So in and amongst the other jumk mail I got in my mailbox over the weekend (real mail, not email... you remember that stuff?... can you beleave we used to actually write letters on paper, and then wait days to mail them to someone?... but I digress...) was a catalog from on of the major tool manufacturers... I admit it, I'm a geek, I love tool catalogs... Some people window shop, or go try on cloths they have no intention of buying, but I drool over the catalog pages of tools I generally can't afford/justify or have enough room for... Anyway...
So they have this big marketing hype this year because they are segmenting their line... Now apparently they are doing this due to massive amounts of requests from their customers... I personally don't know any of these people, but I suspect that they must actually be the people that sell parts, and or raw materials to this manufacturer... This manufacturer has been around for decades, and generally has a good reputation... For the last 7 or so years, they have been selling some equipment that you could buy at Home Depot or Lowes type stores... Basically it was cheap garbage in my opinion... I never personally bought any of it, because I had used a bunch of it at various shops I worked at in the past, and found it performed fair to poorly, untill it usually burned out... (or in 3 cases burned up) Now I know it wasn't intended for industrial use, but then most of what you can buy at those stores isn't... I have a bunch of gear I have bought at places like Home Depot, and have had it for years, so its not the stores, and its not me, so it must be that particular line of equipment...
So whatever... I figured if they wanted to market some disposable tools to homeowners who will use them once or twice a year, fine, it doesn't effect me... Well unfortunatly now it does... They have taken that crap line and re-named it... Then they took the line of gearat the bottom of the industrial line and moved it in to that newly named line of crap.... No big deal if they didn't change anything, but they did... I am seeing lots of "high tech" plastic features... I am seeing lower quality fit and finish of the surfaces that need to be "right"... I'm seeing higher prices for these tools because they represent the "high end" of their new line of tools rather than the cheap end of the industrial line... They have not filled the new void at the bottom of the industrial line... So now they want me to buy either the top of the line garbage for way too much money, or their lowest price industrial gear, which is only lowest in price compared to some very pricey gear...
Do these people not give a damn about their reputation?... I find that hard to beleave, but that sure looks like the way it is going... Will I be buying any of that brand gear in the future?... Right now it sure doesn't look like it... I hope nobody else does either and they take a bath on their new scheme... Unfortunatly, it never seems to work out that way...
Thankfully, there are still a couple other options out there... Not as many as I'd like to be sure, but I'll find someone else to give my money to...
No, I'm not going to tell you the name... I'd really hate to have one of their damn lawyers drop me an email... 'Course, if you know anything about the tool market, you already know who this is directed at...
Posted by Backstage at November 3, 2003 06:46 PM