The sad decline of real Stihl dealers.

[Bill G]

Over in the "Day Care" thread a conversation sprung up yesterday regarding the sad decline I have seen first hand of real dealers especially Stihl. It began when I replied to a comment by @stihl livin. Member @Loony661 replied and we discussed it. I would rather not muddy up the Logan's day care thread and I feel this is a subject that warrants a lot of discussion from a lot of perspectives. I would love to hear folks opinions and experiences from around the globe.

 

[Woodwackr]

The place I go is a “dealer” in that they do service equipment…farm supply chain. Stihl treats them like bastard stepchildren, imo. The gal there does try very hard to get what I need, however, so no complaints.
There are no longer any true Stihl or Husqvarna dealers left in the Boise valley.

 

[farminkarman]

The only Stihl dealer in my area that is worth going to is also a repair center. He actually knows what the heck he is doing, and I am lucky to be 2 miles down the road from him. As for the other “dealers” around, they are a joke. A few years back I bought a 201TC to send to @Mastermind. The idiot at the counter put regular gas in the tank and almost fired it up before I managed to stop him. I wonder how they would have tried to pin that one on me. Anyway, it is no wonder why battery stuff is getting pushed so hard when they can’t get enough competence to sell the gas powered equipment.

 

[alfack]

The place I go is a “dealer” in that they do service equipment…farm supply chain. Stihl treats them like bastard stepchildren, imo. The gal there does try very hard to get what I need, however, so no complaints.
There are no longer any true Stihl or Husqvarna dealers left in the Boise valley.

Yeah. D&B sucks anymore, when it comes to Stihl

 

[Ketchup]

If my local dealer could get me parts without a major up-charge or had what I need in stock, I would go there. I still don’t go to the farm and hardware stores that pedal mostly homeowner equipment and charge even more to get parts.
I’m too frustrated waiting around for someone to get my parts and charge me absurd shipping. I order my own parts and rarely buy new machines. Most of the suppliers I buy from are small businesses despite being online. It’s just how it is now.

 

[Bill G]

If my local dealer could get me parts without a major up-charge or had what I need in stock, I would go there. I still don’t go to the farm and hardware stores that pedal mostly homeowner equipment and charge even more to get parts.
I’m too frustrated waiting around for someone to get my parts and charge me absurd shipping. I order my own parts and rarely buy new machines. Most of the suppliers I buy from are small businesses despite being online. It’s just how it is now.

Wow an authorized online Stihl dealer that is a switch

 

[Woodwackr]

Yeah. D&B sucks anymore, when it comes to Stihl

Tyra left the Meridian store…retired…and it all went to hell. I’ve been going to the new Caldwell store since then. They try but are not very knowledgeable, sad to say. It is what is is. At least the folks there are really nice.

 

[Bill G]

I understand that personnel change in dealerships as folks age but that is no excuse for Stihl (or any company) to chit on mom and pop dealers. Those are the dealers that got Stihl where they are!!!

When Poulan, Homelite and McCulloch pissed on their dealers and went to box stores like Wally World, Woolworth, and K-Mart what happened to the company and product?

 

[Loony661]

Bill, to answer your question from the daycare thread, Midwest Stihl is our regional distributor. When I was involved, they were fantastic to work with, and not pushy. During my tenure, Midwest Stihl merged with another regional distributor and at the same time, sold out and became owned by “mother” Stihl. A bunch of the long standing employees from Midwest retired around that same time. That’s when all of the rules started getting thrown at us. We got a new rep, of course a younger gentleman who was just doing what he was told, but didn’t have a clue about how things “used to be”. I ended up changing careers shortly after that as well. I have been away from that scene for roughly 11-12 years now. A lot has changed I’m sure.

 

[jacob j.]

It's a combination of factors - mistreatment from the corporation, young people not interested in working in the OPE field, supply chain mismanagement, irresponsible operators, etc. When I worked at the dealerships, we had a tough time getting responsible workers to train as technicians. The jobs don't pay very well and young guys can make more working at Lowes or Home Depot (or even the local mom-and-pop lumber yards). The few that we did get usually didn't stick with it. Couple that with regular beatings from Stihl and shady customers - it's hard to stay in business and serve the community.

 

[Loony661]

I’ll add that I went through the Silver level technician training back then as well. I wanted to travel to Virginia Beach and attend Gold school, but the owner wouldn’t pay for it. It would have gained him favor with Stihl to have a Gold certified tech, but he just didn’t want to pay that up front cost. I loved that job. I managed the dealership, and ran the parts counter, but could fill in the shop as needed. Sales came naturally, and I was very successful with it all around..

That being said, my biggest frustrations with the dealers I have now are: that I don’t get treated on the other side of the counter, as I would have treated someone when I was in their shoes. We placed 2 stock orders a week to get people their parts in a timely manner. I never charged a customer shipping or freight, unless it was oversized, etc. I carried a large room full of parts, and always had lots of the regular items handy, like bar nuts, fuel caps, air filters, etc. We also sharpened all chains every morning, so it was 1 day turn around. That worked great until we bought a $20k Franzen grinder - then we started sharpening while a customer would wait. -Now it’s hard to find a dealer that stocks what I need, and that won’t charge me full freight to order it. That’s what pisses me off the most.

 

[FederalQ]

One of the small family owned dealers here had repped them since the 1960‘s and no longer exist. Even at the Timbersports event judged by their booth I can see they‘re targeting John Q homeowner. At least in this area that must be the bread and butter with pro-Level equipment a minor portion of the business.

 

[Loony661]

One of the small family owned dealers here had repped them since the 1960‘s and no longer exist. Even at the Timbersports event judged by their booth I can see they‘re targeting John Q homeowner. At least in this area that must be the bread and butter with pro-Level equipment a minor portion of the business.

They don’t need to advertise or market for the commercial user - they know they’ll sell those units. But gaining market share in the homeowner segment is huge, because they are typically uneducated on OPE, and there’s many brands to choose from.

 

[Bill G]

Bill, to answer your question from the daycare thread, Midwest Stihl is our regional distributor. When I was involved, they were fantastic to work with, and not pushy. During my tenure, Midwest Stihl merged with another regional distributor and at the same time, sold out and became owned by “mother” Stihl. A bunch of the long standing employees from Midwest retired around that same time. That’s when all of the rules started getting thrown at us. We got a new rep, of course a younger gentleman who was just doing what he was told, but didn’t have a clue about how things “used to be”. I ended up changing careers shortly after that as well. I have been away from that scene for roughly 11-12 years now. A lot has changed I’m sure.

I am betting your distributor, Midwest Stihl was forced out just like ours, Mississippi Valley Stihl. Although it might have been later as you would have been very young when it happened here. They were forced out by the corporate shirts from Virginia, Germany, or who knows where. When the "shirts" forced MVS out the older parts availability was gone as the "shirts" came through and scrapped anything deemed "old and obsolete" The shirts were totally clueless and scrapped parts with the family number 1111 because they thought it was only for the 050/051/075/076 saws. They did the same with the family number 1108 which they associated with the 08S saw. The *dipsticks were not bright enough to realize just a year or two before they were still selling the TS510 and TS760 cutoff saws which were part of the 1111 family. The TS350 cutoff saw was part of the 1108 family.

 

[Bill G]

It's a combination of factors - mistreatment from the corporation, young people not interested in working in the OPE field, supply chain mismanagement, irresponsible operators, etc. When I worked at the dealerships, we had a tough time getting responsible workers to train as technicians. The jobs don't pay very well and young guys can make more working at Lowes or Home Depot (or even the local mom-and-pop lumber yards). The few that we did get usually didn't stick with it. Couple that with regular beatings from Stihl and shady customers - it's hard to stay in business and serve the community.

That is the key!

 

[Bill G]

I’ll add that I went through the Silver level technician training back then as well. I wanted to travel to Virginia Beach and attend Gold school, but the owner wouldn’t pay for it. It would have gained him favor with Stihl to have a Gold certified tech, but he just didn’t want to pay that up front cost. I loved that job. I managed the dealership, and ran the parts counter, but could fill in the shop as needed. Sales came naturally, and I was very successful with it all around..

That being said, my biggest frustrations with the dealers I have now are: that I don’t get treated on the other side of the counter, as I would have treated someone when I was in their shoes. We placed 2 stock orders a week to get people their parts in a timely manner. I never charged a customer shipping or freight, unless it was oversized, etc. I carried a large room full of parts, and always had lots of the regular items handy, like bar nuts, fuel caps, air filters, etc. We also sharpened all chains every morning, so it was 1 day turn around. That worked great until we bought a $20k Franzen grinder - then we started sharpening while a customer would wait. -Now it’s hard to find a dealer that stocks what I need, and that won’t charge me full freight to order it. That’s what pisses me off the most.

That is exactly one of my many points!

Prior to the corporate takeover and the Stihl sex party with Deere and box stores the minimum parts order for the DEALER was $50 for free shipping. Real dealers kept consumable parts on hand. If they needed a part not on hand it was just a minimum of a $50 order which was easy to meet and that was not based on the part order just the total order. Many guys ordered everyday well over $50 and got deliveries everyday. If a customer stopped in on Monday and the part was not in stock it would be there Tuesday with no damn shipping. After the shirts took over it went to $500 minimum. Of course they also jacked the price of parts up. I did get a chuckle after Stihl went Chinese. The MSRP of a 044 piston dropped from $80 to $40.

 

[Loony661]

That is exactly one of my many points!

Prior to the corporate takeover and the Stihl sex party with Deere and box stores the minimum parts order for the DEALER was $50 for free shipping. Real dealers kept consumable parts on hand. If they needed a part not on hand it was just a minimum of a $50 order which was easy to meet and that was not based on the part order just the total order. Many guys ordered everyday well over $50 and got deliveries everyday. If a customer stopped in on Monday and the part was not in stock it would be there Tuesday with no damn shipping. After the shirts took over it went to $500 minimum. Of course they also jacked the price of parts up. I did get a chuckle after Stihl went Chinese. The MSRP of a 044 piston dropped from $80 to $40.

Our minimum order was $400 for free freight, since day one. But we made it happen. And during the slower months, we just ate the shipping, because if you can’t do that a few times a month, well frankly you shouldn’t be in business. Like I said, we took care of our customer, and we still made money.

 

[sundance]

My dealer is an old school small shop. Always been great to work with and honest as the day is long. Not sure what will happen once the owner finally retires.

 

[jblnut]

My dealer is an old school small shop. Always been great to work with and honest as the day is long. Not sure what will happen once the owner finally retires.

Same here. I think in all the years of using and abusing saws my local Mom and Pop Stihl shop has only had to order parts in for me once. Everything else has been on the shelf. I asked him about converting my MS250 to a rim drive instead of the spur sprocket and he went in the back and came out with an Oregon drum and Stihl small spline 7pin sprocket. Well that was neat.

Every industry is suffering durning the small shops to large stores transition. As the people that helped build the brands to where they are retire and the next generation is crunching the numbers the small shops go away and the big boys move in. From a pure business sense it makes sense to have fewer dealers to support that can then stock more parts and have more employees available but it doesn’t work that way. The bigger the business gets the more they get focused on that $0.001 and less focused on the actual customer. Driving costs down rarely builds a loyal customer base and almost always drives some away.

Once my local Stihl shop closes I’ll likely be hitting eBay up as the only other Stihl dealers around here are in big box stores and I’ve never had luck getting things on a whim, they always have to order even the most simple things and it takes a week to get. At that point I’ll just hit up an online supplier and have it shipped to my house. And that right there is what’s killing the local guys.

 

[Ketchup]

I have two legit dealers in my area and 3 or 4 more within an hour. They all charge shipping on any ordered part. If you need a carb jet or random screw you pay five times the cost of the part in shipping. If you bring them equipment the lowest diagnostic fee is $60. Lowest hourly service rate is $110. So labor very quickly kills any major repair, even when everything has gone to bolt-on parts. $500 pre-built cases, $280 fuel tank assemblies, new $350 cylinder kits for anything close to piston damage, $150 preloaded top handles, etc. If you are willing to spend $900 on a major repair, it will be 6-8weeks. The whole model kills any serious repair and pushes customers to buy new equipment. If you’re half decent at working on things it’s crazy to go to any of my dealers.
Especially since they don’t pay their employees crap, so they botch orders constantly and half the time only one guy in the shop knows what you’re talking about. This isn’t just a Stihl thing either. Often Husky and Echo dealers are just as incompetent.

To my knowledge, you still can’t be a legit on-line Stihl dealer. The companies I work with are either selling NTO parts or stocking from Stihl and then reselling without a dealership agreement. I understand the dealers have a hard time with competitors, so I’m not sure what best practice is now. I don’t think it’s the Ace Hardware/Tractor Supply model.

At the root of it, the industry is super corporate and cares very little about individual customers or dealers. The internet is killing local everything and I’m part of the problem. Frustrating.