Why is the Tool Nut such a terrible place to buy festool?

[HighlandMarine]

I’ve tried twice now to order a TS55f, OF1400, MW1000, and accessories… The order goes to on hold status, and they hang on to my money until I call and complain, and they blame some random third party company for cancelling my order but won’t tell me who it is. Hours of operation are limited, and the last person I spoke with was quite rude. Can someone please recommend a better dealer for Festool? Tool Nut shouldn’t even have a Festool franchise imho, as their service is what I’d expect from a Hart power tools dealer.

 

[mcfal12]

Hartville Hardware.

 

[Mark Katz]

I have ordered from Tool Nut (and also Festool Products which is the same company) many times without issue. Granted, the orders were for other brands of tools and for Festool accessories and not for actual tools from Festool.

 

[Cheese]

I don’t know why your order keeps getting put on hold, that’s strange. My orders always go right thru and I’ll receive the product in 2-3 days. Maybe [member=48572]Shane Holland[/member] can provide some insight.

 

[thorp]

Hartville Hardware.

+1

 

[Packard]

Toolnut used to have a thriving walk-in trade.  They’ve cut their retail hours and seem mostly interested in their online business.

When I started woodworking, I bought all my equipment from them.  I could stop in before work or after work or on Saturday.  I’m not sure what their hours are now.  I’ve pretty much given up in them.

All their sales seem to be factory sponsored and available everywhere. I have nothing bad to say about them, but there is nothing that draws me to them either.

 

[HighlandMarine]

I don’t know why your order keeps getting put on hold, that’s strange. My orders always go right thru and I’ll receive the product in 2-3 days. Maybe [member=48572]Shane Holland[/member] can provide some insight.

They said it’s their third party fraud protection, thought it was from using PayPal, ordered with business card instead this time.. same bs. Only gave them a second chance because they had the MW1000 in stock and most others are drop ship in 3 weeks.

Thanks for the replies on Hartville. Will check them out. Cheers everyone! Happy Friday!

 

[Ron B]

I can recommend Tool Nirvana out of Chicago area.  I believe it is a small firm that still believes in customer service.  Chip is excellent and will give you great customer service. 

 

[Shane Holland]

Michael, [member=79984]HighlandMarine[/member]

I'm sorry to read about your experience ordering from us yesterday, as well as on 12/31.

When you order with a credit card, we do not collect any funds until the order ships. You may have seen an authorization on your credit card, which is a standard practice for any retailer. But, we do not hold on to any monies.

I can verify that I have looked at your orders and both were declined by our third-party fraud provider. Fraud is a serious problem for online retailers, and we are forced to use software to vet orders or run the risk of suffering huge loses from fraudulent orders. Despite partnering with one of the best fraud protection service providers available, software and systems aren't perfect and a very small number of false positives do happen. So, I completely understand your frustration when this happened. I would be frustrated too. In fact, I am frustrated, because it means we missed out on an opportunity to have you as a loyal customer.

Because fraudsters can be quite savvy, it is our policy not to disclose information about the software we use to protect our methods for reducing fraud. Ultimately, fraud hurts consumers because those losses are paid for by cardholders. It's just a crappy situation for everyone but the thieves.

I do want to take a moment to say that I work with some of the most dedicated, hard working, customer-centric people in my career. I'd like to personally apologize if you don't feel like you received superlative customer service. I'd appreciate any feedback that you would be willing to share on how we could improve.

Feel free to reach out to me directly anytime, night or day, even on weekend. Always here to help.

Shane Holland
The Tool Nut
shane@toolnut.com

Edit: fixed a typo.

 

[Muttley000]

My local store is Oak Tree Supply in Fort Wayne, IN.  Amanda will take great care of you, and you are helping a small husband and wife team that run a fabulous store, as well as a very smooth online operation where they ship all over the US.

 

[ChuckM]

If someone with a good reputation screwed up my order for a good reason or due to an honest mistake, I'd give them a second chance, and judge them on that. I know during my career before I retired, if I fouled up something and was given another chance, I'd double my effort to prove my ability.

 

[Cheese]

I know during my career before I retired, if I fouled up something and was given another chance, I'd double my effort to prove my ability.

[thumbs up] [thumbs up] [thumbs up]

 

[Michael Kellough]

My local store is Oak Tree Supply in Fort Wayne, IN.  Amanda will take great care of you, and you are helping a small husband and wife team that run a fabulous store, as well as a very smooth online operation where they ship all over the US.

I think this is the first mention of Oak Tree here. They’re nowhere near me but I can recommend them for online orders. They have all the best stuff.

 

[HighlandMarine]

Michael, [member=79984]HighlandMarine[/member]

I'm sorry to read about your experience ordering from us yesterday, as well as on 12/31.

When you order with a credit card, we do not collect any funds until the order ships. You may have seen an authorization on your credit card, which is a standard practice for any retailer. But, we do not hold on to any monies.

I can verify that I have looked at your orders and both were declined by our third-party fraud provider. Fraud is a serious problem for online retailers, and we are forced to use software to vet orders or run the risk of suffering huge loses from fraudulent orders. Despite partnering with one of the best fraud protection service providers available, software and systems aren't perfect and a very small number of false positives do happen. So, I completely understand your frustration when this happened. I would be frustrated too. In fact, I am frustrated, because it means we missed out on an opportunity to have you as a loyal customer.

Because fraudsters can be quite savvy, it is our policy not to disclose information about the software we use to protect our methods for reducing fraud. Ultimately, fraud hurts consumers because those losses are paid for by cardholders. It's just a crappy situation for everyone but the thieves.

I do want to take a moment to say that I work with some of the most dedicated, hard working, customer-centric people in my career. I'd like to personally apologize if you don't feel like you received superlative customer service. I'd appreciate any feedback that you would be willing to share on how we could improve.

Feel free to reach out to me directly anytime, night or day, even on weekend. Always here to help.

Shane Holland
The Tool Nut
shane@toolnut.com

Edit: fixed a typo.

Hi Shane,

Thank you for the quick reply and for looking into that. That’s fine, ended up finding US Tool and Fastener in Worcester, MA which is also a brick and mortar within driving distance. Shame I didn’t speak to you regarding the 12/31 order via phone instead of the attitude I got. That order even two step verified via text from the bank. The very small number of false positives, have happened twice in a row, for even some of the same items, to the same address. (Changed RO90 for OF1400 iirc) Whatever company made the product used in this instance is algorithm based, and clearly flawed. After trying to order 12/31, decided to wait for the TS60 which keeps getting teased, and now need a track saw for a job.
In the end, as a tradesperson who spends a fair amount of money online on tools and materials for yachts, never had issues like this anywhere else. Not coming back for a third time expecting a different result.

To everyone else,

Thank you for all the replies.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

I have bought quite a bit from ToolNut and never had a problem. One of the reasons is that they do "pre-orders" for new equipment as it is introduced.
OTOH, I have had great service from Hartville Hardware, US Tool & Fastener, Highland Woodworking, and still get some things locally at Woodwerks too.
Some of this depends upon the availability of the item I am interested in, shipping is part of the equation too. Longer and bulkier items come from the local dealer. Both of the CTs, the FS/2424 and FS/3000 came from them for that reason.
Strangely enough, the only time I ever had a fraud protection denial was at the local place. On that occasion, the total bill was $600 even. Apparently, that "oddly specific" number triggered something?
Answering my phone while I was still trying to figure out what was going wrong solved the problem. It was a credit card person on the phone, who simply said "if this is actually you, just swipe it again and I'll override the denial". It worked fine from that point.

 

[blues]

@ Shane, was your loyal customer before you upgraded your on line store few yrs ago. My ordering experience was excellent with your old system. I dont shop with you anymore. I have switched to tool nirvana and love it. Yes fraud is real and every other company is dealing with it and providing fantastic service. So stating that as a reason is not a unique scenario/ excuse. Sorry for the blunt feedback. I think you possibly have lost many customers silently due to this new system. Best of luck.

 

[darita]

Recently, I placed an order with TN for a replacement MFT3 table top.  When it arrived, one end of the box was all but ripped completely open and the table had been dropped on that open end causing damage to the table corners.  I sent pictures to Customer Service and was told a replacement would be coming.  After about a week, I got tired of waiting for news, so I called and Zach told me that he would call Festool to find out what the status was.  After a few more days passed with no shipping notice, I called again.  Tom told me he would call again.  This time Tom did let me know that Festool told him the table was back ordered and they were expecting them in next week.  I was hesitant to order from TN in the first place, just because of some bad experiences I had read about.  Although I realize that stuff happens and things get messed up along the way, next time I'll think twice about ordering from TN.

 

[Michael Kellough]

Late last Fall there was fire at Burns Tools. The store was destroyed. They hustled to get online sales back together and made arrangements to have products drop shipped from the manufacturer.

I wanted one of the new Festool guide rails that use the green sticky things so I placed the order with Burns. It arrived in about a week from Indiana but the package had come open at the top and the green sticky things were gone and a corner of the rail was bent. It took a while to figure out it how to get in touch with someone at Burns (Festool was no help) but when I did (via text message) another rail was dispatched and and although the top of that package came open too everything was alright. And I got to keep the first rail.

 

[Michael Kellough]

A neutral experience.

I ordered the new Micro Jig blade cleaning kit from Tool Nut when it was on a daily deal list. It took a couple days longer than I expected to get here (only about 70 miles from TN) and when I called I was told it was on the way. It arrived the next day.

 

[Ron B]

Michael:
you are in the the northernmost end of the southernmost county of New York so I would expect mail to be slower.  Especially if you use that as your address.