Working My Way Up The Lawn Mower Food Chain

 Working My Way Up The Lawn Mower Food Chain

By

Stu Cassell

When we both lost our jobs in 2009 and couldn’t find comparable new ones we decided to try something different and purchased a bed and breakfast in Florida.  The seller said he had a lawn mower so I left mine back in St. Louis for the purchasers of our house there.

The house was on two and a half lots, which is to say it’s one big mother.  The first time I tried to mow I discovered that while the lawn mower I left was self-propelled, this one was not.  Being over sixty, after just ten minutes in the hot Florida sun pushing this mower I was exhausted.  This just would not do. 

A new friend gave me the name of a young man who had a small landscaping company and I called him and he offered to cut our lawn for one flat monthly fee of $165.00.  At the time we thought our bed and breakfast was going to be busier than it turned out, so I agreed. 

It didn’t rain much, and Carlos was only coming twice a month to cut the grass and edge.  I decided we really couldn’t afford to have a “gardener” at our current income level.  I rationalized at the rate Carlos was charging, if I bought a pretty good self-propelled lawn mower and cut the grass myself. “within 3 months it would pay for itself.”

The Ascent Up The Mower Food Chain Begins

I sold the little “toy” mower I had on Craigslist and  ordered a self-propelled mower on line from Home Depot.  It cost me just under $300.   It worked great for three weeks.  Then it wouldn’t start.  I went back on line and read through the reviews, and now in addition to the ones I first saw when selecting this model, there were two that stated they had difficulties after 3 or 4 cuts getting the mower to start.  Yikes!

I decided if I could get the new mower in the trunk of my car I was going to return it to my local Home Depot.  It just barely fit, but I was able to transport it back to Home Depot and they were very nice about my returning it.

Why Not Get A Riding Mower?

Now I was in this mindset where by using Carlos as my baseline, I could justify an even bigger purchase.  If he charged $165 a month to cut our lawn, it would only take me a little over 4 months to save what the smallest riding mower cost at $699.  That was the case I presented to my wife.  To my amazement she agreed and once again I got on line and ordered the next mower from Home Depot.  The reason I kept going on line was because I don’t own a truck, and delivery was free on this mower.

When the mower arrived it came on a pallet and the delivery driver and I pushed it up the incline of my driveway and into our yard.  I unpacked it and found I needed to assemble the steering column, wheel, and the seat.  Not a major problem, and done within about twenty minutes.  With my wife’s help, we got the mower off the pallet and I filled the tank with gasoline and started it up.

There was a learning curve and I hit a tree or two, the fence, a wall, but ultimately mastered tooling around the lot on it.  The only problem was because I had bounced it off of several immovable objects, the tires all went flat.  I was able to fix them all with tire sealer, which in fact the manufacturer recommended in the owner’s manual to prevent leaks and dry rot.

I had cut the lawn four times and was on my fifth when I ran over a small rut in the lawn.  The front wheels turned violently perpendicular to the axle, and because I was gripping the steering wheel fairly tight, a plastic adapter cracked.  Suddenly, I had no steering!  I narrowly avoided hitting a tree head on.

I called up the manufacturer, and the man I spoke with said he would send me a new adapter at no charge.  I told him that I thought they should have made that part out of metal, and not plastic, and he agreed.  He said the part would arrive in about a week.

A week went by and the part didn’t arrive.  I called the manufacturer again and this time talked to someone else.  The gentleman was quite candid.  First, he informed me that he had no record of the part being ordered for me.  Secondly, he said that particular part was out of stock on backorder.  Last, and most importantly, he told me that 280 other people were waiting for that part.  Double YIKES! 

I concluded that this was an engineering defect, and felt the mower should be recalled.  Someone could get hurt; I almost did.

Good Old Carlos To The Rescue

After talking it over with my wife, we decided if I was going to use a riding lawn mower, I needed to get a good one, not a cheap one that put my life in danger.  Using the Carlos base formula of saving $165 a month, I reasoned I could buy a bigger and better riding lawn mower for about $1000, and have it “paid off” in approximately 6 months.

This time I couldn’t take the mower back to Home Depot in the trunk of my car, so I called up Carlos and arranged to hire him to bring over his trailer and help me take the riding mower to Home Depot and wait for me to buy another one, that we would bring back home.   We decided to do this on Saturday at 9:00 AM.

Carlos showed up on time and we slowly loaded the riding mower on to his trailer.  Every few feet I had to straighten the front wheels with my hands, as we could not steer it.  When we got to Home Depot I went inside with the paperwork to do the return.  While I was at Home Depot I saw a riding mower with a zero turn radius that was on sale.  It was marked down from $2300 to $1999.  I called up my wife and told her this was what I really wanted, and that I had just settled for each of the other ones because of price.

The Carlos Formula Works Again!

Using the Carlos base formula of $165 per month in “savings” I estimated at $1999 for the new riding mower, I could pay it off in about a year.  Quite a leap from the first self-propelled walk behind mower that would have been paid off in just a few months.

We got the new riding lawn mower home, and Carlos was kind enough to try it out for me and then teach me how to operate it.  It was fast and powerful, and unlike the cheaper riding mower did not require a complicated shifting process to change speeds or go into reverse.  All I had to do was pull a lever on each side back to go in reverse.  I quickly learned how to turn using the levers, and how to get really close to objects in the yard without hitting them.

I decided to post a review of the riding mower that I had problems with and got on line and gave a detailed report.  I explained exactly what part was made out of plastic and quoted the man who told me 280 of those parts were on back order.  I ended my review with my opinion that a major recall should be down on that model.

A week later I received a telephone call from Home Depot’s corporate office.  The nice lady I spoke with reviewed my report.  I informed her I hadn’t given up on Home Depot and described my ascent up the lawn mower food chain.  I explained how I went from a $299 self-propelled lawn mower to a $1999 zero radius turning riding mower.

She told me that Home Depot appreciated my feedback as well as my loyalty to their store.  In appreciation she said they were sending me a $500 gift card!  Triple Yikes!

SWEET!

I received the card within a few days of her telephone call.  Meanwhile, I have cut my lawn 5 times with the latest riding mower and am happy to report I am completely satisfied with it, and have had no problems at all. 

According to my calculations, using the Carlos formula, I have just 10 and a half more months of lawn mowing before it has paid for itself.  My wife says she’s just happy I wasn’t in the market for a new car.