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After some research found this out. Stens has switched from UPS to FedEx. There are actually two different FedEx shippers. FedEx Ground and FedEx Express. Ground ships by trucks and can take a week or more from ship to delivery. Express uses planes and still does overnight ship to deliver. The shipping cost difference on my last small order was a couple dollars. If you are ordering from Stens and need the parts quickly may want to spend a couple more dollars and ship FedEx Express vs. Ground.

Well I already knew that but me with one Stens warehouses here in Portland, TN even the ground service is overnight.

And yes FedEx Ground is a royal pain to deal with. I try to avoid them whenever I can just like I avoid USPS. The tracking is very lousy on both ground carriers.

When they were in indiana UPS to me in Ohio was overnight. And yes, Ground tracking is useless.

Hammermechanicman said:

When they were in indiana UPS to me in Ohio was overnight. And yes, Ground tracking is useless.

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Same for me when they were in Jasper. Now with them in Tennessee and Fedex 2-3 days is now normal. Same thing happened with Power distributors going to Fedex this year when from next day out of Columbus to 2 days out of Iowa and now 2-3 days with Fedex from Iowa. And to make it worse PD just updated their website which makes the parts lookup almost useless. The zoom feature is now a magnifying glass that slides over the diagram and makes it where you can only see one part at a time on a diagram with close to 100 parts.

At least you can still access the PD site. They will not even return my phone calls to setup again after they kick me to curve two years ago because I had a distributor with a 20% discount instead the measly 10% that PD was giving me. They also tried to kick me off the Power Portal but I had installed a backdoor. They initially gave me someone else's Power Portal account and they just re-assign it this year to yet another dealer. So screwed up they don't know which way is up.

Hammermechanicman said:

After some research found this out. Stens has switched from UPS to FedEx. There are actually two different FedEx shippers. FedEx Ground and FedEx Express. Ground ships by trucks and can take a week or more from ship to delivery. Express uses planes and still does overnight ship to deliver. The shipping cost difference on my last small order was a couple dollars. If you are ordering from Stens and need the parts quickly may want to spend a couple more dollars and ship FedEx Express vs. Ground.

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Where I live, I like FedEx much better. Because with UPS, everything gets shipped to Little Rock. Then the next day, it goes to Pine Bluff, to another warehouse (only about 30 to 40 miles south of Little Rock) Then it's loaded and shipped out for delivery. So that one jog, from LR to PB, always made my parts a day later.

Every place has different service levels from different shippers; just depends on their routing. I just don't like not being able to track my shipments when they are delayed. USPS has the worst tracking service here with FedEx next in line.

StarTech said:

Every place has different service levels from different shippers; just depends on their routing. I just don't like not being able to track my shipments when they are delayed. USPS has the worst tracking service here with FedEx next in line.

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LoL.. I ordered something from Walmart+ last week, that's coming from JAMAICA, NY. I've had things from Amazon, Ebay and others that originated from there. And rarely have they ever been on time. Anything from that place is always late. WM has a very strict policy on their sellers, so I'm interested in seeing if this is going to be on time.
This is the same thing I get every time something comes from Jamaica NY.

I can almost guarantee the list will have 3 or more scans on this list before it actually leaves Jamaica.

Gave up trying to track stuff years ago because different depots & companies do it differently
The mob Stens used to use had a sub contractor to do the last leg but there was no way to hand it over to them so when that happened it showed up as Delivered .
Finally got them to use Australia post and things are so much better except for the large preseason order .
Trying to build stock levels back up now I am working full time again but of course that takes $$$

bertsmobile1 said:

Gave up trying to track stuff years ago because different depots & companies do it differently
The mob Stens used to use had a sub contractor to do the last leg but there was no way to hand it over to them so when that happened it showed up as Delivered .
Finally got them to use Australia post and things are so much better except for the large preseason order .
Trying to build stock levels back up now I am working full time again but of course that takes $$$

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As the shipping costs rise, like everything else, something has got to give. So slower shipping times is the result.

Well all I know is as cost goes up for shops like mine we are having to raise our rates to cover these increase costs. And it is looking like I will need to raise my labor rates again.

Most of my larger vendors have raise their sales prices and minimum free ship level to cover these costs which is also adding to cost for the customer to buy parts. RBI even added a small handling charge on all orders, plus they will not ship b/o items until my next order. I have no idea on Gardner now that screw up their website and yet to have straighten it out. I done lost over $10K in engine sales because of them as I can't even get a straight answer from my sales rep.

And referring to actual parts cost some of the parts have more than triple in cost in the last five years. I just ordered a part that I paid $8.50 back in '22 and now it is over $27

I have turned down work on some equipment because I just didn't want to be bothered chasing parts. I don't do anything on transmissions or hydros. I don't have space to store mowers waiting weeks for parts. And OEM parts are ridiculous. Just had to order 2 OEM idlers for a 2002 cub cadet. $55 apiece plus shipping and $60 for a belt. $175 in parts plus $50 labor. So customer needs to spend $225 plus tax on a 22 year old mower just to get 2 idlers and a deck belt changed and I am clearing like $20 after spending an hour chasing parts. The dealers in the area won't touch it due to age.

Hammermechanicman said:

I have turned down work on some equipment because I just didn't want to be bothered chasing parts. I don't do anything on transmissions or hydros. I don't have space to store mowers waiting weeks for parts. And OEM parts are ridiculous. Just had to order 2 OEM idlers for a 2002 cub cadet. $55 apiece plus shipping and $60 for a belt. $175 in parts plus $50 labor. So customer needs to spend $225 plus tax on a 22 year old mower just to get 2 idlers and a deck belt changed and I am clearing like $20 after spending an hour chasing parts. The dealers in the area won't touch it due to age.

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My average repair bill this year has exceeded $350 with several going into the $600 range.

Just curious which 2002CC and which idlers it was.

Cub 2518 the 2 right angle mule drive pulleys 756 3045A. Installed the stens equivalent ones and they lasted an hour before they cracked at the rivets and destroyed the belt. TWICE! Then ordered the OEM welded ones. Long story short I lost my ass on that one. Doing the right thing for the customer I ate the Stens pulleys and 2 belts from stens and all the extra labor. So I lost at least $200 in parts and uncharged labor to make it right for the customer. If I get out to the shop I will get a Pic of the failed pulleys.

Did you report the failure to Stens as they normal stand behind their products. But now of course I am a Stens dealer too.

Also verify the belt length as Stens might sent the wrong belt.

Belts were good. I will prob see if stens will refund the bad pulleys.

Hammermechanicman said:

I have turned down work on some equipment because I just didn't want to be bothered chasing parts. I don't do anything on transmissions or hydros. I don't have space to store mowers waiting weeks for parts. And OEM parts are ridiculous. Just had to order 2 OEM idlers for a 2002 cub cadet. $55 apiece plus shipping and $60 for a belt. $175 in parts plus $50 labor. So customer needs to spend $225 plus tax on a 22 year old mower just to get 2 idlers and a deck belt changed and I am clearing like $20 after spending an hour chasing parts. The dealers in the area won't touch it due to age.

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Labor sounds cheap a lot of shops have a minimum labor charge of at least one hour.

hlw49 said:

Labor sounds cheap a lot of shops have a minimum labor charge of at least one hour.

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I am still $40 / hr. but I am going to $50.

Hammermechanicman said:

I am still $40 / hr. but I am going to $50.

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Labor in my area runs $70-150.

StarTech said:

Did you report the failure to Stens as they normal stand behind their products. But now of course I am a Stens dealer too.

Also verify the belt length as Stens might sent the wrong belt.

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The lasted a couple hours

Hammermechanicman said:

View attachment 68772
The lasted a couple hours

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Have a polite chat to your rep
I had some do a similar thing a long while ago & Stens replaced the pulleys and a belt .
Now there is a bit of a trick here a well
If Stens list the pulley as a replacement for the OEM one in there catalogue then they will replace them
But if you have just found a pulley that is the same dimensions as the OEM one but they do not say it is a direct replacement then they will not replace it .
I had 2 plastic V Tensioner pulleys split along the casting line when I fitted them to a JD Z445 .
Now the Stens pulley was exactly the same size, but thinner than the JD one which apparently is why they do not list it as a replacement .
I usually buy a plain pulley if possible & swap the stand off bosses so I can come to grief some times but when I can swap a $ 95 Husqvarna idler for a $ 25 Stens pulley and 2 minutes press work well worth it because the customer thinks I am really good when I charge out at $ 60 .
You have to make up profits where you can
I did go the the effort of turning up 8 tubes to support the inner race but now it is literally 2 minutes on the hand arbour press .

Hammermechanicman said:

I am still $40 / hr. but I am going to $50.

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To replace two deck pulleys and a belt should be about 1&1/2 hours of labor book time. Your labor rate of $40/hour, and increased to $50/hour is way too inexpensive, unless you are newer and just getting started. At $75/hour you would have charged $115 versus the $50 in labor you charged. Most shops around here are $100/hour and up.

Tiger Small Engine said:

To replace two deck pulleys and a belt should be about 1&1/2 hours of labor book time. Your labor rate of $40/hour, and increased to $50/hour is way too inexpensive, unless you are newer and just getting started. At $75/hour you would have charged $115 versus the $50 in labor you charged. Most shops around here are $100/hour and up.

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On this mower I can change the mule drive deck belt and idlers in 10 minutes.
"Newer and just getting started"

If you want to be about half the cost of average labor rate of many shops, nobody is stopping you. I don’t know how long you have been working on small engines is why I added the “newer” part.

If you can do all that in only ten minutes, then you should have charged about $5 bucks. See how that works?

I would definitely get with the rep. As both the 280-386 and 280-645 are listed as heavy duty and by oem supplier. But if you brought them through a third party like an Amazon source then that might be the problem as they probably subbed them. I had those Amazon supplier to pull that trick on me before.

I have since got with Stens and now buy from them direct just like I buy Rotary parts from Rotary instead of a third party

BTW Rotary does offer a slightly smaller pulley as a replacement for 956-3045 under PN 12275. It is only a sixteen smaller diameter. Not riveted but is spot welded. This the CC 02005079 commercial pulley.

And just think my want to charge only $10 per hour when he started this business. I had to have a serious talk with him about that rate.