Great Prices on Dolmar Saws?

[Lakeside53]

noooooo... The Husky vending machine has two slots (three including the credit card processor) - one for the saw you buy, and a "returns slot" - (just like Lowes but without people), which automatically ejects a new saw!:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[DOLMARatOs]

Great one lakeside!

 

[PES+]

????

Royal Crown Commitment

Satisfaction guaranteed or your dealer buys it and it's his problem

don't get me started

 

[John Ellison]

What is the deal mfgrs. have against mail ordering a saw? Is it they want you to buy it in person or to buy it local?

 

[DOLMARatOs]

They don't want Dealers pushing into each others territories accross the country. It makes distributors fight each other too. Mostly they want you the customer to have a personal relationship with the dealer and then you will know that you have a local guy to yell at if your saw breaks...and he/she will fix it.

It all falls down when your local "dealer" only has 2 or 3 saws, has never heard of a 5100 or 7900, has 3 light bulbs in his whole shop and shares a brain with his hunting dog. Anyway, pet peeves of mine include dealers who are not honest and completely involved in their business. Nothing worse than a guy who doesn't seem to care about you as the customer or treats you as an annoyance.

This is why I have only 2 real lines of equipment, Dolmar handheld and Snapper for the mowing jobs. I don't know how I could sell someone something if I carried 4 brands that do the same thing. Stihl has a good point in their ads in trade magazines, carry one line and increase revenue. It makes sense. We as dealers need to work past the ol' boy image of saw and equipment shops. The world doesn't know it sometimes but we are technically proficient and are usually gifted technitions, fabricators and troubleshooters: this is why we're in business. I for one am devoted to power equipment. I'm a 3rd generation grease monkey and I have a background in electrical engineering and thin-film processing. I love this business. If I was taller and liked waking up early, I'd be a logger.

Late-sleeping loggers grow up to be saw technitions

 

[PES+]

Business strategy

All sales departments are driven by not total sales but percentage INCREASE of sales. So the rap from the manufacturer to the dealer is they will support you and give you as a dealer a protected territory to allow you as a dealer to make a profit and be a service to the end user. If you buy the saw online the dealer cannot afford to carry the ful line of product because it doesn't sell and the dealer has to pay the floor plan to keep the stuff sitting. I have tried to be just a service center for all the major brands but they do not offer that or offer very little discount on parts.

 

[PES+]

Try this

Go to your local Tractor Supply and ask some questions about the "Pro" chainsaws they sell........then ask what happens if it breaks

I promise not to call you shorty DOLMARatOs :biggrinbounce2:

I'm 6'3" but down now to 185 so I'm too weak to swing the big bores all day anymore

 

[DOLMARatOs]

Pest

I've done well as a service center for the box store brands (Pull-on, McCulloch, Troy-bilt, sears, etc.) with the exception of Husky for which my local Husky dealer send all of his repair work to my shop and I make him order the parts.

Most of our customers don't mind waiting a few days for their equipment, anything over 10 days gets a little twitchy but leaves an opening for a possible new sale or trade-in. Had this happen today, guy brought his Crapsman leaf-blower in today. Sears said parts weren't available. I looked them up and they are available through Pull-on but backordered for a few weeks (est. 15 days). I tell him, he asks about a replacement...gives me his $99 Sears to throw away and goes home with a $200 PB250.4 and is happy to have a one-pull start leaf blower.

I made a rule years ago, if a piece of equipment costs less than $1000.00 then never floorplan it. I might have to eat bologna on hand for a month but I won't be paying interest on any small equipment.

 

[PES+]

Shhhhhhhh

Not supposed to name names here.
I just found out today why all my state bids were never taken when I wrote them up working for the big orange dealer (now long defunct). Big orange was selling direct and stiffing us.

they got caught

 

[Monk]

Nice thread

I enjoyed reading this thread and I will say on thing dolmar are going to keep growing the way they have been pushing them we got a local dealer a little while ago and he convinced me to take one a demo it none of the other dealerships will do that around he and he is selling a fair amount of them. He keeps doing that it will work lets people try them before they buy. I personally wasn't impressed I didn't feel it could keep up with my 660 but was a decent saw and considerably cheaper I would recomend it to anyone that has a smaller budget and wants a decent saw. Husky was mentioned earlier and I know for a fact several logger in my area have switched from husky to dolmar because of this dealer.

 

[DOLMARatOs]

Monk

660 is a darn tough saw to beat. What did he send you home with as competition? Dolmars 9010 is an animal, but I don't want to carry a dirt-bike through the timber.

I think Dolmar can make a go of it. Demo saws are always a good idea. I'm set up with Demo saws, demo trimmers, etc. I'm not going to send John Q homeowner out the door with my demo equipment...that is why we have lots of grass to cut at the shop and a few logs too (PPE on hand at all times). My commercial guys are usually happy with using units at my location but every now and again they ask to take one for a day to show off to their crews.

Dolmar has been around in one form or another for almost 80 long years. I'm not worried about national market share and brand loyalty. If Dolmar keeps putting out the same quality saws, at reasonable prices and I can get parts from my distributor in a reasonable amount of time, then I don't care about a dealer on the west coast or the east coast. I'm concerned with my customers and if Dolmar doesn't help me to help them then I'll be saying goodbye in a lightning fast hurry. That's why we're done with RedMax now.

 

[Monk]

I am not sure what size it was he looked at their chart and figured it was about the same weight I think it was a little light on the hp but the next saw up had like 2 pounds on the 660 I told him there was no point in it. I normaly won't take a saw because when I borrow something murphys law is normally in effect but he insisted I tried he didn't have anything around big enough to get an idea of what it would do there he had small stuff for homeowner joe to trie it out in but nothing like I would be cutting. I just thought it was a damn good idea nobody else around here does that you get a stihl or husky and don't like it you are stuck with it. You need to treat your pros different too they are the guys that buy 3 or 4 saws every year not one every 10 or 20 thats the part that makes me the maddest around here most of the shops would rather wait on the homeowner than the guy that buys 6 grand of stuff a year.

 

[John Ellison]

The only way Dolmar will make headway on the west coast with the larger saws is to make a full wrap handle available. I cant believe they have not done this at least on the 7900. But I don't know, maybe they are available in the sizes larger than the 7900.

 

[Uwharrie]

John Ellison, They have a full wrap handle available for the 9010 but not the 7900 that I'm aware of. Even though our market doesn't sell any wrap handle saws I talked with our Dolmar rep yesterday and explained to him that they needed one. My rep advised me of new heated handles available on 5100, 7900's, however in our climate we have no need for them. But anyway it looks like they will be available for distributors to buy.

 

[Urbicide]

My rep advised me of new heated handles available on 5100, 7900's, however in our climate we have no need for them. But anyway it looks like they will be available for distributors to buy.

I would like heated handles. Cold weather enhances nerve damage. I have white finger disease that flairs up when my left forearm, wrist, and hand are chilled. I don't think you would sell one to a guy living in FLA. If you go further north you would probably sell a few. It would be possibly a good poll question to ask.

 

[ciscoguy01]

Huh?

I would like heated handles. Cold weather enhances nerve damage. I have white finger disease that flairs up when my left forearm, wrist, and hand are chilled. I don't think you would sell one to a guy living in FLA. If you go further north you would probably sell a few. It would be possibly a good poll question to ask.

What's the white finger disease dude? And what are the symptoms and how did you get it???

 

[Haywire Haywood]

When I was looking for a replacement for my 346xp I stopped by the local Dolmar dealer to ask about a 6400. His response was... "Wow, you want a biggun" He's also a Shindawa dealer and only had the <50cc homeowner end of their line too. I ended up buying my 361 from Ace Hardware who had it on the rack and available. I didn't expect any great amount of personal sales service from them so wasn't disappointed when there wasn't much. I pointed, said, "I'll take that 361" and was on my merry way. I'd rather have a dealer that knows me by name, but I guess I'll take what I can get.

Ian

 

[drmiller100]

I am a landscaper. Have a few employees, try to make a LOT of money in short periods of warm summer months, and believe equipment is a LOT cheaper then employees.

There is a local equipment shop I have used. I drop weird stuff off, they give me honest answers about when they can work on it, I come back and stuff is fixed.

So I wanted a chain saw. Decided on a 460 mag. went by the shop, and they sold a cheap korean or chinese knock off i'd never heard of (dolmar). So i did some research on the net. Talked to a few local pro loggers. they told me for what i wanted i'd be REALLY happy with the 460.
On the internet, the 7900 SURE looked better then the 460.

stopped by the shop again, and ended up with a 7900.
Mechanic installed the bar and chain, started saw, showed me features including hot air for carbs, how to start it, and the limp wrist decompression.

I'm really happy. the goofy thing sure has a LOT of power though!!!

talked to one of the local loggers today. Told him I bought a dolmar, and he sneered. he asked me how big, i told him. he asked how much, i told him. he asked how beat up it was, and i said brandy new.
i might loan it to him for a few days......
doug

 

[Lakeside53]

"cheap korean or chinese knockoff "

"The goofy thing"

That made my day...

 

[drmiller100]

yeah, i kind of fished that response!!! I'd never heard of Dolmar. At first it did sound Korean to me.
The dealer had literature, but marketing people are much like politicians IMO.

I talked to one of the techs, and he really talked the Dolmar up.


I am VERY impressed so far.