Knepper Repair

Dear Recipient: The customer in question brought to my repair shop a 2005 Polaris Trail Boss 330 in poor condition. He stated that he recently purchased a new Chinese brand carburetor and that it would not stay running. (For reference, the price of a new OEM carburetor from Polaris is $512.49. The...

brand that he purchased online is sold for $49.95.) He also stated that he did not want to put much money into his machine because of its poor condition. He also told me that he wanted used tires put on the rear. So we went to work on the machine to get it running. The new carburetor that he purchased online had a thick, tar-like substance in it. We cleaned his carburetor ($30.00 charge) but did not charge him for doing so. We put the carburetor back on and put a new air filter in his machine and got it to start and run. We put two miles and it and it ran okay, however, it needed more fuel on the bottom end. It needed either a bigger pilot jet (which I cannot get for his Chinese brand carburetor), or the back end of the muffler needed welded back on for back pressure. Apparently, someone cut it off to make the machine louder. (I told him that when he picked it up). When we went to the rear to put the used tires on, the brake pads were worn into the metal. For the customers own safety, we put new brake pads on. We also noticed that the front tie rod end was about to literally fall off the steering column. We put a new set on just the one side that needed it the worst because he did not want to spend much money. He did not directly tell us to put the new brakes on but they were only $24.99. And he did not directly tell us to put the new tie rod ends on which were $52.99, but that was a huge safety issue and he needed them put on one way or the other if he wanted to be able to ride his quad. He also did not authorize the new air filter which cost him $30.99. When you are working with carburation issues, you need to have a good clean filter put in because this is a cv diaphragm carburetor and needs to have the correct draw on the intake. He was already complaining about the bill when we called him and I told him I could make a rear cap for his muffler to make it run a little better without him spending the extra money that would be needed for a whole new exhaust system. He didn’t want to hear anything about that. When he came to pick up that quad, I couldn’t get power to the switch. It was late Friday evening when he came and I had to call my Polaris mechanic at home and ask him about the issue at hand. He told me that he noticed that if you turn the steering column to the right, sometimes it would shut off. So, I looked at it myself and saw what he was talking about. I showed the customer and he told me that it was not like that when he brought it in to be fixed. I told him that two miles would not have caused an issue like that. I also told him that if he wanted it fixed we could do it for him. He told me that for the amount that he already paid me we should fix it for free. I told him no we would not fix it for free because we did not work on his wiring at all. If he wants to bring back the air filter, rear brakes, and tie rod ends (which are all vital elements to the running of his machine) I will give him a cash refund of $108.97 plus sales tax. Thank you, Lynn K[redacted]