Need Help - What's Wrong with 550XP MII

[barbender]

Yep, you might as well buy your saw online at the cheapest price at that point. 

If I had a Spike saw shop staffed with professionals locally, I'd certainly pay more to buy my saws and have great service. As it is, the largest local dealer's a crapshoot whether the saw will end up in competent hands, and there saws are priced about as expensive as I've seen. 

I've bought my last 3 Husqvarnas from a shop in Wisconsin that comes to our annual logging show in the fall. They are usually priced at 20% off list, and they move a lot of saws. They still sell a lot to hardwood hand cutters over there, and I'm under the impression that they have the service to back it up. I haven't had to use it🤷

If I do have issues beyond my tools and capabilities, I'll box up the saw and send it over to them.

[DHansen]

Good customers, good service, it's a two way street.  You need to develop a relationship with the customer and good service becomes easier.  A customer that receives good service,becomes a better customer.  Without customers you have no business.  And that Husqvarna Common Service tool is under a grand US.

After using the tool on 50 saws the tool has paid for itself.

[Spike60]

Tom, your idea has merit on the surface.

But it's ultimately a dead end. (As some local shops prove). Husky can require  a dealer to have the tool, but, can they require that dealer be proficient in its use? Or to measure repair times In days vs weeks or months for that matter.

The OEM can schedule the schools, print the material, and make all tools and service docs available. They exist in amazing quantities. Look at just the few I've shared with Dave in his 254 projects. But it's ultimately up o each dealer as to how much they will embrace those resources.

You could spot the differences right away in the tech meetings. Some stores would send an uninterested kid from the shop who looked at it as a day off. Some dealers would send the shop manager or a principal like myself. Some of us would take notes, others play on their phones.

Husky also had field service tech reps that would visit dealers to keep them on top of service news.

(Believe it or not, by an odd coincidence, my former tech reps son bought the house across the street from mine. Small world, eh ?)

In the end, i dont think any OEM can be faulted for the incompetence of a dealer. They can only provide the resources necessary for the dealer to service the product. It's upto the dealer to use those resources to take care of his customers. (If he plans on keeping them) 

[thecfarm]

Dealer support is a good word here.

[Old Greenhorn]

Tom, your idea has merit on the surface.

Bob, good buddy, respectfully I would submit that my 'idea' has merit all the way through, not just on the surface.

 If I open up a business to sell and service left handed widget sharpeners from a major worldwide manufacturer, you can bet your bottom dollar I have every intention of becoming the regional expert on those widget sharpeners, know everything about them, and have all the spare parts in stock for quick service turn arounds. I will be the guy at the quarterly meetings taking notes and taking the factory engineers out for dinner after so I can pick their brains and build support relationships. I know my business depends on people WANTING to come to me to solve their problems. Maybe I am too old, but I think think happy customers are the best thing a business can have. If you don't have good customer service then you can't serve your customers and might as well be a box store.
 It sucks being brought up in the past century.

[arojay]

This story sounds disgustinly similar to my experience with my 2021 572xpgw.  9 hours in the clutch side crank bearings went.  Dealer replaced them which lasted for another 10, so at 19 hours the dealer repaired the saw again.  This time seemed golden and I was starting to like the saw when the flywheel side bearing failed.  Now I'm way over warranty.  This time I took the saw in and paid them to assess and give me a written evaluation.  I've been buying Huskies from this sales manager since about 1983 when he worked for a hardware store with a pretty reasonable saw shop and a real small engine mechanic who specialized in saws, so I thought I might make a case, but neither the sales guy or the Husqvarna rep acknowledged my existence.  The dealer sells the range of Honda products, Can Am and skidoo and a few orange things in a back corner, so you might guess they have little time for a 'stuck in the
70s' logger, but I expected more from Husqvarna.  Anyway, that niche in my saw stable is filled with a 462 that I bought from the only somewhat local dealer, who mostly sells boats and motors, snowmachines and quads.  Einstein's  definition  of insanity?

[g_man]

Thanks @arojay. I don't under stand why they need a diagnostic computer to diagnose a know problem. The tech knows what he is looking at - saw the same thing I did. No damage except bound up crank bearing. You buy a pro saw looking for quality because it is worth it to you and they wonder if you know how to put a chain on  even though you have been running saw your whole life ??

gg

[g_man]

Thanks @arojay. I don't under stand why they need a diagnostic computer to diagnose a know problem. The tech knows what he is looking at - saw the same thing I did. No damage except bound up crank bearing. You buy a pro saw looking for quality because it is worth it to you and they wonder if you know how to put a chain on even though you been running saws your whole life ??

gg

[Old Greenhorn]

Thanks @arojay. I don't under stand why they need a diagnostic computer to diagnose a know problem. .......
gg

They may not need it to figure out the issue, but they do need all the data they can collect to make their case to the OEM for a warranty decision. Saws may 'look' like they are very low hours, but the computer readout tells the true story, exactly. OEM's don't want to spend money on warranty claims just for goodwill. As I mentioned before, they are much less focused on keeping clients for the long haul over maximizing profits each and every day. It's just like health insurance, they turned down lots of justified claims in order to force the few clients that can afford it to sue them. The rest just 'go away'. It's a numbers game.
 A good dealer will do just as Spike said, give a full and comprehensive accounting of the exact conditions on the very first go-around.

[Spike60]

Most important chunk of data the CST would spit out in this case is the run time. I doubt ghere are many hours on this saw. Not like it's spent every day on a full time tree crew. Lower the hours, easier it is to get a replacement saw.

Current fuel settings would show if the saw was trying to compensate for an air leak. Honestly, that thing is your friend, not your enemy. 

I don't want to go too far down speculation avenue, cause the saw isn't on my bench. Have they pulled the flywheel or clutch to IDwhich bearing has failed?