I would like to provide feedback regarding my recent experience attempting to purchase this product as followup to my initial report:
https://www.festoolownersgroup.com/...arm-from-rts-engineering-initial-impressions/
This is not a "personal dispute" and there is nothing to resolve offline. I am a customer, Festool owner, and contributing member of the FOG, and RTS Engineering is a retailer. There is a recent thread titled "Festool Customer Service Sucks". That is really not my posting style, but many threads are on this forum regarding Festool and other products that discuss customer support, product defect, and customer satisfaction issues. I would like to think that when I buy a product then respectfully provide such feedback, I will not be attacked personally by the manufacturer complete with name calling. Actually, I do not mind the name calling as long as I then have the opportunity to back what I say with supporting documentation.
Anyhow, the return shipment of the Prometheus from UPS arrived yesterday afternoon. At the time, I was in the shop making a box-crate for the Festool boom arm that I took down back in late March. It just sold on ebay.
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I was very much looking forward to this arrival given the difficulties and delays and the fact that it had been a little over a month since the defective boom arm first arrived and several weeks since I returned it for repair. Instead of unloading the box, the driver had me come to the truck to see the box and let me know he needed to return it. This is what I was shown:
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I contacted the manufacturer, provided the pictures, and I suggested that it seemed that the box was again not really well constructed. The feedback I received was that the box was purely cosmetic, and the internal framing was even stronger than the crate I made entirely with 3/4 inch thick plywood (at my expense) to return the boom arm after it first arrived then developed a sag shortly after it was mounted before it could be used. I was told the end caps locked it in position so well that the caliber of the damage was indicative of the box falling off the truck at highway speed. This was all based on the pictures I sent. My own opinion is that perhaps the box fell apart, at least in part, because it was made out of 2 very flimsy cardboard boxes taped together and it was very poorly boxed again. My own opinion is that if this boom arm were both well-constructed and boxed better, I would not have needed to use a Dremel before I could mount it and it may have not then developed a sag. My own opinion is that if this time if it were boxed better, it may have been fine, and I would now have a boom arm. Maybe the boom arm was Ok and it was just the box that fell apart, but I did not get the chance to find out. It is an interesting subject, because woodworking involves a lot of making boxes, and I can always learn more about what makes a box strong. Maybe some of you have input. It is all in the pictures. No "he said"
Anyhow, it was another disappointment. I was informed that I could not get a replacement sent until the middle of next week at the earliest if I were to accept a certain modification due to a material inventory limitation. I was agreeable to that. I was told that a certain ship date could not be promises, and I preferred hearing that over the last time when I was told it would ship a certain day and it did not and that kept happening for over a week. The deal breaker was that I asked if it could be sent 2nd day. I was told no. UPS ground. It had been over 6 weeks since I paid $1,599. I feel that since the first boom arm was defective for whatever reason (but not my fault as I did not drop it), there was a 1 week delay in shipping the repaired boom arm where I then had to wait 10 days for the shipping (UPS ground is slow these days) and now I was going to have to wait further, I thought 2nd day shipping was the least RTS Engineering could do to make it right. Anyhow, I asked for a refund and was told my money would be refunded. Therefore, there is no dispute. I think this has been the worst customer service experience of my life. I have no boom arm, a mounting bracket ready to go for a boom arm I do not have, and am out so much time.
