Posted by JD Seller on August 05, 2016 at 20:24:41 from (208.126.198.123):
I usually hate these type of posts but I am steamed and would like some fellow old farts opinions. LOL
I have just about quit doing any repairs for anyone else but I had still been doing some simple stuff for old customers. This fellow is a retired dairy farmer and he has done a LOT of business with me over the years. He rolled his garden tractor while mowing his road bank. It is fuel injected and the tank was full enough it did not die while laying on it's side. It locked the motor up before he could get out from under the mower to shut it off. A new short block is not available for it anymore and even if it was the last published price was $2700. There is not any new replacement motors you can install in his mower and still get the hood and radiator to fit. So I was left with either finding a used motor or new old stock parts to repair his engine. He refused to consider just trading it for a newer mower. He wanted "HIS" mower back.
Since this was not going to be a quick fix he needed some thing to mow with. The only mower I had then, that would work for him, was a real clean one owner mower. His yard is under an acre so it does not take him much over an hour to mow. So I figured 3-4 weeks of mowing would not put many hours on the mower. I did tell him that if he damaged the mower "He" would have to pay for it. Now this was verbal.
Finding the parts took longer than I had planned on. So he has had the mower for 7-8 weeks. He did call me about a week into the deal and told me he had hit the hood and broke it. He agreed to pay that no question. I finished his mower today. I took it over tonight. He was gone but his wife was home. She was all happy the mower was back. I was happy too until I went into the shed to get my mower. Not only was the hood broke he had managed to bend the right front mower deck gauge wheel completely back under the deck. He hit some thing so hard it twisted the entire deck. Then the mower is absolutely filthy. Mud and wet grass stuck all over the mower. Scratched clear through the paint on both fenders. Then add in he put 75 hours on the mower. I was MAD!!!! I held it in around his wife she had nothing to do with this. I did asked her what he had been mowing this summer. She told me their daughter bought a BIG "new" house on a five acre lot and she could not afford a mower after buying the house so the fellow had been mowing his daughter's FIVE acres all summer with MY mower.
The mower as it sets is worth $1000-1500 less than it was when he got it. The hood alone is over $450 to replace. The fenders are powdered coated so repairing them is not easy to do. Painting them makes the entire mower look bad. The bent mower deck can be repaired but the gauge wheel bracket has the welds torn out of the deck. So even IF it straightens out your going to be able to tell it has been damaged. I am mad and sick about this at the same time.
The repair bill is over $2K and He really owes me another $1000 plus for the damage/wear/rent for my mower. He is the type to blow up if you do not handle him right. So just jumping in and demanding payment for the damage will cause a war. I would rather avoid this. I am really at a loss on how to proceed.
P.S. I am now officially DONE with repairing other people's stuff. If it dies in my drive way I will not touch it!!!! I am too old for this type of aggravation!!!! It is not worth it!!! I will just stick to fixing stuff I own/buy. That will be much simpler.
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