March 2012 we bought it from Lowe's, it never ran right, ever. It would rev and sputter even right after starting it after getting it back from authorized repair center (Greensouth equipment in Middleburg FL). By the end if summer they had had it in their possession 4 of 12 weeks and we were having to borrow our neighbors mower often. This year it worked once (rough) and then wouldn't start. Our Lowe's no longer sells JD push mowers, they took it back and we have the Husquavarna with the Honda engine.
I'm posting this because it was the worst experience, corporate John Deere told us we had to deal with the service center, and at one point told me I should be happy that I have the 2 year warranty ( new mower has a 3 year warranty, so big deal on it being 2). I was driving 40 miles round trip each time, so a repair would be 80 miles, gas isn't free plus it was a significant amount of time but that didn't matter to John Deere. the service center would have the mower for over a week each time, one time it was two weeks and I called and they still Hadn't looked at it. On the one trip over it was pushing fuel out the carburetor and as far as I was concerned a fire hazard. The one time the gentleman put it together wrong and when we tried to start it there it flooded, so he had to go pull a new one off the floor to figure out what he did wrong.
Even after explaining all of this to John Deere corporate they chose to do nothing about it, even if the repair center couldn't deal and correct the problem John Deere was forcing us to continually go back to them. There's no responsibility on the corporate end if you have a lemon. We had wasted over 500 dollars not including all of our time and gas to attempt to get this repaired and to make it reliable. we followed every suggestion they had, purchase marine grade fuel in a brand new container, stored it in a way to prevent it from getting dusty, and it still wouldn't run correctly. We have given our previous mower which is over 12 years old to someone else and it is still running, we had purchased the John Deere because of the key start.
Lowes accept responsibility for John Deere's mistake and replaced the lawn mower this past week. We bought a John Deere to support the US economy, wanting to do the right thing. But they need to live up to their end of the deal and be good corporate citizens and stand behind their products, buying a lawn mower is a significant investment for many people but the cavalier attitude their customer service made me feel that they didn't value that I chose to to buy one of their products and wasn't getting the value I deserved.
I'm posting this because it was the worst experience, corporate John Deere told us we had to deal with the service center, and at one point told me I should be happy that I have the 2 year warranty ( new mower has a 3 year warranty, so big deal on it being 2). I was driving 40 miles round trip each time, so a repair would be 80 miles, gas isn't free plus it was a significant amount of time but that didn't matter to John Deere. the service center would have the mower for over a week each time, one time it was two weeks and I called and they still Hadn't looked at it. On the one trip over it was pushing fuel out the carburetor and as far as I was concerned a fire hazard. The one time the gentleman put it together wrong and when we tried to start it there it flooded, so he had to go pull a new one off the floor to figure out what he did wrong.
Even after explaining all of this to John Deere corporate they chose to do nothing about it, even if the repair center couldn't deal and correct the problem John Deere was forcing us to continually go back to them. There's no responsibility on the corporate end if you have a lemon. We had wasted over 500 dollars not including all of our time and gas to attempt to get this repaired and to make it reliable. we followed every suggestion they had, purchase marine grade fuel in a brand new container, stored it in a way to prevent it from getting dusty, and it still wouldn't run correctly. We have given our previous mower which is over 12 years old to someone else and it is still running, we had purchased the John Deere because of the key start.
Lowes accept responsibility for John Deere's mistake and replaced the lawn mower this past week. We bought a John Deere to support the US economy, wanting to do the right thing. But they need to live up to their end of the deal and be good corporate citizens and stand behind their products, buying a lawn mower is a significant investment for many people but the cavalier attitude their customer service made me feel that they didn't value that I chose to to buy one of their products and wasn't getting the value I deserved.
