TCL3 made in china

[Jesse Cloud]

[member=57586]six-point socket[/member] said it absolutely best. Especially his last paragraph. Thank you for taking the time to type all that. I hope more members read your reply to this thread.

I agree.  Looks like this thread is getting way overheated.  Wish I had written my comment above more circumspectly.

I think the bottom line is that Festool should remain mindful that we buy them for quality.  Compromises have to be made, but not just to make the product a little cheaper.

 

[Staniam]

Personally, if a product is well made, high quality and works well for its intended purpose, I will purchase it. Regardless of brand or country of origin. I would prefer to buy American and I often think about that every time I purchase a Festool item or Bosch item. But, I purchase items that allow me to do what I want in the best way I can. Maybe I'm being ignorant but, the country label doesn't even come into play.

 

[Kev]

I feel there's several issues going on here and they're becoming a little too interwoven.

If you as a consumer choose to buy Brand X for what you currently know and/or believe about the brand, but find out that their business has changed in a way you don't respect .. you may feel a little cheated.

A good example recently here in Oz is tinned tuna .. I thought I was buying a sustainably fished brand - but they changed their sourcing and that did tick me off a bit.

Trying to make your purchase and investment decisions based on ethical and moral grounds is 100% OK, quality doesn't need to be at the core of this issue, but an assumed quality drop can be understandable based on recent history - particularly in the power tool world where brands gave moved production to China and we simply get less for less.

This would never have come up as a "scandal" if Festool had communicated what was changing up front in a way we could reasonably understand, accept and use to make future decisions. Sure we'd have discussed it - but it would have been very different.

On the exploited workers in China .. that's a very political issue and there's more than a choice at the retail point involved. Standards of living and working conditions will always be an issue, always have been ... bring on a Star Trek future eh?

When I think of purchasing non local product, my concern is that the money flows out of my local economy ... gone forever!

 

[Stephen B]

[size=13pt]Whilst I am/would be disappointed, for many of the reasons posted here, if Festool off-shored; be mindful that China is rapidly developing as a middle class country and consequently some manufacturers are now shifting from Chinese labour supplies to those available in Africa.

Exploitative practices by unscrupulous employers are not only a third world problem. In Australia recently we have had a 7 Eleven scandle regarding employee conditions and payments.
____________________

Is this an American, European or Australian city? No.

[attachimg=1]

 

[Wuffles]

I won't comment on buggy O/S's as that's more likely sourced via India.

Which one is that?

 

[semenza]

  Seems like this has really meandered into a general topic on China and the world economy. Which I am sure has been rehashed a bazillion times on the internet.

  I am curious as to whether or not the OP, [member=58998]wmoc[/member] , has any additional comments on how the charger is working out?

Seth

 

[Rob in Vancouver]

Funny Photoshop image

Have you been reading about the Volkswagen, Audi and Porche issues as it relates to the US Department of Transportation? 
There is a reason why German diesel cars are no longer being sold in North America. 

SO much for superior German manufacturing and engineering.  They had to lie to get their cars to pass emission testing.....

Will you post a photoshop image of that fiasco ??

 

[wmoc]

The charger works fine. My concern is not with the charger, its with what else will be made in china. Its only a circuit board in a plastic housing. The actual tool is my concern.

 

[Staniam]

The charger works fine. My concern is not with the charger, its with what else will be made in china. Its only a circuit board in a plastic housing. The actual tool is my concern.

So if it came out that all Festool products were actually being made in China, you would get rid of them? Again, put as simply as possible, if a product is superior and of quality build, why does it matter what country it was made in? If it's a good product, buy it, if it's not, don't. It's like people buying Lays potatoe chips instead of grocery store brand just because of the name.

 

[Kev]

The charger works fine. My concern is not with the charger, its with what else will be made in china. Its only a circuit board in a plastic housing. The actual tool is my concern.

So if it came out that all Festool products were actually being made in China, you would get rid of them? Again, put as simply as possible, if a product is superior and of quality build, why does it matter what country it was made in? If it's a good product, buy it, if it's not, don't. It's like people buying Lays potatoe chips instead of grocery store brand just because of the name.

[member=41633]Staniam[/member]
You need to understand that people may have reasons for a particular choice other than simply quality. It can matter to people for any number of ethical, moral, political, emotional, etc reasons.

 

[Kev]

The charger works fine. My concern is not with the charger, its with what else will be made in china. Its only a circuit board in a plastic housing. The actual tool is my concern.

Is your concern quality, rational price, or something more fundamental? A robust quality control process and maintaining Festool's current warranty offering would probably maintain the quality.

As Metabo builds more of it's stuff in China I can notice a distinct difference in the features and finish of the tools based on their source. It may seem trivial, but the cordless SCMS from China (although well priced) has a worthless DC bag and the screw attachments for the bed extensions are very poor (haven't had the tool long enough to make further observations).

My biggest concern would be how Festool manages the sourcing and quality of foreign components generally ... to me whether my money goes offshore to Germany or offshore to China makes little difference ... in fact China tends to buy a lot of raw materials from Oz, so in someways ... [wink]

 

[Staniam]

The charger works fine. My concern is not with the charger, its with what else will be made in china. Its only a circuit board in a plastic housing. The actual tool is my concern.

So if it came out that all Festool products were actually being made in China, you would get rid of them? Again, put as simply as possible, if a product is superior and of quality build, why does it matter what country it was made in? If it's a good product, buy it, if it's not, don't. It's like people buying Lays potatoe chips instead of grocery store brand just because of the name.

[member=41633]Staniam[/member]
You need to understand that people may have reasons for a particular choice other than simply quality. It can matter to people for any number of ethical, moral, political, emotional, etc reasons.

[member=13058]Kev[/member] I do understand. It's pretty obvious there can be a multitude of reasons. I'm simply trying to further understand the details of some of these reasons as some are very vague.

 

[Kev]

[member=13058]Kev[/member] I do understand. It's pretty obvious there can be a multitude of reasons. I'm simply trying to further understand the details of some of these reasons as some are very vague.

[member=41633]Staniam[/member] agree .. me too [smile]

 

[Ijustlovequality]

I will not buy a festool if it has anything other than made in Germany. They can say made to festool specifications, and the quality may start out the same, but it will die off. There are already heaps of basic crap tool makers. Festool will find itself in a market that it simply does not have the range of tools to compete in.