Online prices vs dealer

[93Dakman!]

I have been buying saw parts for many years now, and have my go to dealer for each brand of saw I am working on. Recently my jonsered/husky dealer passed away and the shop is closing. Today I went to the only other husky dealer in the area for a price quote.

I like to buy local when I can. It helps my community. It helps our local economy. It helps to keep dealers open so on saturday at 7 a.m. I can get a new pull rope or carb kit quickly if needed.

However, there are parts that I buy online because of the convenience or the price is just THAT much lower. (I also buy all of my used parts from AS or eBay, but that's a different beast all together.)

On my visit today to this new husky dealer, I had a list of parts to rebuild a 2171. I had all of the p/n's on the sheet so he didn't have to look them up. I priced all of the parts with baileys the night before and had those listed. I also made sure that what I priced from baileys were OEM parts. So this was a fair and equal quote.

The quote from the dealer took 4 hours to do. No big deal, I was at work today. But what blew my mind was they were over 60% higher than online. (60.05% to be exact). Plus they wanted a frieght charge and 10 days lead time from date of purchase.

$105 vs $168

I am willing to pay a few more dollars to stay local but when is a few more just too much to put up with?

Do you all find the same problems when dealing with local?

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[Cease232]

I mostly own stihl so not that many places online to buy parts. I do get a lot of stihl parts from eBay sellers who are members here.
I've found it nearly impossible to support local woodworking stores for the same reason though. I could never justify paying 60% more than I could get it on Amazon. The way I see it local businesses decide to charge more instead of modifying their business plan to stay viable.


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[93Dakman!]

It is a shame. I hate seeing smaller dealers go out of business.

I've lost a long time husky jonsered dealer who was also my atv/dirtbike parts supplier of over 20 years, and a great stihl dealer who was also a decent machinist in the past year.

Both of my new dealers are poor replacements. I have boycott the new stihl dealer because they started lying to me about parts being on backorder when the truth was, 10 days later they had forgot to order them (multiple occasions). I drive an hour now to the next closest stihl dealer. I want to do my part to help, but ebay, baileys, jacks, chansawr etc are all starting to win me over.

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[Westboastfaller]

I usually tell them: "you should be wearing a mask" when they hit me with the price. Some things like chain, files and wedges can be good for us fallers locally but a needed a 266 piston badly for my 372 so I could have two hot saws for camp. He charged me $165.00. Probably 180.00 with tax. I just get realy bitter with them. If they don't know you when it seem 9 out of 10 end up insulting you

Saw shops, banks and phone company's are on my shìt list

 

[93Dakman!]

Our local echo/briggs/tecumseh dealer is pretty good though. Not priced awfully high but is a bit picky. He will not order or pull a part from the shelf unless you give him a model number and serial number of what you are working on. No exceptions. Not even if you bring in a list of part numbers.

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[CoreyB]

It is very hard to keep a small business open today especially with high volume Internet competition. An actual store front has some extra expenses to cover as well as staff. I want to move to more online sales. Less customer face time. They have to figure out what part they actually need. No sales staff experience or expense. Just throw it in a box , print a label, and the shipper comes and takes it away. And if they order the wrong part they have to pay shipping back get a 20% restocking fee and have to but a second part. Just saying it is hard to find the balance of keeping customers satisfied and keeping my staffs families feed and able to survive without having to be on welfare.

 

[HarleyT]

Our local echo/briggs/tecumseh dealer is pretty good though. Not priced awfully high but is a bit picky. He will not order or pull a part from the shelf unless you give him a model number and serial number of what you are working on. No exceptions. Not even if you bring in a list of part numbers.

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He probably got tired of all of the "wrong" parts that folks order, then don't want to pay for....

 

[Mad Professor]

One of the problems with "wrong parts" is the stihl IPLs don't have the technical notes/bulletins where the manufacturer changes part#s and revises things. I do my best to bring in the correct part #s.........

I learn about a lot of those changes here reading through the forums. For instance I just learned about the changes to stihl 1122 clutches and there are two versions of springs depending on vintage of clutch (Thanks Ozhoo!!).

My IPLs show the same springs for 064/066/660......but the clutch # and shoe # for the 660 is different. I guess one of those bulletins explains this.

Years ago, I always wondered what those numbers in ( ), *, and numbers after the little box/square on stihl IPls were for.......

 

[pioneerguy600]

The bottom line is that parts shipped from a warehouse setup costs far less to handle than from a small business with overhead and employees. It relates the same as all commodities, buy it from the big box stores/warehouse or buy it from a small local store/business, just way more costs involved for the small business to stay in (business).

 

[mohick]

Thus the reason for internet buying!! No ignorant counter help to deal with, no long waits, part comes right to door, no sales tax, usually comes in 2 days. whats not to love!!

 

[NormP]

Last month a local dealer gave me a quote of "around $750.00" for a Husqvarna 555. The Husky website has an MSRP of $639.00. I don't understand the reason for that much of a difference in price other than he said I would bring it in after a little bit to check how it is breaking in and make any adjustments needed.

He's not a "true" chainsaw guy as he sells zero turn mowers and other lawn equipment in addition to chainsaws, only keeping ranchers and other homeowner saws in stock probably for the random guy that comes in and needs a saw. I'm pretty sure that's how most outdoor equipment guys operate--know what your bread and butter is, and focus on that. It makes sense to me.

So I don't know what I'll do about the saw. I'm really in the mood for a 555, possibly a 562xp, and I prefer to buy it new. He seems like a good guy and I understand completely the need to make a buck. But if another guy offered it to me for cheaper it would be tempting, even if I had to travel or have it shipped. It could be considered a purchase from a local dealer I suppose. Everyone is local to somewhere, right?

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[93Dakman!]

I agree with all of you. The small locals have to provide a wage to thier help that will keep them coming in to work everyday instead looking for a a new job. But the limited customer base a hometown shop has can not compete with the masses that online retailers can reach out to. My jonsered dealer complained about this on many occasions, but he was competitively priced. My question is: when is too much mark up, just too much. Would you pay $168 plus frieght and wait two weeks when you can buy it online for $105 and have it in 3 days?

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[cus_deluxe]

The bottom line is that parts shipped from a warehouse setup costs far less to handle than from a small business with overhead and employees. It relates the same as all commodities, buy it from the big box stores/warehouse or buy it from a small local store/business, just way more costs involved for the small business to stay in (business).

Certainly a good point, but the thing that burns is me whwn i go to my local stihl dealer for an 028 air filter and he tries to charge me $32 for a stens filter, that he probly paid $6 for. Stihl proces for aftermarket parts seems to be more and more common at dealers these days. Im happy to pay a little more for the convenience, but not looking to be put over a barrel.

 

[Conquistador3]

Not worth it with most genuine spare parts and the Echo, Honda and Stihl dealerships I use will always give me decent rebates. The only brands worth buying online for me are Zenoah/Redmax (not imported anymore) and Husqvarna (no dealership in a 40 miles radius). Now that the aforementioned Honda dealership is also carrying Jonsered that problem may be solved though.

But with pattern spares... it's not even a contest. Online prices cannot be beaten, even when shipping is taken into account. A pattern Zama or Walbro carburetor is often sold in a shop at a price not very removed from a genuine Walbro or Zama while online it will go for a few dollars, often with ridiculously cheap shipping. Same with pistons, cylinders, bearings...

 

[BB Sig]

I try to buy local but only if it is less than 10% more. I do the same thing with small businesses and box stores.

 

[HarleyT]

Certainly a good point, but the thing that burns is me whwn i go to my local stihl dealer for an 028 air filter and he tries to charge me $32 for a stens filter, that he probly paid $6 for. Stihl proces for aftermarket parts seems to be more and more common at dealers these days. Im happy to pay a little more for the convenience, but not looking to be put over a barrel.

Actually the Stens stuff is not that cheap, dealer cost wise. You ought to call the Stihl dist. and tell them.

 

[Franny K]

wait two weeks when you can buy it online for $105 and have it in 3 days?

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Are you serious about getting everything on a list to rebuild a saw in 3 days from Baileys? Is that price you posted with expedited shipping. I order stuff and it comes ups ground. Then it comes in bits and pieces over time.

As to the original question you did not give enough information to figure out it they have a program to bump prices (filter?) or the difference was on one item. Sometimes Baileys has some pretty low item prices for some strange reason. When it is their mistake no one complains. Jacks seems to go down to 99 cents min where Baileys seems to go down to 2.99. At least from what I checked out lately. Larger items basically the same. Actually I do not really need many parts and have a 20 year old model that has never had any carb or fuel line tinkering at all.

 

[Acornhill]

My two cents, my Stihl dealer is fantastic, they are very reasonable and never charge shipping. They order on their own parts orders. The do sell aftermarket parts but not Stihl parts. They are a preferred Stihl dealer as well. They will order any other brand for you as well. ( probably not supposed to though). They are old school still so that helps. As far as online goes, I sell online and I have a lot of hours into doing so that I do not get paid for. Example, I have to physically purchase parts, sometimes drive, pay shipping etc. I have hours into inventorying and picture taking and listing etc. I have to sell cheaper than anyone else to sell your products. Pick, package and ship item. Pay fees hope buyer made correct purchase etc. I truly enjoy helping folks fix their older equipment. Most dealers will not work on older units. I do have to pay taxes as well every year for my profit. I try very hard to please my customers and ship same day. I don't like buying overseas / aftermarket items either.

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[ChoppyChoppy]

Last time I used Bailey's my check card info was stolen and I bought someone in Europe $2000 worth of groceries and plane tickets.

Time before that it took about a month to get the whole order in. Part of the order was .404 harvester tie straps and side plates. They sent .750 plates. Took over a month to get the right item in, was a real PITA to return, to the point they said it was just a "one time courtesy" that I screwed up the order. Kind of hard, I had called the order in!

Stihl parts through them was a nightmare too. I emailed them once trying to figure out the delay on a 290 rear handle assembly and one of the higher ups emailed me back. More or less amounted to the Stihl parts were a "one piece at a time" (Johnny Cash song). Some sort of back alley deal.

After all that, we dropped them as a supplier.... mainly because of the data theft and their complete ***** how 'effort" to notify people. I found out on here actually! And we were a vendor for them! Use Madsen's now and the local Stihl dealer.

Use Jacks Small Engine as well. Shipping is crazy though. I had 5 lbs of parts 2 or 3 weeks ago, somehow cost $90 USPS. Box was normal sized too.
Run the #s though the postal website and it should have cost $38.
Was a fan cover and recoil for a Briggs, and a dipstick, tube, and clamp for a Snow King Tecumseh.

Latest order, 2 screws and a dipstick for a 27hp Briggs. With shipping, $44

 

[93Dakman!]

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