More than a year and a half ago, I took my mower to Harry Beatty, the owner of Your Number 1 Mowers, for it's yearly spring service. All I wanted was for him to tune up my antique Cub Cadet mower. Harry convinced that the bearings on the mower's deck were worn out and needed to be replaced.
Well two years later I am still without a mower. I've been paying someone eighty five dollars a month to cut my grass, and I even gave Mr. Beatty three hundred dollars to get parts that were never delivered.
It seems that Harry tuned up the mower and then took the mowing deck apart without first checking into parts availability. A week after he came to my home to get my mower I had heard nothing from him. Two weeks later and still no tractor or updates.
I finally called him the third week and was advised that he was having trouble locating the parts for the mowing deck because there were no local Cub Cadet dealers. He advised mr that it cost a lot of money to become a Cub dealer.
The fourth week Harry contacted me and told me that he'd need $300.00, up front, because the three mowing deck bearings were "so expensive." He said that he couldn't afford to purchase them because he was "waiting to get paid on a lot of previous jobs.
At this point I asked him to put the deck back together and bring the tractor back as is. He told me he couldn't because he had thrown the bearings out. I should've known and should've picked the tractor up myself; but like an idiot I went and gave the man $300.00 on my credit card. He promised to have the mower back in a week or so.
One week passed, two weeks passed, and a month passsed, still no tractor. I called Harry back and he told me that he was still having trouble getting the parts to complete the tuneup / repairs. At that point I started calling him every other week for several months and was given the same song and dance each time.
After a year or more of weekly calls I finally went down to what Harry called his "shop." I was expecting an actual business with four walls and a roof. What I found was three to four semi-trailer like storage containers surrounded by what looked like a lawnmower graveyard. Among this graveyard, out in the Florida elements, was my once impeccable antique Cub Cadet Tractor. It was rusted and covered in dirt and spider webs.
There were three men sitting around a table at the "shop" drinking beer at 2 in the afternoon. I asked where Harry was but he wasn't there. I was told that he was delivering a tractor. They took a message for him but Harry never returned the call.
After I visited the shop, Harry seemed to "disappear" for a few weeks. When I finally was able to discuss the current condition of my tractor, he promised to repaint it and repair it as soon as possible. I continued to call weekly and was given the same song, dance, and excuses.
Now more than two years later I'm still sitting here without a tractor, paying for lawn service, and with nothing to show for the three hundred dollars I put forward for parts that have yet to be delivered.
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