anybody ever dealt with Southwest Trading?

[Magnus]

Looks pretty good to me.

There is more to it than meets the eye!

How about 3 times the gas price, doubble the rent and 25% sales tax evrytime a product shifts hands. We have higher salory, but about 10-15%.
You end up with more than us.

I now can compare the living in states, in particular NH state and Maine, to mine here.

If it were practical, I would move in a heartbeat!

That is just the financial bit...

 

[squisher]

Finding a dealer you like here is not a option. It's more if you happen to have a good local dealer. If not, you learn to do it yourself. I would buy from the cheapest source possible and forget about trying to train my local dealers staff for them so they actually know what I'm talking about.

 

[SkwerI]

Exactly, Squishey. I've given up on ever having a dealer fix a saw for me. Too many expensive disappointments and shoddy work, many times never even fixing the problem. I can fix 95% of my breakdowns myself. If I can't fix it, then it becomes a parts donor. I'm not paying $80 per hour shop rates for some kid to attempt to fix my saw while stripping out screws, gouging plastic or twisting/ pinching fuel lines creating more problems for me down the road. I'd almost rather throw away a saw than turn it over to the local shops.

 

[squisher]

Damn straight, around here it's the same with nearly everything. All maintenance and mechanical work for my trucks and everything I do as much as possible. One benefit is saving money, the other is knowing it's done right and nothing else screwed up and hidden away cause they don't wanna own up to it.

I'm nearly done with shops entirely, maybe I'm a picky SOB but I find most work by others not to be up to my standards.

 

[Magnus]

What ever work's for you I guess is OK.

But sell a saw they can't screw up, can they?

 

[squisher]

I buy all my saws locally. Except for a couple I've gotten from members here. But if I could have one delivered here for cheaper I would.

 

[SkwerI]

Well I think I've just placed my last order with my local Husky dealer. I stopped in there yesterday to get a few loose odds and ends, gas cap, various screws, kill switch wire, etc. The total came up to $46 which I thought was a little high but I paid it without looking at the receipt. Today I called them to see if the parts were in and he says "They are coming from California, takes 5 days". He charged me from $1.69 to $2.31 for screws and $7.38 each for the kill switch wires!

I said to him "If I knew it was going to take a week then I could have just ordered them from Bailey's". He hemmed and hawwed and basically admitted that he was ordering my stuff there.

And after correcting him a half dozen times over the last 10 years, he still has my name misspelled in his damn computer. And my street name as well. Bailey's can spell my name and address correctly.

 

[Jonseredbred]

Must be he didnt pay his Husky bill.

 

[woodworkingboy]

The only gripe I have with Baileys is that they never send me a new catalog, even though I have purchased mucho stuff from them, for myself and friends. I email them and ask for a catalog, and my main man there says, "Oh sure, get it right out", but it never comes, and that gets repeated over and over. My current catalog is for 2005. You'd think that like twenty chainsaws would put you on the mailing list?

 

[Bounce]

Man, I'm probably sticking my foot in it by posting on this one, but here goes. I deal with complaints like these all the time at Wesspur. I agree with Magnus - online ordering places are just like your local saw shop: there a good ones and bad ones. The trick is to find a good one. And even then, bear in mind that there's going to be mistakes. I try to take the attitude that it isn't whether or not someboyd drops the ball, its how fast they pick it back up again.

 

[NeTree]

If I'm not mistaken, my 346XP came from Southwest.

My local dealer is a jackass and a ripoff. Screw him.

 

[NeTree]

Okay, just checked my files... and yep. It came from Southwest Trading.

as I recall, it got to me fast, and the pricing was right. As for the saw itself...

Well, I was using it just today.

 

[SkwerI]

Erik, I ended up buying from a dealer I had purchased from before. The only reason Southwest's name came up is because they were the top Google search result.

But then that's not saying much. Arboristsite is the top result when searching for arborist forums. :roll: I wanted to deal with somebody that had some reputation, not just good ad placement.

 

[NeTree]

Oh, I gathered that, Brian.

I was just sayin' my dealing with them was positive.

 

[SkwerI]

Well I got to run the new 395 a little bit more today. 4 or 5 cuts before I hit a rock grown into a big fork in the tree. I didn't even get to make the stump cut.

That makes a total of about 9-10 cuts I've made with it so far. About a tank of fuel total I'd guess. It doesn't rev up as quickly as my other modified saws but it does have a satisfying grunt with a decent amount of torque. It should get stronger as it gets broken in (5-10 tanks of fuel).

 

[squisher]

Shoulda got a 660.

 

[SkwerI]

It would have clashed with all my other saws.

I worked with an old friend today on another removal. He got a chance to run my 346 and my 372, he was quite impressed. Of course he would be, seeing as he's only run Stihls all his life. He joked about 6-8 times about keeping my 372...

 

[RIVERRAT]

My dealer takes care of me. I don't know what I would do if I did not have a dealer close by. Maybe start again with fixing my saws myself.
But that takes time. Time I am chronically short of.

Frans, that is my exact sentiment. I am small potatoes in regard to the size of the other outfits my Stihl shop takes care of. But they have on a couple of very dire occasions stopped & fixed my saw when needed.

That is far more valuable to me than saving $50 or what ever on a saw at purchase.
My saw shop also hears the scuttlebutt from others on the recent gnarly jobs Ive done. They know every one in the area that is of any account. It's a great place to hear how those I have not run into for a while are doing.

They also heard of my accident & when I came in for the first time after it took place Mike & his partner stopped what they where doing to ask how I was & also hear & listen to the gory details.



Going to my saw shop is a break, that I relish. An escape from the every day monotony I call work.