No company can guarantee all their products will be defect free, whatever the cost of the product. In my opinion Skinard you've made a song and dance over this issue. The point is, once you contacted Your Dealer / Festool, they resolved the problem by giving you your money back. Presumably, you were happy with that, I think most people would be. I can't see why Festool were unable to carry out a repair on an apparently simple fault.
Also I don't understand why, if your Dewalt drills have been so good, and you think there is a inherent fault with the Festool drills, you are so keen to buy a new Festool T15 / T18.
I don't wear Festool tinted glasses when assessing their company products; they certainly aren't without their faults. However, certainly for Festool USA, I don't know of any company that strives more for excellent customer service, and time and again goes above and beyond. Well done to Shane Holland, certainly a star employee for Festool USA, in my opinion. I live in the UK, so I'm not pandering to anyone.
Troll