Stihl GB Reviews 116

We have a number of Stihl cordless garden tools each one is a joy to use.

Sthil SHE 71
garden vacuum and blower. I bought this primarily because it was a Sthil as I have a few of their products. I am a 68 year old woman and this machine is totally unuserr friendly. You need a tool to press on a lever that frees up the blower and vacuum pipe. However, Sthil no longer provide the tool so that is the first problem. The transition from blower to vacuum is a two man job and requires quite a bit of physical know how. This proved way too difficult for me. It is totally unuser friendly, awkward to handle, very difficult transitions, correct tool not provided, not the strongest of casing and overall a regretful purchase. My advice would be DO NOT BUY if you don't have help to rely on. What a cumbersome, ill thought out design by one of the industry leaders.
23rd Seotember. Thank you Sthil for replying sayi ng you have reached out. Can you let me know how you have reached as I cannot find any communication. Thank you.

If I could give a zero star review I would do so. I bought an Imow system in 2021 with two mowers and two docking stations for about £6500. There have been repeated and constant problems with Stihl taking ages to to replace parts. Currently I have a mower with a failed engine and a docking station which is inoperable. Everything is still under warranty. Stihl do not reply to and ignore my emails. I asked them to identify a dealer who offers a call out service. They have not done so. Two of their local dealers have filed for insolvency. Their website says they offer outstanding customer service. They don’t. Don’t deal with these people.

All very good

Great products and great support as always. Recently purchased a new FS361! What a great and durable machine to have

What an egotistic company. Their customer service is rude on top of an attitude problem. Like many others, very disappointed. Although the machine quality is satisfactory, they aught to work on the human element, whereas at the moment. They might as well be robots. Rude robots at that. Obviously been programmed to be rude. Even their dealers have problems in communicating. thing is. Stihl does think that there is anything wrong with how they treat people. They should look at the reviews. But even with this, they won't think that they are doing anything wrong, so it must be the reviewer. which makes them. egoistic. shame that i have to give a one star rating

Stihl
RME 443.From the start nothing but problems with this lawn mower.Customer service nil, mower not up to job motor burnt out .Used five or six times a year over four years on small garden.Never buy Stihl again not value for money

Having tried to purchase Stihl equipment during a promotion and enduring an awful experience with a Stihl stockist (no reflection on Stihl ) I had to contact Stihl to ask for assistance.
It was my lucky day to get hold of Dan Perry.
He assisted us in a full refund from the stockist concerned which was quite a concern given the amount involved and honoured the promotion when we were then able to repurchase the equipment.
We cannot fault all Dan’s help, guidance and assistance both during the process and afterwards. He is what customer service should be!
A credit to the Stihl brand and super ambassador for the business.
Thank you Dan, we are so very grateful to you.

Just purchased a cordless pressure washer from stihl the rea 60 plus plus a stihl battery the ak 30s, looking forward to using it, but was quickly disappointed, on a full charge it lasted 10mins,then took 5 hours for the battery to charge, what a complete waste of time and money, never again.

As an arborist it saddens me to write this as Stihl used to be the Rolls Royce brand of the gardening game. They have filled their factories with cheap foreign labour and swapped the quality of steel in their products. My blade has broken twice in my new hedge cutter twice. My old model for 15 years ago has uts same blades. Never buying another product and made me devalue all the other products I own from them. NEVER AGAIN.

I had a fantastic experience with stihl's customer service. Dan, in particular, was excellent, professional, attentive, and quick to resolve my issue. His commitment to customer satisfaction made the process smooth and hassle free. Stihl has earned my loyalty thanks to Dan's outstanding support.

Based on my experience Stihl strimmers are to be avoided. I purchased a Stihl FSA56 battery strimmer in 2019, in the belief that their expensive products were of high quality and long lived. It had to be repaired in 2020. It has now broken irreparably, and my dealer says the cost of repairing it and replacing the mower would exceed the cost of buying a new product. When I phoned Stihl customer service after emails had just received the standard replies, they informed me it was my fault because the product had been 'overused'. Since I only have a domestic garden, and simply strim around a few fruit trees and raised beds, it would appear Stihl strimmers are no longer a wise buy.

We recently had a fantastic experience with Dan and Tara in Customer Support Team. My 2 year old Son is a huge fan of the Stihl toys, and we added to his leaf blower at Xmas with a chainsaw. Unfortunately the chainsaw developed a minor fault after a week of play. Dan was fantastic at helping us with our issue, and he and Tara went out of the way to replace his favourite toy, even delivering it to our house (we live close to HQ). Very rarely have we been granted such fantastic customer service, which left our son ecstatic.

We have just purchased our first home, and no doubt this experience will have us purchasing Stihl machinery for our home maintenance. Thankyou!

Fantastic machinery when it’s working! However, my mower’s bushing broke in less than 12 months. Luckily, it was only £11, so I didn’t bother with the warranty. My brushcutter, on the other hand, has been in for warranty repair for nearly five weeks, and it’s still not fixed. I’m not sure if the delay is down to Stihl or the repair company, but they claim they’re waiting for a part from Stihl. Either way, this equipment shouldn’t have these issues so early on—I take all the necessary precautions and follow the recommended care.

VERY NEGATIVE EXPERIENCE. LESSON: DONT BUY STIHL!

My 3 months old Stihl MS180 chainsaw recently developed the following issue: Machine cut out and began smoking.

I contacted my then local dealer (Linstead Farm & Garden Machinerys, Halesworth) and asked them to make arrangements for the item to be repaired under warranty. I received a phone call a couple of days later saying that Stihl had refused to honour this warranty on the basis that they believde the damage was caused by improper use e.g. use of the machine with the safety brake on. There is no evidence to substantiate this claim. As an experienced chainsaw user I most certainly was not running the machine with the safety brake engaged. Furthermore, the machine in question had been used for less than 10 hours from new.

I collected the machine from Linstead Farm & Garden in a semi-dismantled state and took it home.

After moving to another part of the UK, I decided to try this process again with a different dealer. I took the saw in to Tallis Amos group, Narberth. They agreed that the saw should be repaired under warranty and that they would get in touch with Stihl to arrange this. I then am told that Stihl have rejected the claim because not all the parts are present. Stihl were refusing to repair or replace the saw because the last dealer (their own representitive) had not given me back a couple of bolts and the chain cover!

I contacted Stihl by phone late last year and asked to escalate this issue. I was told that I would be contacted back, after a stihl representative had looked into the case, within 48 hours with details on how to proceed. This did not happen.

The warranty is a contract between the customer and Stihl. Although manufacturing defects are covered by the warranty, Stihl has completely failed to agree to the repairs being carried out and are therefore in breach of contract.

To say that I am disappointed with this issue is an understatement. I spent a good amount of money on what I thought was a respected chainsaw brand. I have been completely let down by Stihl, finding their customer service on this issue appalling. I will update this review if I get any response from Stihl, but at the moment I would strongly advise people to stay away from Stihl equipment and certainly don't rely on their warranty!

Kind Regards
Josh

RESPONSE TO STIHL:
No response was made to my complaint at the time. It occurred to me that a review should be left to warn others.

The damage to this saw was caused by leaving the chainsaw ticking over with the brake on - not running, over tick over. The dealer I left the saw with for warranty repair said that this is a common fault on these chainsaws and that Stihl refuses to take responsibility, as is exemplified here.

As for offering to repair the chainsaw at a discounted price, this is nonsense. The price quoted for the repair was "Full retail cost of repair £239.46". This is approximately the same cost as a brand new chainsaw! There was no mention of a discounted price.

I hope your response has illustrated to people that the warranty is not worth the paper it is written on and that Stihl would rather tell mistruths than actually help fix a problem with one of their products. The cost of replacement to stihl would have been marginal and you would have maintained a loyal customer for life. Instead I now don't buy any Stihl equipment and have recommended my family and friends follow suit.

I have since bought Echo equipment and had dealings with their customer service team who were excellent. The entire process was smooth.

Virtually new battery hedgetrimmer stopped working. Apparently, I have to pay MY money to take it for 'assessment' to their NEAREST dealer, who is more than 40 minutes drive away. I then have to leave it there whilst they 'assess' it for warranty. Then wait for a reply. Then another visit to collect it. If it's NOT accepted for warranty, their hourly charges are so high that it would not be worth repairing. This product is an example of what has gone wrong with German companies. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!

Update 21 Jan. The special oil they sent me had NO EFFECT. This company does not deserve to be in business. They make demands, based on the internal processes THEY have decided to introduce. They refuse to take responsibility for the failure of THEIR product and try to palm off their failures onto anyone but themselves. DO NOT BUY STIHL PRODUCTS. They are badly designed, badly manufactured and they have NO CUSTOMER SERVICE!

Oh well, here we go
Leaf blower faulty
Hedge trimmer faulty
Strimmer faulty
Chainsaw faulty

I don’t need to go into detail, but all of the above I just wished I never purchased all for private use nothing heavy
Very poor quality
We all make mistakes and this one was mine.
Atrocious products

been badly let down. waiting for batteries from battery promotion in may , had money returned by dealer and now won’t be getting free battery . promotion was a con . disgusting behaviour by stihl uk .

Purchased my 1st Cordless Stihl (also first purchase of stihl equipment) the stihl HLA86 telescopic hedge trimmer, being a gardener it looked very practical for bigger hedges. Proved to be practical until 12 weeks in, it failed, 08th Aug, bearings and gear assembly plate, after being told parts were on back order and arrival date being moved 3 times, I had to source the parts myself from another stihl dealer in the UK. Stihl customer service is well below expectations, 2 weeks ago complaint logged, yet still no reply. Local dealer has now fixed equipment using parts that I sourced. So, poor quality product, poor after sales and poor customer services. Just hoping it lasts well and beyond the 2 year warranty. Will stick with Echo and put this one in the shed for domestic use.

In reply to Sthil: Thank you for your reply , however 2 weeks late getting back to me, seems to be a pattern. Sourced parts through another dealer and made arrangements myself. Thanks for......um, nothing I suppose.

Stihl refused to replace the strimmer head on my FSA86 strimmer. Absolutely terrible design, used a handful of times and broke. I ordered a Stihl replacement head and it did the same thing! Raised the issue with Stihl and they didn’t want to know. The previous model - FSA 85 was a much better tool.
I’ve now gone to EGO for my battery garden tools. They may not have the big name yet but they are miles ahead in design and most importantly AFTERSALES CARE.