This is what I bought just through Amazon
https://www.outdoorpowerdeals.com/3...lter-pro-series-696854-695396-492932-492932s/
This seller, Outdoor Power Deals, has their own website and sells through Amazon also. Like I stated I am at peace. Briggs website, under part number 696854, shows a picture with part number 695396 on it. These numbers must be interchangeable. If it were not why would Briggs have a misleading picture? I have 100% confidence that I have the correct filter. And that my engine will in fact not be destroyed when I use these filters.
Don
And if you check their web page there is no contact other than by email.
Tried a company check and they do not show up under that name.
No phone number, no street address.
Dogs have face book pages and any person on the planet can open an Amazon account, all you need is a US bank account number and for Ebay, a Paypal account.
So are they a real company or just electrons in cyber space ?
A big flashy web page means nothing whatsoever.
The last salary job I had was running a warehouse.
The excess bays were rented out on a daily basis to non entities who had really flashy web pages but were no more than a computer in some ones garage.
We picked up the containers from the wharfs, unpacked & pallatized the stock.
Occasionally a very old Asian looking woman came & took some photos of individual items.
Other than that their computer sent our computer a picking slip, delivery order & invoice to be included in the package.
The invoices showed photos of a non existent office and interior photos of factories that were lifted from the web.
Down the bottom were a string of brand names, none of which were ever in our warehouse.
Once our live link bank statement showed payment had been transferred from their bank account , the goods were despatched.
The only contact we had for them was a variety of email addresses at their own domain, so they could have all gone to a single computer and 3 mobile phone numbers which always went to voice mail.
I use 16 email addresses so them having over a dozen means nothing.
Over the short time I ran things these sorts of deals were very regular and we got a lot of emails requesting these services , a lot fewer phone calls and perhaps 1 or 2 personal visits a month.
While you are happy with your purchase because it came in a Briggs box with a Briggs number on both the box & filter, that does not prohibit the possibility that the parts you got were counterfit.
I have sold genuine B & S parts that were made in the USA , China , Mexico , The Phillapines , Canada & Brazil, but never from India, so who knows.
The most counterfitted item in the world is bearings and they come with "what name you want " printed on the side or moulded into the rubber seals.
Thus I rely on my wholesale suppliers who are real so can be sued for counterfitting supplying me with genuine products and to date there have not been any counterfit parts problems.
I see a lot of mower parts for sale on the web that are cheaper than the wholesale factory door price direct from the factory that makes them so they either have to be low quality counterfit parts or defective parts originally sold as scrap., then retailed, quite honestly as "OEM part" or "Fits xyz",
Now Outdoor™ Might be real, they might be a retailer of genuine surplus B & S parts bought at less than cost or they might be a counterfit outlet or do both.
All you have to work with is what you read on their web page, can you independently verify that information ?
The fact they use a logo very similar to MTD's Arnold logo again raises suspicions.
The use of a ™ after a very generic type of name is also suspicious but R & S did in fact register the name in 2013 and the first use was noted at 2003, not quite "over 20 years" as stated on their home page.
OTOH if the part works well then you are fine , but if it collapses and promotes excessive wear in your engine which will not become apparent for a few years , will you know ?
And if you do know how to get recommpence ?
OTOH you could have gotten the same price from Jacks Small Engines
https://www.jackssmallengines.com/jacks-parts-lookup/part/696854 for the same price and these come from a real shop ( warehouse ) with a real street address and real contact phone numbers.
If you check the link you would also have noted that the part number has been superceeded which would have saved you a long conversation with Briggs customer service and some doubts.
You would have also seen just how many part numbers the same filter has / had and what it is supposed to fit. A bit lower down & you find the Stens after market alternative ( USA Made ).
