Does This Sound Right?

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occ3377

ArboristSite Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2008
Messages
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Location
Rochester Minnesota
ok before i tell the whole story i want to know if my dealer was telling the truth. Does it sound right that a certified stihl tech would take 20 minutes to adjust the carb on a ms181? it was bught from the east coast, and so it stumbled a little here in the midwest, so not much adjusting had to be done. also is it true that the EPA has these saws so regulated that you could not do these little adjustments without the limiter caps being removed?

thanks in advance,
jake
 
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Since carb adjustments are elevation sensitive, it may have been necessary to remove the limiter tabs, even with the saw in stock form. I couldn't say for sure though, as I have no experience tuning for elevation so I'm not sure how much of a difference it actually makes. As far as 20 minutes... I don't think it sounds unreasonable. If he tried to tune it, couldn't get it quite right, then had pull the tabs and start over...

I guess I don't understand what the problem with the 20 minutes is. Did you just get impatient waiting, or did you get charged for 20 minutes of labor? I don't how most saw places conduct business, but I know some techs/mechanics outside the saw industry have a minimum labor charge that they bill for.
 
well the whole story is that i brought it in to see if they knew how much it might cost to have it done, they said their mechanic wasent there and they didnt know. So the solution they come up with is that i leave the saw there and they will leave a note on the work order to call me on my cell phone, which i always have with me, before they work on it even though i said i could take it with me and come back when he is there.

this all happened on 4-6-09, and they tell me today it was fixed on 4-7-09. well yesterday i call them to see how long till the tech might take a look at it and he says that it is done and costs 20.00, so i am like what the ####? i didnt get a call before they worked on it or to tell me it was done. so i go in there to talk to the owner about the situation that i wasent called before they worked on it because if they were gunna charge me then i was gonna take it to my other dealer that said they would do it for free cause i bought a couple of my saws from them. the owners response is that it wouldent make sense for the tech to call me before he works on it because he needs to find out whats wrong. i tell him that i knew there waent anything wrong, it just needed to be tuned and that i wanted him to call me because i didnt want to spend more than 5-10 dollars, and then i found a person to do it for free so i wasent going to have them do it if they werent going to be fairly cheap. i know this sounds cheap but i am a customer that goes in and i will pay the price they have on a saw and the accesories, i dont haggle or anything so i thought they might cut me some slack since i bought a saw, a string trimmer and accesories from them that havent had any problems.

his response to that is the same thing he said before and we dont get anywhere, so after a while of this him not understanding he screwed up, he got pissed and our last words go like this:

him-"ok i will give you your damn saw but i dont want to see your ####ing face in here ever again, this is bull####"

me-"im sorry you feel that way but i dont have a problem spending money, but this is money that i wasent going to spend" and im sorry but at 16 with a gas guzzling truck and buying cool saws all the time, i dont have money to give away.

him- "well thats bull####" gives me saw "now get out of my shop"

so it may have been a smaller amount compared to a saw but i went in there and remained calm the wholetime, i didnt yell or even cuss so he lost his cool, and i wasent happy that he wanted me to pay up when he screwed up. also i will be going to a dealer 20 miles away but i bought my three big saws there and they are way better people. i know this was long and i may have wrote something wrong so ask me if you have a question
 
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Maybe I missed something...

Why didn't you take it to the "free" shop in the first place?

Okay, got it. You found another shop who would do it gratis while the saw was at the first shop.

BTW, although it sounds like the first shop should have called, $20.00 doesn't sound bad to me at all.
 
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yea you got the correct answer to your question, and i know 20.00 is not a lot but i just bought the 441 and money is a little tighter for me now and so to me 20.00 is a lot.

Also i forgot to mention that my family has had bad expiriences with this shop and my cousins who own our family farm dont use them even though they are 5 miles away because the generation before my cousins (my uncles) also had problems with the owner being a straight up ####### to them and his customers while he is in there so they switched to the dealer 20 miles away because we buy our tractors there and as i said before they are better people.
 
well not to be a smart ass here, but if you knew all that ahead of time, and still took it there, then I would look at $20 as cheap cost of education of reinforcing what you already 'knew'.

Sort of like why I keep a couple Harbor Freight tools around. To remind my brain of past lessons learned, and to resist if the catalog of cheap prices starts to call out.

k
 
yea i kinda know what you mean but still he didnt follow through on what he said he was gunna do,and then flat out told me "well its your fault, you shouldent of brought the saw in the store if you didnt know what you wanted to have done to it" to which i was telling him that when i originally brought it in that i would take it with me and come back when the mechanic was there. and up till this point the only reason ididnt like them was because they follow stihls guidelines to the T and they get this dumbfounded look on there face when i bring in part numbers for things they said werent available and they dont like to admit someone else knows more about something than he does.

also the other store i buy my stuff from will order anything i bring a number in for no questions asked, and when i bought the 441 they said that they would show me how it works, but i probly knew more about it then they did, so i like their ability to admit they might not know as much as some of their customers
 
yea you got the correct answer to your question, and i know 20.00 is not a lot but i just bought the 441 and money is a little tighter for me now and so to me 20.00 is a lot.

Also i forgot to mention that my family has had bad expiriences with this shop and my cousins who own our family farm dont use them even though they are 5 miles away because the generation before my cousins (my uncles) also had problems with the owner being a straight up ####### to them and his customers while he is in there so they switched to the dealer 20 miles away because we buy our tractors there and as i said before they are better people.

If this shop is so bad, why the hell did you go there in the first place? Your bad. Pay the 20 buck you cheapass, and never go there again.

I see these dealers like this around here, I dont buy CRAP from them. But, you knew better before, so I cant see anyone feeling sorry for you.
 
If this shop is so bad, why the hell did you go there in the first place? Your bad. Pay the 20 buck you cheapass, and never go there again.

I see these dealers like this around here, I dont buy CRAP from them. But, you knew better before, so I cant see anyone feeling sorry for you.

thats taking it a little to the extreme, as i said i have bought stuff from them (splitting what i buy from them about half and half with the store i buy from now 20 miles away) for the last 4 years, and now was the first time i personnaly had a problem with them. i gave him a fair chance, and i dont think i should be blamed for that, but he screwed up and now my money is going to the less convienient but better shop.
 
thats taking it a little to the extreme, as i said i have bought stuff from them (splitting what i buy from them about half and half with the store i buy from now 20 miles away) for the last 4 years, and now was the first time i personnaly had a problem with them. i gave him a fair chance, and i dont think i should be blamed for that, but he screwed up and now my money is going to the less convienient but better shop.

How did he screw up? He tuned your saw and charged you 1/3 hour labor. You didnt get hurt at all. Some shops charge minimum 1 hr. labor.

Was it under warranty?
 
How did he screw up? He tuned your saw and charged you 1/3 hour labor. You didnt get hurt at all. Some shops charge minimum 1 hr. labor.

Was it under warranty?

no because i bought it from someone on here, but the reason he screwed up is because when i told him i would take it and bring it back when the mechanic was there, he said no leave it here and the mechanic will call you before he works on it, well he didnt do that, he just worked on it and charged me. this wouldent matter except for the fact that things changed and i was gunna take it to the dealer 20 miles away since i just bought the 441 and they said they would do it foe the 181 free so i called to see if i could get the 181 back and it was already done, does that make more sense?
 
Clean air filter and adjust carb...... going flat rate around here $10.00

You told the dealer to call with estimate before any work was done and he agreed.... I'd walk with a clear conscience.

If you know the guy is a Richard why be surprised when acts like one.... he thought he would just stick you for the twenty... it's cheap enough... he didn't really expect you to call him on it.
 
Clean air filter and adjust carb...... going flat rate around here $10.00

You told the dealer to call with estimate before any work was done and he agreed.... I'd walk with a clear conscience.

If you know the guy is a Richard why be surprised when acts like one.... he thought he would just stick you for the twenty... it's cheap enough... he didn't really expect you to call him on it.

yea as i said, i am genuinly a little surprised because the only way i would of known he was an ass for the last 4 years is from my families storys, because he was cool with me till today, but yes as you guys are saying, i am done with him and am going to the better dealer
 
ok before i tell the whole story i want to know if my dealer was telling the truth. Does it sound right that a certified stihl tech would take 20 minutes to adjust the carb on a ms181? it was bught from the east coast, and so it stumbled a little here in the midwest, so not much adjusting had to be done. also is it true that the EPA has these saws so regulated that you could not do these little adjustments without the limiter caps being removed?

thanks in advance,
jake

I wouldn't be surprised, especially if the tech thinks that the limiters need to stay on, the saw needs to be set to OEM specs, etc. It is tough to hit the "sweet spot" on saws when in reality the caps should be pulled, muffler opened up, and the thing tuned properly.

Further, it is entirely possible that the saw simply bills all work in 1/3 hour increments, or something like that. I can't begrudge a shop for choosing to do this, though it would be nice to have it known beforehand.

In any case, I think that this whole situation illustrates the following:

1. Learn to tune your own saws.
2. This shop does not want your business.
3. If you're Harry Homeowner, that's one thing. But you are out buying $700+ saws and still can't tune your own? Learn to tune your own saws.
4. You don't want to do business with this shop in the future.

I agree that this may not be "fair" or that your expectations were not understood, met, or respected. But you know what, you're only out $20-the actual value of having your saw set up right, and got a valuable lesson out of the deal. It is frustrating, but the honest truth is that many OPE dealers (possibly the majority) are idiotic and marginally competent, whether as salespeople, as techs, or as businesspeople. I don't know why this is, somehow these folks are able to stay in business. Don't help them. No more splitting business with these folks. Take your business elsewhere, make sure friends/family are aware of your dissatisfaction, and vote with your feet and your dollars.

A couple years back, I sent an old snowblower in to get fixed. The shop called and said that they could do the work (quite a list, much of it ignition-related with NLA parts) but it would cost quite a bit. I asked what the cost of a repower would be, because I had a grip into a sandblast/repaint already. They said that they couldn't repower it because the machine had an oddball crank size. I didn't believe that, but deferred to their judgment - I wanted the thing finished and back, and they have a good reputation around town. So I paid a few hundred bucks and I had them do the work. When I got the machine back, I read the invoice - the engine had marginal compression and was on its way out, one of the valve guides was almost worn away, and the taper on the cylinder walls was incredible; the folks had not told me any of this over the phone. And best of all, I looked at the crank - normal size, but because the pulley was a closed-end pulley (1/8" lip, to set the depth on the crank) it made the 3/4" crank look like a 1/2" crank when viewed from the end. Idiots. Suffice it to say, I drive 20 minutes to the good OPE shop for my lawnmower parts, instead of 5 minutes to this one, and gladly let ANYONE who will listen know why I make this choice.
 
Clean air filter and adjust carb...... going flat rate around here $10.00

You told the dealer to call with estimate before any work was done and he agreed.... I'd walk with a clear conscience.

If you know the guy is a Richard why be surprised when acts like one.... he thought he would just stick you for the twenty... it's cheap enough... he didn't really expect you to call him on it.

Right, thats a much better way of explaining what I meant. Thats why i typed that I have dealers like that around here and dont buy CRAP from them.

The bad part is you KNEW he was a crappy dealer. Im sorry about what happened, but you should have known better by your previous post. Live and learn. Spend your money with a dealer that will treat you right.
 
Right, thats a much better way of explaining what I meant. Thats why i typed that I have dealers like that around here and dont buy CRAP from them.

The bad part is you KNEW he was a crappy dealer. Im sorry about what happened, but you should have known better by your previous post. Live and learn. Spend your money with a dealer that will treat you right.

yea i sort of understand what your saying, but also as i said i had 4 years of great service, but it all came out today, soi knew he was a #### to my other relatives but it was more convienient for anything small, but yea now everything is being boughtat the good dealer
 
Dang, I would say send it back to me and I will adjust it but it may be your area. It accelerated fine at Tom's in Va. and did great here at da house. I didn't get a full tank through it though, might be it breaking in.

I got 8 tanks on my 211 now, had to pull the L limiter cap and make a tiny adjustment. I need to pull the H now, it's breaking in good and needs to be slowed down alittle.
 
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