Re: Brand Loyalty?

I buy whatever seems to best fit my needs (short vs med vs long term) at the time at the best cost to benefit ratio. That usually means posting here, reading your feedback, checking 2 or 3 magazine reviews, kicking the tires. I like to take the mag reviews, and your 2 cents, and with the tool in-hand (at a WW show, store, etc) apply my tests. Can I substantiate the pros/cons another has noted? Are they applicable to my needs? Do I care about functionality X? Will I care in 6-12 months? At what cost?

I'm stilling trying to find a Ryobi OSS500 to test ;-) Looks like I missed that one. Ah well, they'll be another.

Ah, yes, and then in a few years it all changes..

I dumped my 8.5" Hitachi SCMS for a 12" dual bevel Dewalt CMS because of bench space!!!! Go figure, benchtop space!!! But I got the CMS for $200 at a WW show for a refurb.

But I'm still happy with my "Made in the USA" Delta contractor saw. Yeah, it's 1.5hp. But I don't cut 3" hard maple, and the blade has never even come close to getting bogged down. And I can waste all kinds of time "tuning it" ;-)

I do consider the brand. If price and functionality is close, I'd chose a "better" brand. I have a Craftsman 14.4V cordless drill, the EX model, that I got for $69. No complaints. I could have paid 2x or

It has to me in the past- I've got all DeWalt for my framing and general carpentry tools (and I'm still very happy with those) and Delta for my stationary power tools. Unfortunately, the last few Delta purchases I've made have been a little less than impressive, and the customer service seems to have slid a little since they merged with Porter-Cable, so I'm considering looking around a bit more, and finding a new brand for my shop.

So the short answer is yes, brand loyalty means something to me- as long as the quality is there. When the brand goes downhill, it's time for me to bail out.

Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

Just to "clarify" :

Delta "did not" merge with Porter Cable.

They are two seperate companies.

They are both owned by a single parent company known as Pentair, which just sold both companies to Black & Decker, who owns many other companies including Dewalt.

Prometheus wrote:

It should also be noted that the "merger" took place in

UA100

Interesting though that the last time I called Delta support 800-number the operator answered w/ "Porter Cable/Delta" which had never happened to me before--it had been within the year I think to last previous time...don't know what precipitated the change or whether it was an aberration????

They may not have merged, but both companies were both by the same parent company giving the same result as them merging.

I was just commenting that has changed relatively recently... made a decision to emphasize the Porter Cable over Delta, even answering the Delta 800 support line...

The regional support centers were rolled together to handle customer issues. These offices handle broken parts,repairs,etc,etc. It actually made sense to "merge" that function but it proved painful in some cases.

You ended up with folks who were 100% on PC products attempting to answer Delta related questions. The same was true of Delta folks trying the reverse of that.

This resulted > Interesting though that the last time I called Delta support 800-number

...

I phoned into the same old central Delta technical support service -- no problem getting to Delta engineering support, just the initial phone response before the transfer was answered w/ the lead-in of "P C" as opposed to the former Delta