Cary Mower & Saw

I have an old Stihl saw that was given to me. I could never get it to stay running and they brought it back to life. The saw now runs better than any other saw I own. Great mechanic work and nice people. Will definitely be back.

I spent a total of $354.94 on three contiguous Stihl chainsaw repair jobs over a four month period from July to December 2020 at Cary Mower &Saw. The problem with the chainsaw was never resolved. For those of you who have read my first review written in July 2020, I said I wouldn’t be going back but that turned out to be not true. I had to go back again and again, many times over the four month period because I was invested. I had paid $146.89 up to that point for a tune up and carburetor replacement and still didn’t have a running chainsaw. Here are the employees I dealt with: Cody is the guy who works up front, greets customers, takes in equipment, etc. Hunter is the manager who at the time of my last visit, the first week in December, was working from home recovering from surgery (this according to Cody). To continue the story, after the carburetor was replaced the chainsaw would choke and die every time you tried to give it gas – the opposite of the initial problem of not idling. Here I have to give credit to the mechanic who worked on the saw (never got his name) - he tried off and on over a two month period during the summer to find the problem. Toward the end of two months he said the problem could possibly be the coil and that they would replace it and only charge me for the price of the part which was $200 if I wanted to do that. I was leery about putting that much more money into the saw so I discussed this with the manager, Hunter, and ask him what would happen if they replaced the coil and it still didn’t fix the problem. He said they would take the coil out and give me a refund. This is an important fact that comes into play at the end of this story. I said OK to going ahead with the coil replacement. About a month later on Oct. 19 I got a call saying the saw is ready and I picked it up on the same day. Note here that the 30 day warranty period stated on the pickup day Oct. 19 and went through Nov. 18. I tried to use the saw on Oct. 30, eleven days later. On this day, Oct. 30, the saw would take the gas, but would still not idle – back to the original problem again. At this time I noticed that the muffler was hanging loose and was not securely fastened to the saw body. I went back again on the same day (Oct. 30) complaining about the muffler and idle problem. They did not have a screw or bolt to fasten the muffler to the saw so Cody said they would have to order one from Stihl so I left the saw with them again. I went by several times during the month of Nov. to check and they did not have it ready. On my last attempt to find out the status on Dec. 1 Cody had it out sitting on the counter for me to take when I walked in. Note at this time, they had had the saw in their shop from Oct. 30 through Nov. 30 waiting on a part from Stihl, a total of 31 days which included the last 19 days of my warranty period. This is an important fact for later. I took the saw home and tried it out immediately. Again it would not idle - back to the original problem. At this point and after four months of frustration, I was ready to give up and call it quits. Hunter had told me that if the coil didn’t fix the problem, they would take it out and give me a refund so I went back on Dec. 4 and told Cody that I wanted them to take it out and refund me the $200 like Hunter said they would do. Cody said he couldn’t do a refund because it had been more than 30 days (the warranty period) since I picked up the saw on Oct. 19 and was past the warranty end date of Nov 18. The saw was in their shop from Oct. 30 until Dec. 1 waiting on a part from Stihl, and included the last 19 days of my warranty period plus twelve more days so there was no way I could have tried to use the saw during those last 19 days of the warranty period and returned to the store requesting a refund. Cody flatly refused to issue a refund so at this point I needed to talk with a manager, someone who could make a management decision and abide by Hunter’s original promise of taking the coil out and giving me a refund. I asked Cody who was acting manager in Hunters place and he said there was nobody so I asked for Hunters phone number knowing that he was working at home while recovering (so I had been told by Cody). Cody said that was private information and he couldn’t give it out. This is about the time during the discussion Cody said that I had been disrespectful every time I came in and that I should take my chainsaw somewhere else - this coming from a guy who never showed any respect to me (the customer), acted irritated every time I went in and never wore a face mask ever, anytime I was in the store during this COVID pandemic. My only recourse was to write this review to alert people to what this company business ethics are like and what the employees are like that you have to deal with. Here, maybe upper level management will see this and take some action. I had been doing business with this business for many years under the old ownership/management who had a very friendly/helpful and positive environment with a very good sense of ethics and never had a problem. It’s a different story now under new ownership/management.

Great. Cranked right up.

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Satisfied with both services. The costs were about what I expected. They are more prompt and responsive than the other two shops I have used previously. The only improvement I suggest, as commented on by another reviewer, that the personnel act a little mor pleasant on the phone and in. person than I experienced. They aren't exactly grumpy, and while they were honest and were factual in their statements, two of the three counter/phone people I spoke with appeared a little distracted or perhaps overloaded. It is not that big a deal to me because I've learned to lower my expectations in retail customer service matters. The industrial company from which I retired had the customer service bar set very high and my post-retirement expectations became unrealistic in dealing with businesses like Walmart and BellSouth/ATand T.

The sale of the mower to me went OK, I guess. But this review is more about Cary Mower and Saw in general. I find them rather unpleasant to work with. And this has been generally consistent throughout my experience with them over the 10 years I've lived near them. Whenever I go there to buy a part or call them on the phone to ask a question, I get the impression they really would rather not be dealing with me as a customer. I always feel unwelcome there. The latest event, the one which prompted me to write this review was when my son called them on a Saturday to ask what type of hydrostatic fluid should be used in the drive system on that $1200 mower, since it wasn't listed in the owner's manual. They told him that they didn't know, and that he'd have to call back during the week, because they would have to call a Honda representative who wasn't available on Saturdays. I called back to ask why they couldn't simply answer his question. I got such a tangled web of conflicting stories about whether they knew what type of fluid to use or not, and what fluid it should be, that I finally gave up trying to get them to make sense. I'm pretty sure the answer was simply, and quot;It's Honda hydrostatic fluid, which is sold in a quart bottle.and quot; As best I could determine from their conflicting answers, there is only one kind and they sell it. It was a simple question with a simple answer. Yet they turned it into a very unpleasant experience for both my son and me. I spent nearly $1200 on that lawn mower. The least they could do is to pleasantly answer simple questions about its maintenance for us.

They do very well, are prompt with the services and I would recommend them.