The cost of staying Green

[kmhphoto]

Here in the UK my  brother-in-law just purchased a Festool SRH 45E vacuum cleaner. Cost was ?892.00 + VAT.
It bears a remarkable resemblance to the Alto Attix range that was being discussed on here a while back. In fact the only difference is that the Alto is ?625.00!
A call to Alto revealed that the reason for the similarity is "We make them for Festool"

Now I love my Festools but this is clearly a rip off

 

[dirtydeeds]

european manufactureres (just like others) often do deals, they make tools for each other / share development costs / build under licence

the renault traffic, vauxhall vivaro and the toyota are all essentially the same van and all sell for different prices and have different specs

the old OF200 router was bought in by festool ( i think from mafell)

and mafell bought the OF1010 router from festool

one of the older saabs and renaults have the same body shell (they shared the development costs)

some use direct copies others do additional machining

others simply copy and reduce the specs

 

[kmhphoto]

european manufactureres (just like others) often do deals, they make tools for each other / share development costs / build under licence

the renault traffic, vauxhall vivaro and the toyota are all essentially the same van and all sell for different prices and have different specs

the old OF200 router was bought in by festool ( i think from mafell)

and mafell bought the OF1010 router from festool

one of the older saabs and renaults have the same body shell (they shared the development costs)

some use direct copies others do additional machining

others simply copy and reduce the specs

With 4 Traffics and 2 Vivaros I know what you mean about different prices and specs for what is essentially the same BASIC machine. But these two vacuums are EXACTLY the same apart from the colour.

 

[mhch]

Here in the UK my  brother-in-law just purchased a Festool SRH 45E vacuum cleaner. Cost was ?892.00 + VAT.
It bears a remarkable resemblance to the Alto Attix range that was being discussed on here a while back. In fact the only difference is that the Alto is ?625.00!
A call to Alto revealed that the reason for the similarity is "We make them for Festool"

Now I love my Festools but this is clearly a rip off

May be the warantee plus spare part availability are not the same ?

 

[dirtydeeds]

it isnt a rip off, you have a choice of two very similar products at two prices from two different suppliers

i only see something as a rip off if you have no choice as to supplier, product and price

yes a bag of ten screws from b&q for 3 quid might well be a "rip off" when they cost 3 quid for 1000 from hafele

BUT it isnt a rip off if you get the job done today because hafele take 48 hours to deliver and its your choice to buy them from b&q

if fact those 10 screws are cheap at 10 times the price if you get the job done on time

 

[EdL]

It goes both ways though. With the Festool / Mafell router deal, Festool's version was about 1/2 the price of the Mafell.

Ed

 

[kmhphoto]

it isnt a rip off, you have a choice of two very similar products at two prices from two different suppliers

i only see something as a rip off if you have no choice as to supplier, product and price

yes a bag of ten screws from b&q for 3 quid might well be a "rip off" when they cost 3 quid for 1000 from hafele

BUT it isnt a rip off if you get the job done today because hafele take 48 hours to deliver and its your choice to buy them from b&q

if fact those 10 screws are cheap at 10 times the price if you get the job done on time

We'll have to disagree to disagree on what we call a rip off.
In this situation we have two IDENTICAL vacuums which Festool choose to charge a considerable amount more for. To me that is a rip off.

The screws from B&Q are still a rip off even if you get the job done.

 

[dirtydeeds]

buy the cheaper one, then you wont feel ripped off  :

buying 10 screws at retail is not a rip off............. its poor planning / stock control by a tradesman who should know better

 

[kmhphoto]

buy the cheaper one, then you wont feel ripped off  :

buying 10 screws at retail is not a rip off............. its poor planning / stock control by a tradesman who should know better

He has decided to take it back.

I didn't bring up the subject of screws and I'd ever step foot in a B&Q. That's what staff are for  ;D

 

[dirtydeeds]

another happy FOG customer 

 

[kmhphoto]

another happy FOG customer 

He wasn't too happy with me either - I told him to "Go Festool, you won't regret it"!

 

[dirtydeeds]

kmh, you cant expect to win every single time