Tilton Equipment--does someone there know something?

[mikefunaro]

I wanted to vent just a little bit. If they are a site sponsor I don't really mean anything bad by this, but perhaps they will take notice.

It seems very hard to get any information out of them, about anything, even current products. It takes multiple phone calls and emails often to get answers to simple questions. It's great that they supply dealers, and if dealers are happy I guess that's what really counts but...

1. Trying to find out which of their dealers sells which of their products is impossible. I tried to find out where I could get some total brand chain to try...complete failure. They just gave me lists of participating tilton dealers and told me to call around...I got tired after about 10 calls. Some of their "dealers" were actually former dealers from several years ago who were pissed that I called.

2. Trying to find out details about the total chain was even harder, good thing I couldnt get my hands on any. After several phone calls and emails, I was told that it was made by oregon but was better because it was made to tilton's "stringent" standards--but couldn't get any answers about this either.

Fast forward to this past week. I was at the local dealer, who is a combi stihl/jred dealer, picking up some new chain. He asks if I need to re-stock on two stroke oil. I see some new jonsered mix on the shelf (wasn't there a month or so ago). I ask if its synthetic, semi synthetic, etc, since the bottle says nothing. He says they didn't say anything, so it's probably straight dino. They're also like $8 for 6 one gal bottles, so the price is pretty cheap.

Get home, try to find info online. Product isnt listed on the website. Try to call tilton. They have no idea about the oil. I ask them who their blender is. Person who answered the phone has no idea, she asks around, nobody knows. Finally I ask for an MSDS. They say what's that? I explain...the person pokes around...says she doesnt think they have those. I remind her that I think they are required to be available by law. Finally she finds one. I say ok, now who prepared the MSDS for you. She tells me. I call them, turns out the product is a synthetic blend oil....

I call them back. They are wowed to learn that it is...

Is there some brain of the whole operation there who is behind 3 feet of lead???

Otherwise they're doing pretty damn good for a company that knows very very little about their products...

 

[WoodChuck'r]

Geez MF, that's frikkin' crazy.

Based on your story it seems that they're a garage sale that has a phone number, lol.

I've never heard anything like that but I definitely got a few laughs out of that story. Kinda reminds me of walking into Lowes and telling a "Customer Service Specialist" that you're looking for the plumbing department.

 

[Fish]

I agree with you totally.

If Tilton and another company, Sunbelt, had anyone working there with a brain, they would probably be doing well today..

But I do not expect them to change.

The brand Jonsered would probably be a main brand if they did not hook
up with Tilton a long while back.

But that is just me and my opinion....

Sunbelt would be a big name here if they didn't have total morons working there.....

Sorry, but true....

 

[mikefunaro]

I mean i figure someone there must make it all work...they just stay far far away from the public? are dealers happy generally?

 

[roncoinc]

" They're also like $8 for 6 one gal bottles, so the price is pretty cheap "

Now wait a minit,,you cant buy bottled WATER that cheap !!
$ 1.33 a gallon ??

 

[mikefunaro]

forgive me, they are like $8 for 6 small 50:1 ratio bottles, the 2.6oz (76ml) variety which are designed to be mixed with 1 gallon (us) of premium or mid grade gasoline, in a clean container.

What's funny is on the tilton website they discourage the use of synthetic oils yet their own mix oil is partially synthetic...

PS you can get bottled water that cheap at wallyword, trucked up here all the way from pennsylvania...

 

[Justsaws]

I wanted to vent just a little bit. If they are a site sponsor I don't really mean anything bad by this, but perhaps they will take notice.

Probably would not care if they did.

It seems very hard to get any information out of them, about anything, even current products. It takes multiple phone calls and emails often to get answers to simple questions. It's great that they supply dealers, and if dealers are happy I guess that's what really counts but...

Yeah, it is a little odd, no one seems to no much about the company they work for.

1. Trying to find out which of their dealers sells which of their products is impossible. I tried to find out where I could get some total brand chain to try...complete failure. They just gave me lists of participating tilton dealers and told me to call around...I got tired after about 10 calls. Some of their "dealers" were actually former dealers from several years ago who were pissed that I called.

There seems to be a lot of ex tilton dealers and it seems to be a growing trend.

2. Trying to find out details about the total chain was even harder, good thing I couldnt get my hands on any. After several phone calls and emails, I was told that it was made by oregon but was better because it was made to tilton's "stringent" standards--but couldn't get any answers about this either.

Do not bother with Tilton branded products, there is no reason. "Stringent standards", they were trying to make you laugh. They take what they can get the best deal on at the time and rebrand it.

Fast forward to this past week. I was at the local dealer, who is a combi stihl/jred dealer, picking up some new chain. He asks if I need to re-stock on two stroke oil. I see some new jonsered mix on the shelf (wasn't there a month or so ago). I ask if its synthetic, semi synthetic, etc, since the bottle says nothing. He says they didn't say anything, so it's probably straight dino. They're also like $8 for 6 one gal bottles, so the price is pretty cheap.

Get what you pay for. They are perfessional middle men.

Get home, try to find info online. Product isnt listed on the website. Try to call tilton. They have no idea about the oil. I ask them who their blender is. Person who answered the phone has no idea, she asks around, nobody knows. Finally I ask for an MSDS. They say what's that? I explain...the person pokes around...says she doesnt think they have those. I remind her that I think they are required to be available by law. Finally she finds one. I say ok, now who prepared the MSDS for you. She tells me. I call them, turns out the product is a synthetic blend oil....

Alco........

I call them back. They are wowed to learn that it is...

:hmm3grin2orange:

Is there some brain of the whole operation there who is behind 3 feet of lead???

No, maybe, what was the question.

Otherwise they're doing pretty damn good for a company that knows very very little about their products...

Thank goodness they do not actually manufacture anything can you image that mess.

"We made what? No, I do not think so. Really, we made it? Wow, well I guess so..."

Anyway, good luck there are some good people working for and with them. However they do seem a bit disfunctional quite often.

 

[MillwrightChris]

I mean i figure someone there must make it all work...they just stay far far away from the public? are dealers happy generally?

I know of one local dealer that stopped selling tiltons products over a saw that I purchased. It was a brand new jonsered 2165, I took it home put in gas/oil, couldn't get it to fire. Brought it back to the dealer the next day, they couldn't start it either. They did the right thing and asked if I wanted them to start tearing apart a brand new saw or just give me my money back (nothing else in stock) and order a new one for next week. Of course I opted for get me another saw. A couple days later the local rep stopped by and to their suprise told them they should have never taken the saw back and they'ed have to now fix the saw themselves and sell it as used or just eat it as a loss!!
Another local dealer I know put it like this "It's like they don't WANT me to sell their product"

 

[sweetjetskier]

I know of one local dealer that stopped selling tiltons products over a saw that I purchased. It was a brand new jonsered 2165, I took it home put in gas/oil, couldn't get it to fire. Brought it back to the dealer the next day, they couldn't start it either. They did the right thing and asked if I wanted them to start tearing apart a brand new saw or just give me my money back (nothing else in stock) and order a new one for next week. Of course I opted for get me another saw. A couple days later the local rep stopped by and to their suprise told them they should have never taken the saw back and they'ed have to now fix the saw themselves and sell it as used or just eat it as a loss!!
Another local dealer I know put it like this "It's like they don't WANT me to sell their product"

great, do i really want a new 2165?

sounds just like Permagreen fertilizer spreaders that i use, no recourse, you bought, oh well, m :censored:

 

[DUGs-sawshop]

Im a fairly new dealer with Tilton and hope they are not this bad. i have had nothing but great service with Tilton and the Jonsered brand. I have all the Jonsered mixing oil sizes in stock and thought they were dino oil because I have not heard any different until now. I will check this out tommorrow .
The Dolmar distributor on the other hand pretty much sucks but i deal with it because I love the brand. doug

 

[MillwrightChris]

great, do i really want a new 2165?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking the Jonsered brand. I've owned six of them and they've all been fine products which I've been quite happy with. This one in particular was just a lemon. Happens to the best of em.

 

[mikefunaro]

To tell you the truth, the funniest part of my conversations with them was when I called them back and told them it was a synthetic blend. They started asking ME questions about THEIR product...what percentage synthetic it was and what the benefits of that were.

I wanted to be like yo, you gotto give me a free saw before I can tell you that...

but really, how the hell did they hook up with American Lubricants, and then not take down any info???

 

[PB]

I agree with you Mike that they should know, but oil and chain is not Tilton's bread and butter. They don't manufacture the chain or oil so I can't expect them to know everything about it other than it is a good product. Total chain is basically the same thing as Woodland Pro, Laser or any other re-branded chain. They buy what is cheapest and package it in their own box. Total chain isn't anything exceptional, last I bought was rebadged Windsor chain that is based on the OLD Oregon cutter design. Good chain, just nothing special. As for the oil, I use it a lot and don't have any problems with it. The only place I can usually find it is smaller outfits that only carry a handful of saws. The Jonsered, Stihl, Echo, Husqvarna dealer up in Lincoln only sells Stihl oil primarily.

They probably only carry oil and chains for small shops so they don't have to open accounts at several places to get everything they need. I have had many experiences with Tilton and have nothing but good things to say about them. I spent 20 minutes talking old Jonsereds to Dan Tilton at the expo last year. He knew his #### and what his dealers were carrying. He was able to rattle off half dozen dealers that specialized in old Jonny parts.

I am willing to bet that you are the first person to ask someone at Tilton what is in their oil.

 

[Honkie]

I have never had a problem ordering from them (place orders atleast once a week).

Besides, thats where I get all my Tsumura bars from. Their semi chisel chain is a mix of windsor and carlton, and their chisel chain has been carlton magna-chisel.


Kris

 

[Keen]

I have not been a dealer very long, but I have not had any problems. My rep just lives 20 minutes from me and was real helpful getting me set up. As far as the oil questions go. They have a tech line for dealers and I would hope that tech support would know about their oil. If you talked to tech and they did not know, I agree they should know.

 

[TRI955]

I will say that their web site sucks, very little useful information on there.

 

[knockbill]

1. Trying to find out which of their dealers sells which of their products is impossible. I tried to find out where I could get some total brand chain to try...complete failure. They just gave me lists of participating tilton dealers and told me to call around...I got tired after about 10 calls. Some of their "dealers" were actually former dealers from several years ago who were pissed that I called.

2. Trying to find out details about the total chain was even harder, good thing I couldnt get my hands on any. After several phone calls and emails, I was told that it was made by oregon but was better because it was made to tilton's "stringent" standards--but couldn't get any answers about this either.

mike, i don't know about teh oil, but teh total chain i got was from a website,,, i had a couple posts about it last month or so, and found it is made by windsor/oregon in canada... someone also said that teh dealers won't be carrying it if they have windsor or oregon labled chain, so maybe tilton stopped making it??? possibly i just got some old stock from teh website?? i don't know....

 

[mikefunaro]

It's good to hear that they take care of at least some of their dealers.

I realize that this isn't the end of the world that they don't know about some of their products; however I do not believe the consumer should have to dig and dig for some basic information.

My concern is that if nobody there really knows much about the products they're selling, and doesn't really care too much about the product, then the quality of their branded items will likely go to crap in time. If the private labeling manufacturers figure out that that tilton isn't even advertising the fact that the oil they're supply is a synthetic blend, and that the end user doesn't know, why would they keep supplying it?

If nobody is watching, corners get cut...

 

[eyolf]

I think some of the neg rep here is a bit misplaced. I worked for an OPE distributor 30 years ago, and I doubt if some of the basics have changed a whole lot.

I was the parts and service mgr and would have been the guy to answer those kinds of questions, and we just never got them. There was maybe one consumer call a month, and most of the time it was some cheapskate looking to weasel around a local dealer on parts or even whole goods.

I'm not surprised the oil is a synth blend: no Dino oil will meet the current low-smoke standards, so few blenders are marketing a pure dino product. I imagine its just a standard blend at whoever gives Tilton the best deal at the time.

Chains? Bars? I think that's getting to be a crapshoot with Oregon/Blount more or less the last man standing in N. America. Some Tilton Chain was Carlton years ago, and a local to me dealer wouldn't carry it because he got better service from Carlton. The Tsumura bars are great, but many dealers won't stock them because they can make better markup and get next-day (or even occasionally same-day) service on Oregon.



Somebody there does know about all that stuff, but you got the girl at the desk who doesn't even know where to put the oil in on a chainsaw. The staff is geared to deal with a few hundred dealers, not a few million consumers.
And, like it or not, the folks like us that are knowledgeable aren't all that common in the general consumer base.

 

[spike60]

Mike; You're being a little hard on those folks. The big question here is who did you talk to? There are certainly people there who are very knowledgeable and could answer all of your questions in a lot of detail. They have a small, but very sharp tech staff, however they do not have the time to field calls from consumers and are not available to the general public.

If you just got the girls in the office, their primary responsibility is to take dealer orders. They are good at what they do, but are not geared towards product and tech issues with consumers. Keep in mind, as a wholesale distribution company, the entire operation is focused on supplying dealers, not dealing with consumers anyway. They are not a retail organization. Whenever I call, the first thing they ask for is my dealer number.