Town-Country Lawn & Garden Center

Review: Cub Cadet was dropped off to repair blown engine that was covered under warranty. Manager [redacted] was told not to do any repairs that were not covered under warranty without authorization. 3 weeks later, Mr. [redacted] calls and says tractor is done. We owe $175 because he changed the belt on the tractor. We did not authorize any work to be done. When contacted, Mr. [redacted] was extremely rude, unprofessional, and condescending. He refused to come to an agreement concerning the tractor and insists that we pay or do not get our Cub Cadet back. I will never do business at this store again.Desired Settlement: I do not feel that I should have to pay for work that I did not authorize. Nor do I even know if he did the work or if it even needed to be done.

Business

Response:

The tractor was dropped by the customer’s father in. law.

tractor had a blown engine. The Warranty period from the engine manufacture is 2yrs and the warranty period from the tractor manufacture is 3yrs or 120 hrs of use (please see attached). The tractor was purchased April 20, 2011 and had 168 hrs of use. The tractor was out of warranty in both cases. I was able to get a policy adjustment to get the motor warranted for both parts and labor. Usually, it is for parts only when it is out of warranty. In inspecting the unit, we saw the drive belt for the tractor was showing wear and cracks so to save the customer money in replacement since about one third of the labor was already done we replaced the belt. If we did not replace the belt the job would not have been done right and the customer would have experienced a problem. The belt and the labor to replace it was not covered under the warranty (see attached invoice).

The day I talked to the customer, her husband called about 15 minutes before and he was abusive and argumentative about the invoice. At one point he used the F word on, me and I told him that the conversation was over and he owed us the amount on the invoice.

When she called, she called from her work place which is a school district (caller ID) that I have done business with for several years. I was expecting another person on the phone since they have a unit here to get repaired and I have put in a bid for another unit. When I answered the phone I was greeted with a different person that was talking in an angry "tone and berating me. Not who I was expecting on the other end. I had to ask several times who she was and what this was pertaining to. I am sure at some point I became defensive and not happy with how I was being talked to and I could not get a word in because when I tried she talked overtop of me. I tried to explain to her that I was able to get the engine warranted and that the belt needed to be replaced she did not believe me. She was going on what she was told by the box store that sold her the tractor and they said it was under warranty, most of the time they just want to get the customer off the phone so they tell them what they want to hear.

In summary I went above and beyond what I had to for the customer. I could have just said that the unit was out of warranty and not get the unit warranted. If we did not replace the belt now it would have cost them more in the future even if they did it themselves because of time and parts. We like the job to be done once and be correct.

Thank you,