Granite Machinery & Equipment

At first, it went well, new blade, oil change/tune up. The mower needed a new drive disk and I had that replaced as well. John was very attentive and picked up and delivered my mower ($30 fee, but well worth it). However, when it was returned on Friday and I used it for about 30 minutes on Saturday, the lawnmower would stop moving until I placed it into a higher gear. I stopped using it and called John on Monday. He came and picked it up. When I checked on it on Thursday, I was told by the mechanic that part of the transmission needed adjusting. Once again, it was returned on a Friday and I used it for about 30 minutes on Sunday this time, the same thing happened. This time, I had my brother take me and the lawnmower to the place so that I could speak to John face to face, feeling that this was fairly frustrating, as I did not have this problem before. John assured me that they would take another look at it and call me back. I never heard from them, so I called on Thursday. John told me that the mechanic had found the problem, a seal in the engine was leaking, which caused oil to drip onto the drive disk, which, in turn made it slip. John told me that they would finish up that day and would call me. I never heard from them, so I called on Friday morning. John said that they were finished and had tested it several times, driving it 'up and down this small hill about 50 times' and could not get it to slip. When I asked how much, John replied that there would be no charge, since he felt that the aggravation and the fact that they didn't catch it the first two times was their fault. Well, they returned my lawnmower on Friday. The claim of driving it around has to be false. I got on my lawnmower and, just because of the trouble I'd had, decided to test drive it. I noticed it was a little sluggish and the throttle wasn't as responsive as before, but decided that I'd see if that didn't improve once it warmed up a little bit. I placed the mower into 1st gear and drove for a little bit, maybe half way around my house, changed to 2nd drove out to the mail box, got my mail and dropped it off on the porch. I throttled back, placed it into 3rd gear, throttled up after starting to move, and drove around the back of my house again. About 2/3rds of the way around the house, it made a horrible grinding noise, bumped a couple of times and slowed down. I had driven the mower MAYBE a total of 100 yards. The mower had been at my house about 30 minutes or so.... I immediately turned it off and called John right and reported it. His response was that it had him stumped (obviously) and the only thing that he knew to do was to get into the transmission (which we had discussed before but he had elected NOT to investigate) and see if that was the problem. He also swore that he had even mowed another customer's lawn with it to make sure that it was running right. He's going to pick up the mower on Monday and promised to make it right. Here's my problem with what he said. First of all, I don't believe that they drove it '50 times' anywhere, unless this is when they tore the transmission out of my lawnmower. Second of all, he's yet to knock on my door when returning the lawnmower or call me when he's told me he would. Here's an example of the above statement: On Friday, I had a contractor at the house and we were outside, but behind the house. My front door was open, there's two vehicles in the driveway. John came by, dropped the lawnmower off and left while I was outside. It was real quick too, the contractor and I weren't at the back of the house more than a couple of minutes. He had to hear us talking and walked around the side of the house or could have called when he was coming by to drop it off. Thirdly, why did he mow another customers yard with my lawnmower? He could have easily mowed my yard after contacting me to tell me he was on the way. In other words, I think he's lying to me. I don't trust him anymore. He's got one more chance to make it right and I'm going to let him try, but only because he said that he wanted to make sure it was fixed. If my lawnmower isn't fixed this time, I'm taking it to somewhere else. At that point, I'm also filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, I'll update here with the results of his attempt to repair the damage that's done. Last but not least, I'll take him to small claims court for the refund of any repairs I have to pay for out of pocket, just because he doesn't ensure that the work is done right. Well, it's been a month - they finally delivered my lawnmower on Friday. Turns out it was the transmission. He left the gearing on my porch - it was clearly worn. I called to thank him and found out that it was a used tranny he'd salvaged from another Snapper mower that had a blown engine. He guaranteed it for a year, although I kind of doubt he'll honor it if something goes wrong. He charged me $50.00 for the part, no labor and no pick up delivery fees (which, at $30 a pop, would have been at least $90). I've test-driven it and even used it. It appears that they finally got it right this time. All this for a used transmission, 3 weeks without a mower, multiple phone calls and, except for one time, with no return call, shoddy workmanship and poor customer service. It's a good thing he doesn't work for my boss - he'd be out of a job and quite possibly the industry. Don't use this business, they don't know what they're doing and they're liars. The only thing that they've accomplished is to aggravate me to death, keep me from using my lawnmower and throw me a month behind in my yard work. If I had a choice between a bucket of used dry sweep and Granite Machinery and equipment, I'd take the bucket of used dry sweep any day.