Local Stihl Dealer Is No Longer A Stihl Dealer

I just stopped in at the shop to get some oil and an extra chain. When I walked in I noticed there was only Echo saws and other equipment. When he came to the counter and saw me and knew I was there for Stihl products, he told me he no longer carried Stihl.
I asked why. He said the quality of the new machines is going down and the company was getting harder to deal with. I noticed the other day that Ace Hardware is selling Stihl now. I wonder if the are getting bigger and it harder for the little shops to work with them. I like all of my Stihl equipment, its also was we use at the fire department. I also liked dealing with a smaller independent shop.
Has anyone else noticed this or have you had any issues with Stihl?

 

The small shop in my hometown has stopped dealing Stihls. They have dealt Stihls for over 40 years. They said they didn’t make profit, only broke even. The shop deals in repair of any small engine and Kioti tractors. The dealer that took over Stihl is a big John Deere chain, it’s pretty disappointing.
I’m fortunate that I travel an area with my job. I picked up a 261 recently from a dealer about an hour from my house, it was a very expensive lunch break.

 

We have a big flourishing Stihl Dealer in the city. In a nearby small town, there is a Stihl Dealer inside an Ace Hardware inside a Piggly Wiggly. Dunno what that means - it's too deep to think about.

 

That dealer probably got the Stihl line yanked from them.

I hear a story like that, and I almost instantly smell a huge pile of BS.

 

I'd agree with Horkn. Stihl has some very stringent requirements for their dealers. A good friend lost his franchise when his father let the books and payments get behind due to his dementia-typical sad story about a small family business.

 

The place that had the Stihl line closed a few years ago and the local ACE started carrying the Stihl line. I bought my Stihl fs110 brush cutter from them. They had been a Hardware Hank before changing to ACE. Good people to deal with.

 

Local dealer is thriving, sells wood stoves, Stihl equipment, & related products. Good folks to do business with, & they've got a couple real saw "geeks" in there. Don't forsee any problems with them.

 

Howdy, neighbor. We live over in the middle part of GA. My mom's folks are from around Red Bay, ALA. Where are you from?

 

We have a Stihl dealer here in town that operates out of a small 1-car garage and his basement. Never a problem getting full line of equipment or parts. Another dealer north of me does full line sales, parts and service with a gas station and furniture refinishing business all in the same building. Yet another dealer sells Stihl power equipment in addition to pool supplies, woodstoves and barbecues, but good luck getting parts or especially service from them. Yes, there is a partnership or some sort of symbiotic relationship between Stihl and John Deere, and I believe they are required to have a display. So the Stihl stuff is all over the place, they are really targeting the homeowners.

 

Howdy. I'm in the Huntsville area, near TN line. Middle GA is nice.

 

We have 4 Stihl dealers within 45 minute drive.

 

Cool. I have some friends that live in Mentone, close to Ft Payne, and some friends that live part time in Rainesville.

 

One of our Stihl dealers is also a Kubota dealer.

 

I like using the smaller shops but I like the Stihl products. I may have to use Ace and the independent shop, give them both some business.

 

We have several around here. There are two right next to each other about 200 yards apart. One is a John Deere dealer as well.

 

Still just required their dealerss to install fancy new marketing slat wall stuff + if I am not mistaken there is a minimum purchase commitment as well. Be careful when dealing with box store places remember Stilh has 3 lines - home owner, contractor, professional and the model numbers are very very similar- differance is in the guts of the units.

 

At least 10 dealers here in 4 county radius around me.Roughly half are larger independent Stihl dealers,remainder are varied at least 2 large John Deere dealers also carry Stihl & a couple Ace hardware do also.Plus 1 commercial construction tools dealer sells/services them also.Quite confusing if you ask me.

 

2 main Stihl dealers in my town plus several Ace Hardwares.

Ace used to have a couple of pro saws, but only home owner now, service is super sketchy and slow, but convinet to pick up oil ect.

Main dealer is good, also sells lots of commercial and home owner mowers (gravely, areins). They are really expensive, $90 per hour labor.

Other dealer is mostly commercial construction equipment. They do better with parts service and price.

Not sure if the JD dealer has Stihl?