i think someone on here mentioned that dealers get $50 from hustler for doing warranty work on lowes bought machines.When I decided to finally buy a ZTR, and ultimately narrowed my choice to Hustler, I discovered that Lowes and Home Depot were now carrying them. So I went down on a Saturday afternoon to my local Lowes to check them out. I had the Raptor 52 in mind, and it was advertised on the website stocked at my location. When I got to the store, I saw none. I found this late teen at the desk, and had him check for me. He said none were in stock at all.... I insisted their website said otherwise, and pulled it up on my phone to show him. He calls someone else and tells me they have one but it has to be assembled, it will be out in 15 minutes. An hour later, I'm still waiting. Asked to see a manager and was led to a guy who was outside trying to remove a bolt he had cross threaded from one of the lap bars. He was a nice enough guy, but just not one to turn a wrench. I began to ask him about future service and he informed me twice that service was available from our local dealer in town, under warranty. This guy was a manager, by the way.
I was well aware of the 30 day return policy on power equipment from Lowes so I figured what do I have to lose so I pulled the trigger on it. Fast forward one week and I stop by my local dealer just to see what they have to say about parts, service, etc. They told me flat out they would not lay a finger on it, and that was under Hustler's orders. I asked who services the Hustler mowers from lowes and it turns out they ship them to Arkansas (at least from here) and the process takes days to weeks. He offered me a Raptor Limited for the exact same price out the door as my regular Raptor, but I was eyeing the SD's anyway, and ended up taking a SD54 home. Of course my raptor was returned to Lowes and I had a lengthy talk with another manager which likely did no good. I had no trouble with the return process, I might has well been returning a wrench.
So just my 2 cents....go with a dealer if at all possible.....Yes it is the same mower, but it ends there.
There are no differences in the product between the Box Store and the Dealer. But I think it would be a big mistake on your part to buy it in the crate and put it together yourself even if they would let you do it which I doubt they would. From what I understand a certified dealer puts the unit together and therefore would have some commitment I would think if there was a warranty problem that arose. Otherwise if you were to put it together and there was an internal problem with an engine or a hydro or who-knows-what that wouldn't be related to your putting it together somebody might blame you for the situation. And most box stores will give a 30-day pretty much no question return on things like that and why risk losing that by doing it yourself? As far as the dealer matching what the store does with the military discount I would not expect a whole lot out of that. Usually the products that are sold in both places have little margin and the dealer does not have a whole lot of room to Dicker unless he's way over stocked or has another reason to do it. It's very nice of the big box stores to give the military discount and it's hard to blame you for taking advantage of it but it's a little unfair for the dealer at the same time. It's also too bad your dealer seems like kind of a lost in time place.
It goes like this.
The local shop pays around 30% more for the mower than Lowes and he gets them on somewhere from 60 to 120 days credit after which he has to pay for them.
This is why you get sudden, 1 shop only special deals for a limited time on a specific few machines.
Lowes then sell the same mower for a price that is 10% cheaper than the dealer but at a substantial higher profit level.
Add to that Lowes do no pay $ 1000 to send a mechanic off 2 times a year for training, they do not have to pay rent on 1000 sq ft of service space nor carry a large stock of special tools & parts nor pay expensive compensation insurance on their mechanics and public liability on the work they do not do.
So they are creaming off all the profits at little cost and most times they do not have to pay Hustler a cent till 30 days after you have paid for it.
Then warranty work is done by scheduled service times, according to Hustler ( and every other company ) .
These times are what it takes a factory trained mechanic to do a predefined job in a spacious workshop with every special service tool available on a brand new never used machine with no interuptions or distractions, working at a sweat raising pace.
In most cases this is less than the time it takes the dealer to clean a used machine , let alone work out what is actually wrong so it will cost the dealer 2 to 3 times more to do the warranty work on a customers mower than the factory will pay them.
Or to put is simply, the dealer looses money doing warranty services. Then in most cases the "payment" when it finally comes through will be in the form of a purchase credit and generally during the off season when the dealer is not purchasing much.
So when some one walks in the door with a mower the dealer did not sell so made no money on, then expects them to smile & be happy to loose more money fixing a mower for some one who proverbially spat in their face, they don't get the most favourable treatment.
Most shops will accept a warranty job and it will sit there till the mechanics have nothing to do and be used as a loss limiter.
The sole exception to this was Sears who actually did the high cost servicing and Sears went broke
When I decided to finally buy a ZTR, and ultimately narrowed my choice to Hustler, I discovered that Lowes and Home Depot were now carrying them. So I went down on a Saturday afternoon to my local Lowes to check them out. I had the Raptor 52 in mind, and it was advertised on the website stocked at my location. When I got to the store, I saw none. I found this late teen at the desk, and had him check for me. He said none were in stock at all.... I insisted their website said otherwise, and pulled it up on my phone to show him. He calls someone else and tells me they have one but it has to be assembled, it will be out in 15 minutes. An hour later, I'm still waiting. Asked to see a manager and was led to a guy who was outside trying to remove a bolt he had cross threaded from one of the lap bars. He was a nice enough guy, but just not one to turn a wrench. I began to ask him about future service and he informed me twice that service was available from our local dealer in town, under warranty. This guy was a manager, by the way.
I was well aware of the 30 day return policy on power equipment from Lowes so I figured what do I have to lose so I pulled the trigger on it. Fast forward one week and I stop by my local dealer just to see what they have to say about parts, service, etc. They told me flat out they would not lay a finger on it, and that was under Hustler's orders. I asked who services the Hustler mowers from lowes and it turns out they ship them to Arkansas (at least from here) and the process takes days to weeks. He offered me a Raptor Limited for the exact same price out the door as my regular Raptor, but I was eyeing the SD's anyway, and ended up taking a SD54 home. Of course my raptor was returned to Lowes and I had a lengthy talk with another manager which likely did no good. I had no trouble with the return process, I might has well been returning a wrench.
So just my 2 cents....go with a dealer if at all possible.....Yes it is the same mower, but it ends there.