has this happened to you

[ehp]

One of my friends that i built a 3120 ported woodsaw was down in Toronto at his friends place ,now his friend has a 084 with a 42 inch bar on it to use on big trees , well he thought something was going wrong on the saw so he took it to a stihl dealer, the dealer looked it overand said the jug was junk and it was going to cost him $700 to fix it , so he was going to scrap the saw but Bob said he would bring it up for me to look at .I got the saw yesterday, i pulled it over slow , it has good compression , so i put the chock on gave her a good rip, it started on the first pull but ran rich , set the carb and she was good to go but i pulled the muffler just to check, the jug is perfect
now was the dealer looking to make some fast money or were they hoping that he would leave the saw so they could sell it later either way that was very unfair and could be bad for bussiness cause he is going back to tell them

 

[Mike mandry]

I met my father in laws cousin for the first time this weekend.

I knew I was in luck as we aproached his house & I saw his woodpile & log splitter.

Anyway we got to talking & he showed me his new 036.

He had an 046 that his wife bought new a few years back.

He took it in for service (just a month ago)

They told him it was "Tired" & he walked out with a new 036/360

Said they gave him $30 for the 046 (It hadnt cut 20 cords yet.)

I kept my mouth shut, but it just made me sick....................

 

[Lawn Masters]

Thats why I fix my saws myself, then I only have to pay the cost of parts, no labor charges.

If I fix it myself, I'll know I'm not getting screwe over by some moron in the dealership. The saws run right thats all I care about, my neighbor has a McCulloch eager beaver 2 cube saw, went in for service the shop said it wasnt worth fixing, I brought it over yesterday, have it running like new now, just a carb adjustment was out of wack and now its flawless. I dont even charge him anything for that work, he helps me out when I need it, so this is the least I can do for him.

 

[steevo]

The same thing happened to me a few years back with my local Stihl dealer. Thats's when I switched to Husky. Now, there is a new dealer in the area, and some people are going back to Stihl.

 

[JimL]

thats a load of crap. what terrible dealer service.
Ive got 2 084's in the shop now with bad jugs AND modules. No freekin idea how they both lost the modules.
Poor guy forgot to mix his gas one day and ruint them.

 

[ehp]

I have seen at the husky dealer a 266 come in from down south that was to be junk from what a dealer told this older woman, and she was going to buy a new saw uphere cause that is where she lived , she brought the saw with her when she came in to buy her new one , Tony took a look at it and fired it up ,there was nothing wrong with the saw so he filed it for her and sent her back out with her 266

 

[Weatherby]

Something similar to this happened to the place I worked. They had an 034 which someone screwed up and one of the clips that hold on the clutch shoes came off, and the clutch got jamed so that you could not pull the starter cord. They took the saw in and the place quoted them about $300 and said it needed a new piston and cylinder. I took the saw, replaced the clips and springs, put a new sproket on it, and fired right up. Good as new.

 

[oakman]

gentlemen,
now you know why they are called "dealers". unfortunately, its not just happening at saw shops. its everywhere. the need/desire for max profit is taking precedence over common decency, courtesy, morality, and sense. that saw dealer probly figures its worth the chance that the saw owner is mechanically challenged. even if you take it back and confront him, hes just gonna say something like,"oh yea its got compression. must of had the decomp on, or the plug must have been loose." what are you gonna do? stand there and argue with him all day cause he says he made a mistake? i'm not knocking all saw dealers here. i'm all for the small business guys. i'm one myself. but i have never flat out tried to rip one of my customers off. i've found the best policy is honesty right out front. if you lie or deceive, your gonna get caught eventually. just seems like the bigger you try and get, business wise, the more you get caught up in it. of course theres always the possibility that he did actually make an honest mistake. bad hair day, wrong saw, or blurred vision...................................................

 

[glens]

These stories are sad, but it's starting to sound like the typical anti-Stihl banter that occurs on this board.  I doubt very highly it's just Stihl dealers that do this.  How about some sob stories about trying to get saws serviced at Lowes?

A crooked/cheating/incompetent dealership is one that does crooked/cheating/incompetent stuff, not one that sells a certain brand.

I was once out trying to drum up some rolling steel door business when a shop manager said he had one I could give him a price on.&nbsp; He said the door company they usually used wanted to take the door down off the wall and "home" to their shop; it would be a couple days (with no way for the customer to lock <i>their</i> shop) and cost a couple thousand dollars (it was summer, the slow season).&nbsp; I set my ladder up and found a sheared roll pin on the power operator.&nbsp; The door worked fine manually.&nbsp; I felt guilty about replacing the pin with one I had on the truck and dinking around for a couple hours doing it and making minor adjustments so as to somewhat justify the $425 I charged (under advisement).

Glen

 

[dneiger]

EHP,
I get these types of situations in the shop all the time, some of them are honest in that the dealers don't know how to fix the problem. The dealers of today cannot hire a good saw mechanic because most of the mfgrs that hold "service schools" are getting the so called mechanics to attend under false pretenses. As an example a few years back my son and I took a day out of the shop to attend a school 150 miles away, the only thing we learned was that they would like us to know how to sell their shop vacs. This same Co.was having problems with big end rod bearings failing on one of their bigger saws. When we tried to bring up the rod problem we were very nicely told to ask them about it later. seems they didn't want anyone to know about it. We were then contacted by a service tech. from the Co. This service tech told us that he would contact the Co. headquarters in Europe. After about 2 weeks and 3 more saws failing they called and informed us that the customers were taking the rakers down too far and that there would be no warranty paid. The only thing that was accomplished was that I lost a good customer who started buying HUskies from another shop. I guess it proved to me that most of the service techs that work for that Co. couldn't hit the rear end with both hands tied behind them, and as you say they only worry about sale. Kind of backfired on them.

 

[dneiger]

Glen,
I am not trying to bash Stihl on this one, Husky has their problems too, We replace on the average 3-4 sets of crank bearings a week on 272s and 3s. Seems that they could solve that problem, been going on since they brought out the 268. If the Manufacturers do not stop putting on their phony service schools and do a better job of addressing the real problems we will all be hurting very soon. The saws are getting more complicated and good mechanics fewer. A good example I was up to Cliff Helsels place a few weeks ago an looked at a new saw Cliff has been testing for Husky [ radical new port design, 2 barrel carb, and a few other things]. They all think alike and don't let them tell you otherwise, "sell new"

 

[tony marks]

i would say theres no excuse for a dealer like that..ignorance is not good enuff ,if the guy calls hisself an repair dealer..
i call it a scam and have had it tried on me..my answer.. ill tell everybody that will listen..but i do have to be sure that it was a scam..little common sense and putting two an two togather works pretty good for me..if the answer is four ,,warn every friend u can..jmo
ps just watch this buisiness ,,it want be there long ,in most cases..

 

[WoodTick007]

FRAUD

This is why all 67 states have an attorney generals office. Call them and report it. They have teams of employees that will take good working items in for repairs to test the honesty of the establishment.

 

[steevo]

Well, all I know is that the one Stihl dealer that has been around for a long time has driven away his previous customers. If you mention his name anywhere, and I mean from landscapers, to tree services, loggers, to homeowners at other shops, they all have the same opinion. The Husky dealers in the area however, have good reps. Hmmmm, I wonder?

 

[Marky Mark]

If you deal with people like Dan Henry, EHP and Ken Dunn things like this don't happen. Now there are a few here that do opperate like the story described. When someone says they want to help the only thing they want to help is there wallet.

 

[ehp]

Dave you are right it is at all dealers ,Husky has there share to it just happens that i have a good dealer besides me that has a 60 year old mech. named Tony which is very good

 

[JimL]

its all about customer service, thats all ive got to say. We sell a ???? load of new saws every year. Were friendly people at the store and im sure that helps.


The only other dealer in town is echo, only open like 3 days a week. always backed up in the shop. unfriendly service.



im not sideing with or against stihl. shop about 50 miles from here was "modifying" new stihls out of the box, then claiming warranty on the parts when they screwed up. Selling over the phone and internet also got their dealer rights taken away.\

 

[sedanman]

67 states?

 

[mlk]

A similiar thing happened to me. I had a 268XP that I tried unsucessfully to start before realizing that the switch was off. Of course I flooded it. I waited a day, put in a new plug, and it still wouldn't start. After a week of dicking around with it, I took it to the local Stihl-Husqvarne dealer. Because I live in the boondocks, that is 60 miles away. The factory trained Stihl mechanic called me a week later, told me the piston and cylinder were scored and repair cost would be about $300.00. I told them to dispose of the saw, but to keep the bar and chain, which were both nearly new, for me to pick up. A couple of weeks later I did pick it up, and they had remounted the bar and chain on the saw, no charge. I took it home, cranked it twice and it has been running fine since then. How? Why? I don't know.

 

[rb_in_va]

Originally posted by sedanman
67 states?

Maybe he was including the Canadian provinces and PR and the Virgin Islands. Or maybe he was being funny