My Stihl Dealer is Absolutely Horrible. I'm Done.

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Spacemule is 100% correct in his earlier posts.

The OP has unrealistic expectations, a short fuse, and very little saw knowledge. Basically an immature fool prone to flipping out with little provocation. (As his reaction to this post will no doubt confirm) Peeling out of the lot, unloading on the guy in ShopRite and then your wife? J-E-R-K!

Can't think of many dealers that would be happy to see you arrive, no matter how much coffee and donuts you bring with you. Especially a guy who buys the expensive stuff online, and pesters the dealer for nickel and dime parts and free advice.

Only a REALLY good saw shop with a VERY experienced tech could have a conversation about modding saws. It would have to be a place where there's some enthusiasm for saw performance beyond the usual "we just sell 'em the way they are" lawn and garden store. There's not too many of them out there. Sure there are plenty of moronic dealers, but just because a shop isn't into performance tuning or "playing" with saws, it doesn't brand them as idiots. There are plenty of real good shops that are pretty much "by the book". It's not fair to knock them because they don't share our enthusiast perspective on chainsaws.

Thank you, Spacemule and Spike60 for writing the words right out of my thoughts, LOL.

Sam

Sam
 
the only thing i complain about my dealer is that everything i need they have to order it because they don't carry anything in stock, even common size chains,, i did find another dealer and he has carried everything ,,so far,, that i have needed
 
By this time, he saw the look on my face. I had completely shut down and had this look like WHAT ARE YOU FKN KIDDING ME GUY?!?!?! As he finished his sentence, I stood there fuming mad, in dead silence, in utter disbelief that I was getting dismissed like this. Is he kidding me? A risk? I'm building my own saw, porting it out, and obviously building a very custom piece.....blatently obvious that I know what I'm doing.

After about 5 seconds of dead air, (which is a long time in conversation - think about it) he puts the JD parts on the counter and says, "Will that be all? You're total comes to" blah blah blah....

I squared up with him, and walked out without wasting another breath. I then had to hold myself back from laying my 35" BFG AT's all over his parking lot as I rattled his windows with dual Flowmasters and rather politely tore out of the place.

I was completely furious that I just finally decided to give these idiots the benefit of the doubt, only to get slapped back down by outright lunacy. It honestly took me about an hour to calm down. I feel bad for the poor Hindu at the ShopRight register that checked me out on my way home, buying some groceries for dinner. I gave her the $hittiest attitude...

Based on the above quote and knowing nothing else about the poster, I would think the OP is either really short, on steroids, has an extremely low self-esteem and goes overboard to "macho it up" as a cover-up or has some serious temper issues or a mix of them.

Its is clear he has no idea what he is doing with modding saws, which he falsely stated that he did, and then later stated that he didn't.

Amazing,

Sam
 
We're not permitted by Stihl to modify, alter, customize their product in anyway.
We're suppose to only use Stihl OEM parts, that includes sprockets, bars and chain
this is due to the fact that Stihl is sued for hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

It's a very rare thing when people come and want more performance out of their saw.

The first thing I suggest is running a sharp chain and thorough servicing

If it's a professional guy with a saw, I'll suggest the new HD2 air filter and the OEM
dual port muffler cover.

If that doesn't work it's time to buy a bigger saw.
 
Honestly, I don't see what he did to tick you off. You asked him a question that he didn't know the answer. Matter of fact, I wouldn't expect 99% of dealers to know anything other than stock. They're not even allowed to modify them. Then, on top of that, there are no needles in a saw carb. The funny thing is, I told you the same thing in the PM you sent me. Most all of us use the stock carb. It works just fine on a ported saw. You went at this whole thing with some false assumptions and then got mad when you didn't get the answers you wanted.
 
My local Husqvarna dealer swears Husky only sells XP oil in the single serving bottles, and that "there is no way I could accurately measure out 2.6 oz of oil" if I bought it by the quart. My response: "well If I cant do it how can they? And how do you know what is in the bottle is REALLY 2.6 oz?" The same dealer is sure that the presence of ANY ethanol will immediately blow ANY saw up regardless of tune. I also got a strange look when I mentioned the 372XPW has a bigger bore than the XP version. To be fair all of these statements came from their main counterWOMAN. :D

OP Id say that in reality you probably dont have it as bad as you might think...although I can certainly understand your frustration.
 
Ours is a family run shop, and my mother is the counter women and I see her put cocky SOB's like you
in their place on regular basis.

Thats fine but it is quite obvious that this woman doesnt know #### about saws... I doubt she has ever even started one.
 
Thanks guys. I appreciate the smack back to reality. I know I over reacted at the store and probably also while I was writing my original post. I know I have alot of learning to do yet, and if I don't screw up from time to time, I'm not gonna learn anything. So I'll take this constructively and keep pushing through this project. I do appreciate all the info I've gotten on this forum and I'll be using learnings from many different posts to help me out. And whatever new info I pick up during the build, I'll be glad to put back into the forum to do my part.

I apologize for coming off as a complete d-bag - it was not my intention and I'm not like that. Just having a bad day I guess......
 
Lots of men can't do what you just did, and not so sure I would have responded as you have. I've stepped on myself too many times here myself. I always get in trouble when I start a thread to complain about something. I hope I've learned that lesson!
 
Lots of men can't do what you just did, and not so sure I would have responded as you have. I've stepped on myself too many times here myself. I always get in trouble when I start a thread to complain about something. I hope I've learned that lesson!

Thanks man. I'll always own it when I screw something up. And yes, I too have now learned not to step on myself!
 
Ours is a family run shop, and my mother is the counter women and I see her put cocky SOB's like you
in their place on regular basis.

I dont see how this guy said anything to her that was cocky.

I dont really care what the gender of the person behind the counter is. However, a family type shop near me has turned into the main guy sitting on his ass in the back room doing nothing (he can be seen staring at the wall) while his wife knows NOTHING about any of what she is selling.
 
I remember my local Dolmar dealer freaked out when I wanted to grind the trim tabs of the carb on my 5105. Oh well I did it anyway, muffler modded it, and now it runs much better.
 
The one dealer that I buy most of my saws at had a John Deere dealer take Stihl a few miles away. When looking for anything Stihl, you have to wait for the parts guy to get free to have anyone wait on you, the Deere salesmen just stay at their desks, that hurts their Stihl
sales right there.
When a Stihl dealer needs any technical help, they are instructed to call the tech at the distributor. And if the question is on anything older
than a few years old, they will tell the dealer to sell the guy a new unit. Ask them about setting the points on an 031, you just get silence.
As far as any modifying, don't even think about it.

At any dealer of any size, he is not going to be thrilled with his best mechanic getting his brain picked by a walk in looking for free advice,
so that is another thing to think about.

The big dealership I worked at in Louisville, the sales and parts guys would go out and smoke every 15 minutes, and since I prefer to be outside while I worked, they would always talk to me, the owner would walk by, he would be mad at me, not the 4 guys bugging me.

When they had a customer with a problem or two that needed advice, the sales guys would grab me real quick, because they didn't know
anything, I would come out, give him some real quick responses, go back to the shop, the owner would be mad there too.

In short, almost never will you find that the guy behind the counter knows much of anything, OH, he may be able to shovel some terminology
around, but you won't get much of anything useful.

Wander around the back fence and strike up a conversation with the tech tuning a saw on the bench, go back around lunch, take him to McDonalds, that will get you more knowledge and help from that day on. Need a flywheel pulled quick, a used part out of their junk pile,
etc. Make friends with that guy, but don't use up the company's time, buying a few hamburgers will get you more than you think.

If it is a one man shop, bring him and his wife some lunch, yak it up, etc..
 
If you mention modifying parts at almost all the dealers I am familiar with they will not help you in any way other than restoring the saw to OEM, especially in the last year. .

Agreed.

Frankly, im not too sure why you're so pissed at the dealer. Did he go above and beyond? No - but he did things by the book, which ultimately is what Stihl wants from their dealers. He's not a 'off market modification builder' so im not sure what you were expecting? :confused:

EDIT: Sorry, I didnt read the whole way through the thread, looks like several other people already noted this & the OP has since manned up, so its all good.


Now, if you want a bad DOLMAR dealer, I know just the one for you!! :)
 
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Thanks guys. I appreciate the smack back to reality. I know I over reacted at the store and probably also while I was writing my original post. I know I have alot of learning to do yet, and if I don't screw up from time to time, I'm not gonna learn anything. So I'll take this constructively and keep pushing through this project. I do appreciate all the info I've gotten on this forum and I'll be using learnings from many different posts to help me out. And whatever new info I pick up during the build, I'll be glad to put back into the forum to do my part.

I apologize for coming off as a complete d-bag - it was not my intention and I'm not like that. Just having a bad day I guess......

Well got Midol under the counter here, if that doesn't work we got a mean ole german shepard by the counter, if he can't get it done we got a Louisville Slugger on the counter,:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
 

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