Here's the deal. I asked the same questions a month ago. It seems that here on this forum everyone wants to support your local dealer. No problem there. I do, too. And the dealer had a better deal for the one I was looking at and I got free stuff, got to hear it run, got a free fill up and supposedly the dealers set them up for you. I guess mine did. It runs fine. And they do the warranty and repair work.
So, if you buy at HD and it stops working or doesn't work right they will probably give you another one if it's a short time. If it's been a while they will have you take it or send it for repair. So, the concensus here that I got is that an authorized dealer may refuse to work on your saw under warranty if you didn't buy from him. I used to have a music store and to me this sounds like grounds for losing your dealership but what do I know? I really find this hard to believe, though, as they get paid for the repair from the company. It's not like you ask them to do it for free.
The thing is, if you can find a local dealer selling what you want you really won't pay more and might pay less. I had to go out of my way to buy what I got but it was worth it and I'll go back and buy more when I need it.
