Pricing on Festool USA website taken down?

[Aegwyn11]

I was talking with a coworker about some Festool stuff and noticed that all prices on the Fes USA website seem to be gone, replaced with "see dealer for price". Is it like this for everyone? If so, why'd Festool remove pricing?

 

[sw1211]

I just looked at the Domino and the price was there.

 

[ForumMFG]

I don't know why they would take the pricing down.  Everyone uses the same price so it's not like they can hide anything.  I just checked the site out and the pricing was up.

 

[Brice Burrell]

I just looked and the price on the couple of items I checked was removed. Seems odd, I'm trying not read too much into this, maybe Shane can comment.

 

[sw1211]

Maybe they're getting ready to enter some new lowered prices.  ;D

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

The Festool USA website shows US pricing only if it believes the visitor is from the US.  This is done using a technology called geolocation which uses your internet (IP) address to attempt to resolve it to a geographic location.   These are the first reports that I have heard of where US visitors are not seeing pricing.  Nothing has been changed with regard to this functionality in some time so it should be functioning just as it has for months now.  I can take a look to see if I see any issues.

I would be interested to know if Brice and Aegwyn have seen pricing in other relatively recent visits to the site.  Please accept my apologies for the issues. You can also email me directly if you'd prefer.

 

[Rick Christopherson]

I just looked and the price on the couple of items I checked was removed. Seems odd, I'm trying not read too much into this, maybe Shane can comment.

The Festool USA website shows US pricing only if it believes the visitor is from the US. 

I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!

Brice is an alien!!!!

This explains so much!!!!!!!!  ;D ;D

 

[Brice Burrell]

Shane, what seemed odd to my was I went to the Festool USA site through my bookmark and for some reason it sent me to the international site, the one with the choose your country instead of the Festool USA homepage. This was the first and only time this has happened. I've definitely seen the prices recently.  

Rick, you're blowing my cover.  

 

[AlexThePalex]

I so thouroughly hate geolocation. It's the technological incorporation of discrimination on the internet.

Now why oh why would Festool want to prevent me as a Dutchman to see what their tools cost in America?

And is it justified that they feel the need to hide that information from me?

No.

 

[justinmcf]

i agree with you alex, why does festool need to hide the prices from the rest of the world?
i already know that i pay almost double the U.S. prices.
do they really think we are that stupid???
credibility is sinking real fast........
just show the prices festool.

 

[Rick Christopherson]

Now why oh why would Festool want to prevent me as a Dutchman to see what their tools cost in America?

I agree. The conspiracy theorists across the world must unite to prevent such a blatant disregard to information exchange. How dare they assume that the typical user of the U.S. website would be interested in U.S. pricing. It is even more ridiculous for them to assume that a Dutchman would be interested in Dutch pricing. Oh the audacity of them!

Ya Know, come to think of it, I am pretty sure that Festool USA began their operations in the U.S. the day after Kennedy was assassinated. Clearly, Festool had to be responsible for his death, right?  The conspiracies just seem to grow every day. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Yuuuuup, my posting was pretty ridiculous, wasn't it? But if you give it a little thought, yours was even more ridiculous.

 

[Daniel_n]

Not quite sure I understood you correctly Rick, but it is my understanding that an absence of this "geolocation" feature does not in any way prevent a dutch customer from accessing the dutch festool website to see the prices for festool tools in Holland?

I am from Sweden, and I of course access the Swedish festool website for festool prices (well that is, if I didn't already know them by heart ). But that doesn't mean that I am not interested in viewing the prices of festool tools in the US. To  buy some festool goodies (at lower prices) when I am on the other side of the pond is a nice bonus to a pleasant trip - and I like to make sure I know what to buy and at what price before I cross the pond.

 

[AlexThePalex]

Yuuuuup, my posting was pretty ridiculous, wasn't it? But if you give it a little thought, yours was even more ridiculous.

Your sarcasm is completely misplaced Rick. I can go to the Dutch Festool site and look at the prices in my country. I can look at the English website and look at the prices in England. I can look at the  Australian website and look at the prices in Australia. I can look at the prices in Germany.

So tell me, Rick, why would the American website suddenly by different?

You do know that you need to incorporate an extra layer of software to make geolocation work? Not all that complicated, but it does need a bit more work than leaving it out. Furthermore, people here on the FOG have complained about it before, that it didn't work as desired.

Next to that, we are talking on an American forum here, aren't we? I read posts of 80% Americans here (don't know if I'm right about the exact number, but a majority here is American). Now if I want to know what I'm talking about with Americans, isn't it only normal that I could check information out on the American Festool site? For instance, you get quite a toned down spectrum of products in the States compared to Europe and Australia. If I, as a foreigner' want to get an idea of the 'American Festool Experience', to call it like that, then isn't it only logical wanting to understand what you guys pay for it too?

What I also want to add is that, as a Dutchman, geolocation bothers me a whole lot in my general internet experience. Now this is something that most Americans might not fully appreciate since, in my experience 99,9% of Americans is only interested in the English language and  American based websites in general so any form of geolocation would only refer you to your place of interest. Because English is all around. Dutch, on the other hand is only spoken by roughly 25 million people instead of English, with over 500 million native speakers and a good 2 billion who learned it later in life.

So as a result, Dutch people have learned to look outside their own language field and we generally get at least one but mostly 2 or 3 foreign languages in school. I myself speak 4 languages fluently (Dutch, English, German, French) and can read 2 dead ones (Latin, ancient Greek). As a result I am not limited on the internet to the scope of my own language but tend to visit A LOT of non-Dutch websites. The vast majority of them actually are non-Dutch. And everywhere I go I am haunted by geolocation. Which is actually very restricting because foreign websites I visit constantly want to refer me back to some crappy Dutch version of the site, hide information for me (like FestoolUsa), or block me all together. Which just totally sucks.

For instance, I was used to Google around in English until they suddenly decided to use geolocation and I was forced to always use Google in Dutch, which I didn't want to, I prefer English. Same for eBay, that for a while would also refer me back to eBay.nl instead of eBay.com so I couldn't see international offers. Both sites changed back luckily.  

Or I visit some website on the other side of the planet and they tell me some hot girls (with scantily clad pics) want a hot date with me in My city in The Netherlands. Which is complete baloney because it isn't that big and if the were living here I'd know them already.
 
Soooo ....... in short Rick, your post sure was ridiculous, and NO, mine WASN'T.

I don't understand why you have to start ranting about conspiracy theories here. It sounds a bit childish, to be honest. Oh my god, somebody mentions it's strange we can't see the prices on a website. Let's bring in JFK, Roswell, chemtrails, whatever you got and place me in the conspiracy nut category.

Furthermore, I surely don't understand why your post needs to be so sarcastic and in the form of a personal attack. If you got something against what I am saying, please discuss this in a normal an civilised manner. I know I did and I wasn't attacking anyone personally. Now I do know you have a deep affiliation with Festool writing manuals and all for them, but that doesn't warrant responding in such a tone.

I do remember some other people reacting in the same way in a certain other post I made here with a form of criticism, is this the fashion here? I thought such attitudes were more at place on websites like Digg or 4chan, not here. I thought we could discuss stuff here in a grown up and civilised manner.

Alex.

 

[ForumMFG]

Alex,

You should be able to feel comfortable here and ask any question you wish.  I do.

I don't think Festool would try to hide the price of their products "just because they don't want you to see the price".  If they really are hiding the prices then I don't think we should call it "Hiding".  There must be another good reason for it.  I got the sense that you took defense because you feel as if Festool may be offering the same tools you bought a little cheaper in America.  I was told by someone at Festool that you could go to the UK website and just convert the price of the VAC-SYS to see how much it's going to be offered in the US.  So with that said, I would guess Festool offers the same price on their products for everyone.  Thats my assumption, I don't know for sure.

FYI,  I feel that there is no reason to attack anyone here.  A simple question like "What did you really mean in your question" would have been a better way to go.

-Dave

 

[AlexThePalex]

I got the sense that you took defense because you feel as if Festool may be offering the same tools you bought a little cheaper in America. 

Certainly not for that reason Dave. I know that everything in America is generally cheaper because the retail prices are calculated differently because of the difference in tax system.

I do think that one of the possible reasons that Festool might want to hide their prices for international visitors is that people might want to try and order their tools in America and ship them over to other countries. And we do know that that's something Festool doesn't like, free trade and all.

Btw, I myself wouldn't be interested in ordering tools in the States. I got no use for 110 volt machines on our 240 grid. All I'm interested in is getting as much information possible without (weird) imposed restrictions.

 

[Rob Z]

I didn't know about this geolocation software (but I don't know much about computers  ??? ).

Justin, Alex, and Daniel...FWIW, while conversing with internet friends from Europe and Australia, I have looked at prices on the websites in each of your countries, then converted them to US dollars, just out of curiosity and for comparison. I never encountered any blocking of my attempts to log on to sites in  your respective countries.  

It sounds like this blocking strategy is one-way...stopping people from outside the US from seeing our website but not the reverse.

 

[ForumMFG]

I'm sure Festool does not like it when tools are purchased oversea's and what-not but it's not against their policy.  If you buy a tool from Europe and bring it back to the states, the warrenty is still good for 3 years and you can have it serviced in the states.  The only problem is that Festool USA does not stock parts for the products that are designed to be used in Europe and such so it will take twice as long to fix it because they have to order the parts.  All of this information was confirmed by Festool USA.

 

[Aegwyn11]

WOW this spawned a whole huge string didn't it. In any case, prices are showing up for me again now just fine.

FYI, I use Google Chrome...didn't try it on Firefox or IE last night before I left work so I'm not sure if those were working or not...

 

[EcoFurniture]

I think it started when Festool became more popular in Canada. Because of the exchange rate and other  border crossing fees, the Canadian pricing has to be higher then the one in the states. For example: a Kapex will sell for $1300 in the USA, in Canada we have to peel out $1800. That is a HUGE difference! Therefore, many potential clients will cross the border and buy in the states. I don't blame them!
So, to protect their Canadian retailers they had to hide the pricing..... From a business point of view I totally understand... from a consumer point of view I don't....

 

[Brice Burrell]

I think it started when Festool became more popular in Canada. Because of the exchange rate and other  border crossing fees, the Canadian pricing has to be higher then the one in the states. For example: a Kapex will sell for $1300 in the USA, in Canada we have to peel out $1800. That is a HUGE difference! Therefore, many potential clients will cross the border and buy in the states. I don't blame them!
So, to protect their Canadian retailers they had to hide the pricing..... From a business point of view I totally understand... from a consumer point of view I don't....

I believe Eco is right, this is an issue with US and Canadian pricing. Festool USA's site used to be for both US and Canadian users, now Canada has it's own Festool site. For years there was only one Festool retailer in Canada, Festool USA (read Festool N. America) is still trying to establish a strong Canadian dealership network. This is likely the reason for this policy of not showing the pricing.