Disgusted.. (Warning, rant..)

[Stepney 2,314]

So.. a month ago now, my grandfather's 2-year old John Deere X-300 went into the local CERTIFIED John Deere shop. It was running rough for a month prior, and getting worse. First it wouldn't idle properly, and needed constant choking. Eventually it got to the high end too. So, with my old '73 FORD LGT-145 as a backup machine (Amongst 5 others), and the grass pretty much done growing, we took it into the shops.. shouldn't be long, right? Well, it's been a month now. Shop calls and says it's ready. Granddad and I head up to the shop and walk in this morning. The bill is 250.00. So, I ask the guy, "What did you do?" And he replies,
"There is a spring return on the choke, we've seen this on others of this model. The choke gets a little dirty, and the spring doesn't return it all the way. The knob is down, but the choke is stuck on still. So, we changed the plugs, which were fouled because of this, and cleaned the whole carb." 'Okay..' I think to myself. 'This is BS. I changed the plugs the morning we brought it in because we couldn't get it to start..' But I said nothing. And for that matter, if the choke was ON, it would run better.. right? I still said nothing, and we walked out front to load it. ..we stood there for 15 minutes. I could hear them in the shop cranking an engine.. but I figured it was just some other machine, and they were busy. ..Well, no. Some time later, the very same x3 comes sputtering out of the driveway. Guy drives it on the trailer, and it is still sputtering and hiccuping, running too lean. I tell him to start it back up, and idle it.. barely holds an idle, put choke up, and it smooths out.. WTF? Walk into the shop, and tell the guy at the desk. He says "We saw nothing else wrong with it, and didn't figure we should add to the bill." ..seriously? Well, finally he comes out with us. Brings a key, and fires up another X-3 on the lot. Purrs along fine. Walks up to ours, fires it up.. spitting and hissing along. Then he says, "I used to be a technician here for years, that sounds just fine to me." I was speechless. I walk up to it and hit the choke, and it smooths out again. We talk back and forth for a few minutes. He proceeds to open the hood, (Banging it off the trailer in the process), and use a POCKET KNIFE to try and 'tune the choke' because apparently it wasn't closing all the way.. Okay, you should have fixed that in the first place, and second, who cares? It's still lean regardless! Finally, I get fed up and walk up to him. And I say,
"Listen, I can save you all the time of messing around with it. The carb is dirty, and playing with the choke isn't going to fix anything." He turns, and about now he probably notices my Maine Antique Power Association buttonup. And he says,
"I got to ask, you seem to know so much, are you some kind of technician?" I reply,
"No, I just know what I'm talking about. What are you?" Probably not the best words, but it was all I could come up with, disgusted as I was. Anyway, he continues to say it's fine. ..After awhile, he gives up and walks back to the shop. Granddad and I walk in, and he tells the man at the desk that he's not paying for this go-around, and that they'd better figure it out soon. We walked back out, pushed it back to the shop door, and drove off. I'm disgusted with them.. we've had nothing but issues there. How can a CERTIFIED Deere dealer be so difficult, so uncaring? This is a nearly new machine, and they blow us off every time. How can a v-twin barely popping along on one cylinder sound 'fine'? I'm just so disgusted with this. I could hardly care less about new machines, and whenever I use it, I often wish I was on my Wheel Horse or Ford, but I know the sound of that engine. You aren't telling me it's fine. And oh, I could go on for days like this, about our other run-ins.. just angering. On the drive home, I commented, "You know? I have a hard time asking 25 for a mowing, 30 for a days worth of leaves, and 15 to rebuild a neighbors carburetor. If I was doing shop rate, I'd be a millionaire and never have to actually fix a thing!" No offence anyone.. but most of the dealers around here are exactly this way. How can these places still be in business.. I mean, I suppose the average person wouldn't have noticed that and been fine with the bill, but how can you charge that kind of money, for work that was never even done, nevertheless even necessary? Nothing runs like a Deere, eh? Thoughts, anyone?

[AMC RULES 36,945]

I feel your pain bro...haven't been back to my local Toro dealer in years...

for all the same reasons.    Quite frankly, I'm thinkin'...they all suck. 

[slammer302 2,154]

My dad tells me a story about a local shop that used to be in business around here every time i say the name of the place. He spent thousands of dollars at this shop bought two wheel horses on the same day and new leaf blower and weed eater and also had the motor rebuilt on his suburban that now is mine and they pretty much treated him the same way when he tried to bring back the suburban because it would not run right and smoked like a chimney after the rebuild my dad gave them a piece of his mind and never went back and they went out of business awhile back.   

[Sparky-(Admin) 19,542]

 There's a power equipment dealer near me that was a WH dealer back in the day. They now sell TORO lawn mowers and some other cheapie brand. The old service guy (by old maybe mid 50's) was the brains of the service department and he had a few young bucks in the shop that worked under him. Well times must be tough so the place lets him go!!  Now its just the few young guys in the shop!!

I do most all my own stuff so I wont be affected but "Joe-Homeowner" is gonna suffer for sure! It'll be the end of this place for sure.

Mike..........

[Ken B 3,116]

Don't take this the wrong way.. You made a few mistakes here. You knew they sucked from previous experience's and yet you brought the tractor into them for repairs. They proved that they do in fact still suck yet you pushed the tractor back off the trailer after they loaded it for them to piss you off even more when you come back to pick it up. I would have left the tractor on the trailer and ripped the bill up and left...I would have called him out on the spark plugs without question.

[Stepney 2,314]

Yeah, Ken, I suppose your right. Personally, I wouldn't have brought it there (and I wouldn't own anything new anyway), and this is the last straw, but my grandfather is the final decider.. and he's had it too. ..shame is, compared to OTHER places around.. this place is considered GOOD...

[tractorhogg 611]

One of the larger "authorized repair" shops around here was started by a retired aircraft mechanic, he makes 250,000 a year and uses 16 year old kids and felons to work on machines that never get fixed. I took my stuff to him once and never again, but I help my neighbor take his Craftsman LT1000 every year for a 300.00 tune up, that doesn't seem to do anything but give him more room on the seat from his thinner wallet. My neighbor can't tell that nothings been done (desk jockey) and thinks a mower should go in every year. Service is great, but 10 years of 300.00 a year on a early 1990's Craftsman LT1000, that is just crazy. My point is thieves operate legitimate businesses when people become completely stupid and have too much money. I won't work on anyone's machines, but mine, I learned that lesson a long time ago, stupid people are a PITA to work for, that's why thieves rightfully take their money.

[DougC 2,641]

Brother-in-law loans money to friend  Friend lost his job can't pay back money.  Friend gives brother-in-law green and yellow tractor instead of money. Tractor runs good for a month and then weather gets hot. Tractor now runs for 20 min and then quits. Takes tractor to green and yellow  dealer where they do tune up and get ok to install new carb. To make a long story short the tractor made several trips back to dealer with no improvement and a total of over $300 parts and labor.  When told he needed another new carb he had his dad who is a retired electrician look at it and he fabricated a heat shield  and mounted it between exaust and carb  Fixed problem. Dealer kept his money but offered him a free oil change..........

[rmaynard 14,897]

The John Deere dealer around here is huge. They have locations in at least 3 states. When I got my X-300, it needed a starter relay, and because of the hours on the meter, the dealer suggested a tune-up, oil change and filter as well. Estimate: $350.00. The obvious answer was no, or maybe hell no. My brother-in-law has a friend in West Virginia that services John Deeres, so he took it to him on the way to his hunting cabin. The tractor was fixed (new relay, oil change and filter, and new blades) all for under $100.00.

[shallowwatersailor 3,213]

Thank goodness the two Toro (former Wheel Horse) dealers are great by me. I think that what has been described is perhaps the business plan by the mega green and yellow dealers.

[tractorhogg 611]

Small engine repair shops are not the only operations that border on criminal, many operation involving home repair and auto repair are also fast becoming more of illicit criminal enterprises than service businesses. This occurred because we started buying new rather than repairing, but they made the stuff too complicated or too expensive to repair. For the most part many people not only do not repair or work on things they own, many people do not do anything at all, but sit in front of a TV. Most young men do not know how to change a tire or oil, let alone change spark plugs or do a brake job, things guys my age still do. Another issue is that many people are robbed of their time and given money to replace it, therefore not allowing them the time to do work on things at home. This is folly, because it is a mistake to sell your time for money, especially for the money we have today.