Please Boycott Dolmar OPE

[Elmore]

Blinded by Greed!

I hear ya. I just sent Dolmar a message via e-mail. Below is the message :

"I like my Makita DCS520i (Dolmar 111i) and have thought I would purchase another of your saws soon but for the actions of your distributors. Check out this link : http://server1.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=29652
Also in my area, in Decatur, AL, SEDCO has given a bicycle shop, The Peddler Lawn Mower & Bike, a Dolmar distributorship while just a stones throw away Air Cooled Engines Inc. has been a Dolmar dealer for years. That is not good business and does not reward loyalty. Every time I call on the Peddler they don't know anything about chainsaw product. The last time they told me that Oregon made all chains. They are not very friendly either. The local SEDCO rep told me that she thinks that she made the right decision. I think she's wrong. You should reward loyalty. These situations will bleed over into the buying public and the winners will be Stihl and Husky. You had better take a hard look at this situation and take control of your marketing or many current Dolmar users and many considering this brand will look to your competition for their needs.
Sincerely, Brad Elmore
[email protected]"

heh heh heh

 

[Lakeside53]

Just mail them a link to this thread!

 

[MS-310]

Tony,

Hay I think that is bull. This is the dude that ran your mail box over, I was going to buy that ps7900 cuz Tjs ps5100 is so freaking fast. Hay can you get me some good chains for my MS-310 16: bar and 20" bar(3/8) (Full). I will be over this weekend if you can get me some chain. Im sorry about the dealer ship, I still think you should get in to some thing. Nice location.
Jack

 

[TonyM]

Tony,

Hay I think that is bull. This is the dude that ran your mail box over, I was going to buy that ps7900 cuz Tjs ps5100 is so freaking fast. Hay can you get me some good chains for my MS-310 16: bar and 20" bar(3/8) (Full). I will be over this weekend if you can get me some chain. Im sorry about the dealer ship, I still think you should get in to some thing. Nice location.
Jack

TJ said you were out there somewhere! I got out the ole pliers and fixed the mailbox up good as new (well, at least the door closes now!)

I still have plenty of chain in stock. Stop buy and I'll fix you right up.

Today I told a customer who bought a PS7900 from me a year ago about the situation. His response: "I will never buy another Dolmar product again." I have made the promise to anyone who bought a saw from me that I was in this for the long haul, and would be around to service and provide parts for their purchases. Those are the guys I feel bad for. I can no longer take care of the customers I worked hard to get.

 

[Cut4fun]

Tony, sorry to hear about this problem with dolmar. You have always been there to answer my questions when I have considered trying out a dolmar brand saw. Funny you should mention size as one of the reasons they gave you. The dolmar/echo dealer 12 miles from me works out of his house with the garage being his shop. Its a shame to kick a man in the mouth when he is down and dolmar is dead wrong doing this to you. Never have met you, but you have always replied to my questions. Thanks for your help and hope dolmar pulls their head out of their (__o__) soon, because there is not enough dealers out there. I will give my money to the small shops, before I will ever give it to the big snob nosed stealerships.

 

[DougNH]

I was seriously considering a 7900 but now I'm going to go 385XP. In my mind Makita is just as guilty by way of ownership.

 

[Lakeside53]

I was seriously considering a 7900 but now I'm going to go 385XP. In my mind Makita is just as guilty by way of ownership.

Must be time for a real Stihl! MS441 coming out real soon...

 

[DougNH]

Must be time for a real Stihl! MS441 coming out real soon...

Nothing against Stihl, but with a pair of 372's already in the truck, I might be interested in a 461 if such a saw became available.

 

[mugsyboy]

sorry to read about what happend to you tony. but i would like to hear terry greens side of the story. i know terry is reading all this stuff on hear. so terry lets hear your side.

 

[slowsuki]

stealerships. you have got to love that

 

[TonyM]

I meant nothing bad towards Terry. He has always been helpful to me. I doubt he has much to say about the whole dealership thing. It just happened to be him that emailed me about listing some saws on ebay, which at the time I did it, I did not know it was in violation of any policy. At that time, the only thing I was told was that I could not advertise prices lower than the MSRP and get any funding reimbursed for advertising expenses. I have never taken a cent from Dolmar or any of their distributors for advertisement.

I just wanted to clear that up. In the dealings I have had with Terry, he has been a stand up guy.

It may not even be Dolmar who has created the problem. It likely is Central Power Systems and their rep for the area who has made the decision to drop me. I guess I should not have been so quick to jump on Dolmar's case. I still think they make a fine product, but come on, there has to be some loyalty in order to grow a quality dealership.

More and more I think the only thing the distributors care about is not stocking inventory. They make their money as soon as a dealer pays his bill. I paid for anything I ever bought up front and never bought inventory on credit. The distributors just want to force you to carry thousands of dollars of inventory to be a dealer so that they can make their sale. I wonder if they really care about the end user at all, or if they just want to push the product off on someone else. How would it go over with my customers if I said, "Sorry, you can't buy just one saw. You have to buy 10 or forget it. Oh, and buy the way, every other dealer has the same policy, so if you want to own a Dolmar, just fork over the cash."

 

[spike60]

Dealers can be cancled for a variety of reasons, but they are never cancled without reason. We don't really know the whole story here, and not having all of the facts, no one should be calling for or supporting the idea of a boycott of Dolmar products. There are a lot of questions to be asked, and I don't want to imply anything by asking them, but there must be more to this than we have heard so far. Tony opened up about a lot of problems in his personel life. Could those problems have affected his ability to stay on top of his business, ie keeping his account current? How was he pricing the saws that he was shipping all over the place? How many was he selling? Was he lowballing them?

The last thing that Dolmar needs in their quest for a strong dealer network, (which everyone says they need), is a part time guy shipping out saws at discounted pricing all over the country. In fact it's places like Baileys and Southwest Fastener, that are causing dealers to back off from Husky. I think that the new Dolmar program is great, and I'm very happy with the way I've been treated by Atlantic Power.

I feel bad for Tony, as he sounds like a decent guy. And it would have been nice if there was a way that he and Dolmar could have worked out whatever issues they had between them. Don't forget that Tony's local customers still need parts and service support. But it is simply unfair to call for a boycott without knowing all of the facts. We should all wait to hear the other side before making any judgements.

 

[TonyM]

I have told everyone here everything that I know. If there are other reasons, they were not told to me, and there was no effort made to work things out, CPS simply dropped me and didn't even bother to tell me!

I don't know If I mentioned that in the late summer, the area rep visited my shop, and made it known that he was undecided about keeping me on as a dealer. Then in November or so, I got a phone call saying that he had decided to go ahead and give me a chance. That was the last I heard until I tried to order parts and saws last week.

I have been steadily selling more and more saws, and the proportions are shifting to local customers more so than out of state customers. I have two local people right now that want PS7900's, and I can no longer get them. I never sold saws at a loss, but I certainly did offer competitive pricing. I owe no one any money, so that is not an issue. I'm sure that CPS feels that there is not enough business in my area to support a profitable dealership. I believe there is, but only by taking market share from a heavily Stihl dominated market here. I do not need to defend myself, I will let my actions, and those who have dealt with me, do that.

Again, the reasons given to me were, location, hours, size, and the fact that I sold a used personal saw that was a Dolmar on ebay. At one time I had nearly $7000 dollars of inventory of saws, bars, chains, and spare parts. That will not sound like a lot to big dealers, but a little over a year ago I had less than $1000, and I paid for it all out of my own pocket. I bet the closest local Dolmar dealer does not stock $7000 dollars of chainsaw related goods.

 

[brent denny]

Hi Tony. Glad to hear thing are working out with your family. Sorry to hear about the way things are going with you business. I bought two saws from Tony and he was one of the best people I ever dealt with. He had good prices, quick shipping, excellent service/support, and he always addressed any question/concern you had immediately and to the T. I feel really bad for Tony because I know he put his heart and soul into trying to establish the dolmar line (which I now really happen to like). I'm sure dolmar is not the only brand that has done things like this. Look at husky. Box store sales, large increases in inventory demands, etc. Not that it makes it right. I have no hard feelings toward Tony. After all, they dropped him. Maybe this will be a chance for cuttinscott/166 to pick up some existing dolmar customers. They seemed more than helpful when timistall was have a problem with his 5100 (even though it was modified). Anyway, I wish you all the best Tony.

 

[ned coed]

hey tony, my heart goes out to you man. if it,s any consolation to you i know exactly how you feel and what a bitter taste you have in your mouth right now. i can feel for you because i know it,s the living and breathing you put into a venture like this to then have it spat right back in your face. i got shafted good style about ten years or so ago and the experience is still bitter in my mouth now as i write this but have faith don,t throw away what you,ve built up already and thats your commitment and proffessionalism which you have demonstrated to your customer base and no one can take that away and dolmar can,t buy that personal touch off the shelf.i think if you where to write a general letter about your experience with dolmar and send it to all your customers i,m sure all the decent folk out there would guarantee you their repair work at least until youi get your self sorted out. when you come out the other side of this you WILL be so much stronger believe me. all my good wishes go out to you- power to the small guy, thats what i say. regards,Ned.

 

[tony marks]

i know some very nice wealthy rich folk. but big buisness on the scale tony is dealing with can sometimes ruin a little guy. just on the whim of some white color person,whos wife made him mad that nite. probably the person responcible
only looks at charts ,figures an such. no personal hands on support ,or anything. thats the modern world.. sounds bleak and im jaded ,i guess.
tony u have your biggest asset in your skill ,working on saws.
use it in some way. im betting u will come out better off in the long run.
at least i hope. good luck

 

[TonyM]

Stopped and visited the other dealer that is 30 miles from me. They have, are you ready, one saw in stock, a PS-341. Nothing against them. It's not their bread and butter, but that's my point. They have had similar problems, and resolved it by going above the rep in the food chain. I put in a call to CPS. I now have two upset customers ready to write CPS over this.

 

[WadePatton]

I have told everyone here everything that I know. If there are other reasons, they were not told to me, and there was no effort made to work things out, CPS simply dropped me and didn't even bother to tell me!

I don't know If I mentioned that in the late summer, the area rep visited my shop, and made it known that he was undecided about keeping me on as a dealer. Then in November or so, I got a phone call saying that he had decided to go ahead and give me a chance. That was the last I heard until I tried to order parts and saws last week.

I have been steadily selling more and more saws, and the proportions are shifting to local customers more so than out of state customers. I have two local people right now that want PS7900's, and I can no longer get them. I never sold saws at a loss, but I certainly did offer competitive pricing. I owe no one any money, so that is not an issue. I'm sure that CPS feels that there is not enough business in my area to support a profitable dealership. I believe there is, but only by taking market share from a heavily Stihl dominated market here. I do not need to defend myself, I will let my actions, and those who have dealt with me, do that.

Again, the reasons given to me were, location, hours, size, and the fact that I sold a used personal saw that was a Dolmar on ebay. At one time I had nearly $7000 dollars of inventory of saws, bars, chains, and spare parts. That will not sound like a lot to big dealers, but a little over a year ago I had less than $1000, and I paid for it all out of my own pocket. I bet the closest local Dolmar dealer does not stock $7000 dollars of chainsaw related goods.

This is pretty much a repeat, but I wanted to chime in--just in case DOLMAR gives a rat's arse.

BONEHEADS. What professionals and those of us who are serious about their tools NEED is more shops like THIS.

Consumers who want a pro product go to a SAW shop for saws, a BIKE shop for bikes and a MOWER shop for mowers.

I've found my new saw shop. Dealer for Dolmar and Jonsered. He's only open after hours or when he's not cutting timber. He stocks and uses both brands. He KNOWS his saws. And that's why I drive AWAY from metropolis and to his small rural area to get my stuff. If DOLMAR drops him, I'll be dropping THEM too. I'm not going to the Mower/Saw store down there near the big city.

Sounds like a rep needs to be

What does it COST Dolmar to sell to Tony? I don't see the logic. Seems to me that 100 little, competent shops would better suit the needs of US than any number of freakin box stores. Walfart mentality is ruining a lot of things.

Rock on Tony, pick up another line.

 

[SmithEC]

... I now have two upset customers ready to write CPS over this.

Have them use the complaint generator. It can be a good time.

 

[slowsuki]

a nice person tells you what you want to here. a good person will do what is right at his own expence.