How Did the Stihl 12V Garden Pruner Become the Scam of the Year?

How did Stihl’s 12V Garden Pruner give rise to the year’s biggest scam? Imitation is the highest form of flattery, and in Stihl’s case, their must-have miniature chainsaw gave people ideas that have lacked integrity. 

If you’re not familiar with the Stihl GTA 26 Garden Pruner, it’s a 4-inch battery-powered chainsaw that’s incredibly handy. When your hedge trimmer or pruners can’t cut it and a chainsaw is inconvenient, this little chain pruner is a great tool to have on hand.

Unfortunately, the design is so enticing, and it’s been so hard to find them in stock, that knock-off versions and some questionable advertisements have been trapping folks in various scams. 

What the Stihl Garden Pruner Scams Look Like

One of the most popular ones takes you to a page that looks legit and seems to offer the pruner at a crazy-good price of $20 to $50. But when you order, you wait weeks or even months to find out that it’s a cheap knock-off. It looks the same and it’s even the same color scheme. It’s just not a Stihl and is much lower quality. 

Another one makes it look like you’re ordering the saw from start to finish, but if you miss the fine print, you miss that you’re only ordering a chain. 

Ads like this one are usually either scams or don’t have the product you’re shopping for and use it as a way to get you on their website.

A couple of other folks reported to us that they ordered one of these—or thought they did—and then received a hand saw—not a power tool, and definitely not a Stihl. 

Folks left comments that they aren’t getting responses to email inquiries—and, in some cases, the website they ordered from has shut down. 

And the problem goes far beyond this product. Websites keep popping up with kayaks, knives, computers, and more with super-low prices and a short timeframe that make it very tempting. 

What Should We Take Away From This?

If it looks a little sus, trust your instincts—deals that are too good to be true usually are. And if you’re not sure, ask someone else to take a look at it with you before pulling out your credit card. 

When it comes to Stihl specifically, they are a 100% dealer network company and you can only buy authorized Stihl tools from one of those dealers. If you’re interested in the GTA 26, start at stihlusa.com where you can visit their dealer page to find somebody who sells Stihl—for real—in your area.

We hope this helps clear up some of the confusion that’s out there. If you have any feedback or questions for us, leave them in the comments below, and as always, thanks for reading!

Related articles

Stihl BGA 86 Cordless Leaf Blower Review

Stihl’s reputation as a dependable, quality outdoor power equipment brand is hard to dispute. And, in line with the increasing demand for battery-powered products, they’ve become all the more bullish in their approach to the production of their cordless models . So, when Stihl’s reps contacted us about the BGA 86 leaf blower, we jumped […]

Stihl RMA 510 V Self-Propelled Mower Review

Stihl announced late last week that it would devote over $60 million to the production of battery-powered gear at its Virginia Beach facility. This includes the production of blowers, pruners, trimmers, and multi-attachment tools through 2025. Another line of cordless equipment with which they’re intimately familiar is lawn mowers. Recently, our reviewers got their hands […]

Stihl MSA 300 C-O Cordless Chainsaw Review

To say that battery power has come a long way is an understatement. The once-lackluster performance and runtime that relegated cordless tech to low voltage tools like hedge trimmers are things of the past. Now, we’re seeing power-hungry gear like chainsaws that match, and in some cases surpass, gas-driven units. We put the Stihl MSA […]

New Exmark Vertex Stand-On Mowers

This year, Exmark has been firing on all cylinders. We’ve already covered their V-Series mowers, including the electric zero-turn. Well, now they’ve announced two new models: the Exmark Vertex E-Series and X-Series Stand-on Mowers. If you’re looking to get into the commercial game or want to hit the refresh button on your fleet, these models […]