Story time!
The only place in Norway to buy Festool from is at a store called Motek. They're the only retailer, so they jack the prices up, and if you buy a lot, you get a discount. I believe Norway is the most expensive country to buy Festool in, if you're buying at the retail prices.
So for a long time, I was thinking that if I was going to buy festool, it would be from Denmark. It's relatively short trip, being that I live in Oslo. But then I investigated further. I'm 17 and I work in a company called AF Group. AF is the third largest civil engineering and construction company in Norway. I haven't seen a single festool tool until recently, so I spoke with the guys at work if they knew if they could help me get some festool equipment at discounted prices. They told me I would need me to speak with some people higher up in the ranks and have them buy it for me, so they just told me buy from Denmark to avoid the hassle.
Then the Norwegian krone sank in value relative to the Danish krone. The danish krone was 28% more expensive than the Norwegian krone at the moment I was going to place an order, so I backed out.
A year ago, my father and I had made an account with Motek, and because my father has his own firm, we were able to get 18% after some negotiation. This however, was still more expensive than Denmark after shipping+VAT. Motek assured me this was the best discount they were able to provide. But I decided to try again, so I called Motek and told them I worked in AF, and I had two friends that actually work in Motek. I were able to get a discount at 35%. I was so happy.
So I decided to go big! [big grin] I bought the Rotex 150 with handle and various brilliant grits (they didn't have granat paper), Domino 500 (they don't sell the 700 version) with accesories, a CTL26 with 36mm vacuum set, two quick-clamps and an MFT replacement top. My mother helped pay 50% of the Rotex as a christmas gift, the rest I paid with my pay from AF.
When I was about to leave, they asked me: "Do you want this?", and pointed at a metal systainer storage cart. I laughed at them and replied: "I'm not going to spend a penny more! Haha!", but followed it quickly up with "Wait, do you mean for free?". They smiled and said: "Yeah, you know there's a small problem with one of the buttons, so you have to push a little harder, but yeah, it's a christmas gift!". I told them heck yeah I'll take it. I later found out they sell it for 6000NOK (800$). They even helped me set it up with the systainers I bought. I was so happy [smile]
My next festool purchase aims for the LR32 system with OF1400, RO90, and possibly CSX with accesories.
