Five Forks Mowers Inc

I was disappointed to have an extremely negative experience at Five Forks Mower Sales and Repairs (denoted hereafter as FFMSR). I have never left a negative review for any single business before – people make mistakes and I understand that is a part of life, but I’ve never quite experienced what I experienced there. A summary statement is below, with a complete version to follow: Summary: FFMSR made an omission in my mower service, at which point, after I called to figure out what happened, the owner (Randy) returned my call originally acted as if he was going to treat me fairly on the phone, then, when I returned to the location, and after he offered to complete the original service request for free, which offer I accepted after he explained it and I thought it over, the owner started cursing at me and telling me to leave the premises, under no provocation (at least that I know of) from me. FFMSR failed to complete the initial service I requested (cleaning of the carburetor), which was unbeknownst to me, until the day that I returned, and the owner told me that that was never done and claimed that I had not requested it. Complete version: While I was changing the blade on my mower, which previously was working fine, I had leaned the mower the wrong way, and when I turned the blade, from the underside (just to check) to see if the blade was on securely, some gas and maybe oil started leaking. I knew immediately that I had leaned it the wrong way, and knew not to start the mower. I looked it up online and found that I would at least need to have the carburetor cleaned. When I took it to FFMSR (July 2), I explained the situation and requested that if anything else should be examined on the basis of that narrative, that that be done as well. There was a technician there to whom I explained the situation, and he wrote down the narrative on the ticket, and suggested a complete service. I did not realize at that time that he had neglected to explicitly write down the cleaning of the carburetor, but he did write down the entire narrative, such that I would have expected that verbal request to happen, since I would have assumed that they would understand the impact of the improper tilt better than I. The service ticket is attached to this review. There were some difficult steps along the way, though irrelevant to my negative experience, but which it’s possible the owner would want to muddy the waters with. First they told me that my blade that I had purchased was not the right size, and they had to order another adapter since the nubs on the old were worn down – I agreed to this. They unfortunately purchased an adapter that made the blade sit higher than before, which, when I arrived to pick up my mower (July 17), would have caused the blade to hit the side of the blade case (not sure what to call it), since my blade-shaft (not sure of the proper term) was also slightly bent. At that point, the owner said that he would get an adapter to match the original so that there would be no negative effect. Other than a further delay, (at this point, it was just 2 weeks, and this would be another week), there was no negative experience from me, and the owner expressed to me disappointment with his own team that they had missed the bent shaft and the need to get a matching adapter. Finally, I was told it was ready. A service tech wheeled it to my car (the service ticket claimed that the mower runs and operators well). I suggested starting it to see how it works. The engine sounded awful – it was revving and then lowering RPMs over and over again, plus had a continuous popping noise. I turned to the tech and told him so, and he shrugged his shoulders and prepared to help load the mower in, despite my concerns. I thought, maybe it will clean up after running for a little while. So naively, I guess, I loaded it into my car. After getting it home, I checked the oil, and I found that it was filled to twice the level of the fill line. Again, naively, I guess, I started to cut my front lawn, during which the problem and vibrations of the mower only grew worse. So I made a call to FFMRS, to describe this phenomenon, entirely new since receiving my mower back and to see what their response would be. She assured me that the owner would be concerned to hear about it and would return my call. He did indeed, call me, and discussed the problem with me. Of course, FFMRS had never heard it run prior to my turning it in, so I understood that, and he said that he would need to take a look at the mower and “let the mower tell the story.” Of course, I couldn’t claim that I had taken perfect care of the mower, and I hadn’t changed the filter as often I as should have, so I had some concern that they could claim that the problem pre-dated my bringing it in – only I could vouch for the previous running condition. However, I sensed the owner to be sincere, and trusted that it would be worthwhile to return again to get him to take a look. At the shop the next Monday (today), the owner’s service tech confirmed based on running the machine that his first impression was that the problem was in the carburetor. The owner was agitated, and he said that if I had tilted the mower improperly, then there could have been leakage into the carburetor, so perhaps that was what need to be done, but offered to clean the carburetor for free or replace the carburetor for the cost of the part. I was confused, since I thought the carburetor had already been cleaned, under the terms of the original service. He then informed me that the service ticket never said such a thing and all that was done was the “regular service.” I told him that I was pretty sure I had originally requested it, as that was the original reason I brought it in – I wasn’t trying to be argumentative, but was simply taken aback. At this point, or maybe earlier, the owner started getting angry with me. However, I was trying to make a decision, but while my initial inclination was to get the new carburetor, I had to ask more questions. So then I asked whether the carburetor or anything external to the carburetor could have been harmed by virtue of running it as I had prior to cleaning the carburetor. He told me that that is not true – no harm would have been caused. He then described a part that would have been contaminated due to what I did, and I asked whether that part was internal or external to the carburetor. He was getting more and more upset with me but confirmed that it was internal. Some time during this discussion or at the end he started increasing his agitation and claimed that I was “asking the same **** question over and over again.” I decided to have it cleaned. Because he had claimed that my service ticket never requested the carburetor to be cleaned, before I left, I went inside and asked for a copy of my original service ticket. The lady at the desk started printing this for me, and the owner stormed in telling her not to give it to me and telling me to get out. I said, I don’t understand – I just want a copy of my original service ticket. He yelled that I was causing a scene (though there were no other customers inside the building, at least that I was aware of), then repeated the refrain about my “asking the same **** question over and over,” and was yelling at me to leave. He then obliged in letting me have a ticket of the end completed return ticket, but claimed that he couldn’t give me the original, since he would have to zero out the completed return, but also went on to continue to yell and curse at me. At this point, I started to doubt in my mind whether any service I would receive from FFMRS would be done properly or would be minimalist due to his apparent grudge against me. I therefore said, I am not causing the scene – I don’t understand why you’re being so confrontational, and he continued to raise his voice telling me to get out or else leave behind the offer to do the service, and he repeated his refrain about my “asking the same **** question” (I’m still not sure what the question was he was referring to). This caused me to feel more unsure that I could actually trust him to perform the service thoroughly, so I decided to take my mower home without having him do the initially requested service. He was of course happy at this point and yelled out to his tech to wheel my mower to my car. I was shocked and disappointed by this behavior. Up until this day, the owner had appeared to be something of a gentleman - there was no provocation on my part, unless you count my lack of knowledge of the mechanics of the mower, causing me to ask questions to him. I am disappointed also not to have the main initial work for which I brought the machine in completed.

unknown

It went well, no problems.

Issue was discussed at great length with Ridgid customer service (Titus) who contacted 5 Forks Mowers to confirm the above facts.Ridgid also agreed to send me a new battery directly and to make a negative report on 5 Forks Mowers, Inc..The public should approach this business with caution should anyone find it necessary to have any dealing with them, (regardless of whether they are dishonest or simply incompetant.)