How to you bypass the safety switch under the seat?

Any service shop I ever worked for the service writer make up a repair order. You repair whats on the order and if more work is needed you contact the service writer and they contact the customer. Just never got involved with all this safety business you keep talking about ??? Maybe they do this different in small shops? Looks like a good way to crank the customer off so they don't keep coming back to bother you with their repairs.

reynoldston said:

Any service shop I ever worked for the service writer make up a repair order. You repair whats on the order and if more work is needed you contact the service writer and they contact the customer. Just never got involved with all this safety business you keep talking about ??? Maybe they do this different in small shops? Looks like a good way to crank the customer off so they don't keep coming back to bother you with their repairs.

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^^^this is what i have seen as well...the other situation is kind of like if you go to jiffy lube for an oil change and they want to change your air filter for $40, windshield wipers for $30, etc...so you want to charge me a stupid price for something i could do myself for $15 and 5 minutes...or better yet just blow out with an air compressor and go for another couple oil changes for free...not exactly the techs fault but the people who run jiffy lube...that makes you mad and doesn't make you want to go back there for anything...if i go to a lawn mower shop and tell them to do something...i want that thing done and that's it...they can tell me about other stuff and i would naturally refuse it...but if they were to ever say we did some extra safety item work (or any kind of work really) that i didn't ask for and didn't agree to and wanted to charge me an extra $50 labor and parts for it i would say thanks for the free work cause i didn't ask for that and i'm not paying for that portion...they can't refuse to give you your property back...this is why they call and you can refuse no matter if it's a safety item or not...but they can just tell you the work took longer and add that expense into the labor cost...this is why i try to do my own repairs

Point37 said:

^^^this is what i have seen as well...the other situation is kind of like if you go to jiffy lube for an oil change and they want to change your air filter for $40, windshield wipers for $30, etc...so you want to charge me a stupid price for something i could do myself for $15 and 5 minutes...or better yet just blow out with an air compressor and go for another couple oil changes for free...not exactly the techs fault but the people who run jiffy lube...that makes you mad and doesn't make you want to go back there for anything...if i go to a lawn mower shop and tell them to do something...i want that thing done and that's it...they can tell me about other stuff and i would naturally refuse it...but if they were to ever say we did some extra safety item work (or any kind of work really) that i didn't ask for and didn't agree to and wanted to charge me an extra $50 labor and parts for it i would say thanks for the free work cause i didn't ask for that and i'm not paying for that portion...they can't refuse to give you your property back...this is why they call and you can refuse no matter if it's a safety item or not...but they can just tell you the work took longer and add that expense into the labor cost...this is why i try to do my own repairs

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There is nothing wrong with a honest service shop. Many people don't have the tools, skills or care about getting their hands dirty to do there own repairs. This is how I made a living all my working life. As a mechanic you always try to sell work that is needed.

I never said the laws pertain to the homeowner or consumer, they apply to the business. I can tell that you have never owned or operated a business or have had to purchase insurance to cover you working on other people’s property. It is expensive, but an evil necessity. It also includes what you must do to avoid voiding a claim. OSHA rules are considered laws which you must abide by. Yes, safety decals should be replaced, but very few businesses do that. I think I can count on one hand the number of customers lost at any of the shops I have worked at in the last 40 years. The company I currently work for is a family owned business and has been here for more than 65 years and we have sales of over $700,000 the last three years. These rules have not hurt us, because our customers know they are dealing with honest people who are looking out for them. Our repeat business makes up for over 50% of our sales each year and that does not include more than enough service work to keep four techs busy an average of 45 hours a week each. With that I think we are doing thing right. You can do and believe what you want, I’m just telling you what we are obligated to do.

Yep,
Rivits has it down pat.
My public liability insurance is the single biggest cost .
It is 3% of my annual turnover or $ 4500 which ever is the highest.
Sounds very expensive, but they cover all legal costs and you wont get much of a mouth in front of a beak for $ 4000 down here.
That gives me $ 200,000,000 of cover.
If I had a workshop with employee mechanics that figure has an addition cost on a per mechanic basis.

There was a retail shop & workshop about 5 miles away, family business & good profit but he sent out a mower with no discharge chute cover and a non functional seat switch.
The customer loaned his mower to his neighbour who got off to open a gate, slipped, put his foot into the open deck chute and I don't need to tell you the rest of the storey.

OH&S prosecuted the mower owner for operating a dangerous machine & failing to have the mandated safety warnings on the machine .He lost his farm over it. Small people are easy targets and ministers like to sprout X number of successful prosecutions to prove they are doing a good job.

The insurance company covered the shops cost , the medicals & compensation for the farmer who lost his leg.
Then they sought to recover cost from the mower shop owner for "conrtributory neglegence".
They sold his business, the land it sat on & his home, His wife left him and being over 70, broke & homeless, he applied the 12 bore solution.
This was before my time, but I was curious about what happened to his shop cause about 1/3 of my customers have one of his tags on their mowers.
So loosing a customer or two is no big worry to me, 100 good customers is a lot better than 200 customer who expect me to jepodise my future cause they are too bone lazy to put a brake on before they get off their mower.
I am increasing my customer base all the time because I treat them with respect and take the time to explain what is going on, much like I do with my posts here.
Customers appreciate this, particularly women who account for about 75% of my work as most mechanics treat them like idiots.
There are a lot more widows and old spinsters around here who are happy to pay me $ 15 to put the chain back on their chainsaw or pop the deck back on their mower.
And funny enough, most of them ask me to fix the seat switch that their husband went to great lengths to disable.

reynoldston said:

There is nothing wrong with a honest service shop. Many people don't have the tools, skills or care about getting their hands dirty to do there own repairs. This is how I made a living all my working life. As a mechanic you always try to sell work that is needed.

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i understand selling work is part of the job...but a shop that tries to sell work at a crazy price or does the work and wants to charge you for it without first talking to you is dishonest and won't get my business...which is why i bought my mower from a family owned store which values repeat customers

Rivets said:

I never said the laws pertain to the homeowner or consumer, they apply to the business. I can tell that you have never owned or operated a business or have had to purchase insurance to cover you working on other people’s property. It is expensive, but an evil necessity. It also includes what you must do to avoid voiding a claim. OSHA rules are considered laws which you must abide by. Yes, safety decals should be replaced, but very few businesses do that. I think I can count on one hand the number of customers lost at any of the shops I have worked at in the last 40 years. The company I currently work for is a family owned business and has been here for more than 65 years and we have sales of over $700,000 the last three years. These rules have not hurt us, because our customers know they are dealing with honest people who are looking out for them. Our repeat business makes up for over 50% of our sales each year and that does not include more than enough service work to keep four techs busy an average of 45 hours a week each. With that I think we are doing thing right. You can do and believe what you want, I’m just telling you what we are obligated to do.

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that's what i'm asking about is this situation in particular...i'm not talking about a business...i can't find a law that i would be violating as a homeowner/consumer by disabling a safety seat kill switch on a riding lawnmower...if there is no law saying it's illegal then it's not illegal

Point37 said:

i understand selling work is part of the job...but a shop that tries to sell work at a crazy price or does the work and wants to charge you for it without first talking to you is dishonest and won't get my business...which is why i bought my mower from a family owned store which values repeat customers



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To sell the work its the service writers job to sell it to the customer not the mechanic's. As far as cost go's it depends on how the shop pays the mechanic. I have worked in both type of shops, one charges by the job and the other charges by the hour. Personally I would stay away from the shops that charge by the job because the mechanics are always trying to get the job done fast and sloppy so they can make more money, called a flat rate shop. This also makes for dishonest work. It also depends on if that bolt that is giving you a hard go's in the garbage (flat rate) or job done right (hourly shop). Yes it is expensive having work done at any large shop because of a large overhead they have. You will also find that the large shops that service is their secondary means of making money and sales is the primary means. I have been told by management they would do away with the service part of the business if they could but they can't.

that's what i'm asking about is this situation in particular...i'm not talking about a business...i can't find a law that i would be violating as a homeowner/consumer by disabling a safety seat kill switch on a riding lawnmower...if there is no law saying it's illegal then it's not illegal

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You will find that what is illegal for a shop to do is also illegal for the home owner to do.
There is a term for this extension of the coverage of an act but it does not come to mind right now.
The only difference is there is a department who can & does investigate workshops where as they do not extend this to private households, until some one is injured or makes an insurance claim.
Consumer law is universal because it applies to the item, not the person using or repairing it.
You might like to have a chat to your household insurance provider and ask them what would happen if you loaned some one a mower that you had bypassed the safety switches on & they injured themselves, some one else or property. Then ask the same about your own family .
The word "propriater" also applies to home owners equally as much as it does to shop owners.
LAw is not simple and that is why we need lawers to interperate it.

Down here when you buy a new mower there will be no key in it.
The keys will be sealed inside the owners manual or a safety manual which you have to cut open to get the keys.
Thus all safety requirements have then been transferred to the owner.
If you just cut it and pulled the key out without reading the manual that is your fault, not the product makers or distributors fault as far as the law down here is concerned.