He's an older guy I do business with in town, still has his store. He's REAL fair and good to his customers, his prices on everything are good and he'll cut ya a deal now and then off the posted retail. that kind of real "mom and pop" good old fashioned kinda place.
And has gone out of his way to find me stuff when none of the other local small engine guys could get it, he'll sit and drag out catalogs for fifteen minutes trying to find a five buck part. . So I believe his story. As to how long he was an echo dealer, at least a decade maybe more, I don't recall the exact specifics, might be even two decades. When I first moved here he still had his echo dealership, so once I toasted mine, I was going to check his parts and prices, etc, that's when he told me had had stopped selling them recently, and he told me the story. So, just around two years ago now, year and half really.
So, he doesn't sell echo now or much in the way of small engine stuff besides some mowers and such like (which are almost all rebadged MTD now anyway, riders or pushers). He has so much other stock he sells he really doesn't need to sell saws and blowers, etc.
Pretty cool old guy, been collecting classic antique cars all his life, he told me he stopped at 50 of them when he ran out of room to park them.
So..if you have a dealer who has a GOOD relationship with echo, that might be cool, if not...crapshoot. Like I said before, I don't trust warranties on that sort of stuff anyway, wayyyy too easy for them to just say "straight gassed" no matter what it is and you eat it. Besides with saws, I bet most guys around here void the warranty within ten minutes of getting it home (muffler mod, pull caps, retune), so the point is moot.
