The Specialist in small engines

bertsmobile1 said:

:welcome:

Always good to have people who can on board.
I hope your general return figures you quoted are not correct, that level would not be tollerated down here.
Warranty repairs for me run at about 2% but then I have the luxury of being able to properly test everything before it goes back, in service.
So chain saws cut a cube of wood then get the blade touched up before return , push mowers cut a tank full of fuel & Ride ons generally 1 to 2 hours of mowing.
Does not do much good for ones reputation to have people continually bring tools back because they are not happy with them.

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The Specialist said:

My numbers are correct!! I have done this for 30 years and am a specialist in it!! All staff repairs have to go through my test before it is returned to the customer. I do in house training with the staff members all the time. I started at a shop here in the U.K. 3 weeks ago and at that time they had 400 machines to do and a 6-8 week waiting list. Needless to say, machines are now coming in and going straight on the bench and returned usually that day or the next!! We fix an average of 100 machines per week! If you have to do that much testing of your own work, then that tells me that you have questions about the quality of work that you are providing!! This is not to demean you, but I would check your process. As an example. A lawnmower comes in, We tear down the machine to the engine block. We remove the valves, and clean them. We clean the cylinder head and top of the piston. We reinstall the valves with the correct clearances. Carbs are taken apart and cleaned. Rewind starters get a new rope, new oil, spark plug and air filter. Once we get the engine block back together (putting the valves back in and the cylinder head on) we pressure wash the entire machine. We sharpen the blade. We then put it back together. Once we have the oil and fuel in, we start them and let the valves re-seat. This is usually a 5-10 minute run. This machine will now be good for a year or two!!

Warranty repairs, Yes that would be the industry standard at 2%, but manufactures do allow for this as it keeps their dealers happy!!

I assume that you are in the United States- I do not know the quality of your training colleges there, but here in the U.K. there are none as per say. There were at one time but the colleges closed them years ago that I am aware of. I have gone to some training courses by some manufactures, only to become the instructor 2 hours into the training course as the instructor that they had did not know what he/she was doing. John Deere in Grimsby Ontario Canada was a good example!!

If you are stuck on something, feel free to email me direct at dvata@yahoo.com.

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bertsmobile1 said:

Well what it says on the left side under my avatar is correct I am in Australia not the USA.
The repair run was bought in 2011 when I turned 60 and was considered too old to run the distribution warehouses so my contract was not renewed.
So yes I am not 100% all repairs have been done properly or I have diagnosed all of the faults and to make matters worse the person I bought the run off had been there for 35 years so was well known and being the "new boy" everything I did was suspect till people got to know me.
The type of rebuilds you do will not wash down here.
At $ 45 + parts for a push mower repair 3/4 of the people call me a thief then go out and buy a new mower from a big box for $ 150.
Just finished doing a chassis repair on a 1968 Victa Corvette which involved welding up the front height axels then filing them round again, replacing the 2 bushes, fabricating new axel clamps, welding the hole in the height adjuster and filing it round plus the same to the corrsponding pin, truing everything back up so the mower sits square on its wheels, replacing the wheel bushes then a test cut.
Customer complained at the $ 60 bill.
If the UK does a full Brexit and you become fully exposed to cheap Chinese imports, you might fine the market changes quite drastically.
When I started , the cheapest "no name" supermarket mower was $ 250, now they are down to $ 150.
Cheapest tractor style mower was $ 5000 now Chinese 42" ride ons with Chinese made 21Hp Kohlers are retailing for $ 1800 and last week the Stihl shop down the road had a $ 1499 special sign on the fence.


The figures I found hard to understand was not your return rate but the 30% rate you quoted as the industry norm ( 3 in 10 )

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The Specialist said:

Well sir! I do agree with you on a lot of those issues. The Brexit will not make that much of a change as the Chinese are already supplying most Box stores here and have done so for 20+ years. This is a consumer nation and it will continue to be as there is no real manufacturing going on here. We have Hayter and Mountfield, which, they are now getting factories in China to make the products. This whole nation has become a throw away society!! Im sure you are seeing the same thing there in the land of "down under" The main manufactures, you will note, are trying to cut costs to increase profitability, which most of the machines coming out now are just junk!!! They are also trying to keep the "backyard mechanic" out of the machines. Ie) Stihl and their M-tronic!! By the way, we have lawnmowers at the sheds for 99 Pounds sterling!!

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