Apparently the shops and dealers where you had the bad experiences don't follow the two most important business rules to obtain/keep a good customer base:
1)The customer is always right.
2)When the customer is wrong.......refer to rule#1
Glad I read this thread, though, as NAPA would not have been a place I would thought of for lawn mower parts(just automotive applications). I'll keep that in mind should my dealer ever jerk me around about something!!!
Just to add another story about a recent experience I had(unrelated to lawn mowers, but shows that doing business locally has it's rewards):
The fan motor in an 11-yr-old Whirlpool Window Heat & A/C unit I mounted through the wall when I converted my attached garage to a rec room died. I went on Whirlpool.com and they wanted $150 for a replacement fan motor. Sears Parts Direct.com wanted $88 for the same part and a buddy of mine from church who has dabbled with HVAC recommended a local Electrical/HVAC business. Got the exact same fan motor for $65 plus tax no shipping(less than half what Whirlpool wanted). Now here's the kicker...after replacing the fan motor, it still wasn't acting right(better, but not like it had as far as speeds) and my buddy asked me if I replaced the start capacitor. I said no and he replied "when you change a unit's fan motor ALWAYS replace the start capacitor". So again, I went online to Whirlpool and they showed $112 for that part, Sears Direct.com same price. So I went back down to the local Electrical/HVAC business..........would you believe $4.92 including tax?????? It wasn't a "Whirlpool/FSP" part like the fan motor was.....but the guy said a generic capacitor with the same ratings was just as good as an OEM part. That blew me away and I swore that from now on I'd always try to do business locally before going to an Mfg's or Distributor's website to order something online.
