z-beast

[djdicetn]

There actually made by GXI outdoor Power equipment, They make DEK, Stanley, Beast and some others. GXi Outdoor Power, LLC develops, manufactures and sells a range of outdoor power equipment including commercial lawn mowers, brush mowers, pressure washers, chipper shredders, snow blowers and portable generators for residential, professional and commercial mowing applications. GXi is a Licensee of Stanley Black & Decker. Buy now in our online store featuring new scratch & dent and reconditioned outdoor power equipment.

The products are sold under several brands including STANLEYｮ, Beastｮ (The Home Depotｮ) and DEKｮ. Products of GXi are sold through authorized retailers such as Home Depot, Lowe痴, Sears, BJs, Target, Northern Tool, Amazon.com, PED, The Sportsmans Guide, CPO, and Global. GXi also offers Scratch and Dent products factory direct to customers. Genuine parts are available online or through the over 1,000 authorized service centers for all GXi products.
GXi differentiates its products through innovative designs, exclusive features, high quality, low cost manufacturing, strong marketing and superior customer service. Headquartered in Clayton, NC, the company employs over 200 employees with worldwide operations in: Phoenix, AZ, Hong Kong, Fuzhou and Liaocheng, China.


GXi Outdoor Power| Stanley | Beast | Dek

Ric,
I believe almost all of the information on that excerpt from the GXI website.......except, based upon the experiences described by users maflaya and nick10, the quote regarding the "high quality and superior customer service":0)

 

[Ric]

Ric,
I believe almost all of the information on that excerpt from the GXI website.......except, based upon the experiences described by users maflaya and nick10, the quote regarding the "high quality and superior customer service":0)

:laughing: They said High quality and superior customer service(not me). The Z beast has pretty much been a piece of junk from the onset, it has been one thing or another going wrong with them from the beginning. I have to say they look really impressive and look to be a well built mower but I guess looks can be deceiving, and from my understanding the DEk and Stanley are about the same.

 

[djdicetn]

:laughing: They said High quality and superior customer service(not me). The Z beast has pretty much been a piece of junk from the onset, it has been one thing or another going wrong with them from the beginning. I have to say they look really impressive and look to be a well built mower but I guess looks can be deceiving, and from my understanding the DEk and Stanley are about the same.

Ric,
You know........maybe that's why the Gravely "An American Workhorse Since 1916" slogan caught my eye when I was shopping for a good quality ZTR:0)

 

[Ric]

Ric,
You know........maybe that's why the Gravely "An American Workhorse Since 1916" slogan caught my eye when I was shopping for a good quality ZTR:0)

That could be a good reason but there are a lot of good quality ZTR's out there your just not going to find them at a Big Box Store.

 

[nick10]

Ric,
I believe almost all of the information on that excerpt from the GXI website.......except, based upon the experiences described by users maflaya and nick10, the quote regarding the "high quality and superior customer service":0)

Ric I forgot to mention the lousy service on the Z BEast MFG, , I need two hydro drive belts and the price is $100.00 with shipping, I found them locally for $24.00. Made in China special. I have ordered 2 hydro drive pulleys at $80.00 and they are back ordered!! As soon as I get my parts I well have mower with less than 25 hours on it for $4,ooo for sale.

They should change the name of the product to THE BIT-H!!! I ALSO WOULD LIKE TO ADD THAT HOME DEPOT CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS WELL NOT STAND BEHIND THE JUNK THAT THEY SELL!!!

 

[djdicetn]

Ric I forgot to mention the lousy service on the Z BEast MFG, , I need two hydro drive belts and the price is $100.00 with shipping, I found them locally for $24.00. Made in China special. I have ordered 2 hydro drive pulleys at $80.00 and they are back ordered!! As soon as I get my parts I well have mower with less than 25 hours on it for $4,ooo for sale.

They should change the name of the product to THE BIT-H!!! I ALSO WOULD LIKE TO ADD THAT HOME DEPOT CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS WELL NOT STAND BEHIND THE JUNK THAT THEY SELL!!!

nick10,
Hate to hear about the bad experience!!! I guess the old saying "if it sounds too good to be true it probably IS NOT true" held true here. I guess when you see a Home depot ZTR advertised as "Commercial Duty" with a 62" deck for only $4999 that sounds a little too good to be true:0(

That Kawasaki FX850 engine is probably the only true Commercial quality component on the whole machine:0(

 

[Dan The Mower Man]

I bought this, by the time it came home after taxes it was around $3800. I'm a home user with 3/4 acre of grass. I had a John Deere 111 riding mower for nearly 21 years which I spent around $500 for all those years in repairs until the engine blew up after a Valve job. Getting a new engine & having it installed was expensive so i decided to look around for a new better alternative mower. Hopefully this time a Zero turn Mower.

FYI I'm a home owner and it was really going to be tough to sell to my wife that I had spent over 7k on a new zero turn mower [like a scag ,etc] so I bought this unit on august 2011. Being made in the USA was a great incentive to buy too.

As soon as it came out of the box it would not drive straight [as previously mentioned here]. I spent hours on the phone with the manufacturer trying to get this thing fine tuned so It would drive straight without keeping one handle back. [uneven handle position to keep it straight on level ground]

Before I had 8 hrs on the thing, the hydros specially the left one was leaking what seamed to me like a lot of hydro fluid. This same thing has been reported by others all over the internet. I called the manufacturers help line [919-550-3221 ext 1] company told me that this was "normal" since they had a lot of extra fluid on the Hydros, Before 10 hrs the mower not only was not going straight, I had to park it [for 2 hours minimum] after 15 mins of use so the hydro fluid could cool down and I could drive it straight and put it back in the garage. Hours on the phone with the manufacturer... "try this, try that" nothing worked 100%, it pretty much was trial and error. Unfortunately, I travel a lot for my job so I could not spend every weekend working on this thing.

I parked inside for the winter and opened up again for season 2012. I realized the left hyro was shot so I called GXI to see if they could send me a new one. They blame it on the peelers hydros and don't want to take ANY responsability for a mover that has less than a year of Home owners service! Since I had moved to a new house and all receipts and stuff where in boxes, I could not provide the receipt [even though I did have a credit card charge for the mower]. After 2 days of back and forth conversations they decided that since I could not provide the receipt [mower had less than 12 hrs on meter] they decided they would NOT provide a warranty. I called home depot, they said call the manufacturer for the warranty. I had to buy the Hydro and pay for shipping too ! That set me back around $350.

Then finding a repair service that will work on this thing provided to be impossible. Even though their website has over 20 places that are within 2 hours drive, NOT ONE PLACE new they were in the list of repair center on GXI website , never had they heard of a Z beast, NEVER had they had any training on these machines, NEVER had they signed a contract to be a service center! How I know this, I called everyone within 2 hour drive distance one way that GXI had on their website as a repair place. Now 09/2012, with less than 17 hrs on the mower of light home owner use. I got the drydros drive belt snap in half. This also broke a metal part that holds the fine tuning of the hydros. Now the belts is $68 at Home depot and who knows what the other part is. There is 2 week wait on the belt too. This is not an easy mower to work on. You pretty much need a car lift to raise up and work on it. I though It would be years before I would be having such problems. I could keep you here for a long time explaining what I've been though with this mower in 17 hrs of operation. I'm going to fix it again and if I cant sell for half what I paid for it, I will be donating to my unions charity to see if they can make better use of it. I will start saving for a real zero turn [ not this POS] and be going back to real store and buy a regular riding mower. I'm Done with the Z-beast and the GXI company. So much for buying from the small guy made in America deal... I know a lawyer will get on this company sooner or later and get an Et al lawsuit and win millions. Northern Tools also sells this same mower with a different name. Be careful with this company and if I where you don't buy anything that has a Z beast or GXI name on it. To end, I would appreciate anyone who owns a Z-beast and is having the same problems to please contact me via email. I will try to get a lawyer that might want to get a bunch of us and sue the GXI company.

This from someone who wrote about this mower: I purchased this mower through Home Depot online - it now has 50 hours on it, and I have spent countless time repairing it. Now the triaxle drive has burnt out and Home Depot will not stand behind it. I have owned the mower for less than 90 days. It throws belts, bolts continue to rattle out of it, you cannot adjust the deck as it was shipped to me out of alignment, it is nearly impossible to adjust the hydrostatic drive so that the mower does not move when it is supposed to be in neutral, no-one knows where to get parts for it, and no-one wants to work on it because they have never heard of it before. BUY A DIFFERENT BRAND FROM A DIFFERENT VENDOR!

So, in the spring of 2011 I purchased the 54" Z- Beast. Since that time I have had virtually every bad experience that anyone has ever posted about this machine with the exception of throwing deck belts. I have also had several issues that I haven't seen anywhere. I have 57 hours on this machine and am almost ready to junk it. GXI was absolutely HORRIBLE to deal with and tried to rip me off on warranty service. I had to threaten a lawsuit with them to get them to cover burnt out hydros. I demanded to speak to someone higher in the company than the "Customer Service Supervisor" but was told I couldn't. I am sick to think that I spent $3600 for this machine and only got 57 hours out of it!!!! The machine was still under warranty and the seat springs broke. I only weigh 200 lbs but GXI said they would not replace them. They said If I wanted I could buy a new pair myself. I went on E-Bay and bought a used pair from a John Deere mower that were twice as thick (and half the price) and have yet to have any more problems with the seat springs. Since the warranty has expired I have had to resort to manufacturing my own replacement parts or retrofitting parts from other machines.
I see some reviews posted on the internet about how fabulous these machines are and all I can think is that some flunkie is sitting in a back room at GXI pumping them out. There is no way that anyone could have an absolutely wonderful experience with GXI and their Beast Mowers. I just don't believe it!
Gordon Jackson (who I think is the CEO of GXI) should be ashamed of the way his company treats customers and the junk they're pedaling.

*WARNING* Stay away from the Z-Beast mowers

 

[lawn mower fanatic]

So, in the spring of 2011 I purchased the 54" Z- Beast. Since that time I have had virtually every bad experience that anyone has ever posted about this machine with the exception of throwing deck belts. I have also had several issues that I haven't seen anywhere. I have 57 hours on this machine and am almost ready to junk it. GXI was absolutely HORRIBLE to deal with and tried to rip me off on warranty service. I had to threaten a lawsuit with them to get them to cover burnt out hydros. I demanded to speak to someone higher in the company than the "Customer Service Supervisor" but was told I couldn't. I am sick to think that I spent $3600 for this machine and only got 57 hours out of it!!!! The machine was still under warranty and the seat springs broke. I only weigh 200 lbs but GXI said they would not replace them. They said If I wanted I could buy a new pair myself. I went on E-Bay and bought a used pair from a John Deere mower that were twice as thick (and half the price) and have yet to have any more problems with the seat springs. Since the warranty has expired I have had to resort to manufacturing my own replacement parts or retrofitting parts from other machines.
I see some reviews posted on the internet about how fabulous these machines are and all I can think is that some flunkie is sitting in a back room at GXI pumping them out. There is no way that anyone could have an absolutely wonderful experience with GXI and their Beast Mowers. I just don't believe it!
Gordon Jackson (who I think is the CEO of GXI) should be ashamed of the way his company treats customers and the junk they're pedaling.

*WARNING* Stay away from the Z-Beast mowers

WOW you really had a bad experience with that mower! :confused2:

 

[djdicetn]

WOW you really had a bad experience with that mower! :confused2:

Based upon all the problems with them posted by owners that I have read, if I were Home Depot i would drop this line like a hot potato and distance myself from them as quickly as possible. It can only tarnish their reputation as well!!!

 

[commsys]

Re: z-beast is GARBAGE

I bought one of these through Home Depot. VERY VERY bad mistake.

It is badly misrepresented. Says it's Heavy Duty and Commercial. Gives a shipping weight of about 800 pounds, so that sounded OK. In fact, the weight is just barely over 500 pounds. Everything but the engine is made in China and assembled (by chimps or poorly trained people) here in the US. Design is awful . Too cheap to run brake cable thru pulleys, they use short lengths of bent tubing. No height/leveling adjustment, you just loosen cable clamp and hold in place while trying to level. The three blades are each 15 and 3/4 inches on my 48" model. Of course, since the blades would not provide full coverage to full width even if they were in a straight line, the mower leaves two rows of uncut grass (one between left and center blade and the other between right and center blade). Makes for a messy cut. Rather than pay for guide bearings, they use "J" bolts to try to keep the v - e - r - y long belt on the pulleys. Works about as well as you would expect. Since the single idler pulley has only moderate tension and little travel, you have to adjust, and re-adjust, and re-re-adjust, and re-re-re-adjust the belt tension as belt stretches otherwise the belt flies off every time grass density changes.

The printed owners manual they sent with my brand new mower was an older version than the PDF version that was on their web site and the printed version contained many errors or there had been many updates. Either way, it was very confusing.

The battery failed within the first week. They said I abused it. I bought new one from Sam's Club.

The only "local" repair place said they had never heard of Z-Beast, Stanley mowers, or GXi. They laughed at the quality and said they were sorry but that they wouldn't care to try to work on it since they deemed it "an unsafe and unworkable design." Oh, well, it would be impractical yo use this thing if you can't fix it yourself, because it's always broken or needing adjustment.

The belts are an outrageous price at GXi's parts department. Virtually no parts are on line. So you have to call them. Auto-attendant answers, assures you that you are important, tells you that "all our agents are servicing other customers" but that they will be right with you, then offers to take message for call-back (they NEVER call back) or put you back on hold. After a half dozen cycles, the auto-attendant will not let you hold any longer, so you leave message. They DO call one time out of maybe six.

When you do have the honor of talking to them, you have to be "respectful" or they hang up. (I must admit I have trouble respecting anyone who works for these bozos.)

Their prices are unbelievably high. $25.00 for a common $3 fuel filter and megabucks for belts and blades.

The equipment is junk and the customer service stinks.

AVOID this brand at all costs.

/s/ John