MS310 failure

[sedanman]

Take a years worth of cutting each customer some slack and you end up working for nothing. Why does it have to cost me money to do business with the guy that wants a discount? Discounts are not an intangible, theyare cash out of the bottom line. The guy that gives his business away will not be there long term to service his customers. Don't even get me started on Wal-Mart, they they thrive by driving even their own suppliers out of business.

 

[Mike mandry]

Dont even get me started on Wal-Mart, they they thrive by driving even their own suppliers out of business.

Amen, Paul

Problem is these idiots (people who think wal-mart is the greatest place on earth) dont realize what they are doing to this country.

I'd wipe wal mart off the face of the earth if I had the chance & I'd be smiling every second of the way.

Im gonna stop before I get started........................

 

[stihltech]

slack

Let us address this slack commodity.
Customer comes in with corroded carburetor due to water in fuel. You do the very best clean job you can, but it still has a rich condition on the bottom end. Being an older saw, you don't want to spend any more customer money, so you EXPLAIN the problem and what you have done, and what a new carburetor will cost. Customer says he does not want to spend that much on saw, and leaves, only paying a minimal charge, or, nothing.

Customer returns a few days, weeks or even a year later with low end rich problem. FIRST WORDS, "you just worked on it." The conversation seems to have left his memory.

Cutting people slack with cut your business. High or low labor rate.

Oh, and those guys that cut prices to compete, they used to be in business in the next town.

And now I will get off the soap box.

NEXT

 

[spacemule]

You shop guys are just whiners. "I want to make a living! I want health insurance! I want to put gas in my truck!" Wah wah wah. What's next, are you going to want enough profit to buy groceries and cable televisoin too?

Gee whiz, would working at or below cost to help your poor customers out really be that big of a deal? You should cut your overhead to remain competitive. Who needs a fancy shop with sockets and wrenches and stuff anyways? Heck, you could go to Wal-Mart and buy a complete Chinese tool kit and work out of the back of your truck. Your overhead would be a fraction of what it is now, and you'd be competitive. But nooohh, you've got to have fancy smancy roofs to stay "dry" because you're too good to get wet like the rest of God's creatures! If God would have wanted you to be dry though, he'd have built you a shop!! Whine whine whine.

 

[Marco]

You forgot to add that that rate has to cover the owner cosigning on his dead beat daughters trailer house that she doesn't want to make payments on anymore.

 

[sedanman]

I don't want it to sound like like the occasional freebe doesn't happen or isn't warrented. In the case of a newly purchased saw there might be a "good will" adjustment or re-attach a ham-fisted choke rod. THe customers attitiude has a lot to do with wether the shop will "eat" a quick repair.

 

[Vman]

my wife recently bought me an ms440 for a fathers day present along with a new hardhat/face-shield/ear muffs. she didn't ask for any "deals". the dealer knocked about 40% off the hardhat rig and threw in some free gloves. she told me they treated her very well there and thought they were great people. 2 weeks later we went back together to get an FS80 brushcutter and they threw in a 6-pack of oil.....again, we didn't ask for any deals. so after buying 2 new machines and not asking for "deals", we were given a few bucks off an accessory and a few freebies.....maybe not alot of $$$ per say compared to the amount of $$$$ we spent there, but it was something and we appreciated it very much, needless to say the workers there were friendly and treated us with respect. i understand their need to charge what they do, and with the service i have gotten there, i will go back there when i need parts/service cause of the treatment i recieved there.
if i start doing some cutting on a saturday morning and a part breaks, a small local may not have the parts u need, but chances are your dealership will have it ready for you and u can get back to work VS. "it will take about 5 days to get the part in". i am not knocking the small repair shops at all, but the dealerships are neccessary and they do need to charge to cover overhead and profit.
thats just my opinion

 

[turnkey4099]

my wife recently bought me an ms440 for a fathers day present along with a new hardhat/face-shield/ear muffs. she didn't ask for any "deals". the dealer knocked about 40% off the hardhat rig and threw in some free gloves. she told me they treated her very well there and thought they were great people. 2 weeks later we went back together to get an FS80 brushcutter and they threw in a 6-pack of oil.....again, we didn't ask for any deals. so after buying 2 new machines and not asking for "deals", we were given a few bucks off an accessory and a few freebies.....maybe not alot of $$$ per say compared to the amount of $$$$ we spent there, but it was something and we appreciated it very much, needless to say the workers there were friendly and treated us with respect. i understand their need to charge what they do, and with the service i have gotten there, i will go back there when i need parts/service cause of the treatment i recieved there.
if i start doing some cutting on a saturday morning and a part breaks, a small local may not have the parts u need, but chances are your dealership will have it ready for you and u can get back to work VS. "it will take about 5 days to get the part in". i am not knocking the small repair shops at all, but the dealerships are neccessary and they do need to charge to cover overhead and profit.
thats just my opinion

Same here. I patronize my local small engine shop. He works on everything but doesn't sell saws. That is why I made a 50 mile round-trip drive to the saw dealer figuring if needed he would have the part. Was really surprised at the minimal charge for the service seeing they didn't know me from Adam.

Harry K

 

[Chris J.]

Vman & Harry, I like how your dealers do business. And Vman, I definately like how your wife looks after you

 

[Vman]

Knot Whole....yes, she looks after me well, but i somehow think the sweet saw was her rendition of me being able to get more done in a day...LOL. in her mind, it may be..."the property is finally getting noticeably nicer, maybe a nice saw will get more done faster!!.....hmm, maybe i can trick him!!"
LOL, in any event, she is good to me and vice-versa, and the new saw and brushcutter has made my work easier and do get more done with less hassle.

 

[spacemule]

You shop guys are just whiners. "I want to make a living! I want health insurance! I want to put gas in my truck!" Wah wah wah. What's next, are you going to want enough profit to buy groceries and cable televisoin too?

Gee whiz, would working at or below cost to help your poor customers out really be that big of a deal? You should cut your overhead to remain competitive. Who needs a fancy shop with sockets and wrenches and stuff anyways? Heck, you could go to Wal-Mart and buy a complete Chinese tool kit and work out of the back of your truck. Your overhead would be a fraction of what it is now, and you'd be competitive. But nooohh, you've got to have fancy smancy roofs to stay "dry" because you're too good to get wet like the rest of God's creatures! If God would have wanted you to be dry though, he'd have built you a shop!! Whine whine whine.

I hope you all caught my sarcasm in this post. It was all tongue in cheek.

 

[sedanman]

I know.

 

[fishhuntcutwood]

I've worked retail shop/sales before, though it was in archery/hunting, rather than in saws. I know how frustrating it is for a customer to expect a discount or a deal. I also know how good it feels to help out a good guy with a discount when you can. I figure my Stihl dealer will cut me a deal when he can, and when he wants to. Just the other day I was in getting a bunch of small parts for an 044 chainbrake, and had a pretty good pile going. He got a bunch off of parts saws in the back, and one of his new mechs was writing up each one on an itemized list, to charge me for them. Fine. The owner comes along, and says, "Here, this is how we'll do it." And he crosses out each part off of parts saw, and gave them to me free. He didn't have to, but did. I've spent a couple thousand in there over the last year on four differnt saws, wedges and parts. He knows I'll be back, and he saw that he could set me up with a "deal" in my eyes on parts that he could afford to cut me a deal on. We both came away happy. Good dealer.

Jeff

 

[Chris J.]

Jeff, out of curosity, how were they invoicing the parts that came off of parts saws? I'm wondering if they were going write them up with new OEM prices, or do they have prices for used parts? Thanks, Chris J.

 

[fishhuntcutwood]

Jeff, out of curosity, how were they invoicing the parts that came off of parts saws? I'm wondering if they were going write them up with new OEM prices, or do they have prices for used parts? Thanks, Chris J.

They weren't selling them as new, though they appear to be new items. It was all small stuff like screws, E-clips, a lever for the chain brake, and small odds and ends like that. I think they put like $5 on the whole pile of those parts saw parts. They offered to order new parts, but I don't need brand new screws to hold a recoil on. We did that when I worked at the archery shops I've been with. We had all kinds of extra parts laying around in drawers and stuff. If a bow comes back for warrantee for bad limbs, and we get new limbs from the company, we might get all new limb pockets, axles and bushings included along with it. We'd reuse the customer's components that were still good, and then when we were done, we'd have say, and extra set of brand new axles in the shop. Axles will last the life of a bow, so they're usually always good. We'd put them in a drawer, and save them for a rainy day. But we wouldn't sell them as new, if we sold them at all.

Jeff

 

[Chris J.]

Sounds like they were treating you fair either way. Thanks!

 

[fishhuntcutwood]

Sounds like they were treating you fair either way. Thanks!

Oh absolutely. Like I said, they offered to order brand new parts, and I don't need brand new stuff for a saw that's been beat pretty badly. Great shop, and that's why I cringe when I hear folks knock on Stihl dealers, or any dealership for that matter. They're an assest. Too bad all can't be as good as this one.

Jeff

 

[Lawn Masters]

I wish my nearest one were that good, he's a MORON. unfortunately, the next nearest stihl dearle isnt much better for me.

 

[Lakeside53]

I've have this occassional issue with my 026, although its rare. The lever appears to ride up and down on a small metal slide under tension. That piece will get encrusted with dust and lose its shape periodically, causing the lever to bind. Its a pretty quick fix to just remove the cover, wipe things out, and then manually finesse the lever into position. I suspect it happens from a combination of dirt, flipping the lever with too much force, and maybe my hand banging up against it during cuts.

I like the Stihl master lever, but I like Dolmar's better. It's easier to access and less susceptible to damage.

Stihl has modified the contact spring ("small metal slide") slowly over the years. I just replace them when they misbehave with new spring. Bending the old spring usually affects the tension and it just fails later. Only a couple of bucks, and the newer style from the MS260s is much better.

Also, the control rod (the plastic rod for the on/off/choke) was updated a long time ago. If yours says "1121" as the first 4 digit of the part number, it's the old style. They were updated to the same rod as the 036 (1125).

 

[ontario026]

My thought on this is "we need to charge X$/hr to make a living".... I have bills to pay as well, I am quite mechanically inclined, however generally quite busy, but I will find the time to perform repairs myself, because I would rather spend an hour in the garage performing a repair, than 4 hours at work to be able to afford to pay a shop to do the same repair.... I do understand that it costs $$ to be in business, but the only time I ever take any of my equipment or toys to a shop is when I don't have the tools necessary to do a repair myself...

The closest stihl dealer to me is less than 5 or 6 km or so, from any dealings with them the salesmen come across as arrogant jerks, so I generally do not deal with them, instead I drive 25KM or so to the next town to buy even small items such as fuel filters for the better buying experience....