Export thread

I am dealing with a PITA of customer this week. He is a penny pincher that getting extreme. He is complaining because he spent $400 on his newly acquired CC HDS2185. Last year I rebuilt the carburetor, new deck belts, and rebuilt the center spindle. I would have rebuilt all three spindles but he was griping about the costs. I should have known back then he was going to a pain. Fast forward to this year. He brings in the mower for deck noise. RH spindle had failed due water entering the spindle. Well I finally got to it last week. Rebuilt the spindle and attempted to test the repairs. When the jerk had drain all the fuel out of the mower so I had to add a gallon to get it running. Well it failed the test cut because it was running on one cylinder. When I check it out I find mouse damages. Pictures below. He called in yesterday. I explained the delay and he was pissed that it was going to cost another $225 to this year's repairs. He was not even wanting to pay for the gas I put in the mower, instead wanting me to drain it out. He finally gave in wants me to complete the repairs. Well I will and bill just for the parts as he thinks it only takes 30 minutes to pull, repair, and reinstall the engine. It took an hour just to get it out.

Once these repairs are done, I am done with this customer. No further work will be done for him. He acted like I was trying to cheat when I was already giving away some my time. I cant put with a penny pincher that tries to tell me how to do things. IF he knows so much about it, he should be doing his own work.

Plug wire completely chewed off and kill chewed heavily. #1 Cylinder


Mouse damage on #2 cylinder and wiring harness. Even the coil have been chewed on.

Really surprised the thing didn't short out as those wires are ground and hot next each other.

Then there was mouse bed around both cylinders.

Yep...seen it several times.....that and have taken shrouds off and seen 3-4 mice "mummyfied" after being slung around at some point when they tried to ride the 'Flywheel" when engine was started!

This is why I always call the customer first if costs are going to run over push mower repairs over $150 and tractors over $200. Explain what I’ve found and I may find other things wrong. I try to find out if they had any other concerns. They decide how they want to proceed. It does take time to do this, but has saved my butt many times. Even do this to my best customers. Better to ask a dumb question than make a stupid mistake.

He approved last year's repairs. It not my fault mice got into the engine over the winter months. This repair would have been around $200 with both items being fixed. But I am just going write both my time and the customer.

I have put enough BS this year out of my customers, the vendors, and my doctor. They are all getting fired.