Stihl being sold in box stores now.

[OM617YOTA]

Best part about living where I live is logging saw shops that both support and work on both Stihl and Husqvarna saws.

Wood's Logging Supply and Madsen's Logging and Saw Supply are both badass...

Ever since the local mower and Stihl saw shop closed after the owner passed and the family closed the business, the local to me Ace Hardware took over Stihl sales and support. They are doing a pretty dang good job of it too.

Gary

Agreed, thankful to have lots of good saw shops in the area. Half the traffic on the road when I'm driving to work at 6am is log trucks.

Really like your signature, too.

 

[Lawless]

I know all about James River, I use the Burkeville location, they seem fair to deal with. Stihl Corporate I have problems with,though. I don't think I can order parts from my local Ace, their main store is in Roanoke I think. The local Ace doesn't offer service. I have started buying Echo again, 2511t and 3510 saws. Planning on a backpack blower, that will be Echo as well.

The James River here has an abysmal reputation. You don’t see any green tractors in the area at all unless they’re old or very large/specialty tractors.

The Kubota dealer has a fantastic reputation. Orange tractors everywhere you look up here. I’m a customer and will recommend them to everyone.

 

[Lawless]

About the time I was ending my time as a Snapon dealer, there was an announcement that some Snapon branded items were going to be sold in some retail stores. Gloves, utility knives and small things like that.

Market penetration blah blah.

I had a few people bring me a few of those items and want them to be replaced under warranty. They were upset when I showed them that they weren’t covered by any warranty except by the store they purchased them from.

Although I understand the corporate thinking, I do not agree with cheapening a professional brand by selling “licensed” products that are not up to professional standards. In the case of Rural King and the like selling Stihl and Lowes selling Husqvarna it probably hurts the brand overall while increasing profit.

I cannot tell you how many people have told me about their bad experience with Cub Cadet, Husqvarna or John Deere and after asking a few more questions you find that they were purchased at a big box store. I would hate if Stihl began to suffer the same reputation.

 

[wildwes]

About the time I was ending my time as a Snapon dealer, there was an announcement that some Snapon branded items were going to be sold in some retail stores. Gloves, utility knives and small things like that.

Market penetration blah blah.

I had a few people bring me a few of those items and want them to be replaced under warranty. They were upset when I showed them that they weren’t covered by any warranty except by the store they purchased them from.

Although I understand the corporate thinking, I do not agree with cheapening a professional brand by selling “licensed” products that are not up to professional standards. In the case of Rural King and the like selling Stihl and Lowes selling Husqvarna it probably hurts the brand overall while increasing profit.

I cannot tell you how many people have told me about their bad experience with Cub Cadet, Husqvarna or John Deere and after asking a few more questions you find that they were purchased at a big box store. I would hate if Stihl began to suffer the same reputation.

I personally believe that they probably will, given some time.

 

[sean donato]

About the time I was ending my time as a Snapon dealer, there was an announcement that some Snapon branded items were going to be sold in some retail stores. Gloves, utility knives and small things like that.

Market penetration blah blah.

I had a few people bring me a few of those items and want them to be replaced under warranty. They were upset when I showed them that they weren’t covered by any warranty except by the store they purchased them from.

Although I understand the corporate thinking, I do not agree with cheapening a professional brand by selling “licensed” products that are not up to professional standards. In the case of Rural King and the like selling Stihl and Lowes selling Husqvarna it probably hurts the brand overall while increasing profit.

I cannot tell you how many people have told me about their bad experience with Cub Cadet, Husqvarna or John Deere and after asking a few more questions you find that they were purchased at a big box store. I would hate if Stihl began to suffer the same reputation.

Some of them arnt just big box store sales. My wife grandmother bought a new deere mower from the local deere dealer last year. It's a total pos. Flimsy, flexible frame, tiny little belt driven transmission. It's mows nice and turns tighter then the old stuff. That's all I can say nice about it. Had to buy the rear hitch separately and it's all thin stamped steel. The stupid thing doesn't have enough weight to pull her yard cart when it's full. She should have let me fix her 110 up for her.

 

[RedneckChainsawRepair]

While traveling I saw = Stihl dealer inside the Case dealership. So besides the JD and Kubota ones local. Case now too.

 

[wildwes]

While traveling I saw = Stihl dealer inside the Case dealership. So besides the JD and Kubota ones local. Case now too.

We have one of those here too, about 10 miles from where I work.

 

[Lawless]

Some of them arnt just big box store sales. My wife grandmother bought a new deere mower from the local deere dealer last year. It's a total pos. Flimsy, flexible frame, tiny little belt driven transmission. It's mows nice and turns tighter then the old stuff. That's all I can say nice about it. Had to buy the rear hitch separately and it's all thin stamped steel. The stupid thing doesn't have enough weight to pull her yard cart when it's full. She should have let me fix her 110 up for her.

In 2005 I bought a JD265 garden tractor from an estate that had less than 500 hours, from the 90s. It was hydro and wore a 46” deck, I also got the heavy JD garden trailer and pinestraw rake. There were filters and oil with it too, it was in excellent shape. It was wonderfully built, heavy and solid…and is where the reputation came from. I sold it a couple of years ago to a pastor locally who still uses it today.

I am a Toro fan now and my Zmaster is a testament that some companies still do it right. Same with Kubota, they don’t make low cost low quality products.

I have seen the crud painted green sold now that is marketed to price buyers and it is abysmal. The zero turn mowers at Lowes/HD and such are even more laughable.

Most manufacturers have decided to have many tiers of quality to garner market share. Time will tell how it plays out but there are reasons certain brands used to be considered the best. Now when someone tells me that their xxx is a POS I usually find it was a low tier price point item. It hurts reputation in my view.

The Snapon/Bluepoint dynamic is how it should be done. BP is lower priced with less features but is still lifetime warranty and excellent quality. There certainly is a place for MS250s (I use mine more than any other saw) but a Stihl at the price point and quality of a Wild Thing would be a death knell for the brand. I hope they do not go there.

 

[lone wolf]

In 2005 I bought a JD265 garden tractor from an estate that had less than 500 hours, from the 90s. It was hydro and wore a 46” deck, I also got the heavy JD garden trailer and pinestraw rake. There were filters and oil with it too, it was in excellent shape. It was wonderfully built, heavy and solid…and is where the reputation came from. I sold it a couple of years ago to a pastor locally who still uses it today.

I am a Toro fan now and my Zmaster is a testament that some companies still do it right. Same with Kubota, they don’t make low cost low quality products.

I have seen the crud painted green sold now that is marketed to price buyers and it is abysmal. The zero turn mowers at Lowes/HD and such are even more laughable.

Most manufacturers have decided to have many tiers of quality to garner market share. Time will tell how it plays out but there are reasons certain brands used to be considered the best. Now when someone tells me that their xxx is a POS I usually find it was a low tier price point item. It hurts reputation in my view.

The Snapon/Bluepoint dynamic is how it should be done. BP is lower priced with less features but is still lifetime warranty and excellent quality. There certainly is a place for MS250s (I use mine more than any other saw) but a Stihl at the price point and quality of a Wild Thing would be a death knell for the brand. I hope they do not go there.

The Toro ZMaster is heavy duty for sure.

 

[Moonbat]

I owned a Stihl dealership for 20 years or so and I witnessed the demise of the independent servicing dealers firsthand. Although Stihl kept saying we were one big happy family and they would never allow their product to be sold by non servicing dealers we all know now Stihl was blowing smoke up our asses. Yes, they would require stores to offer service and units were supposed to be demonstrated and started before they left the building but I know for a fact that didn't always happen if the one person at a big store who knew how to go over the procedure wasn't there at the time a sale was made. In the time that I was in business I went from having the only Stihl shop in my rural area to having two JD dealers selling Stihl, one Farm and Fleet store, a Theisen's and an Ace hardware store all withing a few miles or less of me. I never really made any money on selling new Stilh units - about 10% if I was lucky but you still needed the dollar volume to get free shipping and reach that 10% level.
And someone commented that their dealer told them that pro saws only had a 90 day warranty even if used by a homeowner and that is (or was) true. Stihl's view on that was that very few homeowners bought pro units for themselves and in order to avoid people claiming they were not using them professionally when they in fact were they just had the policy that prevented that being a distinction. I never recall that being a problem as nearly every warranty case I dealt with was something that would occur the first few times the unit was used.
Good topic - one that really hit home with me!

 

[Seachaser]

There's a chain of "fleet farm" style stores around here called "Runnings" that have sold Stihl since they started opening stores in the area.

Frankly I don't know what the big deal about "can't service them" is. Neither can the "small dealers." Well, in their cases, they just don't WANT to. You walk in to the dusty, poorly lit lean-to scabbed on to the front of an old cow barn, and there's an old man sitting in a chair reading a newspaper. Doesn't even acknowledge you. You stand there. Nothing. You look at the three saws he has on the shelf. He turns the page. You stand at the parts counter. He reaches out and takes a sip of his coffee. You say "Morning" and if you're lucky, you'll get a curt "Morning" back. Time to leave. It's clear your business is neither wanted nor needed.

I have not found one that isn't like that. It's clear that these "dealerships" only exist as a place for the owner to "hold court" with his cronies, act like a big shot because he's a big time Stihl dealer. If you aren't in the club, you don't get a chainsaw.

The Stihl counter at Runnings on the other hand, someone is either at the desk, or appears out of the woodwork if you venture into the area. Ready to help. Knowledgeable about the product, or willing to look something up for you.

Stihl HAD to do something. Stubbornly sticking to their "small local dealer" business model was going to be the end for them once all the old Stihl zealots die off here in a few years.

Mines not like that at all. Even if he has a customer, he’ll yell at a new customer and tell him something like look around, I’ll be with you in a minute. Or holler if you see something you like.