MAJOR problems with packaging quality

[WarnerConstCo.]

Yeah well those other big things you mentioned were probably delivered freight and the guy probably had a pallet jack and a lift gate.

 

[greg mann]

Without disparaging anyone in particular there are online dealers and there are online dealers. Over all the time I have been involved in this forum I cannot recall anyone getting a damaged item from Bob Marino or Tom Bellemare. It may have happened on occasion but I certainly know it must be rare. Why? Because they are committed to doing a quality job and understand the importance of protecting his customer from the inevitable.

When I was in Lebanon and everyone was marvelling at the wall of Sysports, Brian remarked that he had UPS to thank for that as it was essentially made up of returns.

 

[nclemmons]

I had a similar experience with Amazon and shipping a Sysport..........

.....Lesson learned - Sysports don't ship.  Festool does a lousy job packaging them for shipment, so I'd advise anyone to buy local on those items......

neil

You must have missed Shane's earlier post.

...Care has to be taken for how these are packaged and shipped from the dealer. We ship them to dealers on pallets, not individually. I'm surprised UPS/Fedex would even accept these due to the weight and size....

It's not Festool's fault if Amazon doesn't package them correctly.

I did miss Shane's post. 

Just curious, because I ordered a single Sysport from Woodcraft, had to wait and it arrived fine at the store.  For a single dealer order, I assume Festool ships a Sysport on a pallet as well.

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

To the best of my knowledge, every Sysport we ship is shipped LTL on a pallet. None are shipping off a pallet or via UPS/Fedex. The OP is a perfect example of why we don't.

 

[GreenGA]

Really?  That's great.  [smile]

I'll have Matthew call and speak with someone about a box.

Thanks!

An aside...  This sounds exactly like McIntosh Labs.

If you need to return any of their stereo components and no longer have the original boxes, they will send you a box.  People that purchase McIntosh generally save all boxes.  In fact, when selling equipment on the used market, the selling price is affected without the original box. [embarassed]

But I digress.

One thing I have not noticed during this discussion is return packaging.

We must return our Kapex to Indiana for warranty work.  My stomach is in knots getting it there in one piece.  [crying]

Gary, if you need to return a Kapex for repair, please contact the service department. They can send you a box for shipping if needed I believe. As for UPS and how they handle it, that's why you should always insure your packages, Festool or otherwise.

 

[plaidma1]

This whole thread is why I recommend that everyone do what I did:  move to within fifteen miles of Lebanon, IN.  No worries about repair work on the Kapex from here!

 

[JimRay]

And if a dealer sells heavy stuff online it's his duty to see to that the packaging is okay and it's his duty to pick a reliable company when shipping.

Kind regards
Henrik

In my opinion, it doesn't matter whether it is heavy or light, fragile or unbreakable, the shipper has a responsibility to make every effort to get it to the customer in good condition. Finding retailers that understand that is the real challenge.

Jim Ray

 

[jacko9]

I received my Sys-Port from Festool and I can't believe how well it was packaged!  I haven't had any issues with any items shipped from Festool or from their distributors.

 

[AlexThePalex]

I REALLY don't understand what Festool has got to do with this.

Festool has a responsability to deliver their products in pristine condition to their dealers. What happens from there on is the responsability of the dealers.

If a dealer decides to offer to ship any of the items they sell, it is their sole responsability to make sure packaging is strong enough to withstand the stress of transport. And, secondary, of the delivery company to do this with a certain reasonable quality standard. But it's the seller who chooses a delivery company so that's primarily also their responsability.

So if a product doesn't reach you in good condition, take it up with the company that sold it to you. Don't blame Festool.

I am sure that Festool USA will take such matters at heart so it is of course perfectly OK to inform them about a matter like this, but blaming them for it is something else. I am sure Festool USA will have a good conversation with any dealers who treat their customers like this.

 

[PeterK]

Here in the US, some products are shipped by the independant dealer and some are drop shipped directly from Festool USA. As I understand it, it is lower cost to the dealer to ship out of their stock than to order and drop ship from Festool but items like a Sysport are probably not a big mover for a dealer so far less likely to stock.

 

[ghostofhoward]

I have had two very different experiences in the last three weeks with package's from amazon.The first was a box of 1-3/4" roofing nails.I could not find them locally and finally ordered them from amazon,they arrived in a flimsy box with no padding or filler in horrendous condition,smashed and unusable.I returned them and was shipped another box which arrived in only slightly better condition.Now this week I ordered two 16 oz hammers,they arrived in a box big enough to hold 150 hammers,wrapped with bubble wrap an inch thick and the box itself packed full of the huge bubble strips.needless to say they were in no way damaged.The nail order was fullfilled by amazon but the nail order by a different co.I buy festool from a variety of places,Bob always seems to pack things up really nice.Festool cpo and amazon do a good job as well.

 

[LittleJohnny]

I just received a fairly large order (mft, domino, t18, 1010, couple of rail kits) from Bob Marino and everything was incredibly packaged and arrived in pristine condition.

 

[BMH]

Doesn't seem to me that there is a Major packaging quality problem. You are dealing with the wrong online retailer. You have a list of top notch retailers in this thread, use them and your problems will go away.

Simple!

 

[Mahogany Man]

I couldn't leave this alone,
I recently purchased $3000.00 worth of new Festool before the price increase, I was going to buy it in the next few months, so why not save a little cash now .
I don't have a local retailer, so I have to order online.
It came from a couple of different dealers, due to the fact that I ended up needing some of it by the weekend.
Everything was packaged by both dealers perfectly, systainers wrapped in tons of bubble wrap, heavy shipping boxes!

Here's where the problems start,

Monday :
OF 2200 arrives with the collet wrench loose in systainer, it destroys the photo placard on the top of the systainer, and nicks the router all to heck.
Not the end of the world, router will get marked up worse than that, placard is a little upsetting though.

Thursday :
LR32SYS shows up making all kinds of noise in box, packaged exceptionally well.
35mm cutter loose in systainer, carbide chipped off cutter, and both guide rod graduations are chipped off in places-unreadable!
Top photo placard really destroyed on this one!  Plastic pieces nicked and marked up as well.

I hope the rest of the stuff on it's way makes it OK!!

This is not the dealers fault in my mind at all,
Festool needs to secure theses small parts in the systainers better for shipping.
They could put the cutter in a box, wrap it in some paper wrap... whatever, if it adds a couple bucks to the total cost I don't care, I would rather
not have to deal with the headache of shipping this back!!! And now I can't even use it this weekend!!

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with Systainers holding stuff like it's supposed to, under normal transportation they work great, but,
we all know the shippers toss this stuff around like beach balls!

I personally ship alloy racing cylinder heads from my Business, back and forth vis UPS everyday of the week, and have learned over the years that it must packed like it is going to fall from the Empire State building and still be usable!!!
The shippers are not responsible for anything not packaged properly!
John

 

 

[JimRay]

This is not the dealers fault in my mind at all,
Festool needs to secure theses small parts in the systainers better for shipping.
They could put the cutter in a box, wrap it in some paper wrap... whatever, if it adds a couple bucks to the total cost I don't care, I would rather
not have to deal with the headache of shipping this back!!! And now I can't even use it this weekend!!

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with Systainers holding stuff like it's supposed to, under normal transportation they work great, but,
we all know the shippers toss this stuff around like beach balls!

I personally ship alloy racing cylinder heads from my Business, back and forth vis UPS everyday of the week, and have learned over the years that it must packed like it is going to fall from the Empire State building and still be usable!!!
The shippers are not responsible for anything not packaged properly!
John

Festool Dealers know how the tools are packed within the Systainer. Those serious about selling the tools remove all the parts like wrenches, etc, wrap them in bubble wrap and even put some extra bubble wrap in the Systainer to make sure everything stays put. Festool does a fine job getting tools to the dealers (or at least they did when I was a dealer). The packaging is designed to protect the tool on the job site, not against all the evils that can befall it when it is shipped. Users would all be complaining about the unnecessary amount of packaging Festool used if the packaging were designed to protect against all the abuse the carrier can mete out. These aren't Big-box tools we are talking about, with margins so small that the only hope of a profit is to sell enough to qualify for an annual rebate. Festool provides adequate margin for a dealer to take the time to prepare the product for a safe journey.

Jim Ray

 

[hhh]

==> The cardboard box it came in was totally chewed up. What was painfully obvious is that it was hardly UPS' fault: the way the tool is packed, the saw is turned at 45% to its base, and they put some styrofoam corner blocks around the saw head. However, the opposing corners had no support, and -- not surprisingly -- the thin cardboard could not stand up to being loaded and unloaded multiple times. I was lucky that time; although the box was quite mangled, the saw itself seemed to arrive intact and complete.

My kapex was also messed-up on delivery and had to be replaced.  The exterior of the box showed no damage, but the internal padding was not sufficient for transport.  I own about 20 FT tools (every sander, most drills, several routers, jigsaws, plus misc other stuff), but the Kapex was the only one damaged in transit.