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Saw repair and warranty issues

lehman live edge slab

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I have a decent idea what I’m planning on doing with this situation but would like opinions on it. I have a neighbor I fix some stuff for and have known him for a long time but it’s not as if we’re best friends ect. Well almost 2 years ago his kid in his 20’s was looking for a saw and I sold him a very nice husky 350 I got. I went over the saw when I fixed the leaking plastic carb boot clamp by doing the modification with a Stihl 036 metal boot clamp. Saw was beautiful low hour saw and ran great, sold him this saw for right around 200$ and told him no warranty but if it died for some reason right away if it wasn’t obvious he did something I’d take care of it. Well saw quit running maybe a month or little longer ago. Kid figured it lost spark so his dad dropped it off with his 346xp that needed a new clutch because the one on it broke. I fixed the 346 and sharpened the dull chain for him, then moved on to the 350 with a really blunt chain and stale smelling gas in tank. Saw has good spark but 50 lbs compression because it’s scored pretty bad. I tell the neighbor his saw is fixed and a price which is a fair bit less than would be current because i didn’t get a chance to let him know I charge more now. Then I tell him his kids saw is blown up and not worth fixing to which he answered well I’m pretty sure he hasn’t even run 3 tanks of gas through it like I should be fixing or replacing it.
I answered I told you used saw no warranty when buying but if something happened early in the time you owned it I’d make it right. Told him he’s had it for almost 2 years has ran it a bunch by looking at bar, chain is super dull and had smelly stale gas in tank. After this he backs off but I have half a mind to give him his saw back free of charge and not take any more from him for repairs. Not that I want to do this but I was crystal clear on sale and for some reason he still thought I should go good on a saw from 2 years ago until I told him what happened to it. His response was yeah he does bring mine back dull all the time too, I told his kid the saw I sold him will last a long time with good gas and a sharp chain. I even showed him how to sharpen one and told him if something seems off with saw to stop because if it acts funny something could be wrong. So just looking for feedback I also told him since I’ve officially started the shop and with prices local I’ve gone to 80$ and hour and 7$ a chain to sharpen now. All saw shops are 100-125$ an hour snd 8-10$ a chain so told him this is why i increased prices.
 

mrxlh

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Welcome to the world of dealing with John Q Public… I almost never take side work anymore (not saw work) because of this very thing. Someone can be totally at fault and when they go around running their corksucker about you or how you screwed them over you are the left to pick up the pieces and deal with the everyone’s perception of you.

Bad news always travels faster than the speed of light, the answer is charge more, a lot more. I know this has been discussed here a ton usually super negatively, but honestly it works. When someone asks me on a Friday after work if I can fix a leak in their pontoon so then can be on the lake Saturday morning, I simply tell them you cannot afford me. When they ask why, I ask who else will fix it tonight…
 

lehman live edge slab

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Well so far this hasn’t been an issue and hopefully is far and few between. This particular neighbor came to his senses and apologized for even hinting I should be liable for the saw. He said after remembering his saw being super dull after one tank ect that his son needs more instruction weather it’s listening to instructions or paying to buy new or rebuild saws until he’s used to good fuel and sharp chains.
 

lehman live edge slab

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2 years?
He can piśs off on getting a free repair.

I agree and he was told that it wouldn’t happen at the same time I asked him what he thinks a standard warranty was on a new one. I told him all used stuff is not warranty but would help out ect if it was something that happened right away ect and it wasn’t because of stupidity like straight gas. He was going to be told that I won’t work on his stuff anymore but he realized how stupid his statement was and apologized.
 
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