My experience with Bad Boy Mowers

[smithfabinc]

Originally Posted by retrodog

Hey Smith, tried to send you a pm, but couldn't pull up on phone. Legally there is not much you can do, I hope the lawyer explains this to you before he takes any of your money. We even have a 3 day right of recision in TX, but it doesn't apply to equipment, only houses. I am not trying to be a know it all or anything, but I would pursue other avenues before I went the legal route. On equipment, its basically a bill of sale from the seller to the buyer, address etc is usually irrelevent. As is where is, warranty will be supplied by manufacture and dealer is supposed to honor warranty (but has the right to refuse any biz), return policy is decided upon from the seller at his discretion. I know it sucks, I've been there before with a new grand am I bought for my girlfriend. 17 times in the dealer for repairs in 6000 miles, 8 of them having to be towed in still lemon law didn't apply yet, has to be the same issue more than 3 times, not different ones. I have heard lots of good things about the dealer your referring to, and he really seems to care about customer issues when I visit with him. I thought they had a pretty smooth operation too (not rinky Dink). I am not an employee for bad boy or your dealer nor do I speak for them nor do I know the whole situation. Here is my 2 cents. Drop your mower off with Ted, visit with him calmly, ask him to please fix your mower in a timely manner and show him what you are referring to on the cut. You don't want any finger pointing you just want the unit you gave 11gs for to operate like it should. He said she said never flies, he could have told you it would fly and ran on gps that mowed yards for you itself, Simply put it if he can't fix your issues and get it to cut right, simply tell him then to exchange for a unit that will operate as it should or simply give you your money back so you can purchase something that will. If they do grind your brake pad (which is not the proper fix..LOL) it will be on them to replace.
If it does sit there for 4 weeks, atleast the rep will see when he gets there that the dealer had ample time to fix issues. I guaranty you this, if you handle it this way, i will bet my dealership that you will either have a mower fixed, replaced, or your money back (minus use wear and tear..they call it a restocking fee anywhere from 10% to 25% sucks i know...) a week after the bb rep talks to you. I have seen bad boy go waaay above and beyond for their customers, but the best way to get there is to be reasonable. Any exchange or refund will be one of those favors to save face, but first just see if they can make it right. The only statement that has ever pissed anyone off from a customer is the I will Sue you or get my lawyer card, for me it would be a dead deal from then on, but I go above and beyond for anyone, might as well have punched my wife because its about the same in my book. I promise you both bb and the dealer would love this resolved to avoid having an unhappy customer, but some situations are irreversable. At this point replacing your mower, or giving your money back will not help them at all, just fixing the mower and hoping you will get past all this and like your machine is the hope that both parties prolly have at best.... just trying to give another point of view to maybe smooth this process out for you...
Posted via Mobile Device

Its a little different in NC. We tried to be reasonable, and gave many many chances for this dealer to make it right. We didnt threaten him with a lawyer, we simply said If we have to go to that point, we will, but we dont want to. After all the excuses, and the BS he told us after the sale, We are not going to just have to "accept" the issues with this mower. The attorney we chose is very reasonable, and basically if we dont collect, he doesnt get paid. The dealer pulling the crap he did yesterday was the last straw, so We arent playing anymore games. After the dealer making several comments that we would need a lawyer..... well, we got one.

[MJB]

Originally Posted by smithfabinc

Its a little different in NC. We tried to be reasonable, and gave many many chances for this dealer to make it right. We didnt threaten him with a lawyer, we simply said If we have to go to that point, we will, but we dont want to. After all the excuses, and the BS he told us after the sale, We are not going to just have to "accept" the issues with this mower. The attorney we chose is very reasonable, and basically if we dont collect, he doesnt get paid. The dealer pulling the crap he did yesterday was the last straw, so We arent playing anymore games. After the dealer making several comments that we would need a lawyer..... well, we got one.

I would probably take the mower back and drop it off . I don't trust lawyers , but but he should be giving you advice about this too. If it's broke and it stays in your garage he can say you are not being resonable too. There is always 2 sides to every story, make sure you have a witness each time you attempt to leave it.

[MOHUSTLER]

As a dealer I am blown away that the guy told you to "get a laywer" Thats the worst business practice I have herd of on here. I have never had a customer threaten me with a laywer thank god. But if I was in this situation, I would take care of this guys mower. And in the situation that I do have an issue with a mower, Hustler, Scag, Wright are allways just one phonecall away and are more then willing to help me get the issues resolved.

I belive this guys story 100% but I cant wrap my head around a dealer who tells someone to get a laywer. Thats like saying I know im in the wrong but you will have to prove it.

And then to tell someone u are not at the shop and have live webcams is funny.

Id be sure to tell your laywer that he is refusing to answer your calls and not helping you, when you knowingly know he is in his shop.


I hope this guy goes out of business for everyones sake. And yes id call every news station in the area and let them know of how he is handling this matter.

[ted corriher]

Originally Posted by retrodog

Hey Smith, tried to send you a pm, but couldn't pull up on phone. Legally there is not much you can do, I hope the lawyer explains this to you before he takes any of your money. We even have a 3 day right of recision in TX, but it doesn't apply to equipment, only houses. I am not trying to be a know it all or anything, but I would pursue other avenues before I went the legal route. On equipment, its basically a bill of sale from the seller to the buyer, address etc is usually irrelevent. As is where is, warranty will be supplied by manufacture and dealer is supposed to honor warranty (but has the right to refuse any biz), return policy is decided upon from the seller at his discretion. I know it sucks, I've been there before with a new grand am I bought for my girlfriend. 17 times in the dealer for repairs in 6000 miles, 8 of them having to be towed in still lemon law didn't apply yet, has to be the same issue more than 3 times, not different ones. I have heard lots of good things about the dealer your referring to, and he really seems to care about customer issues when I visit with him. I thought they had a pretty smooth operation too (not rinky Dink). I am not an employee for bad boy or your dealer nor do I speak for them nor do I know the whole situation. Here is my 2 cents. Drop your mower off with Ted, visit with him calmly, ask him to please fix your mower in a timely manner and show him what you are referring to on the cut. You don't want any finger pointing you just want the unit you gave 11gs for to operate like it should. He said she said never flies, he could have told you it would fly and ran on gps that mowed yards for you itself, Simply put it if he can't fix your issues and get it to cut right, simply tell him then to exchange for a unit that will operate as it should or simply give you your money back so you can purchase something that will. If they do grind your brake pad (which is not the proper fix..LOL) it will be on them to replace.
If it does sit there for 4 weeks, atleast the rep will see when he gets there that the dealer had ample time to fix issues. I guaranty you this, if you handle it this way, i will bet my dealership that you will either have a mower fixed, replaced, or your money back (minus use wear and tear..they call it a restocking fee anywhere from 10% to 25% sucks i know...) a week after the bb rep talks to you. I have seen bad boy go waaay above and beyond for their customers, but the best way to get there is to be reasonable. Any exchange or refund will be one of those favors to save face, but first just see if they can make it right. The only statement that has ever pissed anyone off from a customer is the I will Sue you or get my lawyer card, for me it would be a dead deal from then on, but I go above and beyond for anyone, might as well have punched my wife because its about the same in my book. I promise you both bb and the dealer would love this resolved to avoid having an unhappy customer, but some situations are irreversable. At this point replacing your mower, or giving your money back will not help them at all, just fixing the mower and hoping you will get past all this and like your machine is the hope that both parties prolly have at best.... just trying to give another point of view to maybe smooth this process out for you...
Posted via Mobile Device

Hi from Ted, it's been a long time since I last posted on Lawnsite.com. Smithfabinc which I will refer to as Mr. Smith, I have never seen Mr. Smith before the purchas of this mower. Let's get some of the true facts out about this whole case for two reasons. 1. Bad Boy doesn't deserve a bad rap on this deal, and as one of the best servicing dealers that I know, I don't either. Mr. Smith called on the phone, and asked if I had a particular mower in stock, which was the compact diesel. I told him that I did, quoted him a price, and he said I will be there to get it. At this point we have had no discussion about the mower itself it has been a simple "do you have and how much does it cost" conversation. Many of you know Peanut, my video guy and service manager, It was his birthday on the day that Mr. Smith made his purchase, I personally pre-deliverd this mower, and we got a call from Mr. Smith at 4:45 PM the employee which has been with me for over 20 years told me Mr. Smith is on the phone and he would be 20 minutes late. I told him that I would wait. At 6:30 (an hour and a half after closing and changing other plans on a Friday) I left and went home because no one showed up. Shortly after returning home, our answering service called and said there was someone at the dealership to pick up a mower, so I returned to work. As you can see the inconsistencies between what Mr. Smith says, and what I know to be true, are going to keep getting further and further apart. I stayed and explained all of the safety features on the mower, as I am required to do. Since this was after hours, and all of our invoices are computer generated, I hand wrote him an invoice which was from Corriher Implement Co. not TC Corriher Implement Co. but as you can see the next business day, the proper invoice was written and even though he paid cash, I paid the tax as required by law. Mr. Smith came back a few days later saying how much he liked his new mower, and purchased a deck assist kit. The only reason that he knows about my patent pending braking system is because I told him the reason I keep the deck assist system in stock is to use the deck assist pedal and the cut out floorboard to install my front brake system which I did not discuss selling them to him as he claims. Everything was still fine at this point, he came back about a week later and purchased some hub caps for his mower, the front ones were on back order, and we refunded his money on his next visit. The next time I saw Mr. Smith, the situation had completely reversed. He was visually upset, and throwing four letter words around like a sailor. Mr. Smith said that the mower cut wet grass like sh@# and said he was going to cut out the last piece of baffling at the exit of the deck and install a straight piece. I told him before he started cutting on his $11,000 mower, that I had a deck under the shed just like his that was brand new and would modify it myself to try and see if I could help him. This is after talking to Bad Boy about what to do, which they said basically these mowers are not designed to mow wet grass. After talking to my rep, he explained that colleges have done studies and that when grass is cut wet, it was much tougher to cut, and because it was tougher to cut it pulls hard on the root system. It is not a good idea for the grass or the mower, as Mr. Smith, with his wife backing him up, explained to me that he cut grass in the rain with his Hustler and had no problem. What I find funny is after saying how great his Hustler was, he has two brand new 2011 models listed on Craigslist with the same hours (34,37, claims that he is downsizing) as the Bad Boy he now wishes to get rid of. He told me how much he like going from 13 1/2 gallons of gas to only 7 with the diesel on a large job he had. Then in the next sentence he would talk about his diesel, there are many discrepancies in everything he says and does. My Bad Boy Rep told Mr. Smith that he would have to personally see the mower to be able to help me do a buy back which is what has to be done for two reasons 1. the warranty on a Bad Boy does not transfer, and it is their discretion to let me be able to take this mower back and give the next customer a new warranty. 2. The machine has 37 hours on it, it is not a new machine anymore, if he had asked, before purchasing I mow at home with an AOS mower with the same deck, and I let customers use and borrow it all the time. Almost everything Mr. Smith is saying on Lawnsite is a distorted truth, I feel sorry for Bad Boy and me taking the rap, and you having to listen to it. 2 days after my rep set up an appointment with Mr. Smith to look at his mower, Mr. Smith showed up at my dealership, came straight in to my office while I was on the phone with another rep(very unprofessional), held up his owners manual and keys, and said I am not leaving without all my money returned now or I will get an attorney and sue you. At this point I had no choice, I told him to get an attorney and I would see him in court. At this point I told him I could no longer help him with his mower, as Bad Boy has recommended him to take it to other Bad Boy dealers, Mr. Smith says the next dealer is over an hour away, when there are two other Bad Boy dealers much closer to him than I am. He drove past two other dealers to get to me, boy was that a bad day. Some customers you just wish you had never seen. The day before he came in demanding a refund (8-11-2011) I put on my regular street clothes with no Bad Boy attire and went to see the local Hustler dealer, and the John Deere dealer, which both dealers know who I am in this area and were more than helpful with information, allowing me to look at at least seven different mowers. As I am designing my own line of mowers, the deck is about the last thing I am still deciding on, so I too wanted to gain some information. I told them the problem I was having, all of them answered the same "These mowers are not designed to cut wet grass, but we know some customers do it" I think that is up to the customer and the quality of cut that he wants. Just because the sprinkler system is on during the night and shuts off at 6 in the morning, 7 am is not a good time to start mowing this property. I'm not sure how long Mr. Smith has been cutting grass, but his stories are all over the place. Since he has two new Hustlers for sale on craigslist, it makes me wonder how his relationship is with them. There is very little truth in any of the posts that Mr. Smith has made so far, and he is not the kind of customer I like to deal with, but as a good dealer, I was more than willing to take an $1,800 deck that I own, and modify it (at my expense) to try to help my customer. To me I went above and beyond and then had it shoved down my throat with a threat of a lawsuit. I could go on and on, but I think you get the general idea, you can't just buy a mower with no discussion, use it 37 hours, and expect to get a 100% refund like it was a pair of pants from Wal-Mart. I go above and beyond for all of my customers, and keep $35,000 worth of parts in stock for Bad Boy Mowers, I don't use many of them, but I have them available to keep my customers mowing.

P.S. On the brakes (where he calls me an idiot) if you look at the ASNI standards, which is the holy grail for lawn mower safety, for the brake test it clearly says that the manufacturer may burnish the brakes for this test which basically means scuffing the drum and pads because mower brakes are not used as a friction stop, only as a park brake and never get seated under normal conditions.

Sincerely, Ted Corriher

[retrodog]

The only thing I didn't point out is that the factory has one, offered to meet you at a diferent dealership to resolve problems (because you don't get along with your local obviously), send you parts to your house for free, and then to top it off, offered to come to your house to evaluate your mower (immediatly after their personal preplanned vacation, which I noticed most of the reps take this time of year).
It just seems like you don't really want it fixed, or the situation resolved. A the next dealer is too far B you don't like the idea of the parts coming to your house for free C You don't like waiting till labor day.
This whole situation is so simple, check the wire on your temp guage (prolly is loose at the place it plugs in), tighten your brake cable a little, if the idler arm is bent....replace it, your belts are covered for 90 days, so you havent had to pay for a belt if it did break because of the bent arm, and finally on the exhaust cover, either throw it in the scrap metal pile, or put the bolts back in it with locktite. If you are mowing wet tall grass, just plan on double cutting until you figue out what blades work best for the clumping issue. I know its scary to have issues right out of the box on your new equipment, but as I tell everyone that purchases equipment, if you are gonna have unusual issues, its usually during the break in period, after that you are usually good to go.. I have mowed on alot of mowers, and all mowers clump in wet tall grass to some degree (yes even on a Velocity plus, mowed on a cheetah in lots of situations last month). I do admit the 61" deck does handle the grass better than the 60", but its not a failure of the machine, simply an opinion of cut quality.
I have seen motors lock up in less than 3 hours (4 now), thats what a warranty is for to fix something like that, protects the consumer and the biz.
Just curious, under NC law, what would you actually be sueing for (or under what grounds). If its a long shot, I would be extremely worried about a countersue for defamation.
Here is just one case I found the poster simply posted anonymously that people in the company were liars, and the company won.
http://blog.mlive.com/annarbornews/2...ion_lawsu.html
Not trying to be a dick or anything, just noticing from a distance that they are trying to work with you to resolve your issues anyway they can... I don't think anyone has refused to fix your mower for you, the day that comes, then you have every right as a consumer to sue away.

[LibertyFarmLandscaping]

Originally Posted by retrodog

The only thing I didn't point out is that the factory has one, offered to meet you at a diferent dealership to resolve problems (because you don't get along with your local obviously), send you parts to your house for free, and then to top it off, offered to come to your house to evaluate your mower (immediatly after their personal preplanned vacation, which I noticed most of the reps take this time of year).
It just seems like you don't really want it fixed, or the situation resolved. A the next dealer is too far B you don't like the idea of the parts coming to your house for free C You don't like waiting till labor day.
This whole situation is so simple, check the wire on your temp guage (prolly is loose at the place it plugs in), tighten your brake cable a little, if the idler arm is bent....replace it, your belts are covered for 90 days, so you havent had to pay for a belt if it did break because of the bent arm, and finally on the exhaust cover, either throw it in the scrap metal pile, or put the bolts back in it with locktite. If you are mowing wet tall grass, just plan on double cutting until you figue out what blades work best for the clumping issue. I know its scary to have issues right out of the box on your new equipment, but as I tell everyone that purchases equipment, if you are gonna have unusual issues, its usually during the break in period, after that you are usually good to go.. I have mowed on alot of mowers, and all mowers clump in wet tall grass to some degree (yes even on a Velocity plus, mowed on a cheetah in lots of situations last month). I do admit the 61" deck does handle the grass better than the 60", but its not a failure of the machine, simply an opinion of cut quality.
I have seen motors lock up in less than 3 hours (4 now), thats what a warranty is for to fix something like that, protects the consumer and the biz.
Just curious, under NC law, what would you actually be sueing for (or under what grounds). If its a long shot, I would be extremely worried about a countersue for defamation.
Here is just one case I found the poster simply posted anonymously that people in the company were liars, and the company won.
http://blog.mlive.com/annarbornews/2...ion_lawsu.html
Not trying to be a dick or anything, just noticing from a distance that they are trying to work with you to resolve your issues anyway they can... I don't think anyone has refused to fix your mower for you, the day that comes, then you have every right as a consumer to sue away.

Lol.....Wow, where did you find some grass that wet around here last month. With the record heat and drought we are having I couldn't find grass that wet even mowing it right after the irrigation cuts off.

[ted corriher]

Originally Posted by smithfabinc

Its a little different in NC. We tried to be reasonable, and gave many many chances for this dealer to make it right. We didnt threaten him with a lawyer, we simply said If we have to go to that point, we will, but we dont want to. After all the excuses, and the BS he told us after the sale, We are not going to just have to "accept" the issues with this mower. The attorney we chose is very reasonable, and basically if we dont collect, he doesnt get paid. The dealer pulling the crap he did yesterday was the last straw, so We arent playing anymore games. After the dealer making several comments that we would need a lawyer..... well, we got one.

As you see in my last (and rather large) post, this is another alteration of the facts, he sat in my office and said "I am not leaving without all of my money or I am getting a lawyer and suing you." Had it not been for this threat, I would be working on his mower instead of typing these posts. My next post will be a repeat of my previous post with more clarity, sorry but I was in a hurry.

[ted corriher]

Hi from Ted, it's been a long time since I last posted on Lawnsite.com. Smithfabinc which I will refer to as Mr. Smith, I have never seen Mr. Smith before the purchase of this mower. Let's get some of the true facts out about this whole case for two reasons.

Bad Boy doesn't deserve a bad rap on this deal, and as one of the best servicing dealers that I know, I don't either. Mr. Smith called on the phone, and asked if I had a particular mower in stock, which was the compact diesel. I told him that I did, quoted him a price, and he said I will be there to get it. At this point we have had no discussion about the mower itself it has been a simple "do you have and how much does it cost" conversation. Many of you know Peanut, my video guy and service manager, It was his birthday on the day that Mr. Smith made his purchase, I personally pre-deliverd this mower, and we got a call from Mr. Smith at 4:45 PM the employee which has been with me for over 20 years told me Mr. Smith is on the phone and he would be 20 minutes late. I told him that I would wait. At 6:30 (an hour and a half after closing and changing other plans on a Friday) I left and went home because no one showed up. Shortly after returning home, our answering service called and said there was someone at the dealership to pick up a mower, so I returned to work.

As you can see the inconsistencies between what Mr. Smith says, and what I know to be true, are going to keep getting further and further apart. I stayed and explained all of the safety features on the mower, as I am required to do. Since this was after hours, and all of our invoices are computer generated, I hand wrote him an invoice which was from Corriher Implement Co. not TC Corriher Implement Co. but as you can see the next business day, the proper invoice was written and even though he paid cash, I paid the tax as required by law.

Mr. Smith came back a few days later saying how much he liked his new mower, and purchased a deck assist kit. The only reason that he knows about my patent pending braking system is because I told him the reason I keep the deck assist system in stock is to use the deck assist pedal and the cut out floorboard to install my front brake system which I did not discuss selling them to him as he claims. Everything was still fine at this point, he came back about a week later and purchased some hub caps for his mower, the front ones were on back order, and we refunded his money on his next visit.


The next time I saw Mr. Smith, the situation had completely reversed. He was visually upset, and throwing four letter words around like a sailor. Mr. Smith said that the mower cut wet grass like sh@# and said he was going to cut out the last piece of baffling at the exit of the deck and install a straight piece. I told him before he started cutting on his $11,000 mower, that I had a deck under the shed just like his that was brand new and would modify it myself to try and see if I could help him. This is after talking to Bad Boy about what to do, which they said basically these mowers are not designed to mow wet grass. After talking to my rep, he explained that colleges have done studies and that when grass is cut wet, it was much tougher to cut, and because it was tougher to cut it pulls hard on the root system. It is not a good idea for the grass or the mower, as Mr. Smith, with his wife backing him up, explained to me that he cut grass in the rain with his Hustler and had no problem.


What I find funny is after saying how great his Hustler was, he has two brand new 2011 models listed on Craigslist with the same hours (34,37, claims that he is downsizing) as the Bad Boy he now wishes to get rid of. He told me how much he like going from 13 1/2 gallons of gas to only 7 with the diesel on a large job he had. Then in the next sentence he would talk about his diesel, there are many discrepancies in everything he says and does. My Bad Boy Rep told Mr. Smith that he would have to personally see the mower to be able to help me do a buy back which is what has to be done for two reasons 1. the warranty on a Bad Boy does not transfer, and it is their discretion to let me be able to take this mower back and give the next customer a new warranty.


The machine has 37 hours on it, it is not a new machine anymore, if he had asked, before purchasing I mow at home with an AOS mower with the same deck, and I let customers use and borrow it all the time. Almost everything Mr. Smith is saying on Lawnsite is a distorted truth, I feel sorry for Bad Boy and me taking the rap, and you having to listen to it. 2 days after my rep set up an appointment with Mr. Smith to look at his mower, Mr. Smith showed up at my dealership, came straight in to my office while I was on the phone with another rep(very unprofessional), held up his owners manual and keys, and said I am not leaving without all my money returned now or I will get an attorney and sue you. At this point I had no choice, I told him to get an attorney and I would see him in court. At this point I told him I could no longer help him with his mower, as Bad Boy has recommended him to take it to other Bad Boy dealers, Mr. Smith says the next dealer is over an hour away, when there are two other Bad Boy dealers much closer to him than I am. He drove past two other dealers to get to me, boy was that a bad day. Some customers you just wish you had never seen.

The day before he came in demanding a refund (8-11-2011) I put on my regular street clothes with no Bad Boy attire and went to see the local Hustler dealer, and the John Deere dealer, which both dealers know who I am in this area and were more than helpful with information, allowing me to look at at least seven different mowers. As I am designing my own line of mowers, the deck is about the last thing I am still deciding on, so I too wanted to gain some information. I told them the problem I was having, all of them answered the same "These mowers are not designed to cut wet grass, but we know some customers do it" I think that is up to the customer and the quality of cut that he wants. Just because the sprinkler system is on during the night and shuts off at 6 in the morning, 7 am is not a good time to start mowing this property. I'm not sure how long Mr. Smith has been cutting grass, but his stories are all over the place.

Since he has two new Hustlers for sale on craigslist, it makes me wonder how his relationship is with them. There is very little truth in any of the posts that Mr. Smith has made so far, and he is not the kind of customer I like to deal with, but as a good dealer, I was more than willing to take an $1,800 deck that I own, and modify it (at my expense) to try to help my customer. To me I went above and beyond and then had it shoved down my throat with a threat of a lawsuit. I could go on and on, but I think you get the general idea, you can't just buy a mower with no discussion, use it 37 hours, and expect to get a 100% refund like it was a pair of pants from Wal-Mart. I go above and beyond for all of my customers, and keep $35,000 worth of parts in stock for Bad Boy Mowers, I don't use many of them, but I have them available to keep my customers mowing.


P.S. On the brakes (where he calls me an idiot) if you look at the ASNI standards, which is the holy grail for lawn mower safety, for the brake test it clearly says that the manufacturer may burnish the brakes for this test which basically means scuffing the drum and pads because mower brakes are not used as a friction stop, only as a park brake and never get seated under normal conditions.

I think Retrodog has hit the nail on the head, he obviously doesn't want his mower fixed, he just wants his money back.

Sincerely, Ted Corriher

[WOW]

Originally Posted by ted corriher

Hi from Ted, it's been a long time since I last posted on Lawnsite.com. Smithfabinc which I will refer to as Mr. Smith, I have never seen Mr. Smith before the purchase of this mower. Let's get some of the true facts out about this whole case for two reasons.

Bad Boy doesn't deserve a bad rap on this deal, and as one of the best servicing dealers that I know, I don't either. Mr. Smith called on the phone, and asked if I had a particular mower in stock, which was the compact diesel. I told him that I did, quoted him a price, and he said I will be there to get it. At this point we have had no discussion about the mower itself it has been a simple "do you have and how much does it cost" conversation. Many of you know Peanut, my video guy and service manager, It was his birthday on the day that Mr. Smith made his purchase, I personally pre-deliverd this mower, and we got a call from Mr. Smith at 4:45 PM the employee which has been with me for over 20 years told me Mr. Smith is on the phone and he would be 20 minutes late. I told him that I would wait. At 6:30 (an hour and a half after closing and changing other plans on a Friday) I left and went home because no one showed up. Shortly after returning home, our answering service called and said there was someone at the dealership to pick up a mower, so I returned to work.

As you can see the inconsistencies between what Mr. Smith says, and what I know to be true, are going to keep getting further and further apart. I stayed and explained all of the safety features on the mower, as I am required to do. Since this was after hours, and all of our invoices are computer generated, I hand wrote him an invoice which was from Corriher Implement Co. not TC Corriher Implement Co. but as you can see the next business day, the proper invoice was written and even though he paid cash, I paid the tax as required by law.

Mr. Smith came back a few days later saying how much he liked his new mower, and purchased a deck assist kit. The only reason that he knows about my patent pending braking system is because I told him the reason I keep the deck assist system in stock is to use the deck assist pedal and the cut out floorboard to install my front brake system which I did not discuss selling them to him as he claims. Everything was still fine at this point, he came back about a week later and purchased some hub caps for his mower, the front ones were on back order, and we refunded his money on his next visit.


The next time I saw Mr. Smith, the situation had completely reversed. He was visually upset, and throwing four letter words around like a sailor. Mr. Smith said that the mower cut wet grass like sh@# and said he was going to cut out the last piece of baffling at the exit of the deck and install a straight piece. I told him before he started cutting on his $11,000 mower, that I had a deck under the shed just like his that was brand new and would modify it myself to try and see if I could help him. This is after talking to Bad Boy about what to do, which they said basically these mowers are not designed to mow wet grass. After talking to my rep, he explained that colleges have done studies and that when grass is cut wet, it was much tougher to cut, and because it was tougher to cut it pulls hard on the root system. It is not a good idea for the grass or the mower, as Mr. Smith, with his wife backing him up, explained to me that he cut grass in the rain with his Hustler and had no problem.


What I find funny is after saying how great his Hustler was, he has two brand new 2011 models listed on Craigslist with the same hours (34,37, claims that he is downsizing) as the Bad Boy he now wishes to get rid of. He told me how much he like going from 13 1/2 gallons of gas to only 7 with the diesel on a large job he had. Then in the next sentence he would talk about his diesel, there are many discrepancies in everything he says and does. My Bad Boy Rep told Mr. Smith that he would have to personally see the mower to be able to help me do a buy back which is what has to be done for two reasons 1. the warranty on a Bad Boy does not transfer, and it is their discretion to let me be able to take this mower back and give the next customer a new warranty.


The machine has 37 hours on it, it is not a new machine anymore, if he had asked, before purchasing I mow at home with an AOS mower with the same deck, and I let customers use and borrow it all the time. Almost everything Mr. Smith is saying on Lawnsite is a distorted truth, I feel sorry for Bad Boy and me taking the rap, and you having to listen to it. 2 days after my rep set up an appointment with Mr. Smith to look at his mower, Mr. Smith showed up at my dealership, came straight in to my office while I was on the phone with another rep(very unprofessional), held up his owners manual and keys, and said I am not leaving without all my money returned now or I will get an attorney and sue you. At this point I had no choice, I told him to get an attorney and I would see him in court. At this point I told him I could no longer help him with his mower, as Bad Boy has recommended him to take it to other Bad Boy dealers, Mr. Smith says the next dealer is over an hour away, when there are two other Bad Boy dealers much closer to him than I am. He drove past two other dealers to get to me, boy was that a bad day. Some customers you just wish you had never seen.

The day before he came in demanding a refund (8-11-2011) I put on my regular street clothes with no Bad Boy attire and went to see the local Hustler dealer, and the John Deere dealer, which both dealers know who I am in this area and were more than helpful with information, allowing me to look at at least seven different mowers. As I am designing my own line of mowers, the deck is about the last thing I am still deciding on, so I too wanted to gain some information. I told them the problem I was having, all of them answered the same "These mowers are not designed to cut wet grass, but we know some customers do it" I think that is up to the customer and the quality of cut that he wants. Just because the sprinkler system is on during the night and shuts off at 6 in the morning, 7 am is not a good time to start mowing this property. I'm not sure how long Mr. Smith has been cutting grass, but his stories are all over the place.

Since he has two new Hustlers for sale on craigslist, it makes me wonder how his relationship is with them. There is very little truth in any of the posts that Mr. Smith has made so far, and he is not the kind of customer I like to deal with, but as a good dealer, I was more than willing to take an $1,800 deck that I own, and modify it (at my expense) to try to help my customer. To me I went above and beyond and then had it shoved down my throat with a threat of a lawsuit. I could go on and on, but I think you get the general idea, you can't just buy a mower with no discussion, use it 37 hours, and expect to get a 100% refund like it was a pair of pants from Wal-Mart. I go above and beyond for all of my customers, and keep $35,000 worth of parts in stock for Bad Boy Mowers, I don't use many of them, but I have them available to keep my customers mowing.


P.S. On the brakes (where he calls me an idiot) if you look at the ASNI standards, which is the holy grail for lawn mower safety, for the brake test it clearly says that the manufacturer may burnish the brakes for this test which basically means scuffing the drum and pads because mower brakes are not used as a friction stop, only as a park brake and never get seated under normal conditions.

I think Retrodog has hit the nail on the head, he obviously doesn't want his mower fixed, he just wants his money back.

Sincerely, Ted Corriher

Avast says it has repelled a Trojan Imposter from your website ( Tedbrakes.com ).

[retrodog]

Originally Posted by LibertyFarmLandscaping

Lol.....Wow, where did you find some grass that wet around here last month. With the record heat and drought we are having I couldn't find grass that wet even mowing it right after the irrigation cuts off.

Lol, my wife posted pics on our facebook, I let the kids play in the yard with water toys for hours and then cut...lol. It was so wet I got the cheetah stuck in my yard.... Had to do the same thing a couple of months ago testing out an outfront zipper. My biggest complaint about my front deck hopper was the handling of the wet grass, I loved the zipper in dry conditions but had to get creative in a short week for wet grass. I even drove around with it on my trailer looking for freshly sprinkled yards, but I guess the guys that mow those yards dont have anything else to do, most said they put heavy fertilizer for free on their yards and turned up the sprinklers, I even called some of my LCOs I had in my phone to see if I could help them mow.... Everything I tried to find to mow was freshly cut, or very little grass to cut...lol.
I cant believe zipper is not talked about more, it was a really nice mower, alot of diamond plate steel, powerfold deck standard, 28hp kawasaki (with an enclosed engine compartment. I could whisper over the motor running), screaming power with the 28hp, I think they run a really high rpm on the blade tip speed (I would guess way more than I am used too, maybe even like 24000 it was sick), the blades were screaming, handles even very overgrown stuff perfectly, easy fold out design, waay simplier to work on than a hopper, and not to mention a 61" front deck for $9999 was sweet, their 54" was $7999 in the front deck with a 25hp kawasaki. Custom powdercoated any color for $300, 5 year parts and labor warranty on everything, I was really blown away by the mower. I thought it was a little rough (rep said they have a suspension option now, blow out on the front of the deck was bad (rep said they have an adjustable lip option to fix), and the controls were very touchy (rep said they offer steering dampners for an option). With those three options they have a near perfect front deck. No striping, but everything looked manicured that I mowed, I mean everything even grass taller than the mower...lol, I would go with the dual tail wheel option too because the middle wheel left a strange looking mark in the yard.. I told him to come back with one for my to try with those options, and he has him a huckleberry for sure....