Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

I loaned my 5 year old Husqvarna 136 chainsaw to one of my area managers at work as he had just moved into town from Michigan, and need to cut down a few trees.  He had the saw for a while and admitted to abusing it a bit, but stated he would pay for the damage he did to it.  I took it to a local dealer in Chardon, Ohio and their quote to fix the saw was $10 less than what it costs new.  My wife feels that this guy owes me the entire amount necessary to fix or replace the saw;  I said that since it's a mechanical object with a certain lifespan, that I would be kind and take the depreciation on it and only ask for around $100 to put towards a new saw.

Am I being too easy on this guy, or should I make him pay for 100% of the repair/replacement cost?  I can see my wife's point, why should I have to pay any money when I started the entire interaction with a completely good chainsaw.

Thanks

Hi Marc,

Yeah, the person most likely ran out of fuel and added straight fuel to it rather than mixed.  It really is the chain saw that friends want to borrow. I lent mine out twice and would never do it again.  Although I was lucky, I only got mine back both times with a totally dull blade.  They'd always allow it to hit the ground when cutting logs.  Never do I lend anything out now. 

Kick his ass, and when you ar done "admit" to abusing him a bit!

 Then go buy a new one and NEVER lend it out. Like the others say, go with it. I will cut trees down for people, power wash stuff for them, snow blow for them, but I won't lend the stuff out.

             I never loan or borrow anything that I can't afford to replace. My boss wanted to borrow my 1132TA. I asked to hold the title to his truck till he brought it back.  He hasn't asked since..

           Tom

Dave___in___CT wrote:
My feelings exactly.

You may not make friends that way but you won't create an enemy.

How could anyone lend a powertool (especially a chainsaw as told above) to someone who doesn't know how to use it?  Makes a no lending policy sound like a safe bet.  Imagine lending a tool and the lendee being seriously injured simply because they didn't know any better.

I'd expect back what you lent less some wear and tear, or a satisfactory to you replacement.  That's nothing less than what would happen if the person borrowing the tool broke their own and fixed or replaced it.

An added awareness to loaning out any machine / tool...

If the borrower (or someone else) gets hurt using it...
Guess what... ?
the lender can be sued !! 

The blame for the accident can be placed on a fault with the machine... and thus it's owner...
Especially if the machine is not in factory-new condition... and accompanied by the Owner's amnual and associated literature/warnings...

Too bad Mad Dog isn't here to expand on this...


Dave...

for the most part i dont loan tools out either, but there are 2 or 3 friends who i would never hesitate to loan anything to. They're attitude is the same as mine though, when you borrow something, return it in as good or better shape, than it was when you borrowed it.

a (sort of) humorous side note to this, years ago we had a family move in across the street from us, the gentleman (in the broadest sense of the term) came over one day and asked to borrow my chainsaw to cut some railroad ties he was doing some landscaping with. . it was the first time i'd met the guy & didnt know a thing about him. i politely informed him i didnt loan tools out. anyway, to make a long story short he made a total of probably 50 or 60 cuts with all the short pieces he was using and he ended up using a HACKSAW. it took him most of the summer.....but i'll give him credit......he got it done even if he was too cheap to go buy a more suitable tool.

PaulR,

Bring us up to date, what ended up happening, anything yet?

spottedpony wrote:

I don't think I would use my chain saw to cut railroad ties with my saw, let alone loan it to someone else. 

I look at it like this, I borrow something and it breaks then I will either pay to fix it or buy a new one that is as close to the original as possible.  Some folks don't look at it the same way. 

Best of luck and let us know how it works out.

Now this reminds me to get back a table saw from one neighbor and a miter saw from another.