Brought lawn tractor to Bassanni for a fuel leak, sharpen blades, new battery, new spark plug, and adjust deck height. When I went to pick it up, I overheard a counter person on the phone with a customer explaining that his machine wasn't ready yet because they didn't know that it was in the shop. In any case, I paid my bill and went around back to get the machine.
I found an employee in the yard and went to identify myself and to ask for some help loading the machine. However, he was already helping another customer who was complaining that nobody ever called him to say the machine was ready. AS they were about to load this FRESHLY SERVICED MACHINE, it wouldn't start. At that point I figured I would be better off just getting my machine myself and get out of there.
As I secure it to the trailer, I smelled gas. Turns out the carburetor was still leaking. I went to the shop and got a guy to look at it. He changed a gasket and said that should do it. I got it home and found that the battery tie down was not put on correctly. I fixed that, cleaned all the gas off of it, and left it for the night.
Next morning, smelled gas. It was still leaking. Called the shop and told them to come get it and try it again. They said that the solenoid under the bowl of the carburetor had rotted out and they replaced it. They brought it back to the house and, after their second try at fixing the leak, there was no choke. The engine would crank and crank then finally catch in a puff of white smoke. After cutting the lawn, actually after scalping the lawn because the adjustment they did set the blades about 3/4" lower than what was marked on the indicator, I parked it and went about other chores. When I went to put it away...the brand new battery was dead. I charged the battery for a couple hours, it started with its new feature of a white cloud, and I put it away.
But wait...there's more
The following weekend, I went to start it and it and the battery was dead again. After another couple hours on charge and 13 volts in the battery, it had a strong crank response to the ignition, but only for a fraction of a second, not even one revolution of the motor. I did get it to start twice, but after 5 seconds or so, it would die as if the ignition was turned off.
After the 3rd try, and me paying $100 to get my lawn cut twice because of Bassanni's incompetence, the leak has stopped and it is running ok. Of course, the deck was never re-adjusted to match the indicator, but I will deal with that myself. They blamed it all on ethanol and bad gas. However, based upon his attitude, I think it was "Justin the Counter Boy" with the bad gas.
In short, of the 5 things that I wanted done to the machine, Bassanni managed to get 2 things right the first time. If you are good with those odds...then these are the guys for you. read more