Hello, everyone.. here's a story for you all. Figured this would be the place to post it. So.. a month ago now, my grandfather's 2-year old John Deere X-300 went into the local CERTIFIED John Deere shop. It was running rough for a month prior, and getting worse. First it wouldn't idle properly, and needed constant choking. Eventually it got to the high end too. So, with my old '73 FORD LGT-145 as a backup machine (Amongst 5 others), and the grass pretty much done growing, we took it into the shops.. shouldn't be long, right? Well, it's been a month now. Shop calls and says it's ready. Granddad and I head up to the shop and walk in this morning. The bill is 250.00. So, I ask the guy, "What did you do?" And he replies,
"There is a spring return on the choke, we've seen this on others of this model. The choke gets a little dirty, and the spring doesn't return it all the way. The knob is down, but the choke is stuck on still. So, we changed the plugs, which were fouled because of this, and cleaned the whole carb." 'Okay..' I think to myself. 'This is BS. I changed the plugs the morning we brought it in because we couldn't get it to start..' But I said nothing. And for that matter, if the choke was ON, it would run better.. right? I still said nothing, and we walked out front to load it. ..we stood there for 15 minutes. I could hear them in the shop cranking an engine.. but I figured it was just some other machine, and they were busy. ..Well, no. Some time later, the very same x3 comes sputtering out of the driveway. Guy drives it on the trailer, and it is still sputtering and hiccuping, running too lean. I tell him to start it back up, and idle it.. barely holds an idle, put choke up, and it smooths out.. WTF? Walk into the shop, and tell the guy at the desk. He says "We saw nothing else wrong with it, and didn't figure we should add to the bill." ..seriously? Well, finally he comes out with us. Brings a key, and fires up another X-3 on the lot. Purrs along fine. Walks up to ours, fires it up.. spitting and hissing along. Then he says, "I used to be a technician here for years, that sounds just fine to me." I was speechless. I walk up to it and hit the choke, and it smooths out again. We talk back and forth for a few minutes. He proceeds to open the hood, (Banging it off the trailer in the process), and use a POCKET KNIFE to try and 'tune the choke' because apparently it wasn't closing all the way.. Okay, you should have fixed that in the first place, and second, who cares? It's still lean regardless! Finally, I get fed up and walk up to him. And I say,
"Listen, I can save you all the time of messing around with it. The carb is dirty, and playing with the choke isn't going to fix anything." He turns, and about now he probably notices my Maine Antique Power Association buttonup. And he says,
"I got to ask, you seem to know so much, are you some kind of technician?" I reply,
"No, I just know what I'm talking about. What are you?" Probably not the best words, but it was all I could come up with, disgusted as I was. Anyway, he continues to say it's fine. ..After awhile, he gives up and walks back to the shop. Granddad and I walk in, and he tells the man at the desk that he's not paying for this go-around, and that they'd better figure it out soon. We walked back out, pushed it back to the shop door, and drove off. I'm disgusted with them.. we've had nothing but issues there. How can a CERTIFIED Deere dealer be so difficult, so uncaring? This is a nearly new machine, and they blow us off every time. How can a v-twin barely popping along on one cylinder sound 'fine'? I'm just so disgusted with this. I could hardly care less about new machines, and whenever I use it, I often wish I was on my Wheel Horse or Ford, but I know the sound of that engine. You aren't telling me it's fine. And oh, I could go on for days like this, about our other run-ins.. just angering. On the drive home, I commented, "You know? I have a hard time asking 25 for a mowing, 30 for a days worth of leaves, and 15 to rebuild a neighbors carburetor. If I was doing shop rate, I'd be a millionaire and never have to actually fix a thing!" No offence anyone.. but most of the dealers around here are exactly this way. How can these places still be in business.. I mean, I suppose the average person wouldn't have noticed that and been fine with the bill, but how can you charge that kind of money, for work that was never even done, nevertheless even necessary? Nothing runs like a Deere, eh? Thoughts, anyone?
"There is a spring return on the choke, we've seen this on others of this model. The choke gets a little dirty, and the spring doesn't return it all the way. The knob is down, but the choke is stuck on still. So, we changed the plugs, which were fouled because of this, and cleaned the whole carb." 'Okay..' I think to myself. 'This is BS. I changed the plugs the morning we brought it in because we couldn't get it to start..' But I said nothing. And for that matter, if the choke was ON, it would run better.. right? I still said nothing, and we walked out front to load it. ..we stood there for 15 minutes. I could hear them in the shop cranking an engine.. but I figured it was just some other machine, and they were busy. ..Well, no. Some time later, the very same x3 comes sputtering out of the driveway. Guy drives it on the trailer, and it is still sputtering and hiccuping, running too lean. I tell him to start it back up, and idle it.. barely holds an idle, put choke up, and it smooths out.. WTF? Walk into the shop, and tell the guy at the desk. He says "We saw nothing else wrong with it, and didn't figure we should add to the bill." ..seriously? Well, finally he comes out with us. Brings a key, and fires up another X-3 on the lot. Purrs along fine. Walks up to ours, fires it up.. spitting and hissing along. Then he says, "I used to be a technician here for years, that sounds just fine to me." I was speechless. I walk up to it and hit the choke, and it smooths out again. We talk back and forth for a few minutes. He proceeds to open the hood, (Banging it off the trailer in the process), and use a POCKET KNIFE to try and 'tune the choke' because apparently it wasn't closing all the way.. Okay, you should have fixed that in the first place, and second, who cares? It's still lean regardless! Finally, I get fed up and walk up to him. And I say,
"Listen, I can save you all the time of messing around with it. The carb is dirty, and playing with the choke isn't going to fix anything." He turns, and about now he probably notices my Maine Antique Power Association buttonup. And he says,
"I got to ask, you seem to know so much, are you some kind of technician?" I reply,
"No, I just know what I'm talking about. What are you?" Probably not the best words, but it was all I could come up with, disgusted as I was. Anyway, he continues to say it's fine. ..After awhile, he gives up and walks back to the shop. Granddad and I walk in, and he tells the man at the desk that he's not paying for this go-around, and that they'd better figure it out soon. We walked back out, pushed it back to the shop door, and drove off. I'm disgusted with them.. we've had nothing but issues there. How can a CERTIFIED Deere dealer be so difficult, so uncaring? This is a nearly new machine, and they blow us off every time. How can a v-twin barely popping along on one cylinder sound 'fine'? I'm just so disgusted with this. I could hardly care less about new machines, and whenever I use it, I often wish I was on my Wheel Horse or Ford, but I know the sound of that engine. You aren't telling me it's fine. And oh, I could go on for days like this, about our other run-ins.. just angering. On the drive home, I commented, "You know? I have a hard time asking 25 for a mowing, 30 for a days worth of leaves, and 15 to rebuild a neighbors carburetor. If I was doing shop rate, I'd be a millionaire and never have to actually fix a thing!" No offence anyone.. but most of the dealers around here are exactly this way. How can these places still be in business.. I mean, I suppose the average person wouldn't have noticed that and been fine with the bill, but how can you charge that kind of money, for work that was never even done, nevertheless even necessary? Nothing runs like a Deere, eh? Thoughts, anyone?
