TSO Anodizing is very inconsistent, why?

[AstroKeith]

That said: You forum participants need to recognize that you do not fully represent the spectrum of customers needed to support companies like Woodpeckers, Lee Valley, or even FESTOOL and much smaller companies, like TSO Products LLC.

That says it all then! I translate that to mean we dont think other customers dont care about this issue, so your comments will have no effect.
I worked in manufacturing for 40 years and control of anodizing and dying was fundamental to both quality and brand image. It's not difficult - just requires attention. If a company doesnt care about this, what else dont they care about? (There are quite a few other threads on this forum concerning TSO quality/precision)

 

[camhabib]

That said: You forum participants need to recognize that you do not fully represent the spectrum of customers needed to support companies like Woodpeckers, Lee Valley, or even FESTOOL and much smaller companies, like TSO Products LLC.
But you do constitute an important (to us!) segment of our customer base.

If your goal was to diffuse the situation or win over customers, this post did not accomplish that in the slightest. I can’t speak for anyone else but that post just lost you some business from at the very least me.

 

[camhabib]

It's not difficult - just requires attention. If a company doesnt care about this, what else dont they care about? (There are quite a few other threads on this forum concerning TSO quality/precision)

This 100%. Matching anodizing color is absolutely without question possible, even across materials. It just costs money to do (like most things in life). Not doing so begs the question, as is stated above, where else are you trying to save money?

 

[peter halle]

Everyone, while I realize that debate can be useful, debate needs to continue along a civil tone.

Please.

Peter

 

[camhabib]

Just to say:

About a month ago I purchased a Veritas block plane from Lee Valley. It arrived in pristine condition except for the smallest tooling mark on the top of the body. I almost didn’t even, but posted on social media just curious if it was normal. I had an email from the director of customer service in my inbox the next day apologizing profusely for not having lived up to their own standards. They had someone in the warehouse go through and open up a box, find a model example of one, and overnighted it me, telling me I could even use the one I had if I needed to while I wait. The director followed up after delivery to make sure it had arrived, that I was happy, and to apologize again.

Contrast that with the above reply from TSO.

 

[Ken Nagrod]

Having purchased many Woodpeckers tools for myself and others over many years, variations in the red anodizing on the same tool and from tool to tool were very common, even with the same tool from the same batch. While I understand how that can bother some people, they’re just functional tools to me and I only care about precision and accuracy. Whether or not people found the response from TSO Products acceptable, you did get a response, which is helpful to make your purchase and return decision. Some companies you never even hear from and are left wondering.

 

[Cheese]

My suggestion is really simple, if the naysayers in this thread are so sure that color matching anodized parts is so easy peasy, then I'd suggest they approach the anodizers that actually do the work and offer their obvious expertise and magic solution to the anodization industry for a commensurate price. I'm sure that if their "idea and solution" is valid, there'd be a six figure sum offered to them as this has only been an issue for...waiting for it...close to 80 years.

Tune in next week when some FOG members will explain in very simple terms, the sublimation of atomic particles.

 

[Dr. P. Venkman]

That says it all then! I translate that to mean we dont think other customers dont care about this issue, so your comments will have no effect.

I don’t think that’s exactly what he’s saying, but if so, is it that unreasonable?

I have no idea how many customers TSO has or how many customers they have on FOG, but it would be a little silly to take orders from 0.01% of your customer base on an issue when you believe the other 99.99% doesn’t care.

If they thought variation in the blue anodized aluminum they use was harming sales, they would need to decide how to respond. It sounds like they either don’t think that or they believe it’s not worth the cost to fix it.

I don’t think a response along the lines of “we understand some of you prefer it when all the blue things arranged in the kaizen foam in your custom workbench drawer match exactly, but that’s not an achievable result without significantly raising prices and alienating the majority of our customers” isn’t out of line.

Which is essentially what he just said. This group is a pretty specific minority, and even among this group, only a subset takes issue with the anodizing. He would know way better than us if they have received similar feedback from elsewhere.

control of anodizing and dying was fundamental to both quality and brand image.

I think they’ve got the quality of their tools under control, at least to whatever extent anodizing coloration affects it.

As for their brand management, I’m not sure you and I should care. That’s their problem.

TSO is one of a few companies that would even remotely listen to a group as small as this. That they don’t take our advice every time is no great insult or injustice.

There have been a number of critical posts about TSO recently (including one that I made off the top of my head), so I’ll share a TSO story from a few years ago:

I bought a TSO product, and some time later (I really don’t remember how long, but it definitely wasn’t just a few weeks), I got an unsolicited envelope in the mail. It contained a letter and a part. The letter said, essentially “we improved the way the product you purchased works, so here’s the new part to make yours function like the new and improved version.”

 

[Cheese]

I got an unsolicited envelope in the mail. It contained a letter and a part. The letter said, essentially “we improved the way the product you purchased works, so here’s the new part to make yours function like the new and improved version.”

Ya, well that's great...but did the color of the anodization match the color of the original part?

 

[luvmytoolz]

I really don't get all the hand wringing over variations in anodising, and I think it's being unnecessarily harsh and unreasonable on TSO for not achieving perfect colour matches on different batches and products. It's blue, not Pantone #2196F3.

Also to add, the original 1400mm and 800mm guide rails I got from Festool many years ago came in a sort of bronze anodised finish, and they weren't a perfect colour match either, and at the time they were greatly more expensive than any of the TSO offerings.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

Ya, well that's great...but did the color of the anodization match the color of the original part?

Oh damn........

 

[camhabib]

There have been a number of critical posts about TSO recently

If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck…

To be clear, caring that your anodizing colors match, especially when it doesn’t impact performance in the slightest, is almost as silly as thinking they can’t match and referencing a building company blog post as a source. And they are under no obligation to pander to anyone’s request, be it 0.1% or 100% of their customer base. But communities are small, often smaller than most realize, and bad customer service is a stench that is hard to ignore once you smell it. Saying that a customer’s opinion is insignificant, either directly or by inference, is certainly giving a bad smell to me.

 

[Dr. P. Venkman]

Ya, well that's great...but did the color of the anodization match the color of the original part?

Stainless, so they got lucky.

 

[Cheese]

So where is this bad customer stench coming from...I buss my dishes nightly.

 

[peter halle]

It seems that this thread is now going away from the original topic of shades of blue to comparing degrees of odor, so in the interest of stopping further stench, I will be using my can of moderator magical deodorizer (not available at Amazon) which will magically lock this thread once I locate that can that has been moved by the new forum software.


P. Halle - Moserator