A (sort of) Simple Plan

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Rspike said:
coveredinsap & Thall :cheers: Its all good brother men , its all good .

Spike dayumm your ole hide, I want you at my rack. I need to sell you a saw just to show ya how ole daddy does it. Where you live man????
 
Big Woody said:
Are you guys saying I have to take my dealer bashing and go find a new thread?:rockn:

Big you aren't taking a bashing, you my freind are getting some peace. I think Sap and me and everyone else have decided hell we can fuss about something new now, that utter story was getting old. Hows the saw sales doing in your area??????? (yep I said utter instead of other, thats my fancy typing a bill la ties,hehe)
 
THALL10326 said:
Spike dayumm your ole hide, I want you at my rack. I need to sell you a saw just to show ya how ole daddy does it. Where you live man????
Nebraska , U know ..........where all the trees are , ha . The big difference in trees here is they have there own space so they grow fat and wide . You might get 4- 10 foot of trunk before the spread. Our trees look like an octopus comming out of the ground. Alright ..... not that bad but you get the idea . Buy the way THALL ...........If its ok to say on this board ..........I would like to see your rack , Ha ! Tho i already have 3 Husqvarna and a new 359 on the way I'm looking for a 660 that i dont really need. I thought it would keep the other saw "in-line". When i take my 372XP out to the woods "most" of the trees get scared and just fall down but its that other 10% that put up a fight. :cheers:
 
Big Woody said:
I thought I was giving a bashing, not taking one. I guess I'll have to work on my drunken pirate dialect.

hahhahahahahaha, I'm rolling here Woody,hahahahahaha, that was good,hahahaha
 
Rspike said:
Nebraska , U know ..........where all the trees are , ha . The big difference in trees here is they have there own space so they grow fat and wide . You might get 4- 10 foot of trunk before the spread. Our trees look like an octopus comming out of the ground. Alright ..... not that bad but you get the idea . Buy the way THALL ...........If its ok to say on this board ..........I would like to see your rack , Ha ! Tho i already have 3 Husqvarna and a new 359 on the way I'm looking for a 660 that i dont really need. I thought it would keep the other saw "in-line". When i take my 372XP out to the woods "most" of the trees get scared and just fall down buts its that other 10% that put up a fight. :cheers:


Well Spike I just checked my law book, I am Judge Roy Hall ya know. Says right here you gots to get on a plane and come to Dulles airport so I can pick ya up and take ya to the rack. If ya don't show up by the time I'm 90 then by joe your in for it,haha. Your Huskies seem to serve you well but even so thats no excuse to break the law and not come to my rack, ya hear me,hahaha
 
Part II

(continued from Part I)

I bought the saw on a Thursday. The Stihl broke on a Saturday afternoon, which was when I had finally got around to reading the entire manual and getting it set up with the Granberg Mill. The Stihl dealership where I bought the saw was of course closed for the weekend by that time, so there was nothing I could do until Monday. I put the saw in the garage exactly as it was with the mill attached, to preserve the 'evidence' so to speak, and figured that there would be no problem returning the defective saw, having read somewhere about Stihl's purported '7-day no questions asked return policy'. Now, keep in mind that this is a saw that I had just shelled out over $500 for, and I had been using large pieces of cardboard to set it on while using it so as not to scratch it up. This was my 'baby'.

stihl-husky6.jpg


Monday rolls around, and at about 10AM I'm back at the same Stihl dealership explaining to the same salesman who was there when I bought the saw about what had occurred. It didn't take more than about 30 seconds before I knew where this conversation was headed just by the look on his face and his mannerisms...it was all my fault. With statements such as; "I'll have to call the factory." "This probably qualifies as an illegal modification." "The 7-day return policy doesn't cover illegal modifications to the saw" and other similar statements, the salesman abruptly handed me a service ticket and indicated that I was to take the saw with me and "he'd get back to me". Of course that was entirely unacceptable.

I asked him if this was the level of 'service' that I was paying extra for, and he indicated that "This isn't a box store". "I know it isn't", I replied, "at 'box stores' they actually accept returns of defective goods...evidently you folks don't". I asked him if I could speak to the owner. "He's out of town this week" (How convenient.) "Let's call Stihl right now and ask them about it" I said. "I'm busy now" he replied, even though there was only one other customer in the store....who was being helped by the other salesman. "Let me have Stihl's phone number and I'll call them right now" I said. "No, that's not allowed" he replied. "When are you going to call them?", I asked. "I don't know" he said, "sometime in the next few days". "That's entirely f***ing unacceptable" I said. He shrugged his shoulders as if to say 'so what?', and went back to aimlessly shuffling papers behind the counter.

Now, to turn a phrase....while I might have been born at night, it certainly wasn't last night. I've seen this type of salesman antics before...but normally when dealing with used cars. This guy had no intention whatsoever of calling Stihl...not now or ever, about this saw. His plan was for me to go home with the saw, and after a few days he'd call me up and tell me (sadly) some made-up story about Stihl rejecting the return and/or refusing to honor the warranty. I expected more than this from a Stihl dealership, but evidently I wasn't going to get it.

At this point I told him that not only did I not want the saw, or have anything else to do with it...the saw was his, and I wanted my money back. He just looked at me. At just about that time a lady customer had walked into the store. I turned to her and said something like "Run away, run away fast". She could see the saw on the floor, and had heard enough of the converstaion to know what was going on. "I haven't had a problem with them...yet" she said to me. And with that the Stihl salesman said something like "Fine, I'll return your money right now...give me your credit card...and get that thing off of there" (meaning remove the Alaskan Mill from the saw). "No problem", I said. With that the salesman grudgingly refunded my money, and I thanked him and left the store.

The point of this whole story is that simply by immediately offering to replace the defective saw, the salesman could have turned a bad experience into a good one...and created a loyal customer in the process. Or even by offering to refund my money or give me credit toward a different model saw...my choice. Virtually anything would have been better then what he did do, which was to immediately try to pin the blame on me and refuse to stand behind his product. Now, I can't say whether all Stihl dealerships are run this way, but suffice it to say that I'm not in a hurry to find out anytime soon.

Besides, I actually like getting a product in an unopened box and reading the instructions and putting it together myself, rather than having some schmuck i don't know 'coon-finger' (you know...paw it up like a racoon), my brand new $500 saw exactly like this Stihl salesman did. After all, I'm the one who's going to be taking it apart to do maintenance on it anyways, so I might as well get familiar with it from the get-go. But thats just me...I imagine that some folks like having a dealer hold their hand when they make a purchase... I'm just not one of them.

stihl-husky3.jpg


So what did I end up with? I immediately went to the Husqvarna dealer in the area...a local lumber store, and picked up a new in-the-box Husky 455 Rancher with a 20" guide bar, along with an extra 24" Husqvarna-marked (Oregon?) bar for the Alaskan Mill (3/8 .050) rip chain that I previously purchased from Granberg to fit the Stihl MS390. The 455 Husky has to be IMHO the most underrated saw around this forum, although the Husky dealer I got mine from sells alot of them, this locale being a agricultural area. From personal experience, the 455 Husky seems to have better low end torque than the MS390, which is exactly what I need for ripping this cedar. And while the 455 may not look good on paper, it sure does look good and work well in action. It starts right up, and easier than the MS390 too. The 455 Husky looks tough, sounds tough, and works tough. I am pleased to report that it has that distinctive Husqvarna sound...reminding me of the Husqvarna dirt bikes that were popular back in the 70's when I was a kid.

stihl-husky4.jpg


And if anyone from Stihl reads this...if you like you can contact me at my email address and I'll give you the particulars of the Stihl dealer in this story. I hear you make good saws. It's a shame that I don't have anything good to say about them at this point in time.

stihl-husky5.jpg


Back to work ripping cedar...and thanks for taking the time to read this.

I can be reached at:
[email protected]
Why the profile picture?
 
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