$99 Festool 5" Sander with free ship and $50 off your next Festool Tool

[WaterlooMarc]

Not yet, but I ordered within minutes of getting the first advert email.

[BloomingtonMike]

I have not got the email yet. I will watch for it though.

[bottd]

This one...

We have been notified by Festool that, due to overwhelming demand, we will not be receiving all PRO 5 sanders by the Nov 1st ship date.  But don't sweat! Your sander is on the way, but at this time we do not have an ETA.  We will immediately communicate additional shipment ETA's in the coming days and weeks as we receive updates. Please note that this inventory shortage affects all Festool dealers, not just The Tool Nut.
 
As we receive additional inventory, orders will ship in the order they were received.
 
Please accept our apologies for the delay with your Festool PRO 5 sander order. We will continue to keep you up-to-date with the latest information.
 
Cancellations to your order will require an email to info@toolnut.com. Please write "PRO5 Cancellation" and your Order # in the subject line.  In the body of the email, please include your requested action, your name, and method of payment. Our phone lines are very busy and call requests may experience long hold times; therefore email correspondence is the best way to ensure fast, accurate service.

[BloomingtonMike]

Wonder how many ship Tuesday?

[mt4ensics]

I am curious myself...here's why.

I did get my order through from Toolnut, however, I got the email that mine will ship later if they get more stock, not today. 

I thought I would see if I could get one earlier so, I called all the dealers listed on Festool's website as an online dealer. All are sold out or didn't get an order in time before they stopped accepting orders.

Next, I called all the dealers in Maryland and only one dealer got 10 in which all were spoken for.  The rest of the dealers, approximately 8, didn't even get an order in.  One dealer told me over 75% of dealers nationally didn't even get orders in on time.  Most of these dealers are furious because Festool has kept them in the dark for the past 3 weeks trying to figure out how to handle this mess and meet customer demand. 

At this point, I can only hope that Toolnut will be able to get my sander to me some day.

[Admiral]

I got no dog in this fight, but this whole thing seems pretty fishy to me.  Festool corporate seems to have botched this.

[Huxleywood]

I got no dog in this fight, but this whole thing seems pretty fishy to me.  Festool corporate seems to have botched this.

Fishy in what way?  If you have ever tried to estimate public demand at a price never before tried it is a total crap shoot with your production numbers.  The dealers that got left behind just aren't spending the time to keep their finger on the pulse.  The "deal" hit slick deals within minutes of the first emails regarding the promotion and it was on from there.

[meackerman]

Festool had a better promo years ago, an ETS 150/3 for $59.  So this promo wasn't in uncharted territory.

[Jack01]

If get my sander before Christmas I will be happy.

[Admiral]

Yeah, fishy.  Demand is estimated all the time, and if they miss, there's the old "rain check" concept.  You limit the sale to a number of days, promote it vigorously in advance to all your dealers, and then make all your customers happy that they got a good deal and build brand loyalty.  I imagine this was done with a "win-win" premise, i.e., to increase the customer base, i.e., get your tools in the hands of fudge who will hopefully buy another once they see the quality and performance.  Not a unique concept in marketing.

This situation, well, just wasn't handled correctly if that was the goal.  If a manufacturer wants to launch a crap shoot promotion and alienate its dealers (and the dealer's customers), this is an example of how to do it.  If a manufacturer wants to offer a promotion to its customers to stimulate sales of associated product and add-ons, to build brand loyalty, this is just not, IMHO, the way to do it.  This is especially so with a vertical minimum price restriction on its resellers, where the dealer network can't sell below a certain price.  Not that this pricing agreement is illegal, Stihl does it, LN did it in the past with Woodcraft, its pretty common.

Like I said, I don't have a dog in this fight, I tend to scrape, not sand.  I just think Festool blew it.  I feel bad for the dealers.