So I had to run out to Home Depot last night for a yard project, and wandered through their chainsaw aisle to see what was up. There were a bunch of returned saws marked down in price. This morning I stopped at a different Home Depot near my office for more yard crap, and saw the same thing. At least 5-10 returned/markdown saws at each store.
I am guessing people grabbed the saws when Irene hit, used them, and then returned them within the allowed window. That seems real cheesy to me -- like basically a free chainsaw rental at Home Depot's expense. Most of the saws were still dirty, and had obviously been put to hard use, but I did see one that looked brand new.
The prices were marked down to 2/3 of retail from what I could tell, but the saws had "refurb" scratched into the case with an engraving tool. Not sure what that implies for warranty/etc. Some of the saws were junk models, but there were a few decent Echos in the mix.
Anyway, that left a bad taste in my mouth -- not only that a customer would behave that way, but that these saws were pretty much tossed aside.
My local Stihl/Echo dealer has had a big sign up near their cash register since Irene, saying something like "all sales final on hurricane purchases". Now I know why. I bet they learned that lesson on a previous storm.
I am guessing people grabbed the saws when Irene hit, used them, and then returned them within the allowed window. That seems real cheesy to me -- like basically a free chainsaw rental at Home Depot's expense. Most of the saws were still dirty, and had obviously been put to hard use, but I did see one that looked brand new.
The prices were marked down to 2/3 of retail from what I could tell, but the saws had "refurb" scratched into the case with an engraving tool. Not sure what that implies for warranty/etc. Some of the saws were junk models, but there were a few decent Echos in the mix.
Anyway, that left a bad taste in my mouth -- not only that a customer would behave that way, but that these saws were pretty much tossed aside.
My local Stihl/Echo dealer has had a big sign up near their cash register since Irene, saying something like "all sales final on hurricane purchases". Now I know why. I bet they learned that lesson on a previous storm.