It has been raining a lot and I couldn't get one spring of the box of springs that I bought to work on my mower's throttle. Sunday after church while in Des Moines, we stopped at the Sear's parts and equipment department. I explained what I needed and the young man looked up my name, and I had not bought the mower from them, even though the mowers with the same brand name were sitting five feet behind us. So he said to me do you have the model number? Well no, but I can explain to you what it is and you have all those parts on the wall over there. The young man said he could not help me unless he could look it up on the computer with the serial number. I left and I was very nice!
Monday afternoon, I had the serial number and the model number and I tried to call Sears. They have few to no numbers in the phone book. I finally found a parts number and it was the National parts number. I could order it out of who knows where and wait for it to be shipped to my local store. I have been there before, I just wanted to talk to the parts department in which I was standing the day before. I called the mall that the store is in and they gave me the only number that they had, and it was an automation operator. I was to say what department that I wanted and they didn't recognize parts department. So I tried lawn mowers and the machine sent me to the lawn mower department. I had a real person on the line and I asked about buying a part and could you connect me to the parts department. I dialed it and it was the parts department for Bob Brown Chevrolet.
Ok, I am a kind man and I didn't think I needed to lose my life over this. I said to my wife, we will just go down one more time. We needed building materials also so we made the trip south again. I arrive and it is a completly new crew and the different young man greeted me from afar and welcomed me to his computer. He put in the serial number and all he could get was weedeaters..... I smiled and an older man than him walked up and asked what I was looking for and I explained, He walked over to the mowers and said is it the spring that fits under the air filter? Yes!@@@@!!@@! The nice older, young man walked over the the wall of parts and handed me the spring in the plastic bag. When I looked for it I couldn't see the spring as the package print covered up it's contents.
With tax, that will be $3.06 please.
Spring missing......
Spring replaced.....no more duct tape!!!
I turned to my wife while I was buying the part, and she looked back thinking, wow, he didn't say a thing. I did a pleasant thank you and we came home to the awaiting mower. I works like a charm.
Did I say that I will never buy a mower from Sears because the service is too restricted for the customer to get any help???????
I will take it to Osceola today and mow an overdue shaggy yard. Thanks for listening.......I hope you all know how now to replace your throttle spring.
7 comments:
In my old age, I have learned to be very quiet when dealing with ordeals like this. Not to say that my tongue is a lot shorter though!!!
I am glad this story had a happy ending.
Good old Sears! I could write a book!
Glad you finally got your spring and no blood was shed!
☼Sunny
No, I don't know how to replace my (for me, snow blower) spring. But I'll check with you first, Larry! :-D Glad you're mowing now with more spring in your steps...
I've had to deal with the same thing and I work for the company that sells my mower. It's so frustrating now that computers have taken over. You can't just tell someone what you need. You have to have model and part numbers.
In my parents' town, there's a little place that services things like chainsaws. While cutting up the old tree, the push rod snapped on a 20 year old husqvarna chainsaw. My dad went down and told the guy what he needed. It was mailed out to me the same day. Trying to order it through the specialty parts dealer we have access to at work, it could not be done without all the numbers and even then, I would have to buy the entire throttle assembly. The cost including mailing it to me? $1.87.
I congratulate you for not "losing it" over the many frustrations. I have to laugh because my Dad owned a SEARS catalog store for many years and they were the best at finding parts for tools and appliances that many, many customers used to come in and thank him because he could always find the parts they needed! Sometimes they would just come in with the broken part in their hand and my dad would look through a parts catalog and find it for them. But times have changed and so do staff, right? Sears has really long lasting products though and I still think they are great.
What an ordeal for that tiny little spring..I am glad you finally got it fixed..nothing irritates me more than stuff that does not work like it is supposed to. You showed great restraint Larry! :)
Very creative your photos!
I saw them in my neighborhood. Some similar too. I'm staying inan apartments for rent in buenos aires. Some old cars have the bumper of the car with duck tape! it's funny.
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