When I first moved in a family memeber gave me an old electric mower they had. It worked great for about a year then while I was cutting the grass the motor went. It was a neat sight with the smoke and the ozone smell as the motor fried its self.

Any way. I had to buy a new mower. I went bought a mower which came with a one year warranty and I paid for the extended three year warranty. Things were good.

Nine months into owning the mower the grass rack broke. The metal welding of a joint broke while I was taking a full bag off the mower.

Darn….

Well wait I got two warentees on it so I called up the number. Got a hold of the person and expaliend the problem. They come back to me saying I need to take it to the store I bougth it from for them to look at the mower, they wanted the whole mower not just the bag. So got off the phone and before I go and drag everything to the store I called the store direct. I expaliend the problem and they told me that the bag is not a moving part and since it is not a moving part the warranty would not be convered. WHAT? I have two warranties and neither will cover the bag? Your kidding right? The guy told me to call the 800 number and talk to the warentee people who already has told me to take the entire mower and bag to the shop.

What the heck is going on?

So at this point called the 800 number and had a open ticket that they could look up and so on. At this point talked to the person on the phone, expaleind everything up to this point and they come back and said I didn’t guy the bag with the mower so it wasn’t covered. What? I told them look when I opened the box for the mower it had the bag with it. I did not buy it seprately. I would not have paid an extra 60 for the bag when it came with a bag. I already spent almost 500$ for the mower to begin with. So again I had the serail number and the part number that needed replace I gave her the transaction number off the sales receipt and told her look it up and she would see that I didn’t buy a bag with the mower and if she actually looked at the packaging of the product she would see that the bag came with it. I looked it up on their website to get the exact item number I bought. All though this I kept saying I couldn’t beleive that even with two warranties I couldn’t beleive this was not covered.

At one point I asked to speak to a manager. They were put on and I expaliend yet again what happened and everything that happened up to this point. Remember this is person number four that I’ve now talked to. Sometimes it really seems like some companies just want to run you down. They know that there is a certian point where a person gives up on trying. I have a very thick head and when I think I’m in the right I have no limits until I’ve been shown I’m wrong, at which point I thank the person and stop since, that’s it.

So. I explained that if they are not going to either show me exactly where it says this part is not covered in any of their warrentee paperwork that I would have to return the mower since they can not show me in writing. You see they can tell me what is covered but they can’t show me what is not? It’s not like there are billions of parts, and besides there has to be something writen down  somewhere that tells them what is covered. Right? How else do they train people, word of mouth. So show me the paper work. They couldn’t. So if they can’t show what was agreed to then who is to say I’m right, who is it to say their right?

So after the nice talk to the manager they verified my address and sent me a new grass bag catcher.

When talking to the people that you have the warranty though I do the following:

1) Never get upset.

2) Always ask for clerification, even if you understand what they are saying.

3) If they turn you down always ask for their answer in writing for your records. You want to know the person’s name, employee number and on the company stationary the reason for the decline in the warrentee. I have to tell you the look on the persons face is priceless when I ask for this, or to have them fax it or email it.

If they do not want to do any of the items above items it’s up to you, you could still walk away. But if they refuse to put anything in writing be aware that there may be something they are not telling you. That something may be the fact that they should cover it and putting it in writing that they will not cover it can get them in hot water if you decide to call the manager or even the owner of the company or if it’s dealership the main company that they are a franchise of.

I ALWAYS get everything in writing when dealing with things like this. The best part is that if they refuse to put it in writing I ask them to put in writing why they are not going to put it in writing. That always gives the strangest looks. Of course I don’t expect it but still. So when they refuse I put it in writing and sign and date it for my records.

Also be smart as to what and how the wording is done also on what they give you. Ask question on what there definition of things are. I’m serious.