Pro 5 LTD Sanders $109 from CPO Outlets on eBay 19 available

[Cheese]

I guess I don't understand the angst over the sanders ending up on the aftermarket. It was about as obvious a result as could be expected. Low hanging fruit gets picked.

I agree, I could give a rats asssss about Pro 5 sanders being sold on the secondary market, that's just a part of the free market system, my knee-jerk reaction is centered around a person castigating Festool dealers for selling Pro 5 sanders at a lesser price-point than him and wanting to somehow reign in those dealers so that he can sell his goods within that short window before the balances of supply & demand start to reassert themselves. Selfish...it's all about me...

 

[Cheese]

Just because the opportunity is there, I'd like to think people would listen to their better angels.

Amen...does no one have a conscience these days?

 

[Huxleywood]

The odd thing is the eBay approach, they would have netted less than 99 bucks on the ones they sold for 109.99 and only about 7 bucks more per sander at $119.99.  Seems they could have sold these on their site for 99 within a day and they will only average netting just over $101 per sander if they sell 20 at each price, which is less than $50 "extra" profit.

 

[Cheese]

Cheese, I will respond then I think you need to be booted! 

Time's on my side pal...I've been around for awhile.  [smile]

 

[Paul G]

I guess I don't understand the angst over the sanders ending up on the aftermarket. It was about as obvious a result as could be expected. Low hanging fruit gets picked.

  And cars left unlocked and/or windows opened, have a greater chance of getting stolen. Doesn't make it any less wrong. I'm exaggerating to make a point. Just because the opportunity is there, I'd like to think people would listen to their better angels.

The major difference here is there's no crime I'm aware of, just a really poorly thought out promotion in terms of being a dream to the folks willing to flip stuff for a buck. It's like finding out BMW was running a 2/3 off sale on a particular model, of course many will jump on that and flip it for a profit. And I wouldn't disparage those who did, it's the marketplace after all and the product was purchased retail at the advertised price. Festool created this situation plain and simple, making a ton of work and little reward for conscientious dealers like yourself and handing a quick buck to the flippers. I don't envy the position you've been put in.

 

[AlexThePalex]

Just wondering what "the spirit of the promotion" is exactly, is it like Halloween where everybody who shows up in a nice costume gets a treat, or is it cold hard business?

Because I'm not used to anything else BUT cold hard business from Festool.

I am truly amazed to see how this Pro 5 circus develops here on the FOG. It's not a pretty sight, no sir.

 

[ishmerc]

I'm really p#ss at Festool ,if I order 100 of these Pro 5 sander ,I expect 100 sander ,it said pre -order .If the dealer took my order ,I expect all 100 sander to be shipped out on Nov 1st ,not 1 and have to wait for the other 99 .That's BS ,I hope whoever is in charge of this promotion read this .It that to much to ask for ,don't take the order if you can't fullfill it .

 

[magellan]

The Pro 5 Sander has stirred so much conversation on this site.  It's good to see so many people feel strongly about one product.  I was one of the folks that came late to the party and was not able to order 1 of the promotional Pro 5 sanders.  I believe I received and email one day and within a day or so they were not taking any more orders.  You might have thought with this being a PROMOTION that FESTOOL might have limited to one per person then fellows like myself could have purchased one. (before I get yelled at I did say I was late) I read some guys are complaining they did not receive all 3 of theirs yet.  So my thoughts are, I'd rather be waiting on 1 new Pro 5 from FESTOOL then to not be able to get one at all.  So consider yourselves lucky that you got your orders in for all the ones you ordered. Patients....

 

[ishmerc]

[member=10212]magellan[/member] "in the spirit of Festool promotion" and to make sure you don't miss out on this once in a lifetime offer from Festool .Give me your Paypal info so I can sent you the $20 so that you buy ones on ebay right now .

 

[magellan]

That is very nice of you but that is not necessary.  I believe I was making a point for folks to be patient.  Festool will come thru as the always do.  Your a good person for making the offer.  I would not feel right accepting it.

Thank you very much

 

[chrisrosenb]

I'm really p#ss at Festool ,if I order 100 of these Pro 5 sander ,I expect 100 sander ,it said pre -order .If the dealer took my order ,I expect all 100 sander to be shipped out on Nov 1st ,not 1 and have to wait for the other 99 .That's BS ,I hope whoever is in charge of this promotion read this .It that to much to ask for ,don't take the order if you can't fullfill it .

Pre orders is where this thing fell apart. Festool did not understand the concept of taking pre orders on a limited run item that is priced at a bargain basement price. When you do a limited run item, no matter what the price, you take pre orders before producing the item so you know how many of the item to produce. 

The limited supply of these sanders should have been divided among all dealers and went on sale on November 1st. Problem solved. 

 

[Paul G]

The Pro 5 Sander has stirred so much conversation on this site.  It's good to see so many people feel strongly about one product. 

The conversation and strong feelings have little to do with the product at this point.

 

[Kev]

Wasn't the entire idea of this sander to introduce a new wave of Festool users? If the bulk of this has gone to existing Festool users I'd rate this as a colossal failure !!!

The other elephant in the room for me uncovered with this thread is ... how does CPO get significant excess of this sander when a long term Festool dealer like Bob is left short of stock to fill orders ?

Lastly I'll throw in a dig at Festool HO (not Festool US). It's all fine and good to orchestrate an ultra low price offer for the US, but your long term loyal and traditional markets get NOTHING - rather insulting to the rest of the world don't you think? Plus it's very easy to imagine that every Festool customer is subsidising this wild attempt at grabbing extra market share in the US [mad]

 

[peter halle]

Guys,

this thread is way out of control.  I certainly realize that there are all sorts of feelings and thoughts regarding this whole sander promotion but do we really have to go after others for doing what they feel is appropriate in their life?  That was a rhetorical question.

It has been written here that readers / consumers vote with their wallet.  Don't like the eBay ads?  Don't buy.  Don't like a classified ad?  Don't buy.

Let's drop personal attacks.  But to those who post in the classifieds - we do not monitor and police the classifieds - for this exact reason.  In the past we have had some who posted there and then those posts inflamed the forum due to content or price or...

Please keep it civil.  These types of conversations that drag on and get so heated do drive participants away; and that departed member might be the one who could answer a question or help you in the future.

Respectfully,

Peter

 

[AlexThePalex]

Lastly I'll throw in a dig at Festool HO (not Festool US). It's all fine and good to orchestrate an ultra low price offer for the US, but your long term loyal and traditional markets get NOTHING - rather insulting to the rest of the world don't you think? Plus it's very easy to imagine that every Festool customer is subsidising this wild attempt at grabbing extra market share in the US [mad]

I am with you here Kev. It is rather pathetic to see how Festool bends over backwards to accommodate a rather ungrateful American crowd, while in the rest of the world the customer is completely taken for granted. Service outside USA? A joke. Promotions? Non-existent. I can see why they could not return my €8 for something I purchased wrongly due to their misinformation, they need it to subsidise their effort to penetrate the American market. $49 for a tool for which I have to pay €347, and still the crowd goes completely out of their mind!

 

[waterloomarc]

I can't believe a group of grown men (I'm sure we have a few ladies around here though) are acting this way over a flipping sander. You guys need to get out more. Relax. It was just a sale on a sander.

 

[jimbo51]

"Pre orders is where this thing fell apart. Festool did not understand the concept of taking pre orders on a limited run item that is priced at a bargain basement price. When you do a limited run item, no matter what the price, you take pre orders before producing the item so you know how many of the item to produce.

The last sentence describes the Woodpecker one (or a couple or three) time tool approach which many people on this forum do not like. No pleasing some people.

I decided on the first day not to participate in this deal. Now I just watch the discussion without having any skin in the game.

I just received an ad from a large department store offering some small kitchen appliances at up to 70% off. Since they do this on a regular basis, it is not too exciting. Maybe Festool hired a marketing person with this type of background. They did not realize that Festool has never done something like this.

In regard to the loss leader concept, I assume that the dealers end up working for less money per hour to process these orders. They do not lose money, but it is not a great deal for them. For Festool, they may actually lose a significant amount of money when they honor all the pre-oders. They will have to devote manufacturing time to produce a very low or even zero profit item. That time could have been used to produce high profit items instead. I assume that Festool tries to operate with a minimum amount of slack in their system so that absorbing the extra work would hinder some other plans.

I will note again the issue of the magazine ad. If I was someone who wanted to buy the product as advertised, I would argue that Festool must honor the ad to the extent of allowing a customer to buy at least one package. Otherwise it looks too much like bait and switch. It would be easy to argue that no one could be so stupid as to not know that there would be a huge demand. Thus it must have been deliberate which is not allowed. I am not saying Festool was deliberate in this, but they would have a hard time proving that they were not.

 

[Bob Marino]

  I will clarify a few things and then let it be. And I speak for myself, not for Festool, nor any other dealer.
"The spirit of the promotion" could also  have been stated as "intention of the promotion" but essentially is this. Festool (who exactly??) decided to do a limited run of these sanders at a ridiculously low price. The INTENTION was to offer these at a low enough price point to entice those new to Festool to make a purchase and then another purchase with the $50.00 voucher and get more into the system. This is a very common practice seen everyday from the supermarkets to Macy's. It's called a "loss leader."

It is however very uncommon for Festool USA. The last time this happened, IIRC, was about 10 years or so ago, when they offered the ETS 150/3 for about $69.00. The purpose/intention/goal at that time a well as at this time was not to offer these sanders to existing customers, giving them a sander at a way discounted price, it was to entice new customers to buy a sander at a price that was very enticing. Heck, my web guy and warehouse manager were thinking of buying one before we stopped taking orders.

Now, if you are going to say Festool should have known that the overwhelming number of buyers would be existing customers - already on the FOG, already in the dealer's email system, already in that Festool loop, I know, I know, I know and I couldn't agree more. Poor planning on Festool's part? You bet. Frustrating to dealers and customers? You bet. Lesson learned? Hope so.

The "spirit/intention" was also not to have people buy a dozen or so and resell them them at whatever price. Again, is that illegal? No of course not, but is it not the way I like to do business. Agree, or disagree, that's where I stand. When it comes to practices that I perceive as not in my customer's' best interests, I will speak up. I apologize for nothing. And to those who say, "it's just a sander promation, why get miffed about it?" in the larger scheme of things, they have a good point. They really do. But they also are  not the ones getting emails and phone calls from customers about this.

Now, at the end of the day, the bottom line, the good news is that Festool has come through with the sanders.

 

[semenza]

Attack posts will be removed.

Seth

 

[Purdog]

@bobmarino
I was one of those happy recipients of the $60 ETS/3 promotion sander's back then. In fact, Festool sent me (2) sander's, I had to pay for both however. I had never used any Festool tools at that time and thought of the brand and a "luxury" brand that would never be within my pocketbook limit. I still have that sander and use it all the time, still going strong. I would pay to replace it if anything were to go wrong without any hesitation. Well over $10k later spent on Festool, that promotion has done EXACTLY what it was intended to do. Turn a non Festool user into one.
For everyone else.
Yes I bought one of the Pro 5 sander's. I said to myself, "I don't have any need for a 5" sander like this, but for $99 and probably $150 in abrasive, what the heck"!  Do I need one, heck no. Do I want it because it's another green tool. OF COURSE. If it comes in a week, an month, who cares. Life will go on. I have a RTS400, (2) DTS's, DX93, RS 2 and a few other brands of sander's if I need to sand something.
Those of you complaining you aren't getting your "basically free sander", re-evaluate why you are getting so bent out of shape. You probably already have one or more sander's already.  Festool had an error in estimating the success of this promotion. Fault them for doing a great job in sales/marketing??  At the end of the day, those that successfully pre-ordered one will get it. Just not the first week of November. Santa comes once a year, so we know you can wait.