I read most of the post on this thread and have found that the majority of OPE dealers are very honest people. After they talk to you for a few minutes they will know you're not the typical consumer. The OPE dealership I deal with, and I have been a customer for about 25 years now, have hard working folks both behind the counter and in the shop. Hell, I've got to be such good friends with them they will call me to show me something unusual with the product lines they sell. They sell Stihl, Husky and Echo in their saw product line.
Now to the horror story.
Some time ago my wife and myself were at one of the big hardware stores, I won't spell out which one but it starts with an "M", has a song you save big money, or some such crap and I wondered off to the chainsaw aisle. They sell a selection of saws, Efco, which ain't half bad from what I hear, Poulan, no comment, Blue Max, Wein, McCulloch and maybe more.
As I walked down the asile Dad, Mom, and two daugthers come walking up and are looking at the Blue Max saws. Read on, here comes the good part.
Up walks Barbie Twinkle toes, wearing a blue smock and says, "Gonna buy a chainsaw today"? You know and have seen the type, blonde, way too much eye makeup, late twenties, early thirties, struggled to get out of 8th grade recess, mainly sells patio chairs, swings, shovels, rakes, hoes, etc, no pun intended. She goes on to tell these folks how great the Blue and Yellow saws are, and that they are a great product, and if they wern't "we wound'nt sell them". The dad ask a couple of questions and gets a blank stare in return and barbie says she can get someone else to answer his questions. Grandma walks up and ask a question about cow manure or something and off goes Barbie to make another big sale.
I walk up to dad, mom and the daughters and hold out my hand to him and ask a couple of questions;
Buying the saw for yourself?
Nope, buying for my future son in law.
Does he currently own a saw?
Yeah, an old Homelite.
I go on to tell him about some of the product line on display and how important it is to buy from a dealer that also services what they sell. I tell him about my favorite OPE dealer and yes, you may spent a little more money, but you get product support, a saw that is correctly tuned, straight answers on questions about the product, rather than someone that doesn't know a chainsaw from a 2X4 or a 50 pound bag of cow manure.
I follow up with my dealer later on and he said thanks for the referral, and they bought two saws, one for him, and one for his future son in law. They ended up buying an MS-250 and an MS-290, not my first choice, but to each his own.
On the other hand;
I went into one of the other big box stores last week and wondered into the saw aisle looking at the Huskys. I won't name them but they sponsor the guy thats won everything cept the trophy girl for the last four years. I'm looking at the 455 and voice from over my left shoulder says, " Can I help you sir'? I put the saw down and turn around to see a typical midwestern farm girl, not the prettiest by any means, but she said the word "Sir".
She goes on to say that her dad always ran Husky saws and her grandpa ran McCullochs and later Stihls. Both mom and dad and grandma and grandpa burned wood and it was just one of the other chores we had growing up.
Oh yeah, which McCullochs and Stihls, she calmly replied " the McCulloch was a solid yellow saw, I think it was a 650, and grandpas big saw was an 038. She went on to sat her dad had a Husky 50 and later on a 55. This young lady knows her saws, in talking to her she is going to college and working here to have additional spending money and not to rely on mom and dad so much. My kinda of girl, hell if I was thirty years younger I'd ask her out, for that matter I may introduce her to my son.
I was so impressed by this I bought two gallons of bar lube and two six packs of mix, nice young lady, restores my faith in the young people that America is producing today.
Long post, sorry for the rant.
