In defense of dealers... The MS362

[BloodOnTheIce]

In the real world, outside of AS most of us who work in shops and dealers are busy people, we have customers to make happy, inventory to sell, and bills to pay. We have little time to day dream about the next Wonder Saw, we are too busy selling saws we actually have on the shelf, and in stock at our distributors. I've heard many people on here complain about the lack of knowledge about the MS362, and in general implying that we Stihl dealers, and employees of Stihl dealers are uninformed, lazy, no nothings.

This is what we at our shop have officially heard from Stihl regarding the MS362 chainsaw.

-1 Email 3 weeks ago from my territory manager, with a Spec sheet, and a short message saying they were starting receive the MS362, and it would be available, once all the MS361's were sold from NE Stihl inventory.

-1 Service manual received yesterday, for the MS362.

We haven't received pricing, hang tags, a release date or anything pertaining to when the MS362 would be available. So when you local dealer seems like he knows nothing about this saw, and treat him like an idiot, think twice, because we only know what we are given

Unless you were a dealer doing the prototype testing of the saw, you didn't know anything official until about a month or two ago.

So guys cut your shops some slack.

 

[joatmon]

Blood,

:agree2:

BUT, I wouldn't be worried what 25 saw zealots on AS think about it. This is 0.00000000000000000000125% of Stihl's customer base, and they have little else to do.

Tryin' to help,

ole joat

 

[joatmon]

Another point

Blood,

You notice all the talk about the Jonsered 2188. Talk .... talk ... talk.

BUT, did you notice what William (AS member ALE) did? He quietly and without fanfare talked with his Jonsered dealer, who inquired with the distributor, and then the dealer ordered his 2188, and he got what we believe to be the first one on the East Coast. He didn't bad mouth the dealer, start threads, or raise cain. He politely talked with his dealer and got action. William is a classy guy.

There may be a lesson here,

ole joat

 

[Bowtie]

Great posts guys, both of you!!!

 

[bitzer]

Yeah, but the hard way is more fun! Just kiddin. I can think of about a dozen Stihl dealers near me that I've been too and only about three of those ever know what they are talking about(those are also the ones that service them regularly). I know the good ones are out there you just gotta find them and if they don't know you can't get pissed its pointless. I do my homework before and after going. All of the dealers I am thinking of also have the majority of their business in the rest of their store, not with Stihl products. All of the specs for the 362 are on Stihls site and I think have been there for a while. Search first, ask questions later.

 

[BobL]

Did you realize that if

. . . . 25 saw zealots . . . [represent] 0.00000000000000000000125% of Stihl's customer base

then Stihl has a total customer base of 2 million, billion, billion which is about 250,0000 billion times the population of the earth?

Stihl must be selling really well across galaxies to get those numbers

 

[gink595]

Stihl must be selling really well across galaxies to get those numbers

Whats that saying "Earth First we'll log the other planets later", with those number looks like Stihl is getting a head start on things

 

[Erick]

So.. what would you like to know about it???

I posted the pics and some comparisons against the 361 about a month ago.

But Blood is absolutely dead on, until the saws showed up we had pretty much ZERO INFO. Kinda funny cause I was telling someone here the night before that I had no idea when the 362's were gonna be available and that I hadn't heard a word, no specs no nothing, and then BAM there it was the very next morning.

Quite often the folks here know more about what’s coming and when than the dealers who will be selling it.

 

[Philbert]

This is what we at our shop have officially heard from Stihl regarding the MS362 chainsaw.

-1 Service manual received yesterday, for the MS362.

We haven't received pricing, hang tags, a release date or anything pertaining to when the MS362 would be available.

OK, so post the service manual and it will keep us busy for a while. We will give you some slack on the hang tags


It's confusing when some dealers seem to have it and others don't. But it's better to have a bunch of enthusiasts excited anditching to see a new product, than the other alternative, right?

Philbert

 

[BloodOnTheIce]

OK, so post the service manual and it will keep us busy for a while. We will give you some slack on the hang tags


It's confusing when some dealers seem to have it and others don't. But it's better to have a bunch of enthusiasts excited anditching to see a new product, than the other alternative, right?

Philbert

There are about 10 different regional distributors for Stihl through out the US, some will put out new saws as soon as they become available from Virginia Beach. Believe it or not, most of the time when a new model comes out dealers get stuck with old model and have a hard time selling them. So the distributor that we buy from likes waiting until all of the old saws are shipped, before they start selling the new model, so their dealers don't get the shaft.

 

[TraditionalTool]

In the real world, outside of AS most of us who work in shops and dealers are busy people, we have customers to make happy, inventory to sell, and bills to pay. We have little time to day dream about the next Wonder Saw, we are too busy selling saws we actually have on the shelf, and in stock at our distributors. I've heard many people on here complain about the lack of knowledge about the MS362, and in general implying that we Stihl dealers, and employees of Stihl dealers are uninformed, lazy, no nothings.

I certainly haven't complained, although one of my local Stihl dealers are a bunch of dolts (hi Gardenland in Campbell, CA!), but I have to ask how the dealers that have these so called "Wonder Saws" found out about them before the others?

Do they have better connections, or less customers, that they can get that info AND get the product and sell to others? One guy on AS bought a 362 several weeks ago at minimum. Surely you must have known about it. Did you inquire to Stihl about it? Or should they have notified you about something you already know about?

I know there are two sides to every coin, just sayin'...there's another side from the customer perspective.

EDIT: And REGARDLESS either way, you had better do like the Teflon-Man and order some of those 581 362s that mid-atlantic has today, or your gonna be left out like some of the other dealers who will be whining about not being able to get them...just a thought...that Teflon-Man is on the stick, said he was orderin' some earlier this mornin'...

 

[Philbert]

There are about 10 different regional distributors for Stihl through out the US, some will put out new saws as soon as they become available from Virginia Beach.

I get that. But as consumers, we don't know which states are serviced by which distributors, and which distributors are holding back, etc. So we ask.

I appreciate you dealer guys who are willing to share what information you can with us.

Philbert

 

[dancan]

I haven't asked my local dealer about them yet because they're not even listed on the Canadian website as of this evening so they mustn't exist in Canada (I'd better look for a video to make sure they do exist).

 

[belgian]

There are about 10 different regional distributors for Stihl through out the US, some will put out new saws as soon as they become available from Virginia Beach. Believe it or not, most of the time when a new model comes out dealers get stuck with old model and have a hard time selling them. So the distributor that we buy from likes waiting until all of the old saws are shipped, before they start selling the new model, so their dealers don't get the shaft.

I think that's the real issue behind the whole story. Everyone in the distribution chain likes to get rid of old stock before they spread the word about new models. Not really fair to the enduser, and not really fair to the local distributor ; but money talks in those situations.

I remember when I bought my 361 the 360 was still plenty around and my dealer tried to sell me the 360, for obvious reasons. Thanks to AS, I was pretty well informed and took the 361. As in many business situations, having information is key in making the right decisions. My advice to Blood is that he should not wait for Stihl or his distributor to inform him about new or obsolete models, but use contacts and relations to be one step ahead of them all the time. It will serve him well.

That applies also for the consumer, but a consumer has the right to expect accurate and professional advice from a Stihl dealer. I am not the kind of guy that will go bragging on the net how uninformed my dealer was in the situation you mentioned, but I probably would conclude that my dealer is maybe not the sharpest around.

Knowledge/information is power.

 

[SAWZ]

Stihl should have a 361 sale. I can't figure the wait till we get rid of all the 361's before we will let you buy a 362. A chainsaw is a consumer item imagine if this mentality or company tactic was placed on other items Autos, TV's, Computers etc. Stihl MS 361 "leftover" sale coming to a dealer near you!

 

[TraditionalTool]

Stihl should have a 361 sale. I can't figure the wait till we get rid of all the 361's before we will let you buy a 362. A chainsaw is a consumer item imagine if this mentality or company tactic was placed on other items Autos, TV's, Computers etc. Stihl MS 361 "leftover" sale coming to a dealer near you!

The thing I can't understand about what BloodOnIce wrote is that it would appear that the dealer is trying to stick the customer with old product because they're getting stuck with the product themselves.

I completely agree, the smart dealer will get the new ones in and start selling them at list and knock something off on the 361s they have in stock.

I guess the dealers are so busy with customers that they don't have time to think about that stuff...

 

[sbhooper]

I agree with SAWZ. Drop the darn price and those "old" saws will disappear over night. I MAY even be tempted.

 

[Philbert]

I agree with SAWZ. Drop the darn price and those "old" saws will disappear over night. I MAY even be tempted.

Label them as 'classic', 'vintage', or 'hard-to-find' and mark the price up - they will still disappear!

Philbert

 

[belgian]

I agree with SAWZ. Drop the darn price and those "old" saws will disappear over night. I MAY even be tempted.

Well, that's always a possibility, but in the end one looses margin. And if you look at the relatively low margin those dealers make, I would not be in a hurry to drop the price myself. Especially if it's a good selling product.

 

[stihl only]

Stihl should have a 361 sale. I can't figure the wait till we get rid of all the 361's before we will let you buy a 362. A chainsaw is a consumer item imagine if this mentality or company tactic was placed on other items Autos, TV's, Computers etc. Stihl MS 361 "leftover" sale coming to a dealer near you!

Never works that way with the PRO saws. If I had a 210 here, I might be tempted to do something to get rid of it, but it is already cheaper than a 211, so someone wallet shopping would buy it.

Do you think if I had a dozen new in the box 440s in the attic, I would have to drop the price to sell them???

People love the 361 and they will just be looking for one available for sale, not a discount!