My problem is the mower simply quits while mowing. Now I've been mowing for 40 years, I know what I'm doing, and I have read all 3 manuals for the dixie chopper silver eagle cover to cover. The mower simply quits while mowing, I'm not running it too fast or anything like that. Usually on a planned restart, there's no need to choke the engine (Generac 24 hp). The first two times it quit and it would not restart (it quit a total of 4 times within the first 9 hours of operation), I tried everything, including choking a hot engine, no luck. At that point, the local small town dealer (whom I've dealt with for several years) replaced the mercury switch (tilt switch), and checked the wire routing (apparently there where issues with the way the wires were routed on some mowers). The mower again quit twice at approximately 25 hours. In these cases, after 4 or 5 attempts to restart, if I choke the heck out of the mower, it'll sputter and cough and eventually run fine. Each time I checked that I had plenty of gas. The local dealer hauled it in (they gave me a loaner, it's raining like crazy around here), I told him I also had had problems with the left control handle, you need to put them all the way out before engaging the parking brake, but it would still die when I went to get off it (blade had been stopped). If I repositioned the left handle, then it worked as designed. This time around, they replaced the fuel solenoid (the local service guy said he had heard of problems with them, he said the solenoid was there to prevent backfiring, I told him it's always backfired when I throttle it down and let it idle, after turning the engine off, it always backfires once). I trust the local dealer, I have my mower back and tonight it worked fine, but really makes me wonder if I can depend on it. I payed a premium price for a mower that's crowed about how reliable it is, but here I am, nearly out of warrantee, and not sure it'll keep going. I'd be cranked off if this was a brand new $1500 Sears mower and it quit this many times, but a $5000 mower that fails like this, and the manufacturer hides behind the dealer, that's just not right. It obviously is a manufacturing problem, and they need to at least reply. I've also been told there's a 2 year warrantee on this thing, but all I can find in the manual is a 1 year warrantee. If it's 2 years, that also needs to be in WRITING, considering my experience with this company so far.

Having dealt with the public for decades I doubt quite highly that any of the comments you made would have pacified this customer. She wanted the store to have the item, period. She was going to complain about not getting it. Period. Having a "subject to availability" or any such disclaimer would have made no difference because she wanted it and that was it. Common sense tells people that that's a situation where they could be out of stock. But people with the "customer is always right" attitude don't use common sense. They feel they're more important than anyone else and can order store employees to violate company policy to satisfy them. Some people don't feel they should be subject to rules. Being rude to the store manager as this woman was, simply put was out of line. Shame on her. She should be sent to bed without her supper, grounded, given a "time out" or any other such treatment. When will these people learn that the manager doesn't set the rules. He's there to *enforce* the rules. Gee, is that really that hard to understand? If she handled the situation properly she would have contacted the corporate office after first being told he has no say on it, but NO, she wasn't going to do that, she expected special treatment. And she was going to try to make life miserable for an employee thinking that they'll give in just for "customer service" and in reality she only made herself look like a total fool. They she's likely to go home crying "bad customer service", when the employees can go home laughing about an unreasonable and childish customer. This woman's attitude is classic spoiled brat customer action. You see this all the time. And they generally do the same thing. ACT friendly... at first. Put what they think is a jovial, light sing-song in the voice (which most people with a couple weeks experience can see through, knowing what's coming next!) simply to try to get what they want. It's no different than a spoiled brat kid saying "I want a cookie". They're told they can't have what they want (Like telling the young brat we're out of cookies.) then they start getting louder and stamp their feet at times to a flat out fist pounding temper tantrum (just like the kid on the floor "I WANT IT, I WANT IT, I WANT IT!!!!) Shouting, screaming and yes, even pretend crying can be included in both. The similarities are striking. These types of people should be subjected to the same treatment in their job sometime, it'd be interesting to see how they react. I'd gamble they'd go "CAN YOU BELIEVE WHAT THEY WANTED? LOL The staff could go ahead and say they agree with her or use other touchy-feely comments and but anyone who is pragmatic and any retail experience knows that it's not practical to try to assign someone to watch each item and go put OOS signs up and then take them down when stock is replenished. I've found that the bellyachers are big talkers but little doers. One of the first thing they spout is "I'll NEVER come back here again!!!!" Any retail employee is hard-pressed to refrain from splitting a gut when that happens. Contrary to what people want you to believe, it takes a lot for a customer to truly ban a store from their shopping armada. They shop certain stores for certain reasons. They put up with things. It's part of the shopping mentality. Lots of studies have been done. People will sit and wait in line, they'll pay more, they accept lower customer service, etc to get what they want and that's usually things like convenience, brand recognition and price, whether an actual savings or a perceived savings. When people *do* drop a store, with the exception of a small store, they'll usually be back within a few weeks to a couple months. "People want to be heard, and know that they are being taken care of." Some people do, but this woman wanted the world handed to her on a silver platter. She WAS heard. She was informed that the manager could do nothing about it but that wasn't good enough. She expected him to jeopardize his job to give her what she wanted. He had no right to do it and having to tell her THREE TIMES is stupid. That woman needs a reality check and she owes the store manager an apology. I wish I (or someone else with some sense) would have been there to explain the reality of life to her. People need to learn how to complain properly. If you have a complaint, fine, voice it. But voice it properly. When you find out you're talking to the wrong person they shouldn't have to tell you THREE TIMES that you're b!tching out the wrong person. "Abdocating blame seldom works under any circumstance." LOL Get real. Telling the truth is NOT abdicating blame! It's INFORMING the person that they have to go to the place where their unreasonable demands could stand any sort of chance of being granted. I will grant you that not everyone will realize that a corporate store has corporate policies. Again, common sense is not so common. BUT, when someone is told that they have no control over the situation and they keep on with their temper tantrum, they're not interested in voicing a grievance, they simply want to throw a temper tantrum like any other spoiled brat. Once the shrieking starts in a tantrum, it generally has to run its course, whether a 2 year old or an 80 year old. Customer service is getting less and less these days, I'll agree with that. But what so sorely needs teaching is consumer education and how to complain, and the more important thing is WHERE to complain. And the other thing they need to be taught is that the store will likely *not* go out of business even if the spoiled brat *does* take their business elsewhere. I haven't seen Michael's file bankruptcy yet because of this and I doubt I will. There is a part of business that there are some customers a store does not want. These are the types they don't want. They don't buy much, they complain about everything, trying to get a discount or other compensation (well I had a LILT in my voice and you didn't give me a new car as compensation!). They're far more like to use and abuse items then return it out of return policy expecting full cash refund.

The weird thing about my little milk table, from my great grandfather's farm In Iowa, it also had some rain damage and I had sent it to a woodworker in my town; I sent FedEx the bill, just asked them to replace the damage to the leg, NOT the finish, but the check they sent covered it all. It took MONTHS to get that final finish and leg (the wood was from Europe), but wow, what a beautiful piece of furniture. Wish they were still here, the owner was an executive that had retired and went into this out of love of good woods. I just love artisans who love their work!

Ours was three shorts and a long - Morse code for "V" ... which was, as begun by Churchill in World War II ... "V" for "Victory"! Yes ... folks used to listen in. Dad was calling Mom, years ago, before they were hitched, and Mom said that she could hardly hear (sometimes it became so when there were others on the line) ... ... and Dad said that it was probably because Mrs. XXX was listening ... that she'd better check her soup or it'd boil dry. There was a snort on the line ... and a click ... so Dad figured that he'd got that one right. Mrs. XXX had a bit of a reputation for being up on the latest gossip ... ahem, news of the goings-on in the community. ole joyful