Stihl Dealer Flagged by "Papa" Stihl for Selling on Ebay

Back in the late 80's through mid 90's, I started collecting guns, old historical military ones. Built up quite a collection of Pre WWI, WWI, WWII, and post WWII stuff from all the countries of the world. Had about 40 guns in all at the peak. Sold most of it all off a few years ago, all except one gun. The best shooting, most accurate rifle in the whole lot. A mint Husqvarna M38 carbine in 6.5 x 55 cal made in 1943. Simply awsome shooting rifle/caliber, uncanny accuracy. It could "dot the i in Stihl" at a couple hundred yards of one of my numerous saws.

Well you're not alone in that regard by any means.
I'd guess a lot — but not all, of course — of Stihl users feel similarly or they would not have bought from a strictly dealer-based manufacturer in the first place, but I could be wrong.

Since I started this post, I tried to wrap it up last night with a gracious post to both sides, but folks just seem to want to keep this one going, which obviously I respect as we're all due our 2 cents worth.. Therefore, I need to respond to the stated above.

I have run down to my local dealer on the proverbial "Saturday afternoon" on more than one occasion only to have them tell me they do not have what I need, will have to order it in. Sure, they have the basic stuff, but with their huge historical linup, they simply can't be expected to inventory all the parts necessary for all of their saws. So I have to wait. Also, I forgot to mention that in the incident regarding the $52 rings I posted earlier, they first ordered in the wrong rings. They called me to come pick them up, I drive over there, and I can tell just by looking at them in the little plastic case that they are too small. It may just be a 191T, but that baby has a huge piston (short stroke) - 46mm! These were puny rings. I tell them that they are not right, the dealer initially disagrees with me saying that the numbers match and I must be mistaken judging from "memory", I insist that he look them up again on his IPL diagrams, and low-and-behold, he wrote down the wrong number when he ordered them! So I go home empty handed and wait some more.................... Yes, we are all human and anyone can make a mistake, but I don't buy your comment that we can just run on over to our friendly local dealer and get what we need, not in the real world.

Why make jobs in another area, why not I say! They have a right to operate a successful business too. I do enough business in my daily life with local folks that I see nothing wrong with throwing a few special things to other folks. I've bought internet parts that have come as far away as Washigton State, and as close by as outside Cleveland, an hour from me. It still costed less to ship them to me than to buy it from a local dealer. Heck, driving to Cleveland and back would have been the most expensive form of shipping out there! He was able to mail it to me for the cost of a half gallon of gas.

(A very well respected poster here PM'd me a day ago and told me to get some rings I needed for an 024AV I'm rebuilding from a guy in Greece where he gets all his.) We're living in a global economy.

Boog, Every type of business has the A+ type of store, the type that the guy behind knows part numbers off the top of their heads and others that don't know what a part is with out a computer to tell them.

I have been pulling wrenches for over 40 years and I have seen a sad decline in both the quality of the help behind the counter and a major lack of "in stock" parts on hand. I guess it's just a part of today's corporate mentality. It used to be "We always stock 100,000 parts" now it seems like if we stock it it costs big bucks and we don't make as much profit. The computer says we don't sell enough to stock it!

As for jobs, I'm all for EVERYONE working, but if it comes down to my neighbor having a job or someone four states away.... Make no mistake, I do but some stuff on line, but I do try to buy local as much as possible.

I have been in retail all my life. I have been working, and sometimes fighting, with manufacturers these past 40 years. This issue is difficult for end users to understand, but I will give it a try.

The issue is one of control. When a manufacturer has hundreds or thousands of dealers the manufacturer is in control.

(emphasis mine)

In practically no case would this be true. Control shifts from the manufacturer to the big box retailer When Lowes or Cabelas or Petsmart or (God help you!) Wal-Mart is buying 50%-70% of your output the retailer determines what you make and at what price you make it. They do not need the manufacturer: Echo, Shindaiwa, Toro, and many others will fill their shelves for them. Others will gladly slap their label (Homelite, McCullah) on something Chinese. The manufacturer in these situations becomes absolutely dependent upon the big box retailer, however. And it is a one-way street - once the dealers are gone, they are gone. It would take many years to rebuild a dealer network from scratch and almost no manufacturer is big enough to survive the attempt.

In the end, the customer who actually appreciates the brand is the one to lose. Parts become unavailable. Selection becomes reduced. Quality usually suffers as the buyers at the big retailers can see no reason why one brand should be 50% higher in price. Often the manufacturer ceases to make anything at all and becomes just a label.

Dealerships are a headache to such manufacturers, to be sure. Some dealers are ignorant. Some are inept. It takes a huge amount of resources to try and keep dealers who will represent the product properly, but the alternative is usually death. The best example I can think of is Maytag. They once sold the best appliances made only though dealers. Then they decided Montgomery Wards would give them a few more unit sales. The dealers were gone in five years. In another ten Maytag was nothing but a contract builder for the big box stores. Today Maytag is just a label applied to Whirlpool products. Anyone remember Magnavox? Same thing. Justin boots, Delta tools, now just labels.

The problem is that Sears, or Lowes, or Bass Pro will not make a brand. They will only use it. To build a reputation for quality takes people out there on the sales floor showing and explaining why you, the customer should pay substantially more for this product rather than the cheaper one. This puts the onus on the manufacturer to deliver, of course. There are many examples of once-revered brands sold only through dealers that are gone, or at least in trouble. Avon products come to mind. Schwinn bicycles. Lawn Boy.

And yet the need for on line presence is still there. What some companies are doing is to set up internet systems that will credit sales to participating dealers. This would allow you to purchase an item on the internet, yet the dealer in your zip code gets the sale less some kind of fee.

Depends on what I'm buying. When I buy a car, I want service. When I buy batteries for my camera, I could care less about service.

Riding on the North Shore, north of Jericho Turnpike is pretty good.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13786656

^ here is a good startpoint for some really interesting firewood scouting rides starting near the Sound but with some challenging hills, (though it reverts to a pay-per town beach Memorial Day to Labor Day)

I will try to get a ride in today to scout for some firewood — now there's the legit connection for us woodaholics — it's a great way to discover some discarded/fallen logs and determine their accessibility, and see some nice scenery at the same time


http://theoutsideinsideout.blogspot.com/2012/10/multi-sport-mix-up.html

I'm usually up for a ride if my cervical disk condition in my neck is not acting up (like it is now) Generally it limits me to an hour/hour and a half, before I start to compromise my neck. Probably too slow/short — These days I'm a 11-14 mph avg. kind of guy (lots of hills but not a grat climber at 197# ). I'd be a lot faster if I had a group to draft with and no freaking hills, but who wouldn't, right?

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/220931217

But there is a club here — LIBC that rides out of the High School parking lot on northeast corner of Post Road/Jericho Turnpike, Westbury, most weekend mornings with A B and C+ rides starting at 8:30 9 am- ish.

Tons of MTB here — Stillwell Woods is the mutts nuts

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/190141630

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/170376993

Should volunteer for more trailwork, but there's no getting this kind of haul back to civilization, it'll rot where it falls I suspect.

I've covered certain aspects of retail from the inside for a number of years, and can back you up and say this is word.^

But the more the production line becomes geared to the WM / Amazon supply chain the more dependent the Mfr is on the big box/big Internet, and, there's no going back.

It seems it's the quality enthusiast and specialty labels that can determine their destinies, at least as best they can, if they stay away from the uber mass market retailers.

I'd add for me #2 was close proximity to a dealer/service. Location, location, location. Might not always be perfect, but I'd rather 5 minutes to my dealer, than 30 minutes to Home Depot for who knows what service, if any.

I may not get it back right away, but I can live with a few days.

Sorry missed that wrap, mea culpa, but it was/is an interesting thread.