B & S Australia have lost the plot & I have given up trying to get genuine B & S parts locally
Over the past year I have been forced to buy two 31 series cams direct from Jacks Small Engines because Briggs did not have any stock & I was quoted 3 to 5 weeks , 3 weeks after I had placed the order for the first one.
Same thing with 44 series rebuild gasket kits and a 16A stator .
In all cases, Jacks had them to me in 14 days via USPS and they ended up being 10% cheaper than buying through a local dealer where I get a 20% discount , and that including the postage.
Right now Briggs Australia are busy getting Oregon branded products into Bunnings, Mitre 10 & K Mart.
This retail deal will be worth millions to them ( or so they think ) so Briggs owners can go to hell in a handbasket if they think Briggs Australia will be bothered to supply them with low profit engine parts.
Add to that All Power went belly up July last year.
All Power were the Stens representative down here but also handled the Echo & Shindawa franchises.
Briggs picked up both of those so again Briggs Engine users can go suck eggs if they expect parts because Briggs Australia are busy trying to get Echo & Shindawa into all of their dealer network retail outlets.
Thus again they are stretched well beyond their capacity and are letting their Briggs engine customers go hang while they chase big buck retail sales.
In February the RGS customers were advised that from October 1 2018 Oregon parts will have to be ordered through the Briggs network once the RGS stock ran out.
I have not been able to get any genuine Oregon parts from Briggs dealers and in particular Gator blades which again I am ordering direct from the USA through Jacks Small Engines.
I have been converting my Oregon chain saw customers to Hurtzl products which seem to be good 2nd shelf quality wise . I buy these direct from the factory in China so as far as I can see Oregon have shot themselves in the foot with this one & Briggs have bitten off way more than they can chew and are choking on it.
So now I am advising my customers to fit Kawasaki engines if they want a good one ( I can fit them for the same price as the equivalent Briggs ) or a Chinese Knock off from one of the various tool shop franchises if they want a cheap one.
You can give up on your Briggs engine and forget about getting parts for it locally as it appears that Briggs Australia has no intention of retaining adequate stocks of Briggs engine parts in their local warehouse .
This is shown by the fact that they really did close ALL of the Briggs parts warehouses for 3 weeks over the Christmas break ( 21-12-18 / 7-1-19 )
Lifan & Loncin OTOH only closed for the public holidays . Kawasaki was only closed from 24-12-18 to 2-1-19
RGS closed Sydney for 2 weeks but the main warehouse in Brisbane & Melbourne were only closed public holidays