothing to apologize for.  Festool was great.  Not only was that Manager's policy out in left field, but he didn't know what an LR32 or holly rail were.  Thanks for the words.

Was this in the Atlanta area?

 

[NuggyBuggy]

I'd hate to see all the rails be milled for the LR32 system.  Then everyone would have to pay more for rails just in case you might want to someday, maybe get the LR32 system. [blink]

My retailer in Canada actually lists the 1080mm LR32 rail for LESS than the non-holed one. I was surprised to see this, but I recalled that the difference is usually only a few % in the other direction, suggesting that the incremental cost of manufacturing the LR32 rails over the regular rails is quite small.

I'd actually bet that it'd be cheaper for the company to just make all rails LR32, thereby avoiding having to maintain two SKUs and two partly different production processes, but then they would probably sell fewer rails.  From a systems perspective, I think it doesn't make sense that not all rails can work with all components of the system.

 

[peter halle]

You can return or exchange a power tool within 30 days. It doesn't matter why.

Like you were told by my colleague, we want to make sure you're satisfied with your purchase.

Sorry for the hassle.

Shane, Festool has nothing to apologize for.  Festool was great.  Not only was that Manager's policy out in left field, but he didn't know what an LR32 or holly rail were.  Thanks for the words.

Was this in the Atlanta area?

I could be wrong, but I think that it may have been somewhere in California.

Peter

 

[darita]

You can return or exchange a power tool within 30 days. It doesn't matter why.

Like you were told by my colleague, we want to make sure you're satisfied with your purchase.

Sorry for the hassle.

Shane, Festool has nothing to apologize for.  Festool was great.  Not only was that Manager's policy out in left field, but he didn't know what an LR32 or holly rail were.  Thanks for the words.

Was this in the Atlanta area?

I could be wrong, but I think that it may have been somewhere in California.

Peter

NorCal.

 

[Brice Burrell]

I'd hate to see all the rails be milled for the LR32 system.  Then everyone would have to pay more for rails just in case you might want to someday, maybe get the LR32 system. [blink]

My retailer in Canada actually lists the 1080mm LR32 rail for LESS than the non-holed one. I was surprised to see this, but I recalled that the difference is usually only a few % in the other direction, suggesting that the incremental cost of manufacturing the LR32 rails over the regular rails is quite small.

I'd actually bet that it'd be cheaper for the company to just make all rails LR32, thereby avoiding having to maintain two SKUs and two partly different production processes, but then they would probably sell fewer rails.  From a systems perspective, I think it doesn't make sense that not all rails can work with all components of the system.

The 1080 LR32 rails was discontinued a few years ago so that's accounts for the price you're seeing. 

I think the price of the LR32 rails happens as low as it is now because they don't make all of the rails "holy".  Imagine the bottleneck trying to get all the rails machined with holes, and that is even after a consider investment in new tooling to mill all the rails.......   

 

[skids]

Personally, I wouldn't be terribly proud of this story. You weren't returning something because you were dissatisfied. You were returning it because you made a mistake about what you wanted, and expected someone else to take responsibility for your mistake. The "black list" part is inexcusable, but so is taking advantage of a warranty for the sake of covering a personal mistake.

Easy tiger.. Festool isn't exactly as simple as buying a box of Oreos.

 

[sancho57]

skids,

Rick already apologized.

 

[skids]

skids,

Rick already apologized.

Ahhh yes, you are correct I missed that..Well that can be applied to multiple other posts then.  [wink]

I am kidding of course, I think Rick is great.

So this IS Woodcraft? I knew it!!!!

 

[erock]

I have a funny Festool/ Retailer story.

  When I bought the Domino I wanted to test it out.  Make some practice pieces and what not.  After getting my method down and getting familiar with the

Domino I was ready to make some Domino drawer boxes.  So I wanted to get Sipo tenons for a nice color contrast.  So one Saturday morning I go to a small

shop near me that is a Festool dealer (it's not Woodcraft).  I'm looking at the Festool display which is nothing big.  One TS55 blade, some splinter guards

and maybe 8 boxes of sand paper, one or two clamps.....just a very small selection of tools.  If I wanted to buy a tool from them it would have to be

ordered.  Anyways back on track.

  As I'm looking at the limited inventory I see two pack of Domino tenons, maybe some 5x30's and 8x50's.  A salesman comes over to me and asked me

if I needed help.  Now keep in mind I have a Festool hat on with my Festool fleece jacket, so I look like I know a little bit about Festool.

I asked the guy if they had any Sipo tenons in stock.  His eyebrows raised up and he said "what is that?"  I told him that they are the exterior Domino

tenons.  His response to me was "Oh no, Festool doesn't make a Domino tenon for exterior use, the Domino machine is for interior furniture."

So I politely stated that Festool does make a exterior tenon and they are called Sipo that I have the Domino machine and the catalog has them in

different sizes.  He calls out to another salesman "Hey Jerry, this guy says that Festool makes an exterior domino tenon."  SO, Jerry yells back

"No they don't, the tenons they make are for indoor applications."  So I asked if they had a catalog handy.  Jerry behind the counter says "We have one,

let me show you."  Great I said, this will be fun.    Jerry opens up the catalog and said "No sh##, Neil, Festool makes a exterior tenon." 

Then they wanted to order them for me and said it would take a week or so to get them because they only order special order items at the end of the

week.  I didn't have the heart to let them know I could have them in 2-3 days from a FOG dealer.  I politely declined the offer. 

I got other stories about this store, but this one sticks with me the most because now they don't ask me if I need help anymore when I'm checking out

the Festool display. 

Eric 

 

[Kodi Crescent]

I had an encounter at the local daft store where a guy was buying a TS 55REQ.  I asked the clerk if you could buy the saw without the rail.

He said you couldn't.  Or you could, but it would be the same price as with the rail, and he just didn't understand why I wouldn't want the rail when the saw needed it and it came with the rail for "free". 

I didn't think it was my place to correct him, especially when he was in the middle of completing a Festool sale with someone else.