Buying Advice Ferris IS700 Mower-Not Worth the Money

[geehaw]

Poor cutting deck!! (I tried to post this exact info on the Ferris Factory site and it was turned down as containing inappropriate language)
I purchased this mower in March, 2017 and I had run it for 27 hours and have had the deck belt come off two times. The second time I researched the problem and found that this has been a problem for several years and Ferris was still building this mower with the same problem. This time my dealer replaced all the pulleys with different ones from the manufacturer, all under warranty. Why would Ferris continue to put out mowers with this problem after that became aware that there was a problem? And why not recall this mower for modification before it breaks down? This to me shows that Ferris will put out a product that has a defect even though they are aware of the problem. In my case I am out of $140 that I had to pay to have my lawn cut while my $6000 mower was in the shop waiting for parts from Ferris.

Save your money!!

 

[Jeanine.]

Check out my post on the defect in the front suspension system. Customer service told us that we were experiencing "very unusual" issues with the wheels busting off. But they gave the dealer a much different story. Apparently, they are aware of a defect in the hubs and the tires but Ferris is not taking proactive steps to correct these safety issues.

 

[geehaw]

Thanks for the tip on the front wheels. I will question the dealer on this when I see him. I know him personally and it will be interesting to see what he has to say.

 

[greenguy]

Sometime late last summer, the belt jumped off my new IS2100Z. I assumed a stick or something contributed to this. Put belt back on and continued to mow. Fast forward to this summer, cleaning deck after mowing, noticed a cut in the belt, removed belt, also found large chunk missing. Called dealer,said belts are a normal wear item!!!!! It has 132 hrs., my John Deere X720SE has over 600hrs. w/ no belt issues! Contacted the warranty guy @ the dealer, said it looks like rodents chewed the belt(there are no teeth marks and it is kept in my garage). Contacted Ferris via email, no response. The problem is, when mowing fast(that is what they are designed to do), objects get thrown onto the deck and into the belt. I didn't design it or build it, so who is responsible????

 

[geehaw]

My guess-based on my experience with Ferris-is that they will not stand behind their product. Notice in my first post they would not, after several amendments of wording by me, post my review on their website. The factory knows fully their problems but turns a blind eye. Having a personal relationship with my dealer has been a great help to me, but I would not buy Ferris again.

 

[yvesbigras]

Worst unit I have ever owned and worst customer service and warranty I have experienced and its not even close. Brand new 2022 bought last year. I put 14 hours on it stored it in my heated garage over winter, and transaxle failed on it in the spring on first start up. 6 weeks later its still in the shop as apparently they are having an issue sourcing the part needed. Do yourself a favor buy a Deere or a Kubota

 

[Hammermechanicman]

You do realize Ferris is owned by Briggs & Stratton!

I have a 10 year old IS3100Z with the 36hp engine. It has been a great mower with very few problems.

 

[yvesbigras]

I do realize that, which makes it all the more deplorable. Perhaps Briggs and Stratton values it's US business, but they got rid of every single one of the market reps in Canada last year, ( I know as I tried to contact them) so now you're left with the dealer. The minute this POS gets out of the shop I'm bringing it to my local Kubota and Deere dealer and the one that gives the most for it on a trade is where it's going. If you're a manufacturer and your 6 weeks out on a part that brings your machine down, you should get out of the business as you're embarrassing yourself, you buy a lawnmower to cut the grass, now to plow snow, taking 6 weeks to fix anything is lunacy.

 

[slomo]

I do realize that, which makes it all the more deplorable. Perhaps Briggs and Stratton values it's US business, but they got rid of every single one of the market reps in Canada last year, ( I know as I tried to contact them) so now you're left with the dealer. The minute this POS gets out of the shop I'm bringing it to my local Kubota and Deere dealer and the one that gives the most for it on a trade is where it's going. If you're a manufacturer and your 6 weeks out on a part that brings your machine down, you should get out of the business as you're embarrassing yourself, you buy a lawnmower to cut the grass, now to plow snow, taking 6 weeks to fix anything is lunacy.

If your mower didn't have any issues you would be praising it every day. But come on here and whine about most of your issues being operator contributed. A mower, sitting in a heated garage, does not have any issues. UNTIL someone climbs on board and starts to mow.

Yes belts are wear items. Pulleys are wear items. Bearings are wear items. And this 7 year old post is wearing me out.

Fix your mower and move on with life. Should be easy to do with 7 years of parts upgrades now.

Same old guns kill people and lets outlaw all guns. No it's the human idiots BEHIND the guns doing the killing. Guns have ZERO to do with any killing. Think about it.

 

[yvesbigras]

If your mower didn't have any issues you would be praising it every day. But come on here and whine about most of your issues being operator contributed. A mower, sitting in a heated garage, does not have any issues. UNTIL someone climbs on board and starts to mow.

Yes belts are wear items. Pulleys are wear items. Bearings are wear items. And this 7 year old post is wearing me out.

Fix your mower and move on with life. Should be easy to do with 7 years of parts upgrades now.

Same old guns kill people and lets outlaw all guns. No it's the human idiots BEHIND the guns doing the killing. Guns have ZERO to do with any killing. Think about it.

"Fix your mower and move on with life. Should be easy to do with 7 years of parts upgrades now." completely agree it should be easy, but apparently Ferris' definition of easy is 6 weeks and counting. If the thing would have been fixed in 3 to 4 weeks I likely wouldn't have had an issue. It's important anyone thinking of buying a Ferris and doing some research on it hear from not just those that are happy. When the mower was actually working, yep it was good, but the quality of a manufacturer is not on how they handle business when things work...but how they handle their business when their equipment breaks down. I wish you continued great mowing with your Ferris, personally I'm not going to take a chance that this things breaks down again and I have a wheat field growing in my yard because of it again, I'll stick to Manu's that actually take sourcing and stocking parts seriously going forward.