warranty service expectations?

[CR888]

'If you teach a man to fish'...why don't we teach the OP to use his little screwdriver tuning thingie and then he can keep the saw in tune throughout its service life. Driving all the way to a dealer for a 1/4 turn of the L speed seems silly. I thought sites like this were to help folks avoid silly trips to the dealer. The less one has to rely on a dealer, the better their chain sawing life will be.

 

[Rockjock]

Yeah, how old is that fuel in the gas can? What if the fresh gas/blow didn't work, and you had to take apart the carb?

See post number 14.

 

[Rockjock]

'If you teach a man to fish'...why don't we teach the OP to use his little screwdriver tuning thingie and then he can keep the saw in tune throughout its service life. Driving all the way to a dealer for a 1/4 turn of the L speed seems silly. I thought sites like this were to help folks avoid silly trips to the dealer. The less one has to rely on a dealer, the better their chain sawing life will be.

Silly is assuming that it IS 1/4 turn of the L speed needle. Bob homeowner has had this saw for years.. never adjusted a thing. So now it starts to give him an issue and he starts messing with settings.. Oh look he went too lean... When all he needed was the carb to be cleaned/kitted . I can not tell you how many saws come in with unmolested carbs on 10, 20 and 30 year old saws. A fellow I knew in Germany would take a carb, clean it and kit it. Then run it as is. His theory was ran great for 15 years with these settings so who change that? IF it did not run right it would take a bath for 2-3 cycles and repeat. Then if it still was an issue it got a new carb. If under warranty then its covered. So why take the chance of making a mistake.

 

[HarleyT]

See post number 14.

I did.

That is why I asked "How much would you charge"?

For a carb rebuild , on a newish, under warranty, MS170, that is not "warrantable"?

Just curious.

The one dealership I worked for, the huge one in Louisville, would have expected me, as a tech under their employ,
to charge them full, regular price, and yet be "diplomatic"............

Of course, if the customer happened to be a friend of the owner, or the Gen. Manager, well, that would "be different".......


But, also, they would jump my arse, at the end of the month, if my Labor sales numbers were not as high as the other
mechanics that worked on the big mowers.

So it is just a simple question. Just wondering what you all charge....

 

[davhul]

Say it been sitting since last winter and it came in not starting and the gas in it burns your nose then it gets a carb. Carb $30 and $25 labor. Book says $35 labor. Really it's a 5 min job.
If fuel line and other stuff are needed then price goes up.

 

[Rockjock]

I did.

That is why I asked "How much would you charge"?

For a carb rebuild , on a newish, under warranty, MS170, that is not "warrantable"?

Just curious.

The one dealership I worked for, the huge one in Louisville, would have expected me, as a tech under their employ,
to charge them full, regular price, and yet be "diplomatic"............

Of course, if the customer happened to be a friend of the owner, or the Gen. Manager, well, that would "be different".......


But, also, they would jump my arse, at the end of the month, if my Labor sales numbers were not as high as the other
mechanics that worked on the big mowers.

So it is just a simple question. Just wondering what you all charge....

Sorry i had thought I had posted some pricing.. looking at my price list it would be 10-15.00 for a carb kit and about 35-45.00 for labor/ultrasonic cleaning But if it needs a new carb...
$64.00 for the carb and 25.00 labor ( have to try and make it palatable for the customer ) The owner also looks at the general condition of the saw and adjust prices as he sees fit. We have 1 customer that has several MS 250's that are held together with duct tape and rubber bands but he is willing to pay as they are what he uses for his business. I just wish we had cheap parts like the guys in the states have!!! We would be rebuilding a great many more saws than we are!
I have found you have to try and meet the customer in the middle in such circumstances. It is silly to take a business and cut it up into sections or departments. 1 department will do very well while another one does not.. but in the end all the monies go into the same pocket. This season we were mad crazy on plow installs. But right now it is quite slow, snowblower rush is over.. it is not snowing so the plow guys are in a holding pattern and most of the techs are caught up. So you keep everyone busy because you know once spring arrives we are blasted with mowers, and trimmers that the customer left gas in at the end of last season.. You also have the sales, parts, service, it makes for busy times and slow times.
We also get equipment brought to us from other dealers that stated it was not cost effective to repair. So we take a look and give the customer a fair price to do that repair. Drop the price on labor just to make the customer happy and gain a new customer.

 

[Rockjock]

Say it been sitting since last winter and it came in not starting and the gas in it burns your nose then it gets a carb. Carb $30 and $25 labor. Book says $35 labor. Really it's a 5 min job.
If fuel line and other stuff are needed then price goes up.

I recall many years back my dad knew a bloke that was a mechanic and the whole " book " thing came into effect. My dad said he friend refused to go by this book as many times he could do the work quicker than this book said it would take.. so he scrapped the book concept and got so busy that he had to open 3 more garages. He and his 2 sons became very very wealthy from doing the right thing. We charge for a job by how much time it actually takes not by what a book tells us. Now saying that we had a case where a bolt was so badly corroded it took an extra hour to get this motor removed.. part of doing business the boss said... I took a car in for repair one time, would not start, power lock did not work nothing.. mechanic took 3 hours to figure out it was a fuse.. The excuse was we do not deal with imports, they are tricky.. in the end the " book " stated 1 hour labor and a fuse... cursed was the day they embraced this book.

 

[HarleyT]

Just have "Been there, done that" on dealing with customers screaming "warranty". Just curious on how your dealership handles the issue.
I remember once in the 1990s, I sold a nice new Shindaiwa to a woman, a hard sell in an area that never heard of Shindaiwa, she bought it for her husband. She brought it back a few days later, raising holy hell.
While she was standing there biatching, I was listening, and I put a clean jar on the counter, and dumped out the fuel tank of the saw into her jar, the jar showed clearly the 1 inch layer of dirty water.
That is why I asked, and I asked about "what if" the Ms170, a $179.99 chainsaw new.

 

[Rockjock]

Just have "Been there, done that" on dealing with customers screaming "warranty". Just curious on how your dealership handles the issue.
I remember once in the 1990s, I sold a nice new Shindaiwa to a woman, a hard sell in an area that never heard of Shindaiwa, she bought it for her husband. She brought it back a few days later, raising holy hell.
While she was standing there biatching, I was listening, and I put a clean jar on the counter, and dumped out the fuel tank of the saw into her jar, the jar showed clearly the 1 inch layer of dirty water.
That is why I asked, and I asked about "what if" the Ms170, a $179.99 chainsaw new.

Warranty does not cover fuel related issues and many times that is the issue. So we educate the customer on fuel and many times sell them Motomix. The 4L ( 1 Gal ) can will last them the whole season and part of the next. Our canned fuel sales have gone way up! To the point we order far more than we ever did. I recently secured a contract to supply the emergency response services with Aspen for the generators and Motomix for the quick cuts and rescue saws. The hope is that we can also secure the maintenance agreements as well.