This is a residential backyard, it is not a shop, it's an old mower junkyard. I described how my…read moreblades hit and were destroyed, twice. I asked him to diagnose the issue. He removed the hood, criticizing my loose brackets with missing bolts. I was told I needed new blades. He said ordered parts might take a week or more, and how it would speed things up if I provided blades, insisting I get "OEM". I guess he couldn't be bothered to do it himself. That same day I got OEM blades at Tractor Supply, watching as he check-fit one. He gloriously replied "They don't fit". He offered no advice, never looked further, just repeated "they don't fit". Told me to go to a dealer to get blades. Tractor Supply is a dealer, their parts are OEM, also printed on the packaging. I returned the blades to TS, saying the mechanic said they don't fit, TS employee replied it is probably because of the paint and gave me a different set. Steve did another quick fit, his broken-record response started again, "They don't fit". No investigating, just blamed the new OEM blades. He literally left me standing there as he left to deliver/pick up mowers, after which I decided to see why they were not fitting. I managed to get the blades to fit the spindles and tightened the nuts. I noticed the star-shaped lugs for the blades had rounded points, smeared and worn down from the earlier blade failures which hindered fitment. I also took the time to fix my hood brackets, something I'm sure he would not have done even after pointing it out and making fun of it my first visit. The brackets were loose because threaded holes were stripped and bolts fell out. I used bolts and nuts I found kicking around in the dirt to fix it.
This "shop" had zero organization. Besides the yard full of years-old junked antiquated equipment, parts and pieces, his detached garage had no open space to work in, and why work was being done outside in the dirt. Junk, parts, bolts, nuts, sockets and tools were strewn everywhere, literally falling down and being kicked around and stepped on in the dirt and leaves. It was like navigating a children's playroom strewn with toys. Besides doing what he should have done to begin with, I felt I was doing Steve a favor. Even though I did everything myself, I still expected to pay something ($50-$100?). The blades were right, he just never bothered to diagnose the problem which is what I asked him to do in the first place, he did nothing except send me on wild goose chases for mower blades.
I returned after the weekend to pick up my mower. He was sitting there doing nothing and sarcastically told me it was good to go pointing to my mower, I said really? He said no. I asked him what's wrong? Instead of telling me, he asked me to "start it up". When I engaged the PTO, the blades immediately clattered hitting each other, causing more damage. He sat there as if enjoying it all. What a piece of work, instead of telling me what was wrong, he'd rather see me do further damage. A decent mechanic would have found the problem by then and told me, whether he fixed it or not. After all, I spotted the problem almost immediately, even tried to tell him about it. Apparently, he wasn't happy because I worked on the mower myself. This was him getting his satisfaction vengeance by watching my disappointment of finding the problem has not been fixed. He then asked me if I thought it is okay to go into a shop and start working on my mower myself. I apologized and explained why I did it. After the way I had been jerked around as a customer and his lax ways, with no other mechanic around, seeing him do nothing but shuttle mowers, I figured it wasn't a big problem, I didn't mind. I was trying to get my mower fixed so I didn't have to wait a month for some other shop to fix it and/or wait on ordered parts. I know quite a lot about mower repairs and why I had no problem doing what I did. I just didn't want to mess with it and why I brought it to this hole. All the time I was there, I only saw Steve trailer mowers around in his beat-up truck using a landscape trailer with no working taillights. I was there 4 different times 2 of which he sent me on wild goose chases to get blades.
It didn't bother me that Steve smoked, has no personality and is not friendly or even that work is performed in the dirt of his backyard. What ended up bothering me was his lack of professionalism and customer care. The experience left me so disgusted, it motivated me to do my own repair. After dropping the deck and doing an inspection, I quickly confirmed the problem was the star-shaped blade lug on the spindles. I was able to order everything from Amazon.
The mistake I made was going to a lazy mechanic that couldn't or wouldn't diagnose the real problem, so I did it myself. Never again.
Do your research before picking this place. No wonder there was no waiting for an appointment like there was for all the other reputable shops I tried calling first.
