Chainsaw cause of death?

[bertsmobile1]

That is an attitude worthy of applause, pity more don't think like that .
While I do like to buy local and even more from small retailers who have a higher employee to turn over ratio but when it comes to hand held parts that is not possible down here.
I have had this out with numerous franchise reps ( not the dealers, their reps ) but it falls on deaf ears.
Hard to make people who have been born into money and work for bosses who have also been born into money that extortion is not a viable long term business plan.
A piston for a Rancher 55 is $ 75 ( Aus) then add another $ 195 for a barrel + another $75 for the bearings and the parts come to 1/2 the new price before you add my $ 120 for the 2 hr of labour .
The business model down here is force people to buy new where there is 300 % of mark ups by the time the customer opens their wallets by not keeping adequate stocks of parts and massively inflating the price of parts .
Their answer is to spend a fortune trying to convince people to buy a quality brand like Husky or Stihl but in the long run, they have made them unrepairable so little benefit for the consumer over buying a throw away chain saw then spending $ 200 with me to make them work properly or just buying a new throw away every time they need one as the big glass fronts will sell you a 20cc 12" saw for $ 99 ( around $ 60 US ).

 

[oldlawnguy]

You got me going...

It's the same up here, are you from down under? If so, been there and it's an absolutely beautiful place along with New Zealand.

Seems like a disappearing art of building relationships and retail customers. Dunno seems like certain people are afraid of hard work or thinking outside of the box. Hope it's not the same today on the commercial side too with margin and fix/replace.

I've found as an average schmo that hand held gas power equipment that is 10-20 years old is pretty fixable compared to that one and done junk at Home Dumbo or Hazard Fraud that I refuse to buy. I'm not buying into the lithium battery extortion stuff either. Gas or an extension cord still work just fine for me.

On the flip side you have people that want to sell you their equipment that doesn't work cuz they broke it and/or tried to fix it, but want working retail price for it. :^)

You could probably have a good go at teaching a 6 week 12 hr. small engine repair class twice a year (right before spring and right before winter). $99/student. I'd bet you could get at least 20-30 homeowners to sign up. Start small then you can go and teach it online. Guys will love it as a great XMAS gift from the Mrs. Let that sink in with the franchise reps...

 

[mmoffitt]

"FOD"

 

[Hammermechanicman]

Ever been on a FOD walk?

 

[mmoffitt]

Ever been on a FOD walk?

yes sir! USAF Crew Chief..amazing what falls off of stuff....in all kinds of weather

 

[bertsmobile1]

You got me going...

It's the same up here, are you from down under? If so, been there and it's an absolutely beautiful place along with New Zealand.

Seems like a disappearing art of building relationships and retail customers. Dunno seems like certain people are afraid of hard work or thinking outside of the box. Hope it's not the same today on the commercial side too with margin and fix/replace.

I've found as an average schmo that hand held gas power equipment that is 10-20 years old is pretty fixable compared to that one and done junk at Home Dumbo or Hazard Fraud that I refuse to buy. I'm not buying into the lithium battery extortion stuff either. Gas or an extension cord still work just fine for me.

On the flip side you have people that want to sell you their equipment that doesn't work cuz they broke it and/or tried to fix it, but want working retail price for it. :^)

You could probably have a good go at teaching a 6 week 12 hr. small engine repair class twice a year (right before spring and right before winter). $99/student. I'd bet you could get at least 20-30 homeowners to sign up. Start small then you can go and teach it online. Guys will love it as a great XMAS gift from the Mrs. Let that sink in with the franchise reps...

I consider myself quite priviledged to have been born here & hope to pay the country back regardless of the politicans trying to make every one rash the place.
And yes , some time , probably around 20 years ago the accountants worked out that they made a lot more money overall by sending the company on the down hill slope to oblivion converting from quality products with a high mark up to trash with a much lower margin in the hope that greater sales will result in higher overall turnover.
For this to work, the buying public have to continually replace goods which funny enough in the 50's & 60's accountants used to call "consumer durables".

The big problem is to the mug customer the costs are almost the same between buying quality & servicing it properly & buying trash & throwing it away every season or so .
However the cost to the planet of the latter is enormous .
It costs less than 10% more to make a durable long lasting mower as it does to make a throw away but the resource costs are almost identical.
So we make millions of tons of steel , aluminium & plastic to be used a few times then tossed into landfill.
It really is criminal .

 

[VRR.DYNDNS>BIZ]

No question that was foreign object ingestion.

agree

 

[oldlawnguy]

I consider myself quite priviledged to have been born here & hope to pay the country back regardless of the politicans trying to make every one rash the place.
And yes , some time , probably around 20 years ago the accountants worked out that they made a lot more money overall by sending the company on the down hill slope to oblivion converting from quality products with a high mark up to trash with a much lower margin in the hope that greater sales will result in higher overall turnover.
For this to work, the buying public have to continually replace goods which funny enough in the 50's & 60's accountants used to call "consumer durables".

The big problem is to the mug customer the costs are almost the same between buying quality & servicing it properly & buying trash & throwing it away every season or so .
However the cost to the planet of the latter is enormous .
It costs less than 10% more to make a durable long lasting mower as it does to make a throw away but the resource costs are almost identical.
So we make millions of tons of steel , aluminium & plastic to be used a few times then tossed into landfill.
It really is criminal .

Yeah tongue and cheek humor on the small engine repair courses... although some folks make decent $ on their YouTube channel.

It's the typical short term focus (earnings report every 13 weeks) .vs over long term gain.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Once upon a time companies made products.
Now they make profits any way they can, be it cheating on their creditors, stealing from their workers pension funds, closing factories & doing real estate developements , importing what they used to make , renting out their brand name or perish the thought actually making a saleable product

 

[mmoffitt]

It's called business, some of it being quite unsavory....