Customer NO SERVICE from MTD

[junquecol]

As you may know from another post here, I bought a returned mower from Lowes. It is a Troy Built, manufactured by MTD. They also make Bolens, and Yardman brand mowers. The mower was missing the drag plate. This is a CPSC required part, that keeps your feet from under mower. I called MTD / Troy Built about getting such part as it is required by law to be on mower. Lady, and I use that term loosely, told me since mower was considered a "Floor Model" I would have to pay for drag plate. About $25 including shipping for a piece of extruded plastic that looks like the black plastic lawn edging. I went by Lowes tonight and asked clerk could they order it. Clerk quickly told me that MTD was a PITA to deal with, so instead, he opened another mower, that was still in the box, and gave me the drag plate. He said it was easier for store to ship back mower to MTD than to get missing parts. Thank you Lowes for great customer service,and ----- on MTD for customer no service.

[McRabbet]

Sounds like they are a company that belives that "when it is shipped, it is somebody elses problem"... They [apparently] even gig their own retailers! But your Customer Service at Lowe's is exactly why I use them as my regular DIY/home improvement source versus the BORG.

[junquecol]

When BORG was the only store in town, they were difficult to deal with. I know that the manager didn't have hemroids, as he was a perfect --- ----. One day, I was in there and a whole section of molding just came down across aisle, just missing me and a couple other customers. Went to manager and told him that they needed to install safety cable. He basically told me to butt out as this was his store. His theory was, no blood, no foul. A quick call to safety dept at ATL headquarters, and very next day a crew is installing safety cable. Just had to go by and congratulate him on safety cable install.

[Travis Porter]

I seem to go back and forth. I now ddread going to Orange and avoid them. Their stores have gotten junky, inventory is mediocre, and someone helping you load something is unheard of. Tried to get them to cut some doors when I was helping a friend in Tennessee and they said the "saw cutting service was closed for the day". It was 8:00. I in turn said fine and left the entire cart full of merchandise sitting right there and went to Lowes.

[Joe Scharle]

Home Depot Ousts Highly Paid Chief

By JULIE CRESWELL and MICHAEL BARBARO
The board decided that Robert L. Nardelli should go — with a $210 million exit package.
January 4, 2007BusinessNews
Gilded Paychecks | Ties That Bind

With Links to Board, Chief Saw His Pay Soar

By JULIE CRESWELL
The Home Depot board has awarded its chief executive $245 million in his five years with the company.
May 24, 2006BusinessNews

[sapwood]

Orange has me seeing red lately. Last visit there was one check out person in the entire store and obviously she was overwhelmed . . . though she tried to be pleasant. And they had her overseeing the self-service lines Myself and another customer asked for assistant manager/manager regarding marked price problems and there weren't any . . . none, nada, zero management help

I really felt sorry for the employee.

OK, one more rant
Self-service checkout doesn't work very well in BORG environment. Who wants to run fencing, 7 ft metal stakes, 8 ft 4x4s, and a multitude of other large, odd shaped items through the fixed scanner?

Yeah, I'll probably go back

Roger

[Gotcha6]

It's the business principle expounded by the Barons of Bentonville. They figure if you pay little enough for an item you won't expect any customer service.
As for the mower, BORG probably made the manufacturer give them a floor model for free & then just sold it off anyways.

[junquecol]

The mower was a customer return. Looked like they cut their grass once and returned the mower. Drag bar was 25% of what I paid for the mower. If it had been returned for repairs, then repair shop would have put a drag bar on it. I have called MTD for some other parts over the years, and gotten the same customer no service. Unfortunately the bought a very well known name when Troy-Bilt went under. Troy-Bilt name, but definitely not Troy-Bilt service.

[rsitzejr]

I bought a customer return Troy Bilt 7 years ago from Lowes, lasted about 5 mowing my 2 acres. Last year I got tired of spending the day working on it just to mow and sold it cheap. Bought a Simplicity mower, and it better last me the rest of my life.

I wish we had the orange store in Sanford, it would give Lowes some compitition and maybe their customer service would be better.

[wayne]

Originally Posted by junquecol

The mower was a customer return. Looked like they cut their grass once and returned the mower. Drag bar was 25% of what I paid for the mower. If it had been returned for repairs, then repair shop would have put a drag bar on it. I have called MTD for some other parts over the years, and gotten the same customer no service. Unfortunately the bought a very well known name when Troy-Bilt went under. Troy-Bilt name, but definitely not Troy-Bilt service.

There must be something wrong with the way I was raised because the way i see it you buy a returned item at a discount and know all this up front the manufacturer should'nt owe you or anyone else anything under those circumstances,most of the time these items are sold as is by the store rather then return them to manufacturer.

[woodworker2000]

Originally Posted by wayne

There must be something wrong with the way I was raised because the way i see it you buy a returned item at a discount and know all this up front the manufacturer should'nt owe you or anyone else anything under those circumstances,most of the time these items are sold as is by the store rather then return them to manufacturer.

You and I must have been raised the same "wrong" way.

[junquecol]

Mower was sold as complete, with warranty. The drag bar is CPSC required item. Even if it was sold without warranty, this item would still need to be on mower to shield Lowes / Troy-Bilt for liability. It is like a used car place selling a car without required safety, or emmisions equiptment. If in the unlikely event something ever happened, there would be no shield against liability suits. Lowes could have ordered the part for free, but didn't want hassle, or the liability in the mean time. I was willing to accept that, and let MTD ship me the replacement part. Unfortunately, MTD has a customer no service policy, or Lowes guys wouldn't be bad mouthing them also. When you tell a customer that it is easier to rob a new mower, than to get a replacement part, what does that say? This came from department head in seasonal at Lowes. I have ordered and paid for other parts for my Troy-Bilt tillers from MTD, even though they have a lifetime warranty. What upset me most was customer service rep's attitude of ----- you. All I wanted was what is required to be on mower by CPSC. Owners manual says to contact MTD for any missing safety equipt, which I did.

[wayne]

Originally Posted by junquecol

Mower was sold as complete, with warranty. The drag bar is CPSC required item. Even if it was sold without warranty, this item would still need to be on mower to shield Lowes / Troy-Bilt for liability. It is like a used car place selling a car without required safety, or emmisions equiptment. If in the unlikely event something ever happened, there would be no shield against liability suits. Lowes could have ordered the part for free, but didn't want hassle, or the liability in the mean time. I was willing to accept that, and let MTD ship me the replacement part. Unfortunately, MTD has a customer no service policy, or Lowes guys wouldn't be bad mouthing them also. When you tell a customer that it is easier to rob a new mower, than to get a replacement part, what does that say? This came from department head in seasonal at Lowes. I have ordered and paid for other parts for my Troy-Bilt tillers from MTD, even though they have a lifetime warranty. What upset me most was customer service rep's attitude of ----- you. All I wanted was what is required to be on mower by CPSC. Owners manual says to contact MTD for any missing safety equipt, which I did.

I have had Automobile dealers license before and yes if I sold you a used vehicle that was not up to par or should not have been sold because of missing safety equipment or any other legit reason I was responsible not the manufacturer Lowes step up to the plate and did what they should have done in this instance and that was to give you the piece that was missing.
What lowes should have done was had a policy that nothing left that store without haveing all appicable safety features in place and truth be known they probably do have that policy in effect it just was'nt followed by everyone involved.
The manufacturer did nothing wrong in this case and owed you or anyone else anything nothing under these circummstances IMHO.
Whatever happened to laying the blame where it belongs which in this case would be on you and lowes shoulder,your fault for leaving the store without this feature since you can so eloquently quote the law and were'nt ignorant of this fact and lowes for letting you leave the store without it in place.
This is not a personal attack against you but whatever happened to personal responsibilty for our actions.
Sorry for the rant everyone but if we're every going to fix some of our country's problems then it has to start with that principle.

[NCPete]

Time to stick a fork in this one.