Robert Moon

Review of Hill Country Outdoor Power

I want to express how happy I was today w how Drew...

I want to express how happy I was today w how Drew Williams handled a very frustrating problem

We live on a 100 ac working ranch in Wimberley, and have happily bought all of our power equipment from HCOP for 13+ years

All Stihl, all the time

Most of the equipment was purchased 10+ years ago, worked hard, and always maintained by us and by HCOP excellent Service Techs

In July, we lost everything with a motor when our equipment shed caught fire at 2am-- approx ~$40k in lost equipment

HCOP is the first place we went to once we received the insurance $

On Wed Sept 13, we purchased the Farm Boss Stihl chain saw

I went to use it on Sat Sept 16, and it was reluctant to start

Once i got it started, and went to "burp" it into running mode, it conked out

It was 90+ degrees out and this went on for 15min, so I opted to let the unit sit for a few days, and revisited it Monday Sept 18

More of the same

I finally got it to start and let it idle, but it started smoking after 2-3 minutes

I brought unit to HCOP today Tuesday Sept 19, figuring I would exchange it for another Ranch Boss, as I assumed it was basically a lemon

Drew very professionally handled my frustration when I found out a swap was not going to immediately happen

He did NOT try to "blame me" as the operator or any of the usual things that occur in these situations

He simply said he would have his crew take it apart in a couple hours, diagnose the issue, document the issue w pics, and go to Stihl

He called me a quick 1 hour later, telling me there was a manuf defect, and that he'd go to Stihl next

Then, he called me 2 hours later, telling me that he had worked w Stihl to replace the unit, despite Stihl wanting to hold up the swap w/ some red tape

The bottom line is that he dealt w a frustrated customer (me), patiently explaining the process, without ever making me feel like an idiot, and then quickly ran the problem to ground.

I always felt like he was on my side, as opposed to Stihl's side

I own my own customer-focused business, and seeing skills like that in action mean a lot

In this day and age of Home Depot and tons of competition, HCOP stands out as a friendly, efficient, value-add small business, and more people like Drew should be involved w these businesses