i think i've upset my local stihl dealer

[armchairarborist]

i cant remember the last time i had a `saw`in a`dealers, fixed my own for donkeys yrs,` dont folk carry spare saws`??

 

can't remember the last time i had time to fix a saw, good job i have a few spare saws:biggrin:

[Kevin Petley]

Hi DN22

 

Saddo that I am trawling internet spotted your post.

 

I am employed at said local dealer and am aware of your comments, not me I may add!

 

Firstly I am sorry if the greeting that you received was not what it should have been, I feel the response was meant to be a little more light hearted than maybe appears in your summary. Certainly the counter Guys relationship with most of our customers is pretty good, we deal daily with business and enquiries from 50p to several hundred thousands of pounds, I believe we receive this volume due to the high service level we provide, I appreciate of course that I maybe a little biased!.

 

However if your feelings and experience were contrary to this then we have not done our job to well and I apologise.

 

It is very unusual that we would be found to be £150 more expensive on a saw ( I wish there was this much margin remaining) because we are aware and compete with internet business every day. Of course anything is possible and I do not doubt your word, people can be clearing stock, promoting a loss leader or many other reasons why these anmomolies appear every day.

 

To the subject in hand - Reading some of the threads to your remarks I fear there is a poor slant and one sided opinion of expectations from some Dealers.

 

As an authorized distributor of what would be recognized as the best saws available ( this will get some reaction!) a Stihl Dealer only retains the franchise if certain service levels, experience and After Sales support are presented and available to back up the product.

 

Being a business man and in business as many of the members of this forum will understand training, stocking product, parts, wages, rates, buildings (you get my drift) all cost a lot’s of £££££’s, to support the product as the business demands there can be not short cuts and serious investment has to be made.

 

I have one small and short point to make and I am nearly there sorry to drawl on.

 

When warranty work is completed on a product invariably the repair times and schedule a Dealer works on will be loss making, this is not an issue and is accepted by Dealers with the cudos of the franchise, and of course and this is the point the Dealer has made a small amount of profit when he sold the machine!

 

Please bare in mind if I requested a quote from a professional Arborist and then asked for this work to be completed at a loss I guess I would receive a response, remark or laugh of disbelief, this is however what you are asking your local dealer to do.

 

In a nutshell you are asking them to pay you to repair your machine.

 

 

Ok £150 as in this example is a lot of money, but business relationship's go both ways. Maybe one day you will need that local supply urgently and it will not be there. Please guys talk to your local dealer, give them a chance invariably in my experience of over 30years you will pay more but £20 - £30 not £150.

 

So if you Guys sometimes do receive a slightly tepid response when you are asking your local dealer to complete work for you that he is having to pay to do, please spare him a little forgiveness and maybe give him a fair crack at your next purchase.

 

 

 

Thanks for listening

[Steve Bullman]

Hi DN22

 

Saddo that I am trawling internet spotted your post.

 

I am employed at said local dealer and am aware of your comments, not me I may add!

 

Firstly I am sorry if the greeting that you received was not what it should have been, I feel the response was meant to be a little more light hearted than maybe appears in your summary. Certainly the counter Guys relationship with most of our customers is pretty good, we deal daily with business and enquiries from 50p to several hundred thousands of pounds, I believe we receive this volume due to the high service level we provide, I appreciate of course that I maybe a little biased!.

 

However if your feelings and experience were contrary to this then we have not done our job to well and I apologise.

 

It is very unusual that we would be found to be £150 more expensive on a saw ( I wish there was this much margin remaining) because we are aware and compete with internet business every day. Of course anything is possible and I do not doubt your word, people can be clearing stock, promoting a loss leader or many other reasons why these anmomolies appear every day.

 

To the subject in hand - Reading some of the threads to your remarks I fear there is a poor slant and one sided opinion of expectations from some Dealers.

 

As an authorized distributor of what would be recognized as the best saws available ( this will get some reaction!) a Stihl Dealer only retains the franchise if certain service levels, experience and After Sales support are presented and available to back up the product.

 

Being a business man and in business as many of the members of this forum will understand training, stocking product, parts, wages, rates, buildings (you get my drift) all cost a lot’s of £££££’s, to support the product as the business demands there can be not short cuts and serious investment has to be made.

 

I have one small and short point to make and I am nearly there sorry to drawl on.

 

When warranty work is completed on a product invariably the repair times and schedule a Dealer works on will be loss making, this is not an issue and is accepted by Dealers with the cudos of the franchise, and of course and this is the point the Dealer has made a small amount of profit when he sold the machine!

 

Please bare in mind if I requested a quote from a professional Arborist and then asked for this work to be completed at a loss I guess I would receive a response, remark or laugh of disbelief, this is however what you are asking your local dealer to do.

 

In a nutshell you are asking them to pay you to repair your machine.

 

 

Ok £150 as in this example is a lot of money, but business relationship's go both ways. Maybe one day you will need that local supply urgently and it will not be there. Please guys talk to your local dealer, give them a chance invariably in my experience of over 30years you will pay more but £20 - £30 not £150.

 

So if you Guys sometimes do receive a slightly tepid response when you are asking your local dealer to complete work for you that he is having to pay to do, please spare him a little forgiveness and maybe give him a fair crack at your next purchase.

 

 

 

Thanks for listening

 

 

Good post. People shouldn't shop around for the cheapest possible price then expect the same level of support from their local dealer who they didn't buy the saw from....regardless of wether the local dealer is obligated to service the saw or not...its not exactly fair in the grand scheme of things is it!

 

The same people who shop around for the cheapest saws also whinge about homeowners shopping round for the cheapest tree quote....its quite ironic

[Peasgood]

In the original post the guy said they gave him the spare for him to fit himself. No labour cost to the dealer.

The shouty man at the dealer then insisted they did actually fit it at the dealers and that it would take two weeks.

In summary, the man was being a knob and that is what was in his cheek rather than his tongue.

[AlexB]

I've found Torne Vally in tickhill to be reasonable on matching price lately. I've been getting through clearing saw blades and they're matching. Jonsies. I'm a husky man when it comes to saws so sadly struggle for a good dealer who can match prices locally.

[PeteB]

I thought Kev Petley's post spot on! If there were fewer "local" dealers, how far would you drive to get a warranty repair completed?

 

Quite often, Kevin's staff fix things under warranty, for which they can claim a labour rate per hour which is fixed by the supplier and that may be less than they would ordinarily charge for routine servicing.

 

Well done Kevin for your post and welcome to the forum.

[Burgess]

HI dn22 yes mate we have the same here in bristrol a large dealer was at the AA told not to come with a saw from other dealers but if justin can turn the saws around time in 2/3 days back to me thats good o by the way you do not have too fix:lol: a stihl jon

 

Bit of an old post, but John's still around so never mind. EVer been to DJ Phillips? It's out near High Littleton/Hallatrow does good by me usually fixes stuff pretty quick. They aren't an arb dealer, they aren't actually listed as a Stihl Official Dealer but he can get stuff from stihl, not so sure about why but whatever it's well below RRP not as cheap as Jonsie but decent enough and quick turn around with fixes.

[NFG]

bought a new 441 from justin at the AA show this year. top saw....

 

however, the handle on the pull start has started to fall apart

so, passing one of the local stihl dealers this morning (platts harris of tuxford)

i thought i'd call in to see what they said....

 

spoke to a guy called peter whom i've had dealings before with, couldn't wish for a more helpful salesman, went into the back, got a new handle and cord (they're bonded together) "can you fit it yourself dave, saves a lot of messing, you'll just need to nip your invoice in next time you're passing"

 

"no problem, thanks buddy" says i, happy as larry. next thing main chap for the saws comes over having a right go at me

 

"you didn't get that saw from us!!!!!"

 

me "no, you were £150 dearer"

 

him "the saw'll have to come in, we have to fit all warrenty parts, it'll take at least two weeks"

 

me "TWO WEEKS !!!! to fit a new pull cord !!!"

 

"well if you'd got the saw from us, we'd have done it straight away"

 

"well if you could have matched the price i paid, i would have"

 

this continued for another 10 mins or so, with him bleating about margins, profit, shopping locally etc, and me going on about competitiveness.

 

i'm sorry, but if i went to joe public, £150 dearer than the next man, don't think i could whine when the customer uses said chap.

and if the customer comes to me saying can i fix such and such problem caused by said tree surgeon, i'd take it as a good opportunity to show why i was £150 dearer and hopefully next time they'd use me.

 

on hte upside, i'm off on my hols next week, so he can have the saw for the two weeks

 

Also, we WERE discussing buying our new pedestrian mower from them, a £1000 honda, guess not then...............

 

Hi

 

100% Agreed, unfortunately Mr Richard Cranium (I think you'll know what I mean here) should have wound his neck in & not entered into the fray as Mr Sensible was dealing with it very well. You have every right to go to the dealer with the best price & I can see right where Mr Sensible is coming from with the "OK, so you diddnt buy from us, but maybe some help may convince you to shop with us in future" I used to work in a technical support environment & was always amazed how a little gratitude would be returned in future sales.

 

I accept that margins have to be made so some dealers will be more expensive on some items than others, but what Mr Cranium dosnt realise its 10 times easier to loose a customer than it is to gain one & when that happens, guess what? The customer tells everyone their bad experience.

 

Mail this thread to his boss as I guess there wont be a lot of sympathy here!

 

N

Edited January 18, 2014 by NFG

[Honey Bros]

To give a point of view from a Stihl dealer that also sells competitively online.

 

We see many machines coming to our workshop that we did not sell, it does not bother us. In fact we a have a laugh and joke at the time of booking it in, but that's it.

 

They way we see it, we sell machines that may appear at other Stihl dealers for repair/warranty, and we see machines that other dealers have sold that we are asked to repair that we didn't sell.

 

It's all part of being a Stihl dealer and supporting the brand and honouring the Stihl warranty that you expect when purchasing a Stihl machine.

[Steve Bullman]

To give a point of view from a Stihl dealer that also sells competitively online.

 

We see many machines coming to our workshop that we did not sell, it does not bother us. In fact we a have a laugh and joke at the time of booking it in, but that's it.

 

They way we see it, we sell machines that may appear at other Stihl dealers for repair/warranty, and we see machines that other dealers have sold that we are asked to repair that we didn't sell.

 

It's all part of being a Stihl dealer and supporting the brand and honouring the Stihl warranty that you expect when purchasing a Stihl machine.

 

To be fair, you shift a whole lot of chainsaws. Some of these smaller dealers might not sell a chainsaw from one week to the next which I suspect changes the perspective somewhat